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This paper attempts to expose the workings of patriarchy in subjugating women with reference to Sister of My Heart (1999) and The Vine of Desire (2003) authored by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. The paper traces the ups and downs in the lives of two distant cousins, Sudha and Anju. Their lives follow a circular pattern of union, separation and reunion. Divakaruni's Sister of my Heart and The Vine of Desire depict the coming of age of two sisters in a highly patriarchal society. Though there are several similarities between Sister of My Heart and The Vine of Desire, there is a great deal of stylistic variation between the two which merit serious study and analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decisions of if and when to have a first child are very important for any woman or couple. This paper develops a model to examine when a woman should begin trying to conceive, which depends on the personal circumstances and values of each woman. The model incorporates separate objectives for a woman's professional, social, and family aspects of life and integrates them into a quality-of-life function that includes the changing relative importance of these aspects with age over a woman's life. Descriptions of the relative quality of each of these three aspects of a woman's life are modeled over time for different cases. One case involves no child and other cases involve the woman giving birth at different ages from 21 to 50. The probabilities of conceiving when trying, as a function of a woman's age, are included. The relative pros and cons of waiting until the late thirties to have a child to avoid perceived detrimental impacts on one's career or social life are investigated. Several illustrations are included in the paper to demonstrate insights that can be generated using the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on engendering Syro-Palestinian archaeology. First and foremost, the examination of gendered lives requires attention to the households in which people lived. As the author has suggested in a recent paper, the study of households entails recognizing their social, organizational and material complexity. Although it is difficult to provide a definition of a household that applies across all cultures, acknowledging its social and operational properties as well as its physical ones is critical. A household thus is not simply a family or only a house. Rather, it is a built environment that consists of both persons and their hardware.

In recent years the developmental implications of menarche have garnered particular attention. Investigators have determined that this developmental event tends to affect three significant domains of the adolescent girl's function: psychological status, relationships with peers, and role in the family. This paper explores these issues and introduces a new technique, referred to as previewing, that may help the teenage girl acclimate to the status of sexual maturity. Derived from the early life interactions of caregiver and infant, previewing promotes representational skills and enhances self-esteem as the adolescent confronts developmental challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]