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Steve Silver's List: Feminism
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The belief that women are more emotional than men is one of the strongest and most consistent gender stereotypes in Western cultures (Fischer & Manstead, 2000; Rosenkrantz, Vogel, Bee, Broverman, & Broverman, 1968; Ruble, 1983; Williams & Best, 1990). However, this stereotype, of women's greater emotionality, is not equally applicable to all emotions. Recent work has focused on identifying the specific emotions that are perceived as being differentially expressed by men and women (e.g., Brody & Hall, 1993; Fabes & Martin, 1991; Grossman & Wood, 1993; Hess et al., 2000; Johnson & Shulman, 1988; Plant, Hyde, Keltner, & Devine, 2000; Shields, 1987, 2002). Women are believed to experience and express emotions such as embarrassment, fear, happiness, guilt, sympathy, sadness, and love more frequently than men, whereas men are believed to experience and express anger and pride more frequently than women (e.g., Plant et al., 2000). Thus, although women are viewed as more emotional than men overall, there are specific emotions (e.g., anger) that men are expected to express more often than women (also see Fabes & Martin, 1991; Hess et al., 2000; Johnson & Shulman, 1988; Shields, 2002).
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The Christian Science Monitor - csmonitor.com from the July 20, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0720/p15s02-woam.html A police station of their own Brazilian victims of domestic violence seek assistance from precincts staffed entirely by women By Andrew Downie | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL - Elaine da Silva loved her husband at the start of their marriage. But four years and too many beatings later, she broke away. When her 3-year-old daughter started telling neighbors, "My dad hits my mum," the two moved in with Ms. da Silva's mother, two blocks away. Da Silva, who works as a store assistant, agreed to accept 200 reais (about $85) a month in alimony, and she hoped that would be the end of it. But recently, more than a year after she left, she called her ex-husband to ask for more alimony because he had gotten a new job. "He put the phone down and came straight over. He attacked me.... He threw me on the floor in front of my daughter. I tried to get out but ... he blocked my way. I was very scared." She tells her story from the local women's police station, the only place she could think of where she might get a sympathetic hearing. "I came here as soon as I could," she says after meeting with a female officer here. "I was too embarrassed to go to a normal police station. But here you meet people [in the waiting room] with the same experience as yourself ... and you realize there are people who feel the same as you do. And it's much easier to speak to a woman." More than 300 women's police stations have opened in Brazil since the first one was inaugurated here in São Paulo 20 years ago. "It's a national phenomenon," says Cecília MacDowell Santos, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of San Francisco in California and author of "Women's Police Stations: Gender, Violence, and Justice in São Paulo." It's also grown into an international phenomenon, with at least 10 n
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The New York Times December 30, 2005 Women's Rights Laws and African Custom Clash By SHARON LaFRANIERE LAMONTVILLE, South Africa - In theory, what happened to 14-year-old Sibongile in this hilly, crowded township outside Durban in November could not happen today - at least, not legally. On a broiling Saturday morning, as more than a dozen women looked on, Sibongile joined 56 other Zulu girls outside a red-and-white striped tent. One by one, they lay on a straw mat beneath the tent; one by one, they received a cursory inspection of their genitals by a woman in a ceremonial beaded hat. As the inspector pronounced judgment on the state of each girl's hymen - "virgin," "nice," "perfect" - each departed to the excited trilling of the women who were observers. Until Sibongile lifted her red pleated skirt and submitted to her examination. Near silence followed her out of the tent. "Only one of them cheered," she said, looking stricken at the determination that she was not a virgin. "I feel very bad because I haven't done anything." To many Zulus, such virginity tests are a revered custom, one that discourages early sex and, after falling into disuse, has been revived to fight the spread of H.I.V. But to many advocates of women's and children's rights, the practice is unscientific, discriminatory and - to girls who are publicly and perhaps falsely accused of having lost their virginity - emotionally searing. This month, their arguments persuaded South Africa's Parliament to ban some virginity testing, with violations punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The ban is an example of how sub-Saharan Africa is slowly, but inexorably, enshrining into law basic protections that have long been denied women. But it also hints at the frailty of the movement toward women's rights in the region. Not only is the new law a watered-down version of what was proposed, but few here believe it will curb a tradition so deeply embedded in Zulu and to a lesser extent Xhosa cul
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Tokyo's Packed Commuter Trains Give Women a Refuge (Update1) Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- It's 8:30 a.m., rush hour on a recent Tuesday at Tokyo's Ukimafunado station, and Yasue Ikeda, 23, waits at the far end of the platform for a women-only carriage where she'll have refuge from molesters. Ikeda is among thousands of women who have been sexually assaulted on Tokyo's packed commuter trains and feel safer riding in segregated cars. ``The daily stress of possibly encountering molesters in a crowded train is just too much. I've had enough,'' said Ikeda, who takes the north-south Saikyo line, which has the highest number of arrests of men for molesting women. ``I still feel a sense of rage about what happened,'' she said. Molestation is reported on Tokyo trains at six times the rate in London's subways. After years of complaints from women, East Japan Railway Co., the country's largest train operator, this year introduced women-only carriages during the morning rush hours on its Saikyo and Chuo lines, which have the highest incidence of attacks, according to the city's police. JR East operates an average 12,527 trains daily and carries 16 million passengers a day in Tokyo and to northern Japan. The company may add more carriages for women on its other lines, said Jun Kubota, a spokesman at JR East. ``We have received calls requesting women-only carriages for other lines,'' said Kubota. ``We are studying the possibilities.'' A total of 2,201 men were arrested for molesting women on trains in Tokyo in 2004, almost triple the 778 cases in 1996, according to Tokyo police reports. Penalties Convicted molesters -- known as ``chikan'' in Japanese -- face maximum jail sentences of six months or a 500,000 yen ($4,200) fine. Repeat offenders face up to a year in jail or a fine of 1 million yen, according to the Tokyo police Web site. There may be more assaults than women report, according to the police. ``There are probably some cases that were not report
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INSTRAW’s objective in launching this section is to open a space for the analysis of the interrelationship between gender, governance and women’s political participation. These pages are intended to be an introduction to this theme, as well as a source of updated information and a space for the exchange of experiences for researchers, activists, policy makers and professionals. Copyright: UNICEF/HQ92-0434/ NICOLE TOUTOUNJI The section offers a brief background and analytical framework on the theme and a glossary, fact-sheet, annotated bibliography, directory of organizations and other resources, as well as a brief description of INSTRAW’s activities related to the theme. INSTRAW considers that integrating a gender perspective into governance and the current decentralization processes is fundamental for obtaining an equitable and inclusive human sustainable development. At the same time, it is necessary to have a greater and transformative presence of women in decision-making positions along with a strong women’s and feminist movement that favour the recognition of women’s rights, their empowerment and the exercise of their full citizenship.
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Jan 21, 06
WomenWatch is a central gateway to information and resources on the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women throughout the United Nations system, including the United Nations Secretariat, regional commissions, funds, programmes, speciali
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WomenWatch is a central gateway to information and resources on the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women throughout the United Nations system, including the United Nations Secretariat, regional commissions, funds, programmes, specialized agencies and academic and research institutions.
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Jan 21, 06
UNIFEM is the women's fund at the United Nations. It provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programmes and strategies to foster women's empowerment and gender equality. Placing the advancement of women's human rights at the centre of al
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UNIFEM is the women's fund at the United Nations. It provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programmes and strategies to foster women's empowerment and gender equality. Placing the advancement of women's human rights at the centre of all of its efforts, UNIFEM focuses its activities on four strategic areas: (1) reducing feminized poverty, (2) ending violence against women, (3) reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls, and (4) achieving gender equality in democratic governance in times of peace as well as war.
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Feminism for bright young things No girl calls herself a feminist now, argues Aleka Lieven, even though the battle for equality still isn’t won The Sunday Times January 29, 2006 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2014237,00.html They say that our experiences shape our lives. I am only 18 and studying at St Paul’s girls’ school, so much of my experience is yet to come. But what happens around me and to my immediate family has played a big part in how I see the sexes today. At school we do as we like. If you enjoy physics you can study it without fear of being the only girl in a class of boys. Nobody’s there to tell you that at most schools the jazz club is a male preserve or that science isn’t for you. Maths is our most popular A-level. When it comes to the opposite sex, we remain confident. Only a minority have regular boyfriends; most of us tend to go out in large groups. Most prefer to pay our way on a date, but some of us want to be paid for. We don’t have to wear uniform so we are free to dress up or down and wear make-up. But we are doing it to please ourselves, not others. Some days my friends will wear designer jeans by Seven and skirts by Marc Jacobs; the next day something from Primark or Topshop. So I wouldn’t say it gets competitive at school. We all look utterly individual and we all think we look pretty. We are everything the feminists who burnt their bras in the 1970s could have hoped for: yet, for my generation the word feminism has become devalued. My contemporaries are living the dream of feminism but, for some reason, the word has become stereotyped by derogatory connotations of dungarees, hairiness and man-hating. As far as they think about it at all, it’s regarded as a thing of the past. “Feminists? they’re the crazy people who burnt their bras,” they say. “But I like wearing a bra — a pink one with a bow on the front.” Only last week I heard one of my fellow sixthformers — seriously — arguing that men were
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Feminism for bright young things No girl calls herself a feminist now, argues Aleka Lieven, even though the battle for equality still isn’t won The Sunday Times January 29, 2006 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2014237,00.html They say that our experiences shape our lives. I am only 18 and studying at St Paul’s girls’ school, so much of my experience is yet to come. But what happens around me and to my immediate family has played a big part in how I see the sexes today. At school we do as we like. If you enjoy physics you can study it without fear of being the only girl in a class of boys. Nobody’s there to tell you that at most schools the jazz club is a male preserve or that science isn’t for you. Maths is our most popular A-level. When it comes to the opposite sex, we remain confident. Only a minority have regular boyfriends; most of us tend to go out in large groups. Most prefer to pay our way on a date, but some of us want to be paid for. We don’t have to wear uniform so we are free to dress up or down and wear make-up. But we are doing it to please ourselves, not others. Some days my friends will wear designer jeans by Seven and skirts by Marc Jacobs; the next day something from Primark or Topshop. So I wouldn’t say it gets competitive at school. We all look utterly individual and we all think we look pretty. We are everything the feminists who burnt their bras in the 1970s could have hoped for: yet, for my generation the word feminism has become devalued. My contemporaries are living the dream of feminism but, for some reason, the word has become stereotyped by derogatory connotations of dungarees, hairiness and man-hating. As far as they think about it at all, it’s regarded as a thing of the past. “Feminists? they’re the crazy people who burnt their bras,” they say. “But I like wearing a bra — a pink one with a bow on the front.” Only last week I heard one of my fellow sixthformers — seriously — arguing that men were
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I haven't read the book yet, but it's interesting how much of a stir it seems to have created, among both women and men. Steve ---- The argument is unnecessary, not the men Fun perhaps, but Maureen Dowd's recent book does little to advance feminism, writes Winnie Salamon. Sydney Morning Herald January 30, 2006 http://smh.com.au/news/opinion/the-argument-is-unnecessary-not-the-men/2006/01/29/1138469606726.html BEFORE I read an extract from Maureen Dowd's new book, Are Men Necessary?, I hoped her stance was being exaggerated to sell copies, that no one would bother to make such a fuss over a book that argued that men are little more than walking-talking sperm banks destined for extinction thanks to modern science. I mean, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? But as I read on I was transported back to a Feminist Fictions course I took during my undergraduate years. In the tutorials we studied '70s sci-fi novels about entire planets occupied solely with women able to mate with themselves. It was the Stepford Wives in reverse. Most of us thought it was kind of funny, though there were always a couple who seemed taken by the idea of this women-only utopia. To a twentysomething feminist who teaches media and communications to 19-year-olds, Dowd's argument seems just as dated as those kitschy futuristic novels. I can just imagine the young women I teach rolling their eyes and declaring Dowd completely ridiculous, confirming their belief that feminism is the domain of nutbags who campaign for unisex toilets at university because they think separating men and women is sexist; or of baby boomer commentators such as Dowd who write entire books about how the world doesn't need men so long as women can reproduce on their own. And I can just picture the young men struggling to get past Dowd's first paragraph. Not because they feel threatened by Dowd's premise, but because it seems so far-fetched, what's the point? Men may one day become ext
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The trafficking of women from Thailand to Japan occurs within the context of large-scale regional migration in Asia, which has grown dramatically over the last two decades. Since the late 1980s, this has included large flows of both male and female workers from Thailand to Japan. The vast majority of this migration is illegal, as Japan accepts only a very limited number of legal migrants each year. In practice, the high demand for foreign workers in Japan has fostered the growth of large transnational networks able to bypass legal barriers and facilitate illegal migration into Japan. There is strong evidence that these networks are controlled by powerful organized crime groups, including the Yakuza in Japan and other mafia-like organizations elsewhere. It is these networks that women from Thailand often rely on when they migrate to Japan.
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n the United States today, it is no longer radical to suggest that the next president could be a woman. In Nordic countries, no husband would rail at a pregnant wife who expected him to share child-raising duties. And female heads of state are now found the world over. Chizuko Ueno, a University of Tokyo professor of sociology, is one of Japan's most celebrated women's studies scholars. She is also, in some quarters, one of its most notorious because of her unrelenting criticism of many of the country's "discriminatory" social mores. But in Japan, despite significant advances in gender equality in recent decades, such terms as "women's lib" and "feminism" are still almost as taboo among women as men. Unless, that is, the woman in question is Chizuko Ueno, a University of Tokyo professor and one of Japan's most celebrated women's studies scholars who, thanks to her very un-Japanese passion for bluntness and public debate, is also easily the most controversial. Or, as 57-year-old Ueno says of herself: "I'm critical. I'm assertive. I'm disobedient.''
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Miss G Project gains ground Friday, April 7, 2006 By Mitch Tucker Last October, four Western students founded a project that may change Canada’s high school education system. Catching the eyes of the media, politicians and students, the women behind the Miss G project have had a busy year. After travelling across the country, meeting with government officials, and playing croquet, the women are closer than ever to their goal of getting a women’s studies course into the Canadian high school curriculum. “In high school, there is still a lot of sexism. We want to create a safe space for kids to discuss gender issues,” said fourth-year international and comparative studies student Sarah Ghabrial, one of the project’s founders. Support for the group has snowballed since the fall. Ten Ontario universities across Ontario now have chapters of the project, named after one of the first American women to attend university, and whose early death in 1873 was blamed by doctors on over-exercising her brain.
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One day in 1973, Jean Flanagan, an exemplary stay-at-home Berkeley mom who sewed and cooked and cleaned on demand, packed her husband and two daughters off to work and school as usual and got up on a ladder to wash down the wallpaper. Then, sponge in hand, she said to herself, âto hell with it,â climbed down again, and went back to work as a nurse, leaving her bewildered younger daughter Caitlin to while away the after-school hours with a house key tied around her neck. In her new book, To Hell with All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife, whose title was inspired by her motherâs midlife epiphany, Caitlin writes that to this day âmy anxiety about being alone in a house borders on the pathological.â
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The global sex industry has its eye on Germany, where promotion of prostitution seems to be as much a part of the preparations for the upcoming World Cup as anything to do with soccer.
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