Societal Role Research Articles

The Wage Gap: No One’s Responsibility, But Everyone’s Problem

Wage inequality in America is ballooning. The issue is receiving significant attention in the public discourse but to what avail? It is an issue that affects the entire economy although the suffering thus far has focused primarily on the lower 90% of wage earners. The long-term impacts, however, may be even more encompassing. Regardless of the potential costs, under the currently understood societal roles of corporate leaders and politicians, the issue of wage inequality is currently no one’s specific responsibility to address, but everyone’s problem. We examine the current wage status of the economic classes, the compensation practices that contribute and potential societal and economic costs if no action is taken. Finally, we consider the roles that potential players currently perform and should consider in the future to strategically address this issue.

Women in Different ‘Societal’ Roles and Responsibilities: An Investigation Through Islamic Connotations and Teachings

The study in hand highlights different societal roles women assume in a Muslim Society compromising on their social, civic or other rights as human being. Women, being a considerable proportion of a society, assume a number of roles and responsibilities. Likewise; Muslim societies provide women different opportunities to work in different permitted capacities. Basically these roles and responsibilities are categorized into mothers, daughters, sisters and wives. These roles have been categorically discussed in the light of Islamic injunctions and teachings. This study covers these four basic aspects of a Muslim woman. Women rights and obligations have been the core theme of this study which provides a comprehensive survey in direct and simplified manner. The Research methodology is qualitative one with an embedded literature view. An effort has been made to use modern authentic sources on the theme. The approach is both empirical and impartial. Islamic view has equally been defended while respecting the other views. However; an effort has been made to quantify the facts described qualitatively.

What Nostalgia Was: War, Empire and the Time of a Deadly Emotion. By Thomas Dodman (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2018) 275 pp. $105.00 cloth $35.00 paper $10.00 e-book

Until recently, the concept of nostalgia has been the purview of scholars of literature or sociology. Historians have paid it scant attention, usually relegating it to the wistful, hence less unreliable, spectrum of memory. In this meticulously researched work, Dodman argues that the refusal to take nostalgia seriously as a historical category allows its persistence as an ahistorical, universal feeling that overlooks the significant societal role that it plays. He sets out to prove that as a phenomenon grounded in everyday practices, it should be accepted as a viable source for understanding sociological or political developments at any given time. He traces its unusual trajectory from clinical disease, causing some patients to sicken and die, to an emotion that was mobilized to abet settlement in colonial Algeria. This trajectory, he argues, makes it a useful historical concept in understanding how nostalgic sensibilities developed in relation to monumental historical change, notably war and empire.Dodman’s monograph starts in the seventeenth century when Johannes Hofer coined the work in a medical dissertation about the mysterious disease afflicting Swiss mercenaries far from their homeland. Although Hofer sunk into medical obscurity, his theory gained traction. Dodman traces the diffusion and impact of the text as the medical profession tried to unravel the dimensions of the disease from the seventeenth century through the Napoleonic wars and into the conquest of Algeria.The book starts with an introduction that engages with the scholarship and debates about the concept to date to illustrate its historicity. The next seven chapters analyze the different stages of its development from a clinical diagnosis in the treatment of military personnel afflicted with the acute, debilitating maladie du pays to the less enervating mal du pays that was used judiciously as a unifying tactic, whether for the creation of “pal battalions” (battalions comprising friends and neighbors) or colonial communities of settlement. The book ends with a conclusion that situates “nostalgia in history.” Throughout the book, Dodman engages with the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of relevant moments.The first two chapters examine the impact of Hofer’s work and its progression from “medical maverick” status to its acceptance as the source of a valid clinical diagnosis. Dodman emphasizes the agricultural and social crises that beset Europe from the early sixteenth through the seventeenth century. The structural transformations that occurred in the countryside following these disruptions, combined with concomitant wars and civil upheavals, set the stage for nostalgia’s clinical dimension to develop. Early patients were Swiss mercenaries engaged in war far from home, but by the mid-eighteenth-century, nostalgia “‘proper’ was being reported in the armed forces across Europe” (59).The next two chapters treat the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. Alluding to relevant social theories past and present, Dodman suggests that clinical nostalgia in the armed forces emerged as a result of the clash between the Prussian-style military model and an emerging political culture with an emphasis on patriotism, civic equality, and individual autonomy. He argues that the Napoleonic Wars saw the first attempt by military doctors to understand the psychoneuroses of war.The last three chapters cover the “golden age” of clinical nostalgia in the 1820s and 1830s through its decline as a medical concept at century’s end. Clinical nostalgia reached a peak with physicians such as Philippe Pinel, the father of moral (and more humane) psychiatric therapy, and medical faculties such as those in Paris, Montpellier, and Strasbourg that engaged in treatment of emotional traumas resulting from war and displacement. The least successful chapter in the book deals with “nostalgia in the tropics.”At the outset, Dodman adheres to the general schema by examining the nostalgia of the military personnel and the medical physicians’ responses to it. Unfortunately, he fails to tease out the differing reasons for military mal du pays. Was the nostalgia predicated on war weariness, the hope of better medical treatment in France, a genuine desire to regain the comforts of home, or a combination of all three? If the archives consulted did not shed light on such questions, Dodman might have said so.Dodman examines the way nostalgia was used to encourage individuals from specific areas in France—in some cases, particular villages—to settle in Algeria as a cohesive community once the decision to colonize the region was reached. Although this strategy makes a good deal of sense so far as French settlers were concerned, the majority of settlers were not originally French but from other south Mediterranean countries. How did these individuals fare? Were the efforts to promote French community unity meant to counteract the growing presence of other nationals? Some analysis of the complexity of the settler population and France’s response to it would have been welcome. These quibbles apart, Dodman has made an erudite and engaging contribution to the literature and a convincing case for the importance of nostalgia as a historical concept.

Interrelationships between Public Open Space, Common Pool Resources, Publicness Levels and Commons Dilemmas: A Different Perspective in Urban Planning

Public open space (POS) is central to the environment, and oftentimes spatial and architectural designs are emphasised in urban planning as part of creating quality POS. However, such initial design and planning of POS may not adequately encapsulate the sustainability dimensions of the complex social-ecological behavioural patterns of POS consumption and management, hence resulting in space mismanagement, underinvestment, and quality degradation. This phenomenon is particularly true and relevant in the context of government/state-owned POS. Therefore, an objective of this perspective paper, coupled with the concepts of the publicness levels, is to provide a different understanding of exclusivity and subtractibility natures of POS, primarily using the theory of common pool resources (CPRs), which subsequently helps explain and rationalise the perennial, adversarial POS management, quality and sustainability status quo. This paper reveals that, instead of being considered as pure public goods, scarce POS owns two inherent attributes of CPR, namely non-excludable and subtractive (rivalrous) that are ultimately susceptible to social/commons dilemmas, covering the Tragedy of the commons (overexploitation), management shirking, free-riding, underuse, disuse, and moral hazard, which lead to degraded, unsustainable POS. The commons or CPR theory can indeed offer a new paradigm shift, making urban planners and landscape managers to embrace that the unexclusive natures of CPR-based POS are truly finite and depletable and thus vulnerable to POS dilemmas. Hence, to achieve quality, sustainable POS commons, effective governance in terms of consumption and consistent management is vital. For future research, urban design as a necessary societal role is suggested, which has established the need for effective allocation of POS management via an adaptive institutional property rights design.

Feminization of Transgender Women With Thyroid Chondroplasty and Laryngoplasty.

In recent years, gender affirmation surgery has broadened significantly from its previous focus on genital conformation only to include other areas of the body as well. As society reconsiders its interpretations of masculinity, femininity, and gender definitions, transgender individuals have realized that they will only be able to truly transition if they are recognized by the public in their chosen societal role. The authors review the literature and describe their own techniques for feminizing thyroid chondroplasty and laryngoplasty.

A network meta‐analysis of threats to South American fish biodiversity

AbstractWhile environmental alterations have made Homo sapiens the hyperkeystone species of the globe, biotic homogenization initiated a new era, the “Homogenocene.” Still, some terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in South America are considered pristine and wild, which can lead to a general faith that economic progress is consistent with conservation strategies, even without scientific support. We compiled anthropogenic threats to fish biodiversity in a hierarchical meta‐analysis, along with an evidence synthesis of threats related to biological invasions, based on peer‐reviewed research with the aim to represent the actual conservation status of the South American ichthyofauna. We highlighted human‐related threats and synergistic effects of biological invasions, climate change, environmental alterations (e.g., pollution, aquaculture and damming) and fisheries. Considering measures that reinforce novel alien fish (e.g., artificial hybrids or genetically modified) introductions, it became clear why an eventual increase in local or regional species richness is not always beneficial to aquaculture, biodiversity, human well‐being or nature. In fact, citizens in all societal roles, including scientists, should revise their concepts about threats to fish biodiversity. Environmental policies require more than taxonomic diagnostics to achieve conservation goals under an incompatible scenario of a multiplying number of fish species and biotic homogenization. We advocate for countries in South America using science‐based strategies useful to maintain their social and economic growth along with their “remaining nature.” We live a crucial moment when the government overlooks threats to biodiversity and uses agribusiness as the most acceptable manner of fuelling the economy.

Abstract 62: Establishing the First U.S - Government Funded Transgender Program for an Uninsured Population: A 5 Year Review of the San Francisco General Hospital Experience

PURPOSE: California law ensures insurance coverage of medically necessary transgender health care. Unfortunately, uninsured transgender patients have no such access to care. To improve transgender health disparities, the Department of Public Health of San Francisco County received funding to establish a gender health program for under- and uninsured transgender patients. Herein we present our hallmark experience in establishing a government funded transgender surgery program for uninsured patients in San Francisco, the first of its kind in the United States. METHODS: The Gender Health SF (GHSF) Program operates in accordance with the WPATH SOC (World Professional Association for Transgender Health Standards of Care). In addition, GHSF specifically requires referrals from a PCP who has treated the patient continuously for at least one year. A formal assessment is generated, and the patient is assigned a patient navigator (trans individuals who have undergone surgery) to assist in assembling the required documentation, and to provide support and education. When patients are deemed stable from a medical, psychological, and social standpoint, they are referred for surgical evaluation. RESULTS: A retrospective review of patient outcomes (via EMR, electronic medical record) and quality-improvement patient survey data was performed. Since the origin of the GHSF program in 2013, 351 surgical cases have been completed (genital surgeries and select other procedures were referred to outside providers). Feminizing mammoplasties were the modal surgery (150 cases), with 109 vaginoplasties and 59 gender affirming mastectomies as the second and third most common gender affirming procedures performed. Comprehensive facial feminization is growing most rapidly, with 12 cases in 2017, and 30 in 2018. Clinical outcomes data for a single surgeon were reviewed. This surgeon completed 93 primary feminizing mammoplasties; there were no surgical site infections, and one revision was performed to correct minor postoperative asymmetry. Of the 28 gender affirming mastectomies performed, one patient had partial nipple loss due to persistent tobacco use, and three minor scar revisions were performed on other patients. Of 183 survey respondents, 97.8% felt “very” or “completely” prepared for surgery, reflecting the effectiveness of our pre-operative screening and education/support programs. 91.8% of respondents noted satisfaction with surgery, with 76% noting “complete/extreme” satisfaction. CONCLUSION: Key components to success in providing transgender surgical care for uninsured patients include the requirement of a stable PCP for referrals and a Peer Navigator. Complication rates for chest and breast surgeries in this public health sample mirror those previously reported in the private population, and our preliminary satisfaction data confirms effective quality outcomes. Most remarkably, because patients referred through this program must establish stable social circumstance to qualify for surgery, we have seen an unprecedented improvement in functional societal roles as these motivated patients seek stable jobs, housing, and health maintenance. Further review is in progress to quantify the long term psychosocial benefits not only on an individual basis, but for society at large. Our program has established that public funding can effectively improve health disparities in uninsured transgender patients with notably low complications and very high patient satisfaction.

Assessing a golden opportunity: CEO performance at McDonald’s

Assessing a golden opportunity: CEO performance at McDonald’s

The Political Agency of Royal Women: A Comparative Analysis of Eight Premodern States According to Societal Rules and Roles

Comparative analysis of women rulers and main wives of kings in eight premodern states around the globe reveals similar patterns of political agency, or the opportunity and ability to take political action. Queen rulers, regents, and main wives substituting for their husbands in their absence made policy, but they had somewhat less political agency than male rulers. Main wives’ political agency took the forms of influencing policy and people’s behavior (sometimes through their role as patron to others), interceding between their kin and their husbands, advocating for one party or the other, spying, and conspiring. Therefore, women’s political agency ought to be part of any political study. This study builds on the anthropological/archaeological study of agency by drawing attention to royal women’s political agency and showing how the analysis of structural rules and the roles of kings, queen rulers, and main wives illuminates the societal structure in which agency is embedded. By analyzing premodern societies this way, we learn that there is remarkable similarity of agency behaviors among royal women in the eight sample societies, even though the societies emerged independently of one another.

An Investigation of Journalists’ Job Satisfaction in Bishkek, Capital of the Kyrgyz Republic

The results of a survey of journalists in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan (N=211) demonstrate that they primarily see their societal role as being to mobilize people with common interests and provide objective analysis. The media’s traditional role as a watchdog, meanwhile, was rated least important by journalists in the country, which is widely considered the “most democratic” in Central Asia. The study also found that the majority described themselves as being “neither satisfied nor dissatisfied” professionally, a feeling directly impacted by their income, sense of autonomy, and supervisor’s perceived ability. Low salary, disagreement with editorial policy, and excessive pressure were found to be the leading reasons that Kyrgyz journalists left the profession. This research extends previous knowledge of journalists’ job satisfaction by examining the often-overlooked region of Central Asia. The surveys were conducted between April 29 and May 19, 2016, primarily in the Russian and Kyrgyz languages.

Harvesting European knowledge on soil functions and land management using multi‐criteria decision analysis

AbstractSoil and its ecosystem functions play a societal role in securing sustainable food production while safeguarding natural resources. A functional land management framework has been proposed to optimize the agro‐environmental outputs from the land and specifically the supply and demand of soil functions such as (a) primary productivity, (b) carbon sequestration, (c) water purification and regulation, (d) biodiversity and (e) nutrient cycling, for which soil knowledge is essential. From the outset, the LANDMARK multi‐actor research project integrates harvested knowledge from local, national and European stakeholders to develop such guidelines, creating a sense of ownership, trust and reciprocity of the outcomes. About 470 stakeholders from five European countries participated in 32 structured workshops covering multiple land uses in six climatic zones. The harmonized results include stakeholders’ priorities and concerns, perceptions on soil quality and functions, implementation of tools, management techniques, indicators and monitoring, activities and policies, knowledge gaps and ideas. Multi‐criteria decision analysis was used for data analysis. Two qualitative models were developed using Decision EXpert methodology to evaluate “knowledge” and “needs”. Soil quality perceptions differed across workshops, depending on the stakeholder level and regionally established terminologies. Stakeholders had good inherent knowledge about soil functioning, but several gaps were identified. In terms of critical requirements, stakeholders defined high technical, activity and policy needs in (a) financial incentives, (b) credible information on improving more sustainable management practices, (c) locally relevant advice, (d) farmers’ discussion groups, (e) training programmes, (f) funding for applied research and monitoring, and (g) strengthening soil science in education.

"Lost Touch" : Situating Human-Connectedness in Technology-Caring in the Health Sciences.

The dominant issue of high-tech and high-touch has popularized the supposed dichotomy between technology and caring in health care. In today's highly technological world, the notion of the "lost touch" in human connectedness is clearly within the realm of human caring. Fostered by different technologies facilitating health care work, the process of caring in the human health experience creates unique individual identities as professional practitioners of human care. The argument is centered on technologies as essential in shaping professionalization by redefining practice boundaries and expanding societal roles and contributions. Consequently, the concept of caring is shared as the hallmark of health care professions. An assertion is made that although technology facilitates caring and competency in the human experience, the idea of human-connectedness can seem "lost" - missing in the discourse and practice within the technological world. Human-connectedness is presented as a concept, positioning its role and relevance in the continued dialogical engagement of technology and caring. A contemporary appreciation of reconciling human connectedness as integral to the process of knowing in a technological world bridging the seemingly paradoxical nature of technology and caring is proposed. J. Med. Invest. 66 : 12-14, February, 2019.

Sustainability Assessment: Exploring the Frontiers and Paradigms of Indicator Approaches

Sustainability assessment approaches could support all levels of decision-making and policy processes (including strategies, policies, plans, programs, projects, and activities/operations), thus improving the management of natural and human systems. Sustainability Indicators (SIs) have been extensively used to assess and communicate the progress toward sustainable development. However, despite all the SI initiatives and the well-known advantages and popularity, several risks have been pointed out, so there is a need to rethink the current state of SIs and build visions that could reshape the indicator reality. The main goal of this research is to develop a constructive debate around the possible futures and paths of SIs’, by conducting a critical analysis of a set of challenges and opportunities identified by the literature. This was explored through a critical perspective and viewpoint article that discusses what could be some of the new frontiers and paradigms in SIs. Exploratory research supported by a combination of methods was conducted, consisting of a search of the literature and qualitative document analysis, followed by an assessment procedure based upon an evaluation ranking scale. The classification scale integrated three main criteria of valuation: Relevancy, feasibility, and societal impacts. The findings showed that most of the challenges and opportunities analyzed are old and mainly technically oriented, with a low potential impact on society, including end-users and practitioners. The majority of the challenges have low-to-medium feasibility, showing that there would be difficulty in implementing them, and so they should be improved or redesigned. A set of key questions on SIs’ futures is proposed, aiming to represent a critical view of the relevant challenges and opportunities analyzed, but underpinned and observed from a crosscutting angle, represented by the societal role. The SI research community should be ready to adapt ways of thinking and doing, responding to new global and local paradigms and using transdisciplinary collaborative scientific development and innovation as the foundations for the change process, wherein communities and the individual have central roles to play.

Universities as Human Rights Actors

This policy and practice note explores the possibilities of a vision of human rights protection that conceives of universities as human rights actors. This vision is situated in the broader human rights context, in which it is increasingly recognized that non-traditional human rights actors, rather than only the central government level, also bear responsibilities in the field of human rights. Given their crucial societal role, it is argued that universities should similarly take up their human rights responsibility. This note will present the case study of the human rights policy of Ghent University (Belgium), which applies to that university's international relations, as a good practice of how the human rights responsibility of universities can be operationalized. The paper concludes with a number of critical reflections.

Courage and Grief: Women and Sweden's Thirty Years' War by Mary Elizabeth Ailes

Reviewed by: Courage and Grief: Women and Sweden's Thirty Years' War by Mary Elizabeth Ailes Britt Mitchell (bio) Review of Mary Elizabeth Ailes. Courage and Grief: Women and Sweden's Thirty Years' War Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2018. 234 pages. $55.00 In recent years, Sweden has emerged as a leader on feminist and family issues, promoting social policies that provide women with societal and economic support for the biological work of childbirth and breastfeeding as well as fostering equality in the workplace. While the rest of the world looks to Sweden [End Page 201] for ideas and innovations on such subjects, what is the origin of Sweden's inspiration? One answer emerges from the scholarship of Mary Elizabeth Ailes in her recently published Courage and Grief: Women and Sweden's Thirty Years' War. A little-studied subtopic in a well-studied conflict, the roles of women both on the field of battle in German Saxony and at home in continental Sweden were critical components of Sweden's shifting social norms both during and after the years of conflict, from 1618 and 1648. Additionally, Sweden's shift during the war from the reign of battle-proven King Gustavus Adolphus to his daughter, Queen Christina, amid revolutionary changes to the manner in which both warfare and diplomacy were conducted, allowed for relatively minor yet historically significant shifts in practices surrounding land ownership, payments of debt, and inheritance. The gates of history turn on small hinges. Although Ailes does not explicitly set out to make this case, her meticulously collected and catalogued sources—journals, account books, and petitions to the court—do the work for her, parsing out the important roles played by women during the war. Divided into four parts, the book begins with "Women on Campaign," then moves to "Women and Conscription," "Officers' Wives on the Home Front," and concludes with "Queen Christina and Female Military Leadership." Each section takes account of a different group of women and the role they played in moving forward the military campaigns associated with the Thirty Years' War and women's societal roles, including individual accounts of women who were part of each group, and concludes by noting significant changes to Swedish social and legal systems that occurred in the wake of the conflict. In the first section, "Women on Campaign," Ailes recounts and assesses the roles played by the many women who frequently accompanied battalions in military campaigns. These women were both needed and criticized by soldiers and commanders. They cared for the physical and emotional needs of the armies, laundering clothes and cooking meals, but were frequently disparaged as an impediment to military success. Strict rules regarding the marital status of women in the caravan were often enacted by commanders, but the challenges of battle made them difficult to enforce. Such rules, designed to prevent sexual distractions among soldiers, failed to account for the frequent widowing associated with warfare, the growth of young daughters into women, and the need for female companionships among wives of soldiers. The [End Page 202] women who accompanied husbands and fathers on campaign developed a unique economy that provided opportunity for the development of skills and trade, advancement opportunities for military children, and a social safety net for military families. Women who took part in these activities had opportunities to travel, learn, and teach in ways that were often unavailable to women that remained behind. Upon returning to Sweden following husbands' deaths or the end of the war, these women were a source of human capital that had an important impact on reshaping society in the aftermath of the war. The second section, "Peasant Women and Conscription" details some of the economic and social shifts that occurred in Sweden as a result of the conscription rules associated with the war. Because the economic capacity of Sweden was dependent on both having adequate laborers to work the farmland and adequate soldiers to carry out the campaigns of the war, a conscription strategy was adopted. Naturally, this strategy prioritized the needs of the state over the needs of the individuals. Under these rules, it was women who took a lead in working the system to ensure that...

Negotiating Nursing: British Army Sisters and Soldiers in the Second World War by Jane Brooks

Reviewed by: Negotiating Nursing: British Army Sisters and Soldiers in the Second World War by Jane Brooks Corinna Peniston-Bird Jane Brooks. Negotiating Nursing: British Army Sisters and Soldiers in the Second World War. Nursing History and Humanities. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2018. xii + 236 pp. Ill. $120.00 (978-1-5261-1906-3). The exigencies of war suggest the potential or the need for change in existing gender identities and relationships. In Negotiating Nursing, Jane Brooks traces the impact of the war on the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QA), established by royal warrant in 1902. In the Second World War QA nurses were posted to war zones with their medical colleagues following the recognition that early treatment of the war wounded increased recovery rates. Nurses had multiple challenges to negotiation: their male and female colleagues, the physical spaces, evolving modes of practice and treatment regimes, and their femininity. Nursing exemplified the rhetoric of paradox that characterizes constructions of femininity, and femininity at war in particular: in their interactions with the doctors and the broken combat male, for example, they were to be both subservient and independent, collaborative and reserved, feminine and neuter. [End Page 474] Over the course of five chapters Brooks covers the nature of nursing work in the context of active service overseas, the challenges to nursing care within a mobile war, the contradictions inherent in being female in places of danger, the rapid development of nursing skills and technologies, and demobilization. In the return to peace, and in the postwar context of the welfare state, "the problem for nurses and other women workers was that the normality that was sought was one based on the male hegemony of the mid-twentieth century. Normality meant women being returned to the home, childbirth and child rearing" (p. 183). The main contribution Brooks makes to understandings of the history of British nursing in the Second World War emerges from her commitment to personal testimony for her source materials; these include oral histories, diaries, letters, and memoirs, many unpublished. Such an approach is of particular value in a profession based on "oral rather than written transmission of knowledge" (p. 9). This also makes the most of a genre that seldom fails to challenge the written record. In this case the sources highlight in particular the differences between regulation and practice, the sharing of knowledge gained in the field rather than the textbook, and the tensions between tradition and innovation. Just as members of the auxiliary forces were sometimes taught by male peers or officers to handle weapons, often in contravention of official policy, so might nurses find that individual doctors or situations enabled them to take on roles and responsibilities hitherto reserved for men. "Army nurses shifted the boundaries of their surgical practice as the exigencies of war demanded, and neither they nor their medical colleagues showed any of the professional anxieties of their counterparts on home soil" (p. 149). Herein lay also the reason that much of these innovations remained "for the duration": the lapsing of rigid hierarchies and methods did not translate well into the medical spaces and societal roles of peace. The potential of wartime experiences to instigate enduring change was therefore, in Brooks's word, "squandered." This is not a finding unique to the Second World War: there is ample evidence that nurses in the Boer War, the First World War, and the Vietnam War had similar experiences of complex gendered contradictions and change limited to the short term—and preferably abroad. The contribution made by Negotiating Nursing is to insert the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service of the Second World War into familiar themes in nursing history and the debate over gendered social change in the Second World War. [End Page 475] Corinna Peniston-Bird Lancaster University Copyright © 2019 Johns Hopkins University Press

A Comparative Study of International Treaty for Women Rights “CEDAW” and Islamic Shariah

Women are confronted with a lot of problems. In different parts of the world, some social and cultural attitudes still discourage the women from getting their established and assigned rights. The factors which are responsible for this phenomenon include societal norms, orthodoxy and some social customs contrary to islamic instructions. For instance, discrimination against women could be in terms of inadequate nutrition, denial or limited access to education, health and property rights, child labor, domestic violence and forceful marriage. So far as the Islamic instructions are concerned, these are derived from Quran and Sunnah and clearly describe women’s rights but, due to some socio-religious customs and undesirable behaviors the societal status and role of women have been badly affected. An international document, the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women also lists the rights of all girls and women. CEDAW recommends that all discriminations against girls and women must be ended. In this paper, the terms have been analyzed in the context of islamic instructions and teachings, in order to provide academic material for bringing positive change in the society.

The Activities of Lithuanian Women during the Years of 1988–1992: Challenges and Opportunities

[full article and abstract in Lithuanian; abstract in English]
 This article studies the activities and the societal role of Lithuanian women during the years of 1988 to 1992 based on the relevant periodic press and the memoirs of contemporaries. An analysis of certain organizations, such as the gathering of Catholic women “Caritas,” the Lithuanian Women’s Movement, the Women’s Revival Union, the Lithuanian Women’s Union, the Women’s Union of the Families of the Officers of Lithuanian Grand Duchess Birutė and the Lithuanian University Women Association, presented an overview of the activities of organizations from 1988 to 1992. The article assesses the circumstances of the inception of the aforementioned organizations, their benefits to society and their value both to the participants and to the public.

Embodying the nation: The production of sameness and difference in national-day parades

National-day parades constitute a common format of embodying the nation. Composed of numerous distinct bodies of persons with individual characteristics (being short or tall) and multilayered societal roles (being a nurse, a father etc.), parades primarily evoke an image of sameness, while they also display differences. Focusing on the preparation of the Burkinabè national-day parades, this paper explores practices of disciplining bodies and making them appear similar and/or different. We ask how national-day parades mirror and produce images of the nation and how they treat differences like sex, ethnic belonging and occupation. The paper highlights that performances of the nation, as produced through civilian parades, are co-productions of all actors involved. Moreover, the focus on the rehearsals reveals that they generate a group experience for both organisers and participants, arguing that parades should not only be understood as ephemeral events, but as social interactions creating group experiences that have lasting impact.

The lives of asexual individuals outside of sexual and romantic relationships: education, occupation, religion and community

ABSTRACTTwenty-seven U.S. and Canadian participants who answered a call for interviews about asexual identity were asked about non-sexual aspects of their lives, including education, occupation, community and religion. Many participants indicated that being asexual was not a factor in school or college. Others mentioned advantages such as having more time for studies and fewer distractions, and disadvantages such as feeling lonely, left out or anxious. For some participants, asexuality was not an issue in the work setting, often because it is not visible or not asked about. Others worked in settings with supportive co-workers, had more time for work or were not distracted by office romances. Half the participants were part of thriving social networks, although about one-third indicated that their community was very small and many were introverts. Three-quarters of the sample identified as atheists or followed spiritual traditions that were not directly associated with mainstream religions. They also brought up the lack of asexual role models in the media. Participants reflected on how asexual identity interfaced with societal roles and the results are discussed in light of the foregrounding of sex and relationships in North America.