Women's Capital Research Articles

Women Empowerment through Cooperatives Savings & Loan Cooperatives

The role of social capital in women's empowerment through cooperatives has a multiplier effect that contributes significantly to the improvement of the household economy and the economic growth of the community. The object of this research is the Mawar Kusuma Savings and Loan Cooperative (Credit Union) and the Tanjung Sari Women's Cooperative. The total resource persons were 89 people with the technique of determining the sources using purposive techniques. Data was collected using in-depth interviews and questionnaires. This type of research is a mixed method that is qualitative-quantitative. The method of analysis is content analysis. The results of the study indicate that both cooperatives have played a role in developing social and economic empowerment for their members. Contributing to women's empowerment towards sustainable development goals through cooperatives that continue to improve governance that strengthens women's ability to access markets, generate income, and reduce poverty levels. Thus, cooperatives enable many women to be more useful and bring a positive multiplier effect for families and society.

Effects of Emotion-Focused Therapy on Mindfulness and Affective Capital in Women with Multiple Sclerosis: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Effects of Emotion-Focused Therapy on Mindfulness and Affective Capital in Women with Multiple Sclerosis: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Analyzing Differentiated Climate Change Impacts on Women in the Wetland Area: A Case Study on Sunamganj District

Disadvantageous geo-location, dense population, and poverty make Bangladesh climate-sensitive, particularly in livelihoods. The impacts are detrimental to the economy, environment, and social development of the people of Dowarabazar and Jamalganj Upazila, Sunamganj District. This research aimed to scale the differentiated impacts of climate change on wetland women. To conduct the research, a survey approach following the Community Disaster Resilience Index (CDRI) was applied. The data were collected through questionnaire survey and observation. The sample size was 300 (150 males and 150 females). Simple random samplings were applied. The study included women of middle-aged, young, elderly, disabled, ethnic, religious minorities, widowed, destitute, and all income classes of poor and rich. It is found that the women's community is extremely vulnerable to different climatic impacts affecting women's capital of human, social, economic, physical, and natural. Women's social capital is highly impacted and the impact score is 3.54. Secondly, human capital (score is 3.07). The impact scores of natural and physical are 2.92 and 2.49. The lives and livelihoods of women have been severely curbed by climatic complications, vulnerable sanitation, poor house structure, and illiteracy. Proper management and access to income generation, empowerment, and social services are required for women's adaptation and resiliency.

Gender Wage Gap in Indian labour Market and Role of Government Policies: A Theoretical Perspective with an Empirical Overhaul

"The long-lasting practice of wage gap against female labour forces in the Indian labour market has been dealt with in this paper by the help of building up a general equilibrium framework along with capturing the issue by econometric analysis. It is the women labour force associated with informal sector as casual labour who suffer the most from this problem. The recent statistics even show a falling trend of female labour force participation in these sectors also. Our study traces through the causes behind such wage discrimination and the possible ways of coming out of it. We have found that investment in female human capital development actually helps women to forego present employment opportunities in low-skilled, low-wage sectors, rather encourages the to be more productive and efficient by means of more human capital and enter the labour market in future with no such wage discrimination, in practice. Such trends, observed in India actually glorifies the success of several Government Policies, such as “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao”, implemented for female human capital development. Falling trend of female labour force in informal economy is actually enabling them to enter the formal economy at par with their male counterparts. Our theoretical findings have been supported by our econometric analysis based on the application of Oaxaca-Blinder model and PLFS unit level data of 2021-22. It suggests the higher women are educated as well as skilled, the lower is wage gap they face and more equal is the pay-structure even in the informal economy. Hence, it is the success of government policies directed for development of human capital in women that we have started to observe. The study strongly recommends implementation of many more such women-centric programme that would strengthen the women socially as well as ensure equality for them at the workplaces."

Comparison of Schema Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Post-Traumatic Growth and Psychological Capital in Women with Breast Cancer

Comparison of Schema Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Post-Traumatic Growth and Psychological Capital in Women with Breast Cancer

Implications of Cultural Capital in Women’s Higher Education Participation and Social Mobility

Equality of opportunity in higher education participation is a basic right of people in a society that leads to their social mobility in the long run. Benadusi (2002) endorsed Bourdieu’s explanations that cultural capital acts as an empowering force that predetermines equality/inequality of educational opportunity of people in a society. The study, thus, aimed to explore cultural capital as means of participation in higher education and eventually social mobility of women۔

Feminized cultural capital at work in the moral economy: Home credit and working‐class women

AbstractOne of the defining features of the home credit sector is the role played by its agents—workers who act as intermediaries between lending companies and borrowers to facilitate lending and collect repayments. There is a prevailing and pervasive narrative in the sector that women make superior agents, largely based on the belief that female agents can manage relationships with borrowers more successfully than their male counterparts. This article analyzes data from 349,078 home credit accounts (loans), as well as 71 interviews with home credit agents and lending company managers, to evaluate both the myths and realities of women's roles in home credit. The data is also used to explore the opportunities for—and potential constraints on—women's career progression in home credit work, based on an understanding of the moral economy in which they operate. By exploring the moral economy of low‐income communities, the article highlights the role of working‐class women's cultural capital within the labor market. Despite women forming the majority of the agent workforce in home credit, women's capital is undervalued in comparison with their male counterparts' capital. The analysis within this article allows a greater understanding of the highly classed and gendered nature of the moral economy of low‐income communities and the exchange value of women's capital within the labor market.

The Effectiveness of Psychodrama Program Training on Resilience and Psychological Capital in Women with Breast Cancer

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of psychotherapy program training on resilience and psychological capital of breast cancer women in Bandar Abbas. Methods: This experimental study was performed with a pretest and posttest design with a control group. The statistical population of this study consisted of all women with breast cancer in Shahid Mohammadi Hospital in Bandar Abbas, whose number was 78 people. Of these, 60 women with breast cancer in Bandar Abbas in 2019 who had the same severity and level of the disease, were selected by convenience sampling, were divided into two groups of intervention and control. The instruments used were Luthans (2007) Psychological Capital Questionnaire and Connor & Davidson (2003) Resilience Scale. The validity and reliability of these tools have been investigated in previous studies. Psychoanalytic training sessions based on the Leventon protocol (2009) were held in nine sessions, ninety minutes in a month. Questionnaires were completed in the first and ninth stages of the intervention. Data analysis was performed using SPSS.22 software. Results: Psychotherapy program training increased resilience (F= 199.71, P<0.001) and also psychological capital (F= 10.80, P<0.001) of patients with breast cancer. Conclusion: Psychotherapy program training method helps cancer patients in various ways, increasing resilience and psychological capital.

Misplacing social capital in women’s economic wellbeing – the experience of microcredit from Bangladesh

Microcredit depletes women borrowers’ social capital and ability to enforce payments, significantly improving the rate of recovery but not borrowers’ economic condition. Using in-depth interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs), this study finds that the Grameen Bank both uses and fosters borrowers’ pre-existing social ties in the community to ensure payments. Borrowers who intensively use social capital to repay loans deplete their opportunities to sustain business and daily survival. They utilize both horizontal and vertical social ties to repay loans and mobilize resources to run and grow businesses. While most borrowers lack and fail to use social capital, better-off borrowers can use social capital for businesses. Conflicts between borrowers to assist loan defaulters also prevent them from using social capital for businesses. Although social ties help some borrowers derive an income from loans, they provide the bank with a mechanism to enforce payments. This in turn depletes borrowers’ economic wellbeing.

Photovoicing interconnected sources of recovery capital of women with a drug use history

The voices of women in recovery have long been absent in treatment studies and addiction recovery debates. Available qualitative research primarily applies interview and focus group methods, but in this study we used an innovative photovoice method to uncover the personal recovery stories and pathways of women with a history of (illicit) substance use problems. Eight women who are initiating or maintaining recovery met monthly over a six-month period to select pictures and to share and find common themes, related to facilitators and barriers in their recovery process. The results highlight the complexities and positive and negative dynamics of recovery capital in relation to gender and other social constructs. Four themes were identified as building stones for initiating and maintaining recovery: (1) (Re-)building me; (2) Untangling what is life and what is addiction; (3) Becoming (re-)connected; and (4) (Enacting) perspectives on the future. The study revealed the methodological potential of the photovoice method for exploring interconnected recovery challenges among women, as well as the destructive impact of negative social norms on women’s recovery experiences.

Gendered Social Capital Guiding Women Career Planning: A Quantitative study at University of the Punjab

Social capital is manifested through the relationships and networks that the human species own. Further, it is strengthened with trust and reciprocity. It inculcates the value of helping each other based on the principle of ‘Mutually Beneficial Actions’. Various actors and agents play their roles in producing the social capital, yet women play the most vital role in its production due to their domestic chores, more frequent engagement with family and neighborhood. Thus, it is an essential to know that if she takes an equivalent benefit from the social capital. The primary objective of the present research determines out the role of social capital in women’s career planning. The informal social networks, family, friends, and neighborhood are selected to the social capital. In the meantime, 150 female respondents from the University of the Punjab were selected using the non-probability convenience sampling technique from the final year of the Masters and Bachelors program. The findings of the study showed as the positive relation of social capital with career planning.

The changing politics of beauty labour in Indian cinema

ABSTRACT This essay analyses the changing politics of beauty labour and female body image in Indian cinema. It begins by discussing how beauty, a social capital for women, is a measuring rod with which their bodies are both assessed and objectified. It claims that cinema being a visual medium demands some aesthetic capital from actors, and the beauty of leading ladies portrayed on screen often adds to the spectacle. Focusing on mainstream Bollywood films produced especially over the last two decades, this essay examines narratives upholding the beauty ideal both as a cinematic necessity and also as a plot point. Tracing developments in cinematic representations of female beauty, it then examines select postmillennial films (both mainstream Bollywood as well as regional productions) to suggest that a maturing trend in representing female bodies is emerging in Indian cinema where instead of the prettified heroine one increasingly encounters protagonists who refuse to agonize under beauty labour. Finally, it argues that owing to global debates and critical feminist interventions on female body image, a radical shift is palpable in postmillennial Indian films which showcase women who either reject or redefine the politics of beauty labour.

Implications of Cultural Capital in Women’s Higher Education Participation and Social Mobility

Equality of opportunity in higher education participation is a basic right of people in a society that leads to their social mobility in the long run. Benadusi (2002) endorsed Bourdieu’s explanations that cultural capital acts as an empowering force that predetermines equality/inequality of educational opportunity of people in a society. The study, thus, aimed to explore cultural capital as means of participation in higher education and eventually social mobility of women. A cross sectional survey was used to collect data from 103 working and 97 non-working women using purposive and convenience sampling. The study found positive relation of cultural capital of women with their participation in higher education and social mobility. Significant difference was also found between cultural capitals of working and non- working women, where cultural capital of working women was high as compared to non-working. The study therefore, concludes that education for women must be the core value of our society to enhance their cultural capital as well as social mobility in a society. Because higher is the cultural capital of women; higher would be their participation rate in higher education and social mobility for them.

Women and Make-Up: The Dilemma of Bourdieu's Subjectivism-Objectivism on Social Media

This research refers to the trend of women's makeup in the 2020 era, which is dominated by natural makeup. Influencers and makeup artists have a role in popularizing it. The author is interested in examining the makeup behavior in women with Bourdieu's theory. What behaviors make a woman look natural, prioritize skin health, minimal makeup. What culture is behind it. The findings of this study are all women like makeup, habitus leads to natural makeup. Habitus emphasized freedom in analyzing a practice as an agent and social structure. Women have a habitus in using makeup determined by a dual mechanism not just the dominance of social media factors, but also played by self-freedom as women as influencers in the social media itself. The arena is an environment where strength is at stake in the struggle over capital resources. Social media is an arena, a different social space, more enabling women to compete more dynamically in gaining position and legitimacy. Women use practices in makeup as a strategy in winning a competition. The makeup practice is an accumulation of women's capital and habitus, where every woman is different in her practice. The method used in this research includes in-depth interviews with women who use makeup, as well as literacy studies of the concepts of capital, habitus, and the realm. The results showed that women undergoing their practice experienced "ambiguity" or dilemmas when using make-up strategies in their social arena.

Pursuing an engineering major: social capital of women and underrepresented minorities

ABSTRACTAs part of a longitudinal research effort that examines the influence of social capital on differential persistence and retention among undergraduate engineering majors, this study examines how engineering degree-related social capital differs for first-year engineering students by gender and ethno-racial groups. Social capital is operationalized as a person’s network of relationships with individuals who hold influential positions (e.g. parent, teacher, advisers) and access to resources that support persistence in engineering programs. Our data comprise survey responses from 2186 first-year engineering students, from eleven diverse colleges and universities, who provided information about their participation in engineering-related courses, activities, and programs while in high school as well as the individuals who influenced their decision to pursue an engineering major. We found few differences in social capital between men and women, but found many differences among ethno-racial groups, which suggests that different levels of social capital could influence students’ persistence and retention.

WOMEN INVESTORS AND THE VIRGINIA COMPANY IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

AbstractThis article explores the role of women investors in the Virginia Company during the early seventeenth century, arguing that women determined the success of English overseas expansion by ‘adventuring’ not just their person, but their purse. Trading companies relied on the capital of women, and yet in seminal work on Virginia Company investors women have received no attention at all. This is a significant oversight, as studying the women who invested in trading companies illuminates broader issues regarding the role of women in the early English empire. This article explores why and how two women from merchant backgrounds, Rebecca Romney (d. 1644) and Katherine Hueriblock (d. 1639), managed diverse, global investment portfolios in the period before the Financial Revolution. Through company records, wills, letters, court depositions, and a surviving church memorial tablet, it reconstructs Romney's and Hueriblock's interconnected interests in ‘New World’ ventures, including in Newfoundland, the North-West Passage Company, Virginia colony, and sugar trade. Studying women investors reveals how trade and colonization shaped economic activity and investment practices in the domestic sphere and also elucidates how women, in their role as investors, helped give birth to an English empire.

Social Economics and Women Entrepreneurship—A Competency Approach

Purpose of the Study: The fundamental determinants of entrepreneurship are entrepreneur and the society and the interlinked categories of human, financial, and social capitals. The present study takes a competency approach to test the human capital of women to understand the reasons for disparity in entrepreneurship. Data/Methodology: 164 management students—102 male and 62 female, interested to take up entrepreneurial career, were administered with PEC Self-Rating Questionnaire and the responses were analyzed with ANOVA and t test for difference between group means, followed by effect size measurement to derive practical significance of the relationship. Findings: Out of 13 entrepreneurial competencies tested, differences are observed for eight components and larger effect is observed only for two components while the mean differences were not more than 0.66 on a scale of 5.00. Originality: The originality lies in the findings that gender-specific competency-gap has been narrowing down in the Indian emerging economy.

Relevance of social capital in women’s business performance in Bangladesh

Social capital has been projected as a key resource in entrepreneurial success. While the association between successful business activity by rural women and their ability in building social capital is often seen as a pathway of poverty reduction, a thorough understanding of the relevance of social capital in women’s business performance could have crucial insights into ways for alleviating rural poverty in developing countries. Nonetheless, the relevance of social capital in women’s business performance has hardly studied in the specific context of Bangladesh. The present review is undertaken to fill this information gap. Social capital has positive impact on gaining legitimacy, building mutual trust and co-operation in women’s business. Besides, women enterprises with enhanced social capital are found to possess better access to other forms of capital. The review shows the importance of external actors such as microfinance institutions in developing social capital of women enterprises in Bangladesh. Alongside microfinance, regulative factors such as different rules and regulations of the government can positively facilitate women entrepreneurship development in rural Bangladesh.J. Bangladesh Agril. Univ. 15(1): 87-94, January 2017

Los periódicos limeños y la defensa de los derechos de la mujer en el siglo XX

The role of women as leading actor of social change has been shown from various perspec- tives and approaches in newspapers, literary magazines and/or cultural newspapers in Latin America during the twentieth century. This study analyzes how the newspaper article perpe- tuates the social, cultural values as well as the social capital of women and their involvement as an active member of civil society and politics. Historically, the press has contributed to women for entering the public sphere allowing them to participate actively in the life of their nations. In Peru though; print journalism placed women in the political map however not with the deserved equity and justice. This research shows that, with few exceptions, major newspa- pers of Lima echoed the voices in adverse contexts for women to exercise their rights to elect and be elected. From a historical, communicative and sociological perspective the analysis of the contents shows what was said on that right and how they contributed to the recognition of citizenship of women in the establishment of women’s suffrage, which were granted only fifty years ago.

HIV Stigma and Social Capital in Women Living With HIV

Women living with HIV (WLWH) continue to experience HIV-related stigma. Social capital is one resource that could mitigate HIV stigma. Our cross-sectional study examined associations between social capital and HIV-related stigma in 135 WLWH in the San Francisco Bay Area. The mean age of study participants was 48years; 60% were African American; 29% had less than a high school education; and 19% were employed. Age was significantly associated with perceived HIV stigma (p=.001), but total social capital was not. Women with lower Value of Life social capital scores had significantly higher total stigma scores (p=.010) and higher Negative Self-image stigma scores (p=.001). Women who felt less valued in their social worlds may have been more likely to perceive HIV stigma, which could have negative health consequences. This work begins to elucidate the possible relationships between social capital and perceived HIV stigma.