Place Of Women Research Articles

Global-mindedness Through the Eyes of EFL Learners: Gender and Level of Proficiency in Focus

The major aim of the present study is to find connections between global-mindedness and some important factors such as gender and level of proficiency. To this end, 182 language learners, 92 females and 90 males, participated in the study. These students were selected and categorized based on one-stage cluster sampling from 16 branches of different language centers, namely Safiran, Shoukoh, and Kish. The main phase of the study was conducted through the use of Google Docs platform that provides the researchers with the well-organized data. Language learners were asked to answer all the demographic information by considering their anonymity during the process of data collection. The result of the study, through t-test, showed that there was a significant difference between male and female language learners regarding their level of global-mindedness. The result also showed that the level of proficiency of the female language learners does not influence their level of global-mindedness.
 References
 
 Byram, M., Zarate, G., & Neuner, G. (1997). Sociocultural competence in languagelearning and teaching: Studies towards a common European framework of reference forlanguage learning and teaching. Strasbourg, France: Council of Europe.
 Deardorff, D. K. (2011). Assessing intercultural competence. New Directions forInstitutional Research, 149, 65–79.
 DeMello, M. A. (2011). The impact of study tours in developing global-mindedness amongPK-12 educators in Southeastern Massachusetts (Doctoral dissertation, NortheasternUniversity, Boston)
 Duckworth, R. L., Levy, L. W., & Levy, J. (2005). Present and future teachers of theworld’s children How internationally-minded are they?. Journal of Research inInternational Education, 4(3), 279–311.
 Earley, P. C. and Ang, S. (2003). Cultural Intelligence: An Analysis of IndividualInteractions Across Cultures. Palo Alto (CA): Stanford University Press.
 Fantini, A. E. (2009), Assessing Intercultural Competence: Issues and Tools. In Deardorff,D. K. (ed.), The SAGE Handbook of Intercultural Competence. Thousand Oaks (CA):Sage, 456–476.
 FitzGerald, H. (2003). How Different Are We? Spoken Discourse in InterculturalCommunication. Clevedon – Buffalo – Toronto – Sydney: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
 Gaudelli, W. (2003). World class: Teaching and learning in global times. Mahwah, NJ:Erlbaum.
 Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity. Cambridge: Polity.
 Gillian, K. J. (1995). A measure of global-mindedness at the University of NorthernColorado: An assessment of students, faculty, and administrators (Doctoral dissertation,University of Northern Colorado, 1995). Dissertation Abstracts International, 5,08.
 Hett, E. J. (1993). The development of an instrument to measure global-mindedness(Doctoral dissertation, University of San Diego).
 Hill, I. (2007). International education as developed by the International BaccalaureateOrganization. The SAGE handbook of research in international education, 25–37.
 Johnson, J. P., Lenartowicz, T., & Apud, S. (2006). Cross-cultural competence ininternational business: Toward a definition and a model. Journal of International BusinessStudies, 37(4), 525–543.
 Kehl, K., & Morris, J. (2007). Differences in global mindedness between short-term andsemester-long study abroad participants at selected private universities. Frontiers: TheInterdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 15(1), 67–79.
 Lakoff, R. (1973). Language and woman's place. Language in society, 2(01), 45–79.
 Muller, G. C. (2012). Exploring characteristics of international schools that promoteinternational-mindedness (Doctoral dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University).
 Olsen, M.E., Lodwick, D.G., & Dunlap, R.E. (1992). Viewing the World Ecologically.Boulder: Westview.
 Sampson, D. L., & Smith, H. P. (1957). A scale to measure world-minded attitudes. TheJournal of Social Psychology, 45(1), 99–106.
 Sercu, L. e.a. (2005). Foreign Language Teachers and Intercultural Competence. AnInternational investigation. Clevedon–Buffalo–Toronto: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
 Smallman, S. C., & Brown, K. (2011). Introduction to international & global studies.Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
 Wardhaugh, R. (1992). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. USA: Blackwell PublishersLtd.
 Zhai, L., & Scheer, S. (2004). Global perspectives and attitudes toward cultural diversityamong summer agriculture students at the Ohio State University. Journal of AgriculturalEducation, 45(2), 39–51. 

Bodily Subjects: Essays on Gender and Health, 1800–2000, edited by Tracy Penny Light, Barbara Brookes, and Wendy Mitchinson

Bodily Subjects: Essays on Gender and Health, 1800-2000, edited by Tracy Penny Light, Barbara Brookes, and Wendy Mitchinson. Montreal & Kingston, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2014. x, 395 pp. $110.00 Cdn (cloth) $34.95 Cdn (paper). Where should we look for the meaning of health? The cover illustration of Bodily Subjects: Essays on Gender and Health, 1800-2000 provocatively suggests a site and method for just such an exploration: a circa 1940s wooden examination table that looks like standard office backroom furniture, but when all its pulls and drawers are opened, it reveals a hidden collection of specialized features many of which (like stirrups and a hidden drop pan) are designed for gynecological check-ups. The gendering of health, the editors of this collection posit, is not merely ideological and discursive: it is material. It has embodied (3) for men and for women that are culturally and historically specific. From the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries, Western became not only increasingly subject to the gaze, but also the primary sites through which gendered identity was reinforced over time by meanings of (5). The co-construction of Western and cultural knowledge, along with its disciplinary tools, is not a new idea to historians of science, medicine, and technology--but the strength of this vibrant collection lies in its comparative approach to this topic, as well as its insistent focus on the political and social consequences of such developments. In this way. Bodily Subjects itself embodies a productive intersectionality of scholarship in social history and material culture (from history, anthropology, and geography) plus gender studies (in sociology, rhetoric, and literature). Taken together, these essays (masterfully curated and edited by Tracy Penny Light, Barbara Brookes, and Wendy Mitchinson) make the case that are at once agents for and reflections of how gender shapes the complex and varied experiences of health and illness. The chapters' authors come from a range of perspectives and approaches, but the editors impose coherence on the collection by arranging their case studies into three thematic sections. The advantage of this strategy is that each section provides a rich body of material through which to explore one focused aspect of the gendering of and health. The first section, Embodied Citizenship, considers how health concepts, framed by gender, race, and class, have consequences for defining political rights and responsibilities in different places and times. Patricia Reeve finds--in corporate archives, industrial laws, and trade union publications--evidence that the requirements for American antebellum citizenship, including bodily agency and good hygiene, were shaped by ideals of manliness and masculinity that de facto excluded the laboring bodies (37) of slaves, women, and the disabled. Similarly, Marjorie Levine-Clark examines the successes and failures of applications for relief to one English Poor Law Union, and shows how ill health provided both a respectable source of need for assistance and a means through which social expectations for men (public work) and women (private domesticity) were enforced. Labour needs, Meg Parsons suggests, also framed the construction of the Cherbourg Aboriginal Settlement as a hygienic, if not healthy, space in which the medical surveillance of Aboriginal bodies (82)--specifically, their reproduction and cleanliness--became a means to deny them civil rights and protect white society from uncivilized natives. By contrast, Catherine Gidney shows that, while Canadian university students had access to one of the most comprehensive and holistic health care systems in the world, in the 1940s and 1950s its increasing attention to individual self-realization enabled a reorientation of women's place on campus--even while this system also allowed sexism to remain in obvious, but more insidious, forms (113). …

“Too Numerous to Be Controlled”

Abstract The integration of women into the French Army as civilian employees during and after the Great War triggered a redefinition of military identity that opened new opportunities for women on a large scale and revealed the strength of antirepublicanism within the French Army. This article traces the process of women's integration into the army by examining how officers resisted giving women a military identity and then examining the surprising ways in which the demobilization process helped to consolidate women's places within the army. Officers ultimately accepted women as part of their institution to the extent that by the mid-1920s, after politicians threatened to give French soldiers the right to vote, senior generals looked to disenfranchised women to help them reduce the number of voters in the army. Officers welcomed women because, like soldiers, they could not vote and thus were seen as being less contaminated by the republican political system.

A Palestinian Woman's Place in Terrorism: Organized Perpetrators or Individual Actors?

ABSTRACTThis article analyzes a novel comprehensive database of attacks by Palestinian women between 1965 and 1995. During this period, women's participation in terrorism evolved and their participation can be divided into two distinct eras, before and after 1986. The article argues that the entrance of religious terrorist organizations into politics and the First Intifada changed Palestinian terrorism. While more attacks by women occurred after 1986, they were mostly low intensity attacks, aimed at military targets, with low success rates. Despite women's participation, the patriarchal structure of society is also reflected in Palestinian terrorist organizations. However, as women's roles in society expanded, so too did their roles within terrorist organizations.

“A Woman's Place Is in the Umwa”: Women Miners and the Struggle for a Democratic Union in Western Pennsylvania, 1973–1979

Women reentered the American coal mines in 1973 and quickly made an impact in the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) as union members struggled with the meaning and future of union democracy. Although existing scholarship has pointed to the end of union democracy in the UMWA after the decline of the Miners for Democracy in 1973–74, this article argues that newly hired women miners took up the mantle of union democracy and, in the process of forging space for themselves in the workplace and the union, became leaders among the UMWA's rank and file as workers attempted to cope with neoliberal transformation across the 1970s.

Place of Women in Sri Lankan Society: Measures for Their Empowerment for Development and Good Governance

Despite far-reaching economic, social and political developments in Sri Lanka over the last century or so, Sri Lankan women continue to occupy a subordinate status. While women are not subjected to extreme forms of oppression, many adverse structures and forces, such as the patriarchal social structure, woman’s role in the family, traditional values, rituals and myths, the division of labour and unequal pay, and women’s lack of participation in politics contribute to the continuing subordination of Sri Lankan women. In this context, this article seeks to address the socio-economic, cultural and political processes that shape the status and the progress of women in Sri Lanka. It emphasizes the policy makers to ensure that Sri Lankan women are empowered to participate in development. For this to happen, the article, however, argues that an attitudinal change and a paradigm shift in the minds of policy makers and the society at large must be accomplished. KeywordsEmpowerment, Sri Lanka, Subordination, Women

Refusing to Know a Woman's Place: The Causes and Consequences of Rejecting Stereotypes of Women Politicians in Latin America

What are the sources and effects of gendered leadership stereotypes for women’s representation? We explore the role of stereotypes in shaping public attitudes towards women’s representation using AmericasBarometer survey data from 25 countries. We report three key results. First, the modal respondent in almost every country rejects gendered leadership stereotypes, affirming that women and men leaders are equally qualified on corruption and the economy. This holds even after we attempt to account for social desirability bias. Second, there are significant individual- and country-level determinants of stereotyping. In countries with higher women’s representation and labor force participation but without gender quotas, citizens are more likely to choose pro-female and neutral responses over pro-male stereotypes. At the individual level, those rejecting stereotypes are less authoritarian, more supportive of labor market equality, and more leftist than those reporting pro-female stereotypes. Third, the consequences for representation vary by partisanship and country context. Pro-female leadership stereotypes boost support for women presidential candidates and for legislative gender quotas, but they matter less among copartisans of women candidates, and they matter more when women candidates are viable but gendered outsiders. Those rejecting leadership stereotypes altogether are less supportive of quotas.

Lack of association between drought and mental health in a cohort of 45–61 year old rural Australian women

Objective:To evaluate the impact of drought on the mental health of rural Australian women and those in vulnerable sub‐populations: women who were more isolated, poorer and less educated; and women who had histories of chronic disease or poor mental health. Methods:Surveys were mailed in 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2008 to 6,664 women born between 1946 and1951 who were participating in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. The surveys included the Mental Health Index of the Medical Outcomes Study Short‐Form 36 (MHI). Drought was assessed by linking the latitude and longitude of women's place of residence at each survey to the Hutchinson Drought Index. Associations between MHI and drought were assessed using linear mixed‐models. Results:While 31% of the women experienced drought in 1998 and 50% experienced drought in 2007; experience of droughts was less common in the other years. Although drought varied from survey year to survey year, mental health did not vary with drought conditions for rural women or vulnerable sub‐populations. Conclusions:These findings are contrary to the long‐held assumption that droughts increase mental health problems in Australia. Implications:While similar results may not be true for men, empirical evidence (rather than assumptions) is required on associations between drought and mental health.

Islamic Women's Groups and the Quest for Political Representation in Turkey and Iran

This article presents Islamic women's framing processes in their campaigns to address women's political underrepresentation in Iran and Turkey. It argues that while Turkish women justify their claims through international human rights discourses, Iranian women frame their demands in religious terms to find resonance with political elites. Women's strategic framing processes demonstrate the extent to which women's demands for equal representation are shaped by the political and discursive opportunity structures that arise out of their secular or theocratic contexts.In many Muslim-majority countries, Islamic movements and parties tend to negatively view women's access to political leadership positions.1 The dominant gender discourse of these movements, which is often based on patriarchal interpretations of religious texts, views women's proper place to be within the domestic sphere as mothers and wives, and largely denies women an active presence in the public sphere, including in political decision-making. Scholarly analysis of women's activities and involvement in political parties that arise out of Islamic political movements has persuasively argued that despite the high level of women's political participation on behalf of such parties, women tend to have low levels of political representation.2 For instance, a number of scholars have pointed to the fact that many Islamic political parties have mobilized and politicized women to serve merely as campaigners and grassroots organizers to help bring the party to power, or have used women's bodies and dress as public markers of their identity claims. But once in power, the male elites of such parties have often denied women any real power or influence in formal politics.3 Although this kind of discrimination is not exclusive to religious movements and parties, it is often assumed that religiously motivated parties are more detrimental to women's political representation than are their secular counterparts. The works of scholars such as Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris and Steven Fish fall within this line of argumentation by emphasizing religious and cultural barriers, namely Islam and patriarchal attitudes, as the primary reasons for women's limited access to positions of political authority.4A surprising recent trend that challenges the current literature's overwhelming emphasis on the religious/cultural obstacles that keep women out of political decisionmaking is the modest increases in the percentage of women in political leadership on behalf of some religious political parties in various Muslim-majority countries. For instance, Clark and Schwedler have observed that in Yemen and Jordan the percentage of women assuming political office has modestly increased in the wake of and forces' rise to power.5 This trend is also present in Turkey and Iran, the two case studies of this research. Regardless of Turkey's secular or Iran's theocratic political frameworks, women's access to political leadership positions increased under the watch of and religious forces, and (unexpectedly) not under liberalreformist or secular parties. In Turkey, the recent notable increases in the percentage of female parliamentarians (currently at its highest ever at 17.5%) coincides with the 2002 rise to power of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, henceforth AKP, but often called the AK Party by supporters). The AKP was founded in 2001 by members of defunct Turkish parties (Refah, the Welfare Party; and Fazilet, the Virtue Party). Since its landslide victory in 2002, the AKP, which identifies itself as a conservative democratic rather than Islamist party, has steadily increased its percentage of popular votes in general elections, although it significantly underperformed in the June 2015 general elections and lost its parliamentary majority.6 Due to the AKP's official support of a secular system in which public displays of religion have a place, I identify this party as pro-religious. …

Toutes ensemble? Femmes et société: intégration et marginalisation

The three articles included in this special section are focused on the question of women's place in society, in the lineage of the original theme of Women in French conference in 2013, they come from: Solitary solidarity. Specifically, in terms of the studies presented are here, there is the question of structures that favor or not the integration of women in contemporary society: whether family, professional networks and associations, professional and creatives activities, or anchoring the feminine autonomy in mentalities and habits

Editors’ Note

As the editors of Vidyodaya Journal of Management (VJM), it is our pleasure and privilege topresent the inaugural issue of the journal to the academic community and the wider readershipacross the globe. VJM, a double blind peer-reviewed journal, is the official journal of theFaculty of Management Studies and Commerce of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura,Sri Lanka. It aims at disseminating innovative and high-quality research articles that enhanceconceptual and empirical knowledge in the broad areas of Management and OrganizationStudies. The journal welcomes articles of interdisciplinary nature. And it encourages differentmethodologies and theoretico-philosophical traditions which give new insights into the issuesin Management and Organization. As the editors, it is our understanding that the inauguralissue, though contains only four articles by the members of our own faculty, exemplifies theseegalitarian aspirations of the journal.We are leading the inaugural issue with the article, entitled “Place of Women in SriLankan Society: Measures for Their Empowerment for Development and Good Governance”,by H.M.A. Herath. In this article, Herath explores socio-economic, cultural and politicalprocesses that affect the status and progress of women in Sri Lanka. With a view ofempowering Sri Lankan women, he emphasises the importance of attitudinal change of policymakers. The second article, “Waiting Times and Defining Customer Satisfaction” by T.M.B.Palawatta, revisits the notion of satisfaction in the marketing literature. Palawatta argues thatdefining satisfaction/dissatisfaction as disconfirmation between expectation and perception isprobably the most appropriate definition of satisfaction in the context of service marketing.The third article of the inaugural issue, entitled “The Employment Status of the Elderlyin Sri Lanka: Emerging Patterns and Determinants”, co-authored by W.G.T.S. Senanayakaand M.H.A. Sisira Kumara, addresses some issues related to the employment status of theSri Lankan elderly. Senanayaka and Sisira Kumara use the Sri Lanka Household Income andExpenditure Surveys to examine the patterns and the determinants of employment status ofthe elderly. Based on a rigorous statistical analysis they explain what causes the employabilityof the Sri Lankan elderly. Our last article, “Marketing Culture and Corporate SocialResponsibility: A Case in Service Firms in Sri Lanka” by B.N.F. Warnakulasooriya, raisesan important empirical question: whether the marketing culture has a measurable impact oncorporate social responsibility in service organizations. By aptly analysing survey data from service firms in Sri Lanka, Warnakulasooriya shows the strong association that exists between marketing culture and corporate social responsibility.The inaugural issue of VJM, as we believe, marks another milestone of the long historyof the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce. We put all our efforts to establishthe culture of a true peer-reviewed journal, although it was a difficult and time-consumingjourney. Once we reflect on this journey and the globally competitive knowledge-productionindustry, it is our understating that, other than necessary infrastructure, courage, patience andcommitment of all interested parties are critical to establish a culture of a true peer-reviewedjournal. In this context, while inviting researchers and scholars across the globe to send theiroriginal research articles to the journal, we sincerely hope that VJM is a little step towardsthat direction.Finally, we would like to extend our sincere gratitude to all authors for their patience andkeeping their faith on us, reviewers and language editorial team for their unpaid academiclabour, Sandun Madhawa Kalugampitiya for helping us to develop the cover page of thejournal and Vasana Kaushalya for her (voluntary) role as the editorial assistant. Saman Yapa, P.D. Nimal and Dhammika JayawardenaUniversity of Sri Jayewardenepura

Place of Women in Sri Lankan Society Measures for Their Empowerment for Development and Good Governance

Despite far-reaching economic, social and political developments in Sri Lanka over the last century or so, Sri Lankan women continue to occupy a subordinate status. While women are not subjected to extreme forms of oppression, many adverse structures and forces, such as the patriarchal social structure, woman’s role in the family, traditional values, rituals and myths, the division of labour and unequal pay, and women’s lack of participation in politics contribute to the continuing subordination of Sri Lankan women. In this context, this article seeks to address the socio-economic, cultural and political processes that shape the status and the progress of women in Sri Lanka. It emphasizes the policy makers to ensure that Sri Lankan women are empowered to participate in development. For this to happen, the article, however, argues that an attitudinal change and a paradigm shift in the minds of policy makers and the society at large must be accomplished. Keywords Empowerment, Sri Lanka, Subordination, Women

Introduction: The 1970s

Initially, our thinking about this special issue, 1970s, began with Woman. television series ran from 1975 to 1979. As children we watched, amazed by her magic belt, her nonviolent golden Lasso of Truth, her bullet-deflecting bracelets, and, of course, her killer (though not deadly) tiara. In our girlhood memories, she stood for all of us: Woman the Chicana, Woman the South American Amazon. For us, she was the outsider woman hero with whom we could identify. And then came the cyborg, the Bionic Woman, whose television series ran from 1976 to 1978. On the big screen, too, there was Foxy Brown, Cleopatra Jones, and a host of super women who would feed our imaginations and make us believe we were, indeed, Free to Be.These popular versions of empowered women reflected the revolutionary potential of the 1970s. Following the various strands of activisms around civil and human rights in the previous decades, women activists-second wave feminists-worked to shape new paradigms for thinking about gender, sexism, racism, sexuality, reproductive rights, religion, labor, colonialism, technology, art, music, and the environment. They transformed accepted notions of female power regarding their bodies, their pleasure, and their work. And they launched a host of interventions and institutions that will continue to haunt and inspire for generations to come.The Feminist Press itself began in 1970. Its journal, W5Q. (originally published as Women's Studies Newsletter), first appeared in 1972. same year, Ms. magazine launched its inaugural issue, which featured the headline Wonder Woman for (fig. l). accompanying image de- picts a towering woman warrior whose utopian ideal can effect real-world changes and defeat the machines of war, whose stride spans the length of a street, and whose golden lasso protects a city encased in its electrified pyramid. She seems to signal a new era, an era in which peace and justice seemed within reach. In the magazine, Gloria Steinern claimed her as a feminist icon, an inspiring symbol of female power. As feminists we know plenty of real women, wondrous in their power, whose labors sought to change the world in the decades (and centuries) before and after the 1970s. Even Ms. magazine's Woman imagery stands on a legacy; it extends a 1943 cover of the comic book issue #7 that envisions a future President Woman pictured among a crowd of women who voted her into office (Matsuuchi 2012, 122). That future is still to come.Separate from Ms. magazine, DC Comics sought to incorporate the Zeitgeist of 1970s Woman as feminist in its 1972 Woman Women's Lib. comic book's editors commissioned a series from black and gay science-fiction author and feminist ally Samuel R. Delany, who envisioned six parts, with a different villain, in the series:The first was a corrupt department store owner; the second was the head of a supermarket chain who tries to squash a women's food co-operative. Another villain was a college advisor who really felt a woman's place was in the home and who assumed if you were a bright woman, then something was probably wrong with you psychologically, and so forth. It worked up to a gang of male thugs trying to squash an abortion clinic staffed by women surgeons. And Woman was going to do battle with each of these and triumph. (2001)Ann Matsuuchi describes this 1970s moment in Woman's feminist history as an opportunity to explore the politics of representation as they inform feminisms in popular culture. In the issue The Grandee Caper, the only one published before the series' abrupt cancellation, Woman wears pants. And, like the comic's noteworthy brown women characters, she looks for employment in New York's Lower East Side. When a department store owner wants to exploit the women and simultaneously capitalize on Woman's brand, the women unite to organize for equitable pay. …

“What are you like to come home to?” Domesticity in Postwar British Women’s Poetry and Fiction, 1945–1960

This essay presents readings of a wide range of British women's poetry and fiction of the immediate postwar period (1945-1960) that focus on the topic of domesticity. It explores the capacities of literary texts to intervene in a slow process of cultural change in gendered attitudes towards domestic life, homemaking and notions of women's place in the home. To illustrate the 'nadir of British feminism' (M. Pugh) as a structure of feeling, it also draws on advertisements and marital advice books from the 1950s. While poems by Stevie Smith, Elizabeth Jennings and Denise Levertov respond to the pressures of domesticity, novels by Elizabeth Taylor (At Mrs Lippincote's) and Josephine Leslie (The Ghost and Mrs. Muir) point towards what might be called 'alternative domesticities', however imaginary. The essay argues that the possibility of women's personal freedom (within or beyond domestic settings) in the age of the 'angry young men' had to be translated into the defamiliarising strains of the 'female Gothic' and could only be imagined in the form of comic supernatural romance or satirical verse.

Women's perceptions of perineal repair as an aspect of normal childbirth

Aims and objectives: The purpose of the study was to explore women's perceptions of perineal repair as an aspect of normal childbirth. Design: The study design was qualitative and used interpretive phenomenology. Participants: 11 nulliparous women were recruited. Of these, 10 sustained a 2nd degree tear and one had a posterior vaginal wall tear. All care was undertaken by midwives. Results: Women accept perineal repair when it is managed correctly, their satisfaction is improved when they are given relevant information. Women place as much significance on the lead up antenatally and their recovery afterwards as they do to physically being sutured. Conclusion: Antenatal services fail to adequately inform about perineal repair and women's preconceptions are affected by their peers. The transition to motherhood for women who feel fully informed is smoother. Women with unresolved questions about their repair, tend complain of increased pain, make unnecessary alterations to everyday hygiene tasks and rely more on their partners.

Analysis of relationships between perimenopausal symptoms and professional functioning and life satisfaction--Subjective perception of the dependence in women aged 40+

The aim of the study was to analyse and present the opinions of women in perimenopause on subjectively perceived symptoms characteristic of the climacteric period, and connected with their professional functioning, as well as to evaluate the effects of selected variables on the incidence and severity of these symptoms and the women's life satisfaction. The study included 250 professionally active women in perimenopausal age (40-57 years). The study used the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) to evaluate life satisfaction of women and the Kupperman Index (KI) as quantitative and qualitative self-assessment of climacteric symptoms. The authors also used a questionnaire of their own design that contains an index of defined symptoms of perimenopause, which warrants the use of Pareto-Lorenz analysis. The obtained results prove the presence of statistically significant correlations between the occurrence and severity of menopausal symptoms and the place of enployment (p=0.04912), gynecological care (p=0.00325), hormone replacement therapy (HRT) (p=0.01523) and assessment of life satisfaction (p=0.0325). Among the symptoms particularly influencing effective professional functioning, women pointed out hot flashes, irritability, reduced concentration and coordination, sleep disturbances, and increased sweating. There is a statistically significant correlation between the woman's place of employment, gynecological care, HRT, the evaluation of life satisfaction and the severity of perimenopausal symptoms. A set of symptoms whose presence and severity influence the sense of life satisfaction and evaluation of professional functioning was observed. Among the most frequently reported symptoms that exert an adverse effect on professional functioning of women are: hot flushes, irritability, reduced concentration and coordination, sleep disturbances, and increased sweating.

Gender Features of Discourse in Women's Literature as a Reflection of Changes in the Modern Society

The article deals with the problem of new conception of the “female” fiction prose as an independent discourse with special outlook and gender meaningful concepts. The article reveals the meaning of the notion “discourse of the modern female prose” described as complicated sociocultural phenomenon or the reflection of gender-motivated female consciousness revealed in the process of fiction text creation by women-authors. All mentioned features are very important and actual nowadays because the female prose is rapidly developing and represents the certain part of the national worldwide. The fiction texts by the woman-authors are considered to be the female discourse characterized with special outlook and gender-associated language peculiarities and it represents the female language person. The female prose texts undoubtedly reflect new aspects of woman's role and place in the world and also firm stereotypes of man-woman relationships and they created the model for woman the lack of which is felt in modern society. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n3s2p476

The burden of being exemplary: national sentiments, awkward witnessing, and womanhood in occupied Palestine

This paper offers an analysis of how Palestinian wives of detainees are made into examples, both by themselves and by the people they are intimate with, whilst considering also the context of these women's awkward place in Palestinian narratives of national becoming. The main objective is to examine the burden of being an example, and what that implies for those who aspire to or are subtly coerced into inhabiting the position of an ‘exemplary’ woman in Palestine. Particular modalities of being an example are expected from Palestinian wives of detainees in order to sustain a shared version of the ordinary under military occupation. Not surprisingly, the emotional labour it takes to appear exemplary is necessarily eliminated from public as well as intimate registers of speech in order to keep up the collective aspiration to maintain a so‐called ‘ordinary life’ during ongoing conflict.

Gender, Constructed Masculinities, and Recruitment in the US Military

Enlisting Masculinity: The Construction of Gender in US Military Recruiting Advertising During the All-Volunteer Force. By Melissa T. Brown. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. 229 pp., $74.00 hardcover (ISBN-13: 978-0-19-984282-7). Melissa T. Brown's Enlisting Masculinity offers a welcome contribution to feminist international relations scholarship through her examination of the recruitment strategies of the four branches of the US military. Given that the United States relies on an all-volunteer force (AVF), how does the military recruit new members? Brown argues that the military continues its traditional focus on masculinity to attract new recruits, but at the same time, each branch also utilizes different “constructions of masculinity,” of which conventional warrior masculinity is one type (p. 5). In the Introduction (Chapter 1), Brown posits two research questions. First, “when the military appeals to potential recruits, does it present service in masculine terms, and if so, what form or forms does that masculinity take?” And second, “how do recruiting materials construct gender as they create ideas about soldiering?” (p. 10). She draws attention to three main issues related to her research questions. The first relates to the actual “nature of military occupations.” The military is faced with the challenge of masculinizing noncombat jobs (for example, nursing and technical occupations). It does so by making the connection with combat and what it means to be a warrior. The second issue revolves around “women's place in the military's gendering of service.” This relates to women's integration into the services, while avoiding “disrupting the association between military service and masculinity that might draw in men.” The third issue concerns the differences between the branches (histories, “institutional culture,” and “specific personnel needs”). Each service employs “different constructions of masculinity” or uses “gender in their recruiting materials in significantly different ways” (p. 11). To answer her research questions …

A woman's place recurring: structuration, football fandom and sub-cultural subservience

This paper focuses on qualitative interviews with a sample of female football fans in order to explore and explain the spatial and temporal extension of gender subordination prevalent within football fandom cultures. To do so, it draws on structuration theory as presented by Anthony Giddens and concentrates attention on routine interactions and encounters as key factors that shape the constitution of football fandom cultures and the sub-cultural struggles encountered by females.