Capabilities Of Women Research Articles

Ann Fisher: Reforming Education for “the mere English Scholar”

Writer, publisher and activist Ann Fisher (1719–78) promoted educational reform in all of her works, most notably in two which remained standard educational texts into the nineteenth century – A Practical New Grammar and The Pleasing Instructor, or Entertaining Moralist – as well as in a series of essays printed in her inexpensive pocket diary, The Ladies Own Memorandum-Book. Fisher first aimed to improve English language education by decoupling English grammar from Latin grammar and by offering a pedagogical model based on practice rather than rote memorization. Later she expanded her reform of pedagogy to encompass the instructor's classroom strategies and demeanor. Such reforms, Fisher believed, would make English language education and the concomitant benefits of improved skills in speaking, reading and writing more accessible to students of all socioeconomic classes. Finally, Fisher undertook a holistic reform of education for girls and women that valorized women's intellectual capabilities and argued that serious education for all women would result in greater social and economic opportunities for themselves, for their families and for society as a whole.

Home-grown Slaves: Women, Reproduction, and the Abolition of the Slave Trade, Jamaica 1788-1807

Once the British transatlantic slave trade came under abolitionists' scrutiny in 1788, West Indian slaveholders had to consider alternative methods of obtaining well-needed laborers. This article examines changes in enslaved women's working lives as planters sought to increase birth rates to replenish declining laboring populations. By focusing more on variances in work assignment and degrees of punishment rather than their absence, this article establishes that enslaved women in Jamaica experienced a considerable shift in their work responsibilities and their subjection to discipline as slaveholders sought to capitalize on their abilities to reproduce. Enslaved women's reproductive capabilities were pivotal for slavery and the plantation economy's survival once legal supplies from Africa were discontinued.

ELISA for free S-equol in human urine

The popularity of phytoestrogen food supplements of plant origin steadily increases. They are used to solve the problems related to the climacterium. Their efficiency depends on woman's capability to metabolise the active components – isoflavonoids. Women able to convert daidzein to S-equol are supposed to get a greater benefit from these supplements. To determine S-equol urine levels, the competitive ELISA was developed. Carboxymethylequol coupled to BSA via 4'-O-position was used as an immunogen. The assay conditions, including the concentrations of the coating antigen and antisera, were optimised. The detection limit was 0.1 ng/ml (5 pg/well) and 50% intercept was 1 ng/ml (50 pg/well). The intraassay coefficients of variation (CV) varied from 4.7% to 9.9%, for the interassay CV the corresponding values of 2.6–11.6% were obtained. The recovery of the standard added to urine ranged between 89% and 104%. All examined samples were obtained from women in climacterium. The volunteers had been taking phytoestrogen food supplements for 3 months. The urine samples were collected before and after the therapy. The levels of free urinary S-equol after the therapy ranged between 0 ng/ml and 42.4 ng/ml. The equol production was observed in 57% of the examined patients. The laboratory results were confronted with patients' subjective evaluations.

Breaking the Final Glass Ceiling: The Influence of Gender in the Elections of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Michelle Bachelet

The article extends the limited literature on women national leaders by providing a comparative study of two popularly elected women presidents: Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in Liberia and Michelle Bachelet in Chile. Both Bachelet and Johnson-Sirleaf rose to power in situations that lacked the circumstances identified by current literature as mitigating gendered barriers to national leadership: neither woman was connected to politically powerful families, they were elected in presidential systems, and they were elected in countries that lag behind regional leaders in terms of women's political inclusion. This comparison reveals important similarities in how both Bachelet and Johnson-Sirleaf incorporated gender into their campaign strategies. Both women pursued electoral strategies that combined attempts to confront gendered disadvantages and to take advantage of specific gendered opportunities present within their political contexts. Both women drew upon their personal biographies, highlighting their education and careers, and political experience to demonstrate that they had the traditionally masculine traits associated with political leadership. In addition, they also strategically appealed to gendered beliefs about women's unique capabilities and strengths and linked these perceived strengths to pressing political issues in both countries. Our study thus demonstrates the continuing salience of gender, even as its influence becomes more flexible and complex.

Representation of Female Poetics in Anne Finch’s Poe

Anne Kingsmill Finch, the Countess of Winchelsea (1661-1720), holds an undeniably significant position in the history of women's writing. Although she was among the well-known poets during the 18 th century, Anne Finch has only recently received literary appreciation which she deserves. Instead of complying with the conventions of masculine tradition, and prefers to follow a different path from her contemporaries. She concentrates mainly on the negative stereotypes of women and questions the assumptions of 18 th century masculine poetic conventions. Undermining the socially constructed ideas about female identity, Anne Finch is very outspoken in her critique of male resistance to the poetry of women. In her poetry, Finch courageously demonstrates a challenging attitude to the prejudiced opinions about women's creative poetic capabilities. Hence, the poetry of Anne Finch which seem to be personal in its exploration of the experiences of a woman poet in the 18 th century, it is in fact, fully embedded with ideological arguments trying to change strongly established conventions of writing in her own time. Therefore, through a detailed analysis of her poetry, the major concern of this paper will be to demonstrate that Anne Finch's poetry is specifically committed to the creation of a consciousness for women writers, distinguishing herself and her poetry from the general trend of her own period which attempts to eliminate women writers from the domain of male writing tradition.

A woman with a high capacity for multi-orgasms: a non-clinical case-report study

This study is a qualitative study of one woman's capacity to reach more than one hundred orgasms during one sexual “session”. The study is based on her written account of her capacity and interviews. This paper focuses on her current orgasmic capacity, the factors affecting it, and “Anonymous” (AN's) experiences and emotional responses related to it. Although for AN her sexual capacity was, and still is, highly important and consuming, it was pleasuring and under control. As a highly sexual woman, she experienced the tension of acting out her sexual desires and straying from societal convention. Consequently, fantasy was one of the ways that her needs were met. It is apparent both from the available literature and from this study that a woman's capability to have multiple orgasms is dependent on a combination of developmental, psychological and psychosocial conditions. It is not known if there are unique physiological and biochemical enabling mechanisms. “Anonymous” has consented to have laboratory tests and brain imaging performed and currently efforts are being made to carry these out.

The Sex Worker and Her Pleasure

The stereotypical view of prostitution is based on the idea that sex work destroys the woman's capability for sexual pleasure and alienates her from her sexuality. The author argues that the idea of the destructive capacity of sex work is not universally obvious. Sex workers interviewed seem to derive sexual pleasure in both commercial and private relationships. Professional sex work can be perceived as a distancing from the prostitute's own enjoyment but it can also be a channel to a more emancipated and pleasurable sex life.

Gendered Spaces and Intimate Citizenship

This article situates breastfeeding politics in the context of intimate citizenship, where women's capability to care in a range of social spaces is at stake. Drawing on the work of Lefebvre and Fenster, the article considers the extent to which recent breastfeeding promotion work by the Health Promotion Agency in Northern Ireland has sought to reconceive of social spaces in ways that have the potential to improve intimate citizenship for breastfeeding women.

T01-O-18 A highly sexual woman with a high capacity for multi-orgasms

This paper is a case report of one woman's capacity to reach more than one hundred orgasms during one sexual “session.” This study is base on her written account of her capacity and interviews. This paper focuses on her current orgasmic capacity, the factors affecting it, and Anonymous (AN's) experiences and emotional responses related to it. Although for AN her sexual capacity was, and still is, highly important and consuming it was pleasuring and under control. As a highly sexual woman, she experienced the tension of acting out her sexual desires and straying from societal convention. Consequently, fantasy was one of the ways that her needs were met. It is apparent both from the available literature and from this study that a woman's capability to have multiple orgasms is dependent on a combination of developmental, psychological, and psychosocial conditions. It is unknown if there are unique physiological and biochemical enabling mechanisms. AN has consented to have laboratory tests and brain imaging performed and currently efforts are made to carry these out.

Factors Affecting the Standard of Female Education: A Case Study of Senior Secondary Schools in the Kassena-Nankana District

This study presents the current factors affecting the standard of female education in the Kassena-Nankana district in Upper East Region of Ghana. Poverty, long-held negative attitudes about women's intellectual capabilities, teenage pregnancy, early marriage, examination failure in mathematics and science and the traditional division of household labour are among the many factors that continue to keep vast numbers of girls out of the classroom in the district and country as well.

Repositioning Women in Housing Development in Nigeria

Gender-induced discriminatory practices against women are very common in Nigeria, as in most African countries. Gendered practices are socially and culturally constructed, and are as such informed by the values and norms of societies. These practices have hampered the development of women's capabilities, and have precluded equal economic and social participation in the development of the nation leading to low levels of education and high incidence of poverty among women. This article discusses the role of women in housing development, linking this to a statistical model developed from research conducted by the authors.

Domestic Violence: Frequency and Women`s Perception in Iran (I.R)

This study was aimed to estimate the prevalence of different kinds of domestic violence against women in an Iranian population and to explore their attitudes. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Kerman, Iran. Three hundred ninety eight women referring to randomly selected health centers were interviewed in early 2005. The questionnaire explored the women's views regarding domestic violence and their experiences of domestic violence during the year before interview. Ignoring women's capabilities by their spouses (36.7%) was the most frequent type of violence. Roughly 27% of them were beaten by their husbands over preceding year. The respondents showed the least agreement with 'violence toward wife ceases during pregnancy'. Although the findings may not be generalizable to other parts of the country due to cultural diversity, considering the high prevalence of different types of domestic violence it should be regarded as a priority for health service policy.

Collective action in agrobiodiversity management: gendered rules of reputation, trust and reciprocity in Kerala, India

AbstractRising opportunity costs for continuing to grow and conserve traditional plant varieties has led to an erosion of agrobiodiversity. This study compares two institutions of collective biodiversity management in Kerala, India. The traditional mechanisms of a scheduled tribe, the Kurichyas, are contrasted with the new institution of the People's Biodiversity Register (PBR) under the local form of governance, the panchayat. Collective action is analysed for the core variables of reputation, trust and reciprocity. In the tribal institutions, traditional seed exchange rests on reputation and gender complementarities, which are eroded by a diminishing degree of trust and dissolving property rights for women and weakened by failing norms of reciprocity. The new institution of PBR threatens tribal women's reputations and their knowledge by reducing it to a bureaucratic register, the disembodiment of knowledge into information reduces trust and unpredictable returns diminish reciprocity. A massive public investment in strengthening women's capabilities for a transformation from conservers and users to advocates, managers and decision‐makers regarding biodiversity might halt the loss. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Governing Women's Capabilities in China's Urban Expansion

By the middle of the twenty-first century, China's urban population is likely to have grown by about 500 million, to more than 1.1 billion people. This article applies Amartya Sen's concept of capabilities to explore how the government of urban expansion is affecting the generation of rural women whose villages currently are being enclosed by cities and towns. Drawing on interviews, press reports and government and Women's Federation documents from Zhejiang province, it illustrates how local governments' economic growth strategies hinge, in part, on reconstructing gendered relations in the spatial organization, civic management, production and social reproduction in new metropolitan sites. The article concludes, first, that unless China's leaders commit to involving rural women's representatives in urban planning and management, enforcing women's rights to property and enabling women to decide whether and when to work and retire, the capabilities of this generation of rural women will expand little; and, second, that Sen's concept overlooks organizational and material conditions that are necessary for women to enhance their capabilities.

Attitudes toward Expanding Roles for Navy Women at Sea

This article explores the discourse and gendered constructions that surrounded the debates on expanding seagoing roles for women in the U.S. Navy between 1978 and 2000. By comparing arguments against the expansion of women's seagoing roles across multiple years, it is possible to assess whether the arguments about women's exclusion have essentially changed. The arguments against expanding women's roles were framed in the context of diminishing military effectiveness based on stereotypical notions of women's capabilities. The arguments in favor of expanding women's roles were also framed within the construct of military effectiveness, with an emphasis on equal citizenship responsibility and democratic values. These results show a consistency of discourse throughout the periods studied.

Broadening the security paradigm: Indian women, anti-nuclear activism, and visions of a sustainable future

This article uses the anti-nuclear activism of Indian women as a case study to question the relevance of statist discourses of security in Indian politics. By highlighting their activism against the Indian state (under its recent Hindu Right Bharatiya Janata Party government), this article deconstructs how (in)security imaginaries have been utilized by the Indian state to legitimize India's nuclear policies; how the Indian state's perceptions of (in)security has collided with ‘people-centric’ visions of security; and finally, how activism has enabled these women to de-center a militaristic and communal vision of (in)security that undergirds India's nuclear policy. I also highlight the ways in which women's activism has differed from that of men's including how women activists have used distinctive rationales and strategies to oppose Indian nuclearization. The contribution of this article lies in stitching together the spirit of inclusiveness that brings these women's leadership qualities, capabilities, and preferences to broaden India's security paradigm.

The Puzzle of IVF

This essay seeks to address a puzzling element of the current political and legal struggles over abortion in the United States: if, as pro-life activists insist, embryos are morally equivalent to born, living persons, then why do these activists not oppose in vitro fertilization (IVF) as aggressively as they oppose abortion? IVF accounts for a significant number of destroyed embryos. Constitutionally, IVF appears to be a much more vulnerable target than abortion. And yet, legislative and political attempts to attack and restrict IVF are few, while attempts to erode women's capability to terminate pregnancies are a constant feature of our political and legal landscape.

The Status of Women Faculty: A View from Japan

The Status of Women Faculty:A View from Japan Fumiko Fujita (bio) Linda Kerber's essay reminds me that all the classes I took as a graduate student both in Japan and in the United States in the late 1960s and in the 1970s were taught by men and yet I did not think it odd at all in those days. Since I had attended a women's college where faculty members were predominantly women, the classes taught by men were even refreshing to me. Now I find any workplace predominated by one sex rather odd, and this is the result of my education during the past three decades. In Japan, one landmark in women's history is the passage of the Equal Opportunity Act in 1985 (amended in 1999), due to the persistent lobbying of various groups of women to eliminate gender discrimination in the workplace. Another landmark was the Basic Law for a Gender-Equal Society (effective in 1999), whose preamble declared: "It is vital to position the realization of a Gender-Equal Society as a top-priority task in determining the framework of twenty-first-century Japan." The Gender Equality Basic Plan, approved by the cabinet in 2000, further called for enhancing women's participation in policy decision-making processes at the national government level as well as for encouraging private enterprises, education and research institutions, and other organizations to voluntarily take action on issues of gender equality. In 2003 the Headquarters for the Promotion of Gender Equality in the cabinet decided to take positive action so that women would occupy at least 30 percent of leading positions in all fields by 2020. To this end, the government was expected to employ a large number of female officials and also to encourage the private sector to make an effort to reach the target percentage. I imagine that few scholars, especially few historians, take any optimistic government statements literally, and I also suspect that the sudden awakening of the conservative Japanese government to issues of gender equality is due not only to the genuine appreciation of women's capabilities but also to the embarrassing fact that with respect to gender equality, Japan ranks very low among major countries (Japan's ranking is the 38th among 58 countries in the 2005 report of the World Economic Forum; the United States is the 17th). But the announcements and actions of the government concerning gender equality are bringing some effects. For example, the prestigious male-dominated Science Council of Japan, established in 1949 to promote research and scholarship in the country, set up the Special Committee to Think about Gender Issues from Many Perspectives in 2000 [End Page 177] and announced its intention to increase the percentage of female members to 10 percent by 2010. In fact, as a result of a drastic change in membership in October 2005, female scholars now account for 20 percent of the total of 210 members. In 2000 the Japan Association of National Universities also set the target of raising the percentage of female tenured faculty members to 20 percent by 2010. In Japan, the number of the women faculty members has been on the increase. Here I have to mention that my discussions mostly refer to the Japanese women faculty in general because it is difficult to sort out female historians as a group. Historians—both men and women—tend to belong to various departments other than history departments; this tendency is more noticeable in recent years, when many universities have undertaken their structural reorganization to make them attractive for high school students, and the departments with traditional names, such as literature and history, have often disappeared. According to the annual surveys conducted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, in 1990 women accounted for 5.3 percent of professors, 8.7 percent of associate professors, and 13.3 percent of tenured lecturers in four-year colleges and universities. They respectively increased to 11.2 percent, 17 percent, and 24.1 percent by 2005. The percentage of women faculty members remarkably increases if the data include two-year colleges, where women make up 46.5 percent of all tenured faculty members...

CRIPPLED CAPITALISTS: THE INSCRIPTION OF ECONOMIC DEPENDENCE AND THE CHALLENGE OF FEMALE ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA

This article examines how women's efforts at capital accumulation and wealth production in late nineteenth-century United States were shaped and channeled by gender stereotypes. These stereotypes influenced the public attitudes held by both men and women that called into question women's financial capabilities, their relationship to money and the financial markets, and their capacity to translate their wealth into political power. Popular American ideals about an individual's ability to make and remake himself or herself competed with equally significant essentialist ideas about what constitutes a man and a woman. While women achieved gains, they did so despite huge challenges that limited their ability to exercise the power Americans commonly associate with financial success.

Women's Interlaced Freedoms: A Framework Linking Microcredit Participation and Health*

Improving the health of poor women is a public health priority worldwide. In this paper, we focus on microcredit — an intervention not explicitly designed to have an impact on health. Microcredit programmes aim to provide the poor with access to credit, thereby improving their opportunities to engage in productive activities. This paper presents a conceptual framework, inspired by Sen's capability approach, Michael Grossman's health production theory, and models of the determinants and pathways of population health, to assess how participation in microcredit can lead to improvement in the health of poor women. We explore how women's health capabilities (i.e. opportunities to achieve good health), and ultimately their health functionings (e.g. being healthy), can be expanded via key determinants of population health, such as access to resources and autonomy. *This is a revised version of ‘Expanding Female Health Capabilities in the South: Linking Microcredit Participation and Women's Health’, a paper presented at the 4th International Conference on the Capability Approach, Pavia, Italy, 5–7 September 2004.