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Copyright of Critical African Studies is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology & Society is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents the call of the periodical on volume contributors to submit abstracts of 500 words concerning the diverse feminist rhetorical methods and methodologies. Some areas the volume contributors should examine include anthologizing feminist rhetorics, critical race rhetorics and feminist rhetorics, and disability studies and feminist rhetorics.

This paper provides a feminist critique of market socialism. I argue that two important socialist values, equality and freedom, can only be realised by a form of socialism that adequately distributes and values tasks associated with social reproduction. My argument proceeds in five steps: first, I outline of the main characteristics of market socialism. Second, I provide an understanding of social reproduction and show that its current organisation raises a feminist concern. Third, I discuss the relation between markets under market socialism and social reproduction and draw implications from this for the market socialist project. Finally, I show that market socialism has the potential to bring about a more equal distribution of responsibility for social reproductive work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how the recognition of the gender identity of trans people can have negative consequences on their reproductive health and rights. First, it argues that, while both the right to gender identity and the right to sexual and reproductive health are part of the indivisible core of human rights, in practice trans people are forced to choose between them. Understanding this scenario requires focusing on the eugenic dimensions of trans policies, even in states where the recognition of a gender identity other than that assigned at birth is not tied to surgical or hormonal compromises. The concept of "passive eugenics", coined over twenty years ago by James Bowman, offers a valuable key in this respect. Second, the paper highlights some factors that hinder a successful approach to the reproductive health and rights of trans people. These factors include: the normative imageries about the reproductive capacities and desires of trans people, representations about pregnancy and "womanhood", and the form taken by identity politics in contemporary feminist movements. The attention given as a priority (if not exclusively) to initiatives for the legalisation of voluntary abortion, understood as a right pertaining to (cis) women, offers a significant example of these difficulties. Finally, the paper advocates the adoption of a reproductive justice approach to work on sexual and reproductive health and rights, arguing that it has, among other virtues, that of challenging the binary matrix that characterises Western thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hunter-gatherer studies have often been at the forefront of feminist critiques in archaeology, and have remained a clear front on which feminist issues are still regularly raised. While these approaches have challenged the androcentric stereotypes upon which archaeological interpretations of hunter-gatherers have been based, current accounts continue to construct their interpretations based around modern Western heteronormative concepts of identity. By presenting an alternative interpretation of the construction of hunter-gatherer identity from the west coast of Scotland, this paper will demonstrate that, through the application of queer theory to hunter-gatherer studies, we may finally move away from the pervasive heteronormative stereotypes upon which they have been constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses events at Kingsmead School, Hocknwy, in the aftermath of head teacher, Jane Brown's refusal to take children to a ballet of Romeo and Juliet. The paper explores the ensuing struggle over space, governance and gender within the centext of LEA power after LMS. It analyses different levels of governance direct, midway and at a distance, and explores the relationship between these levels and developed legal powers. The paper links Hackney's techniques of governing, and school supporters' acts of resistance, to their competing spatial representations of Kingsmead Highlighted are discourses of ridicule, excessive sexuality, kingship, community and parents rights, as well as techniques of discipline, law, and fortification. Finally, the paper explores the conflict in terms of the production of lesbian feminist space, and considers the centrality of gender to the events that occurred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses papers published within the issue, including one the relationship between revolutions and feminist outcomes, another on Stephen Kotkin's biography of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and a review of Samir Amin's book "Russia and the Long Transition From Capitalism to Socialism."

Both Freud's and Deleuze's understandings of masochism limit the transgressive and subversive forces of masochism by taking sexual difference for granted. Drawing on Newton's fashion photography for Wolford and on feminist interrogations of Freud, Deleuze, and masochism, this paper therefore seeks to develop an alternative, queer theory of masochism as sexual indifference. Viewing masochism as sexual indifference opens up movements of desire beyond the heterosexual matrix of male masochists and female mistresses. This is therefore an exercise in buggery. In the first half of the paper we bugger Freud's understanding of masochism with Deleuze's diverging understanding of masochism. In the second half we bugger Deleuze's understanding of masochism with other parts of his own work, with feminist critique, and with Newton's photography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The understanding of feminist pasts has been largely ignored in the history of education. This paper suggests that the historical sociology of Olive Banks provides fresh starting points for future research exploring the relationship between the history of social and political movements and a reassessment of contemporary and historical forms of 'radical education.' The article proceeds to use group biography to explore a municipal socialism that has been over-ridden in historical memory by the classic political histories that take the view from Westminster and Whitehall. In so doing it seeks to show the contribution of six educator activists who were participants in the making of a metropolitan political elite emerging from the association between feminism, socialism and the labour and trade union movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is predicated on the view that African Muslim women do not necessarily perceive Islam or Islamic practice as incompatible with their goals and aspirations of education, independence or leadership. Drawing on the representations of the hijab in three African novels, this paper will simultaneously affirm and challenge certain orientations within African and particularly African feminist theories vis-á-vis African Muslim women and Islam. In responding to the claims by certain African feminist thinkers that Islam is incompatible with female leadership, that African Muslim women mostly practice Islam against their will and that forms of Islamic practice, in this case the hijab, are of little religious significance to African Muslim women, this paper will demonstrate that not only do African Muslim women choose to practice Islam by consciously and voluntarily situating themselves as agents of Islamic practice, but, in so doing, they, in fact, embody leadership, education, independence and consequently a re-affirmation of their religious identity. Islamic practice among African Muslim women, as will be explored in this analysis of the hijab, therefore, is infused with a deeper religious meaning and it cannot be convincingly concluded that the women have little regard for it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws from the author's own experience as a first-time fieldworker, and from Donna Haraway's writing on feminist knowledge making, to discuss feminist research in development studies as a necessarily political endeavour. Researcher neutrality in feminist fieldwork is neither possible nor desirable. However, a politically engaged approach to observation-based research entails risks and limitations rarely addressed in research methods courses. These are explored with reference to the author's research on seasonal labour migration and debt bondage in rural central India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though there is now a great deal of attention to the question of women workers and Corporate Social Responsibility (csr), a more far reaching analysis, which is informed by feminist economics approaches, stresses the importance of the gendered nature of the institutional context in which value chains operate, and the importance of acknowledging that labour markets are themselves gendered institutions which reflect socially constructed divisions of labour. This paper explores what a more holistic approach to corporate social responsibility might mean, especially when explored through the lens of gender analysis. I use the concept of social reproduction to examine the kinds of issues a gendered approach to csr might embrace, with particular attention to the "social", in terms of the reproduction of the labour power used in production. I apply this scrutiny to the emblematic example of the current spate of murders of young women in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, the location of thousands of manufacturing assembly plants producing for export to the United States. The paper concludes with some suggestions of initiatives which might be developed to incorporate a gendered dimension into a more comprehensive notion of csr. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to outline and evaluate Pierre Bourdieu's work as it has appeared most recently in feminist studies and the field of gender and education. In particular, it suggests ways in which Bourdieu's theoretical insights could be seen to more effectively contribute to cutting edge debates in both social theory and feminist thought regarding concepts such as agency, identity and domination. It also argues that a more creative and empirical engagement with the recent work of Bourdieu, alongside an interdisciplinary reading of more recent cultural and social theories of power, would be a fruitful way forward in advancing a feminist sociology of education. In the present historical moment and against the tide of postmodern and post-structuralist feminist accounts, Bourdieu is often read as a determinist who has little to offer contemporary feminist debates or who argues that masculine domination is too tightly woven to social practices of a given field. In short, this paper argues that such a view is not only a misreading of Bourdieu's work on fundamental theoretical grounds, but fails to acknowledge the ways in which his more recent work on masculinity addresses both the cultural and social conditions underlying contemporary forms of symbolic domination. In short, the paper argues that Bourdieu's theory offers an analytical breadth and range beyond the scope of anything that a normative, liberal account of masculine domination could provide. Yet, in drawing from such diversity, Bourdieu's oeuvre is able to resist incomprehensibility. It stands as a highly focused, realistic and generative attempt ( McNay, 1999 ; McLeod, 2004 ) to chart the problems of subordination, differentiation and hierarchy, and to expose the possibilities, as well as the limits, of gendered self-hood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to explode a number of myths about women's absence from wars and conflict; it considers some problems about their vulnerabilities in these circumstances; and offers some feminist perspectives for addressing these problems. The paper considers the conflicting demands made on women in periods of war and revolution, and argues that differing historical processes result in different post-conflict policies towards women. There is, however, a commonality of experiences that universally marginalise women in the post-conflict and reconstruction phases. Even when women have participated actively in wars and revolutions, they are heavily pressured to go back to the home and reconstruct the private domain to assert the return of peace and 'normality'. This paper contends that the insistence on locating women within the domestic sphere in the post-war era may be counter-productive and located in the historical construction of nationhood and nationalism as masculine in terms of its character and demands. With the dawn of the twenty-first century and the long history of women's participation in wars, revolutions, and policy making, it may now be possible to use the symbolic importance given to them in times of conflict to articulate a different perception of nationhood and belonging, and to create a more cooperative and less competitive and hierarchical approach to politics and the reconstruction of nations and their sense of belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From at least the time of George Herbert Mead, theorists have argued for the invocation of multiple identities in one situation; however, why multiple identities are simultaneously invoked remains a question. Both identity theory and feminist theory conceptually recognize the importance of the influence of multiple identities in a single situation; however, little is known about why these identities are concurrently involved. In an exploratory analysis grounded in identity theory and using a sample of amateur bodybuilders obtained via a mail survey, this paper considers the issue of meaning independence in understanding why multiple identities an concurrently involved. Based on logistic regression results, two of the three hypotheses advanced were supported. Identity meanings appear to be an important influence on the number of identities invoked in a situation. Suggestions for future research are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homophobia has a long, sad but obscure history in the Western world and in the world of archaeology. In this paper I argue that homophobia was responsible for women choosing not to go into archaeology in large numbers until at least 1950. While homophobia is no longer successful in keeping women out of archaeology, it continues to have an impact on the discipline in education, network building, and mentoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vibrant artistic traditions of America's Pacific Northwest Coast peoples are well documented in the ethnographic literature. Far less numerous, but equally fascinating, are the artworks which survive from a prehistoric period lasting at least 10,000 years. One little known collection of 136 stone artefacts from this area was brought together for exhibition in 1975. The striking and often explicit sexual imagery of these artefacts prompted anthropologist Wilson Duff to offer an unconventional, and therefore also controversial reading of their meaning in his book images stone b.c. In reading images stone b.c. through the lens of queer theory this paper suggests that the radical potential of Wilson Duff's ideas, and his vision of these artefacts in particular, was far greater than he was able to realize before his untimely death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to critique the concepts of 'teacher professionalism' and 'professional identity' as they are currently manifest in the field of teaching and teacher education from two related feminist perspectives. In the first instance, feminist critiques of liberal democracy are drawn upon to expose the gendered assumptions which underlie dominant conceptions of the 'professional' teacher. Particular attention is paid to the now dominant view of the teacher as a rational and instrumental actor, and its gendered dimensions are explored. Second, the gender dualisms which reside at the heart of the concept 'teacher professionalism' are identified and discussed. The discussion is then widened to examine the role of gender politics in shaping the epistemological premises upon which teacher professionalism is developed and its more formative role in the exploitation of women teachers' labours. Drawing upon examples of current feminist research and my own preliminary empirical data, the paper concludes by presenting an alternative conceptual framework for assessing the gendered nature of identity formation in teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper chronicles the struggles in Queensland education to have the educational disadvantages of girls included on the agenda. The new right policies of the Queensland government have precipitated a powerful anti-feminist lobby Nonetheless, the government and the education department have been 'forced' into at least formulating an Equal Opportunity policy for girls (and boys') While the policy is weak and departmental commitment limited, some progressive teachers have been able to 'use' the policy to implement progressive practices. In a more general sense, the paper looks at the usefulness or otherwise of such policies which have developed out of a liberal feminist framework While not denying their worth, the paper also argues that women's issues have to be fought for in the context of a broader social agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the debate about the Scandinavian welfare states from a feminist perspective, focusing on the differences between a feminist perspective and the dominant liberal and critical Marxist understanding of the welfare state, in particular it focuses on the argument that the Scandinavian welfare states are the most advanced in relation to women and discusses both the potentialities and dangers in the Scandinavian welfare states in relation to women. Feminists have pointed out that the concept of gender has been disregarded from a theoretical and methodological point of view in both liberal and Marxist analyses of the welfare state. The fundamental concepts have been either the individual or the class, and the determining forces of the development of the welfare state have been found in the political sphere or in the economy or in the interrelation between the two spheres. The paper points to the need to integrate gender relations in the theoretical model for an analysis of the welfare state and emphasizes the need to explore the relationship between the family and the state (and the family and the economy) in the different welfare states. The paper emphasizes that the qualitative differences in the organization of care work are important for understanding the institutional differences between the welfare states, and especially the Scandinavian welfare states, where motherhood and care work has today become a part of social citizenship. The author argues that even though women have in important ways become empowered in the Scandinavian welfare states as mothers, workers and citizens, they have at the same time become subsumed under a new kind of male domination in the public sphere. A further exploration of this new kind of male domination must transcend the theoretical framework of both Marxism and liberalism and must begin to rethink such central concepts as citizenship, power and interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Canadian new immigrant families (also known as newcomers) encounter challenges navigating systems when trying to access programmes critical for their children's healthy development. The purpose of this study is to understand how newcomer families find and use early childhood programmes and services from the perspective of families and early childhood educators (ECEs) working within a settlement organization. Methods: Using photovoice methodology, newcomer family members (n = 8) with young children and ECEs (n = 6) participated in a series of virtual workshops to share photos and reflect on their experiences. Results: Participants discussed the systemic barriers that obstructed newcomer families' access to services for young newcomer children. Financial challenges due to unemployment/ underemployment, language and cultural differences were emphasized. Despite these barriers and challenges, participants shared how culturally responsive programmes enhanced their connections to programmes and services. Both groups of participants discussed the critical role of social networks in supporting newcomers to use programmes by helping families become aware of available services and assistance with various processes such as registration. Conclusions: This research illustrates the lived experiences of newcomer families and identifies opportunities to address inequities, improve early childhood programmes, and enhance families' access to programmes and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Critical African Studies is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article examines the importance of a theory of difference in shaping the participation of settlement women in public administration and stopping the oppression of females around the world. It states certain forms that are acknowledged by a feminism of difference as a significant starting point such as national, religion and culture. According to the papers by A. Ong and A. Obiora, women's emancipation worldwide places more emphasis on individual rights, culture and country, which contradicts feminist standards in the West.

This paper problematises embedded notions of masculine and feminine embodiment within the contexts of contemporary Australian mainstream popular culture. Drawing on Bourdieu's (1990:56) theory of `habitus' as non-consciously performed practices'… internalised as second nature and so forgotten'; personal reflections as artist, choreographer and teacher; and a brief analysis of the male body in the television program, So You Think You Can Dance Australia (TEN Network, 2008), the author questions and considers the development of habitual ways of perceiving particular forms of male embodiment as aesthetic and attractive, and other forms as un-aesthetic. Further, the impact of the author's own experiences as actor! dancer and choreographer are considered in relation to his work as a director and choreographer of `the bodies of male and female students' in school productions. Through this paper, the author conjectures about the potential for the drama classroom to be a site in which embodied gender inequities may be challenged and deconstructed. Jack Migdalek [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the twentieth century, the status of women in Tunisia has been caught up in political wars fought largely over other issues such as colonialism, nationalism, modernity, and Islamic cultural identity. By taking the decision to reform the family law, the state redefines rights and obligations for all citizens. Behind the promulgation of a new family law there is a vision of a modern society. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the status of Women in Tunisia, to expose the impact of family law reforms on everyday life of Tunisians and to show the challenges Tunisian women are facing today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue that feminist (inspired) writings have largely obfuscated the history of gender, violence, and subjectivity in Afghanistan. I contend that western and non-western feminisms - while having served important roles in keeping discussions on Afghanistan alive - fail to adequately relate to war and western imperialism, and therefore fall short of tracing the formations of subjectivity of women in contemporary Afghanistan. In building on a preliminary discussion of my ongoing ethnographic work with widows, I argue that the feminist project needs to more critically engage with notions such as agency and freedom in order to broaden a perspective that is often focusing too narrowly on (and thus perpetuating) under-studied notions of 'gender' and 'culture' in Afghanistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Celebrating the World Women's Day and initiating a conference for promoting Turkey's integration to Europe on the one hand, and discussing the discrimination against women on the ground of human rights and even harbouring the radical protest from left-wing as well as the Islamist women on the other, the women auxiliaries of AKP (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, Justice and Development Party) seemingly position themselves at the very intersection of various political discourses including Westernism, feminism, liberalism and Islamism. Articulating these disparate discourses, however, requires a meticulous selectivity and a specific political strategy. Is this discursive selectivity inevitable for an overtly religious party in a modern nation-state where secularism and integration into the European civilisation have dominated the state ideology since its foundation? What are the reactions of outsiders, especially of European countries? More specifically, what are the repercussions of this strategic mentality in terms of the women's question? Does it attract various women's groups and thus create solidarity among different voices? Or on the contrary does it not truncate or even silence the demands of women? This paper discusses the women politicians in the AKP as well as its policies on gender equality and relations. It aims to analyze the party on three angles: women's representations and visibility, changes in political ideology and rhetoric, and the adaptation of party organization to the demands of women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since its inception in the mid-forties of the last century, the Moroccan feminist movement has evolved around the family law Code. The post-independence family law denied women basic rights and thus fueled the disappointment and anger of the female intellectual elite (journalists, writers, politicians and activists). Legal rights have always constituted a priority in Moroccan women's struggle for dignity in and outside the home. These rights became central with women's increasing access to education and the job market. Today, women's legal rights are associated with democratization and political openness. This paper addresses these issues and underlines the impact of the family law in generating and accelerating feminist ideas in Morocco. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The underachievement of boys has been a focus of intense concern in Australia for over 15 years. Historical analyses suggest that male students' poor performance has traditionally been attributed to factors external to boys themselves (methods, teachers, texts), deflecting attention from the relationship between masculinity construction and successful engagement with school. This paper turns the focus back, addressing the ways in which gender itself was constructed within hearings held for the Australian Parliamentary Inquiry into Boys' Education. Discursive analysis demonstrates that witnesses to the Inquiry drew upon a series of gender binaries in representing male and female students, and accounting for their relative attainment. These binaries worked to associate masculinity with 'authentic' learning, such that the success of male students was naturalised even in the absence of achievement. Conversely, the association of femininity and 'inauthentic learning' worked to undermine female students' demonstrated success. The role of these binaries in the reproduction of a paradoxical relationship between gender and achievement is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers Olive Banks' work on charting the history and development of British feminism, and particularly her use of collective biography as a research and analytic tool. It is argued that while this has been seen as the least 'fashionable' aspect of her work, it took forward C. Wright Mills' contention for one definition of sociology as the interaction between biography and history, and predated by a decade or so similar work on prosopography by Bourdieu from the 1990s onwards. More recently other sociologists and educationists have taken up this methodological approach, including Jane Martin and Bronwyn Davies and Susanne Gannon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Databases and training * Empowerment * Feminist methodological approaches * Gender-based violence * Health * Labour and migration * General research methods resources and tools * Organisations [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video is increasingly used in qualitative research. This paper addresses some of the pedagogical, aesthetic, social, and ethical implications of using digital video in research of high school drama classrooms. How does the video medium produce particular spaces of representation and representations of space, and what are the implications when this medium is used in 'live' drama contexts? Video is a complex medium; it has come to represent both a vehicle and product of popular culture. This paper examines particularly how the gaze of video has historically affected and continues to shape the study and expression of human subjects, and concludes with suggestions about how digital and live drama modes might interact in synergistic ways that challenge normative modes of video production, drama practices, and the research encounter. Throughout, we use human geography, post-colonial film, and feminist theoretical lenses to, as Trinh T. Minh-ha (1991) would put it, 'evoke' rather than 'explain' what a postcolonial digital drama might be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in participation and achievement patterns mark a turning point for girls in schooling and place female empowerment squarely in the public domain. Using data from a longitudinal study of girls, this paper looks at female empowerment by exploring the relationship between the production of female subjectivity and the processes operating in social spaces. Findings relating to aspirations for girls’ future careers are placed within a context of decile school ratings, and from those findings insights are offered about how the rhetoric of ‘girl power’ is lived and spoken into existence in relation to categories of social class. By examining how schooling, family and classed processes weave through hopes and dreams, the intent is to contribute towards a line of discussion about the shaping of female subjectivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the limitations of a rights focus for furthering women's claims for social change and, more specifically, as a focus for mobilising women around these claims. It analyses the experiences of a feminist ngo that has used a rights approach and draws on interviews undertaken with key representatives of women's groups in Nicaragua. Many groups use the rights discourse and see utility in its unifying language, around which collective actions can be mobilised. However, the notion of ‘rights based development’ is a little understood concept in the women's movements and, when recognised, is seen to be part of the donor agenda. The paper explores what this means for women's actions for change, questioning the repackaging of gender as rights and raising concerns about the ability of a rights focus alone to challenge unequal power relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of feminist scholars have neglected the impact of constitutional design to date. But it has recently come to the fore, as institutional engineering has been a key part of the efforts to ‘build democracy after conflict’ (or impose it from the outside), most notably in Iraq and Afghanistan. This paper will examine some contrasting experiences of constitutional design (with evidence drawn primarily from some transitions to democracy) and draw out some wider lessons for feminists exploring effective strategies to enhance gender rights. It will also widen the debate from the institutional concerns that have predominated to date, namely quotas as a mechanism to enhance women's descriptive representation and, to a lesser extent, national women's machineries as a mechanism to enhance women's substantive representation. It will focus more broadly on the opportunities that constitutional design can provide to embed women's rights more securely and create an enabling framework that can subsequently be used to enhance all forms of women's rights, not just civil and political ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Women's Movement and its glory days are, to many, especially those born after the 1970s in the Caribbean, just another archival piece of data to be retrieved for mention in the literary reviews of research papers. For some young people the Women's Movement and its achievements are merely to be used as an indicator of how far removed are the present day realities of the women and men in the region from the issues that fuelled the 1970s activism. Gender Studies and Women's Studies are, for many, perceived as a vehicle for women to entrench their recently achieved dominance over men and a space for 'femocrats' to become absorbed and entrenched within mainstream academy. This paper seeks to review the issues and strategies used by the activists of the 1970s, in particular, and to examine the extent to which these have been sufficiently politicized by the academy or whether the academy has identified and carried forward new and more relevant agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, taken from a presentation given to the Women In Development Europe (WIDE) Conference 2005, I consider the situation in Pakistan, within the general context of South Asia as a whole, and focus on the questions that confront feminists today. These questions, I believe, may be relevant to women activists not only in the South but also elsewhere. I discuss the activities of feminists who are engaging in advocacy for gender equality in Pakistan. This is an uphill task, but it has nevertheless resulted in some achievements. Not least of these is Pakistani women’s success in bringing women’s rights to the attention of both policy makers and the general public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, the international market for commercial surrogacy has grown at a quiet but considerable pace. Each year, thousands of women agree to carry, for a fee, the child of another woman. Thousands of babies are born as a result on shaky legal legs: conceived by one set of parents yet claimed by another. Most of these children were born in the market as well as the womb, the product of desire combined with the ability to pay. The central argument of this paper is that surrogacy must be approached as a commercial relationship. There is already an active international trade in the components of baby production - wombs, sperm and eggs. There are rapidly advancing technologies that are certain to expand both the demand for surrogacy services and the supply of surrogate mothers. Yet the underpinnings of the surrogacy market - the rules, laws, rights and contracts - have been notably slower to evolve. Legislative bodies in both the United States and Europe have been loath to deal directly with the issue of surrogacy, intervening primarily in the form of prohibition. Yet because the demand function in this market can be so intense, couples are entering into surrogacy arrangements even when they suspect that the underlying contract is either illegal or unenforceable. Fundamentally, commercial surrogacy is an issue of political economy. It involves an economic relationship that sits within a deeply political calculus, one that goes to the very heart of political economy. What, the debate over surrogacy asks, can legitimately be sold in a market transaction? Who decides? And how can any authority weigh the desires of having a child against the dangers of selling one? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the effects of feminism, nationalism and colonialism on modern Arab women. These three elements are seen as interconnected in the Arab world, as in many other developing countries. However, even though early Arab feminist consciousness developed hand in hand with national consciousness, feminism is an indigenous product of Arabic political and socioeconomic dynamics. The colonialist and counter-colonialist representations of Arab women need to be challenged. And observers must see that Arab women's need for positive change is no more nor less than that of women anywhere else. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among certain social sectors in El Salvador, couples have not necessarily engaged informal marriages. But with the economic and political crisis of the 1980s, many poor Salvador women were left with the sole financial responsibility for their children. With the 'modernisation' of the state in the post-war period, more of those women began to seek the assistance of the state in securing child support. This paper looks at the process that women had to go through to access that support and explores how Mujeres por La Dignidad y La Vida (Women for Dignity and Life), a feminist organisation created out of the Salvadoran civil war, mobilised women to challenge institutionalised gender roles reflected in that process. The conflicts that arose within the new organisation they formed, the Asociación de Madres Demandantes (Association of Mothers Seeking Child Support), highlight the different interests of the women being organised and those organising them. These conflicts were intensified by the policies of donor organisations that supported the work of the Association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the rise and use of a "woman-centred" anti-choice strategy to oppose abortion in Australia and the USA. It argues that this strategy seeks to imitate and exploit aspects of the pro-choice, women-centred position on abortion. The strategy contends that women do not really choose abortion but are pressured into it by others and then experience a range of negative effects afterwards, including an increased risk of breast cancer, infertility and post-abortion grief. Rather than evaluate the truth of such claims, this paper seeks to explicate from a feminist perspective the design, intent and implications of this strategy and how it is being used in legislative tactics, counselling, law suits and anti-choice activism. Such an analysis is necessary for pro-choice efforts to respond effectively to this new strategy, not only through literal rebuttals based on evidence, but also through responses that counter its ideological power. Cet article étudie la progression et l'utilisation d'une stratégie anti-avortement ≪ centrée sur les femmes ≫ en Australie et aux Etats-Unis; il avance que cette stratégie souhaite imiter et exploiter des aspects de la position pro-avortement centrée sur les femmes. La stratégie affirme que les femmes ne choisissent pas vraiment l'avortement, mais y sont incitées par d'autres et connaissent ensuite diverses séquelles, notamment un risque accru de cancer du sein, de stérilité et de dépression post-avortement. Plutôt que de se prononcer sur l'exactitude de ces affirmations, l'article explique dans une perspective féministe la conception, les intentions et les conséquences de cette stratégie et comment elle est utilisée dans des tactiques législatives, des consultations, des procès et des actions militantes anti-avortement. Cette analyse est nécessaire pour que les efforts en faveur de l'avortement répondent efficacement au mouvement qui s'y oppose, par des démentis fondés sur des preuves, mais aussi par des interventions pouvant contrer son pouvoir idéologique. Este artı́culo examina el surgimiento en Australia y los Estados Unidos de una estrategia en contra del aborto "centrada en la mujer", la cual pretende imitar y explotar aspectos de la posición a favor del derecho de decidir centrada en la mujer. La estrategia de oposición asevera que las mujeres no optan a abortar sino que están presionadas por otros y que posteriormente experimentan una gama de efectos secundarios negativos que incluyen un aumento en el riesgo de cáncer de mama, la infecundidad y un sentimiento de profundo pesar. En lugar de evaluar la certeza de dichas afirmaciones, este artı́culo busca explicar, desde una perspectiva feminista, el diseño, la intención y las implicaciones de esta estrategia, y cómo se utiliza en tácticas legislativas, servicios de consejerı́a, pleitos y diversas acciones en contra del aborto. Este análisis es necesario para que las acciones a favor del derecho de decidir respondan eficazmente al movimiento anti-aborto, no solamente mediante refutaciones literales basadas en evidencias, sino mediante respuestas capaces de contestar su poder ideológico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the possibilities created by feminist and other alternative interpretations of citizenship in democratic societies - particularly as these concepts relate to secondary social studies education. The study involved five women — four secondary social studies teachers and one university-based researcher — in a series of focus group discussions. Each of the study's participants identified individual goals she lisped to obtain through her participation. As the university-based researcher, my goal was to create stories, grounded in our discussions, which would encourage readers to "disrupt, transgress, and invent possibilities" (Fine, 1992, p. xii ) about the moaning of citizenship in a postmodern world. In addition, I wanted to explore "how we perform the magical feat of transforming the contents of our consciousness into a public form that others can understand" (Eisner, 1997, p. 4). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indonesian Communist Organization Gerwani was banned in 1966. It had been associated with sexual perversions during the 1 October 1965 putsch in which senior figures within the Indonesian army were killed. These accusations helped fuel the massacre of over a million people and brought General Suharto to power. Yet in many ways Gerwani's ideology was puritanical and geared towards strengthening the monogamous family unit. It breached traditional gender ideology only in its insistence that women should be political actors and militant mothers. More recently, the organization has been accused of 'promoting lesbianism', when it in fact has never discussed the issue. This paper analyses Gerwani's ideology to explore the link between political activism and sexuality. The women's organization can be regarded as one of the forces of 'modernity' which stimulated homophobia. It is suggested that Gerwani's political activism was considered such a breach of traditional gender ideologies that it triggered a fear of social disorder in which women would be free from male heterosexual control - either as loose, perverted women who were seen as liable to castrate generals, or as lesbians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses some of the crucial aesthetic issues and concerns brought about by the advent of digital media. Utilizing a philosophical approach, I investigate the ways in which computer-mediated art serves to challenge existing Western aesthetic theory. Specifically, this paper focuses on feminist aesthetic theory as a framework for re-evaluating aesthetic concepts and aesthetic criteria. In this paper, I argue for the implementation and application of a feminist aesthetic paradigm and present a new aesthetic paradigm for computer-mediated art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feminist scholarship and campaigning have been notably successful in recent years in putting the concept of the unpaid carer onto the public agenda. The caring that women do as a feature of paid work, however, has proved a more intractable topic. This paper argues that masculinist visions gender the concepts of bureaucracy and profession. dichotomizing competence and care, and masking both the reality and the potential of public carework. The paper proposes a distinction between caregiving, carework and professional care. It then develops an analysis of professional care by reference to a recent campaign by the leading nurses' organization in the UK, seeking to highlight the worth of nursing work. It notes that the carework discussion has barely any echo in the debate about the 'new managerialism' in the public sector and argues that a critical understanding of the centrality of binary gendered thought is crucial to a constructive critique of today's emphasis on bringing health care into the market-place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aesthetic issues and arguments raised by feminists are presented as foundation for structuring philosophical dialogue in the classroom. Both the foundation section and the classroom section of this paper are organized around three issues: female sensibility and feminist aesthetics, criteria for evaluation of art, and viewer responses to art. The paper concludes with implications for the goals and curricula of art education and for research undertaken in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a reply to the critique provided by researcher L. Tiefer of a recent article about sexual science. This article notes the contribution that Tiefer makes about methodological diversity. Additionally, this article suggests alternative viewpoints about the personal nature of Tiefer's critique, the necessity for polarizing sexual science and feminist perspectives, and the definition of rigorous. The author claims that it is difficult for him to perceive Tiefer's commentary as non-personal since it is replete with explicit and veiled inferences about his motives, feelings, and objectives. He also claimed that certain comments are inaccurate and misleading, unfortunately distract from Tiefer's main argument for diversity of methods. Furthermore, Tiefer's conclusion about the word "rigor" is inconsistent with the facts, adds the author. Rigor, and more importantly, rigorous have a variety of meanings. It is parsimonious to conclude that the author used the term rigorous to mean "scrupulously accurate," rather than to imply that he had an implicit motive to promote "severely narrow standards."

The article focuses on the quality of teenage girls' sexual initiations. In the expansive economic growth and social upheavals of the 1960s and 70s, competing interests-family planning, juvenile justice, and feminism-rewrote the rules of adolescence, changing the relationship between "gender and generation." By the late 1970s, when the largest generation of teenagers in U.S. history came of age, teenage girls had new rights to due process, privacy, and autonomy, and they could obtain contraception and abortion without parental consent. These developments were by no means unilateral or stable. The Supreme Court affirmed age of consent laws in the early 1980s, and adolescent reproductive autonomy and contemporary juvenile justice arrangements remain hotly contested political issues. This paper explores teenage girls' assessments of early sexual experience and first intercourse. The material is drawn from a 1978-1986 narrative study of 400 teenage girls' sexual, romantic, and reproductive histories. About 75 percent narrated either heterosexual intercourse or extensive lesbian sexual experience.

The most popular current explanation of rape holds that rapists are seeking power, control, violence, and/or domination instead of sex. After reviewing the history of this explanation, this paper examines the evidence that has been used to demonstrate that rapists are not sexually motivated. Twelve specific arguments are examined in light of existing data on rape. All twelve of the arguments are found to be either logically unsound, based on inaccurate definitions, untestable, or inconsistent with the actual behavior of rapists. The implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]