Denial Of Women Research Articles

May the best man win

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine how female bank lenders are locked into a position of disadvantage in a UK bank. The work of Bourdieu is used to explore women's position of disadvantage and inequality. As Bourdieu helps us predict, the women are symbolically constructed as different, and face different problems to men. Women's social capital is not perceived as the same as men's.Design/methodology/approach– The research method involved preliminary research interviews with seven key senior staff in the bank followed by focus group discussions with 35 male and female bank loan officers on bank premises within a nine-month period. Six focus groups were held – three with men and three with women in four British cities – London, Manchester, Bristol and Edinburgh. All the interviews were tape-recorded and analysed. The participants were told that the discussion was completely confidential, and that we were interested in the role gender played in entrepreneurial and corporate life. Findings were verified by taking them back to a selection of those who had been involved in the focus groups.Findings– The findings show how the power dynamics are played out within the immediate workplace environment and influenced by the wider macro systems of society. The women differed in their views as to whether gender mattered. Despite the evident inequities these women face, some wished to deny or resist being seen as unequal or wanted to acknowledge inequity. The paper explains how and why this might be the case.Research limitations/implications– The research is limited by its sample size to 35 bank loan officers.Practical implications– The paper demonstrates some of the difficulties faced by those who wish to implement equality of opportunity in the face of women's denial of inequality.Social implications– The paper clearly illustrates the difficulties and challenges faced by female bank loan officers in banking.Originality/value– This paper discusses the subjective experience of equality, inequality and exclusion among female bankers showing how they are not a homogenous group, as they say they experience equality/inequality differently. These women face ideological dilemmas that are not widely discussed in the research literature. It is very unlikely that as a divided, heterogeneous group who find themselves in a very small minority in this bank, that greater equality for them is likely to come about.

Collective Female Identities in Discussions about Pussy Riot’s Performance

In this paper, I address the issue of collective female identities in contemporary Russia. The Pussy Riot performance is regarded as a critical event that serves as a trigger for certain ‘groupness’. Taking critical event perspectives avoids framing the respondents with the researcher’s predetermined categories. The empirical data is collected via collective interviews with the diverse group of Moscovites. Analysis highlights the domination of an authoritarian/collectivistic interpretative repertoire in older participants’ discussions about the performance, which has resulted in the articulation of the image of the disadvantaged female and the denial of women’s agency. The younger participants, being familiar with a co-existing liberal interpretative repertoire, have continued to use a conservative repertoire to discuss Pussy Riot. This and a general lack of gender problematisation in the interviews indicate that feminist discourse is not at all widespread in the Moscovites’ everyday discourse.

Perceptions, interpretations and implications of abortions: A qualitative enquiry among the legal community of Pakistan

ABSTRACTBackground The number of unsafe abortions is increasing across South Asia, also in Pakistan, where abortion is only permitted under special circumstances. The law on abortion is vaguely interpreted by the legal community.Methods Using Grounded Theory, 33 in-depth interviews of representatives of the legal profession and law enforcement agencies were conducted in 2010.Results Abortion is perceived as forbidden by both law and religion, and a punishable crime. Respondents believed that sentences are highly dependent on the social status of the woman who had the abortion. A few consider the current law as relevant and sufficient whereas the majority would support amendments. A number of them agreed that the high abortion rate reflects the denial of women's rights, social injustice, and a failure of public health intervention.Conclusion To facilitate access of women to abortion and related care, the knowledge of the existing law among legal professionals must improve. The implications of abortion for maternal health and its repercussions on a community governed by the Islamic dogmas must be publicised. The legal community could have an instrumental role in bringing about attitudinal changes vis-à-vis abortions in the society.

Nikah: A Contract in Sharia Law

In this study we have tried to conduct a rather detailed research on "does according to Quran only a man has the right to Nikkah? Does the man has the right to Nikkah only because he is the breadwinner? Is woman actually subordinate to man in case of Nikkah according to Quran? Quran has set Nikkah as a contract between a man and a woman according to which the man and the woman will live together having sexual relations while respecting some conditions and limits set by Shari'ah. The topic under review explains that according to Quran man and woman both have equal right to Nikkah and also The Quran puts the responsibility of protecting the Nikkah on both the man and the woman. That is why the status of woman, rights and position do not lessen after her marriage. In the matter of Nikkah independent consent of both parties is a must. Both shall be bound to the limits set by Allah. Since Nikkah, according to Quran is an agreement, which is undertaken by the two parties, hence it cannot be a one-sided matter. The woman has the right to engage in the agreement of Nikkah and to be broken it. The religion of God and Shari'ah is not only for men but it addresses all in general. Both men and women means both shall spread the religion of Allah and act upon it. Denial of women's freedom and rejection of her right to chose neither fulfills Allah's will nor it could establish a healthy society.

Gender-based violence and property grabbing in Africa: a denial of women's liberty and security

Property grabbing is a new form of gendered violence against women, threatening the security of women across Southern and East Africa. Forced evictions are often accompanied by further acts of violence, including physical and mental harassment, and abuse. Widows are particularly vulnerable, partly as a result of weakened customary practice and social safety nets that used to provide support to widowed women and their children, a situation made worse by the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Defending their property has cost some women their lives, while other women have lost their shelter and source of livelihoods, and have become destitute. The harassment and humiliation that often accompany property grabbing further strip women of their self-esteem, affecting their ability to defend their rights.

Fórum: juventude, contracepção e morte materna. Questões pendentes

In 2005, the Brazilian National Commission on Population and Development (CNPD) celebrated its tenth anniversary with the seminar “Gender, Generation, and Race”, including participation by experts, scientists, scholars, and staff from different Ministries. I was in charge of organizing the session on reproductive health, which I hereby present in this Forum section. The three aspects of reproductive health discussed here are related to the systematic violation of women’s reproductive rights by Brazilian society. Childbearing-aged women are at the peak of their lives, and their death is unacceptable, especially since we now have both the means and the technology to avoid it. Another aspect is the denial of women’s right to plan their children. In other words, the Unified National Health System, according to Article 226 of the Brazilian Constitution, Federal Act 9.263, and Ministry of Health Ruling 144, should be providing the means and resources for women to experience their sexuality and reproductive lives with little or no risk to their health. The third point is the fact that this difficulty begins early in women’s lives, when they become sexually active, since they already become exposed to the risk of HIV infection and unwanted pregnancy. All three themes presented here are interrelated and are not emerging issues, but old and pending, in urgent need of solutions, since they place the survival of numerous women in jeopardy. Although legally resolved, the issues dealt with here have not been incorporated definitively into Brazilian health services’ daily practice. In other words, the policy exists on paper, but not in practice. The article by Villela & Doreto speaks of young people, their vulnerabilities, and the changes we need in order to understand public policies for adolescents, taking their reproductive health into account. Data on teenage pregnancy indicate that there is now a huge contingent of young females exposed to HIV/AIDS, the second most common cause of death among Brazilian women. Meanwhile, the article by Martins provides a review of studies on maternal mortality rates and race/color, discussing maternal mortality in black Brazilian women (including pardas and pretas according to the official census classification). Using data from the Committees on Maternal Mortality, the authors identify a higher maternal mortality ratio among black women. According to the United Nations, this is one of the indicators of underdevelopment that has changed the least in the last 20 years. In Brazil, maternal mortality is still a public health problem. Like teenage pregnancy, race and social class permeate this indicator. The Forum concludes with the study by Osis et al., an evaluation of family planning under the National Health System, focusing on operational aspects of family planning activities, including access to contraceptive methods, educational activities, professional training, and the demand for definitive surgical sterilization. Basic health care should be supplying the activities that guarantee women’s reproductive rights, such as prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (including AIDS) and unwanted pregnancy. The right to quality prenatal care and humanized childbirth should also be ensured, as well as access to contraceptive methods, as provided in the report by the 12

Disappearing Acts: On Gendered Violence, Pathological Cultures, and Civil Society

“Human rights” is now a technique deployed to measure the progress of states. In the last two decades it has become both the normative language of how injustice is evaluated and a means through which powerful states discipline the new world order (Grewal 121). This disciplining often relies on a relation posed between gendered violence and human rights violations, whereby the denial of women's human rights represents the pathological cultures of repressive states. But this representation—commonly assumed by states, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and the public—is founded on the ignoring or effacing of political violence. Discourses about human rights attribute responsibility for gendered violations to purportedly pathological cultures, rather than to political sources. This tendency becomes apparent in the narrative told of why violations occur, as well as in the solutions proposed to these violations. What lurks beneath this disappearing act is a presumption that the world is made up of two kinds of states. One kind, described as rogue states or failed states, has a pathological culture in the place of a civil society. The other kind of state enjoys both a civil society and a monopoly on legitimate violence.

Abortion, social inequity, and women's health: Obstetrician-gynecologists as agents of change

Unsafe abortion persists as a serious health problem for women. It is rooted in poverty, social inequity, and denial of women's basic human rights. As experience from Latin America and other regions demonstrates, obstetrician-gynecologists can be leaders in supporting reproductive rights and access to safe abortion, through their professional societies and also by way of their roles as providers, academicians, and advocates. Ob-gyns are often most effective when working in partnership with women's organizations, lawyers, and other stakeholders.

Embodying Memory: Women and the Legacy of the Military Government in Chile

The article argues that the prohibition of abortion in Chile, other than when the mother's life is in danger, is a form of human rights violation targeting women specifically. The Pro-Birth Policy was established in Pinochet's Chile as a response to the previous government's attempts, under Allende, to encourage family planning and to educate and inform women about their choices. This had been done to put an end to the increase in back-street abortions with the inevitable toll on women's lives. Pinochet's regime reversed these women-oriented family planning policies, and criminalized abortion, on the basis of costs to the state and, more importantly, the need to increase the birth rate for reasons of national security. Women's bodies were used by the Pinochet regime, both by sexual violence and torture, and by the denial of women's reproductive and sexual rights, as a means to impose discipline and order on society. The fact that this is still not acknowledged in the construction of a collective memory indicates that the issue has not yet been resolved in democratic Chile.

O gênero (in)visível da terceira idade no saber da enfermagem

It is a bibliographical study in which the scientific production of Nursing regarding Women in Old Age was surveyed. The study was based on the Catalog of Dissertations and Theses from the CD-ROM of the Center for Studies and Research on Nursing (CEPEn) of the Brazilian Nursing Association (ABEn), from 1979 to 1999. It was aimed at getting to know the deviations and/or approximations in the knowledge of Nursing by way of the object of study of the Ph.D. thesis 'Health practice and knowledge of old women in the gender perspective'. It was found out that old women have been investigated in few studies. In addition, the objects of these investigations have strongly deviated from gender issues, demonstrating the sexless aspect of old age and the denial of women's social roles.

Gendered States: Rethinking Culture as a Site of South Asian Human Rights Work

This article explores recent critiques in feminist theory to examine how gender-based asylum cases and human rights reporting on South Asia rely upon the most static and patriarchal understandings of culture to establish a basis for intervention or advocacy. It argues that while cultural practices indeed reflect upon women's status, for gender-based asylum cases the emphasis may be more effectively placed upon a particular political system's denial of women's rights, or upon the interface between culture and the political system, rather than upon "culture" itself.

An Orwellian scenario: court ordered caesarean section and women's autonomy.

Between 1992 and 1996, a small number of women in the UK were forced by the courts to undergo caesarean section against their expressed refusal. Analysis of the reported cases reveals the blanket assumption of maternal incompetence and the widespread use of thinly veiled coercion. Such attitudes and practices are themselves frequently compounded by inadequate communication. Medical discretion in such problematic cases seems to err on the side of safety and so appears to favour the life of the fetus over maternal autonomy. Despite current policy's placement of the pregnant woman at the centre of maternity care, obstetricians' concerns appear to lie more with the unborn fetus. In other words, there seems to be a point at which the value of fetal life begins to outweigh, not so much the life of the woman, but her right to self-determination, her plans and her choices. While it is important to acknowledge that these court ordered caesareans represent an unusual extreme within contemporary maternity care in this country, that they have happened brings into sharp relief some of the stereotypical assumptions about women. These are assumptions that underlie much of current medical practice and may compromise or disempower women in other ways during their experience of pregnancy and labour. Using the first and last of the six reported cases as contextual illustrations, this article focuses on the complex interplay of processes that have brought the medical profession to a position in which their own self-conviction and determination to do what they believe is best for their patients has resulted in gross denial of women's autonomy and the use of the law to override pregnant women's refusal of consent.

Off with Her Head: The Denial of Women's Identity in Myth, Religion, and Culture

Whereas many books look at how women's bodies are represented in different religions and cultures around the world, this work explores the site of a woman's voice and identity, her head. The female head threatens to disrupt the classic gender distinctions that link men to speech, identity, and mind while relegating women to silence, anonymity, and flesh. The contributors to this collection argue that the objectification of women as sexual and reproductive bodies results in their symbolic beheading. Decapitation occurs symbolically in myths as well as in actual practices such as veiling, head covering, and cosmetic highlighting, which by sexualizing a woman's face turns it into an extension of her body. The essays explore how similar treatments of the female head find their unique articulation in diverse religious traditions and cultures: in Hindu myths of beheading, in Buddhist and Tantric practices and poetry about the hair of female nuns, in the resistance to veiling by early Christian women at Corinth, in contemporary veiling practices in a Turkish village, in the eroticization of the female mouth in ancient Judaism, and in Greek and Roman cosmetic practices. Together these essays show how the depiction of the female head is critical for an understanding of gender and its influence on other fundamental religious and cultural issues.

BOOK REVIEWS

Journal Article BOOK REVIEWS Get access Off With Her Head: The Denial of Women's Identity in Myth, Religion, and Culture. Edited by Howard Eilberg-Schwartz and Wendy Doniger. University of California Press, 1995. 226 pages. $15.95. Liz Wilson Liz Wilson Miami University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Volume 65, Issue 3, Fall 1997, Pages 667–672, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/65.3.667 Published: 01 October 1997

Women's Marijuana Problems

SUMMARY Individual, cultural, professional, and gender-related factors converge to increase the denial of women's marijuana problems. Recent epidemiological information on marijuana use shows that marijuana is a significant problem for women of various ethnic groups, pregnant women, young adults and workers. Women's marijuana-related problems affect their health, safety, domestic relations, motherhood, and work. Outdated addiction theories, diagnostic tools, and insufficient research aggravate the difficulty of treating marijuana addiction. Current research and addiction theory show that marijuana should be classified with all other addictive drugs. Recommendations and resources are provided for marijuana-specific public outreach, intervention, treatment and research.

‘My work is to help the woman who wants to have a child, not the woman who wants to have an abortion’

Abstract This paper details the responses of a group of African Primary Health Care Nurses (PHCNs), practising in Soweto clinics, to the issue of abortion. The majority of nurses interviewed — 70 per cent of a sample of 27 — unequivocally and unambiguously rejected abortion. The central concern of this paper is to explore why the responses of this ‘rejecting group’ to women who face the predicament of an unwanted pregnancy were cast in such judgemental terms. I argue that this is best understood by unpacking and exploring their identities as African nurses, mothers and wives. In their discourse, abortion symbolises a denial of women's true calling. To them, when a woman has an abortion she is ending not only her pregnancy but also her opportunity to be a mother and even her womanhood. The issue of abortion also provided the opportunity to explore the complex and contradictory ways in which this group of women understands and responds to patriarchal relationships.

Attitudes toward HIV testing among impoverished inner-city African-American women.

During a study of the perceived benefits of unsafe (condomless) sex, some women's erroneous convictions that they have been tested for HIV seropositivity and most women's reluctance to identify their own sexual behaviors at high-risk when explaining why they had been tested were noted. Many participants assumed that clinicians drawing their blood would check it for HIV when they checked for other matter, and most of those reporting that they have had or would have HIV tests saw the test as part of a routine health check. Factors underlying the women's optimistically biased denial of their own HIV/AIDS risks and their related refiguring of the purposes and conditions of HIV testing are discussed, and the ways in which the women's attitudes critique current policies are described. Because of the culturally promoted strength and importance of women's denial, testing programs that seek to capitalize on an evoked sense of risk cannot succeed; such programs threaten women's faith in their relationships and question women's social and moral standings in a humiliating fashion. Those who promote testing would do better to present HIV screening as routine, because this is how women who accept testing generally portray it. Importantly, clinicians must explain that the test is not automatically administered. Cast as a standard health-related procedure for which permission must be granted, HIV testing will seem more rational, pro-active, and acceptable to the women targeted for testing.

Feminism's Theological Pragmatics: A Social Naturalism of Women's Experience

Previous articleNext article No AccessFeminism's Theological Pragmatics: A Social Naturalism of Women's ExperienceRebecca ChoppRebecca Chopp Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Religion Volume 67, Number 2Apr., 1987Women and Religion Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/487552 Views: 3Total views on this site Copyright 1987 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Eggs not Sex: The Functionalism of Germaine Greer

Ann Hale and Mary Hawkins are both postgraduate students in the department of anthropology, University of Sydney. Ann Hale is also a lecturer at the Cumberland College of Health Sciences. Many would claim that the Germaine Greer of The FemaleEunuch (FE)1 and the Greer of SexandDestiny (SD)2 differ over such fundamental issues as the family, sex and birth control. In FE, published in 1975, Greer urged women to free themselves from the bondage of the nuclear family. For Greer, the nuclear family was built on a concept of 'male mastery' (p.46), the woman a vassal of her mate's 'colonizing sexual urge' (p.46). Greer condemned what she perceived to be the genitally oriented sexuality of the nuclear couple, 'the substitution of the clitoral spasm for genuine gratification' (p.42) for the woman, the mechanical performance lacking in emotional content for the man. In short, nuclear family sex becomes 'masturbation in the vagina' (p.43). This sex-as-masturbation Greer saw as a denial of women's sexual potential; 'real gratification is not enshrined in a tiny cluster of nerves but in the sexual involvement of the whole person' (p.43).