Option For Women Research Articles

The Morbidity Compression Debate: Risks, Opportunities, and Policy Options for Women

ABSTRACT The morbidity compression theory proposes that we can compress the period of illness and disability in old age into an ever smaller period at the end of life. Although recent research offers fresh support for the theory, its validity remains uncertain. This paper demonstrates the importance of the theory and recent research in this area for women. It critiques the chief proponent and opposing views of the theory, and suggests a heightened emphasis on public policies promoting healthy lifestyles. These policies would reduce long-term care needs, save health care dollars, and improve the experience of aging.

Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome: imperatives for the emergency physician

Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS) is a serious disorder complicating the use of ovary-stimulating drugs in assisted reproduction programs. While its pathogenesis is not fully understood, it is believed that human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) stimulation is vital to the development of OHSS. Further evidence suggests that the renin-angiotensin pathway, vascular endothelial growth factor, endothelin-1, and cytokines all play a role in altering ovarian capillary permeability, leading to increased interstitial fluid. OHSS can produce a myriad of symptoms and signs involving numerous body systems, up to and including hypovolemic shock and acute renal failure. As growing numbers of women opt for assisted reproduction, it becomes increasingly important for emergency physicians to be able to recognize this condition. Clinical classification into mild, moderate, severe, and critical forms of OHSS can help the physician plan appropriate investigations, admission requirements, and acute management. Two cases of OHSS, representing the spectrum of this problem, are presented along with a review of the literature.

Fewer women opt for IT

Fewer women opt for IT

‘On les aura!’: The gendered politics of abortion and the Alliance nationale contre la dépopulation, 1938–1944

This article examines the centrality of the interwar period's leading natalist‐familialist group, the Alliance nationale contre la dépopulation, in the creation of abortion policy during the Occupation. It asserts that the organisation did more than participate in the abortion debate between 1938 and 1944; through an intensive propaganda and legislative campaign, its leaders cultivated much of the public's and government's fixation on the issues. In doing so, the Alliance helped create the harsh abortion statutes included in the Daladier government's Family Code, laws that the Vichy regime intensified with the 300 Law of February 1942. In this instance, we can see how cultural and political debates about the roles of women in society played a key role in the State's attempt to limit French women's reproductive options. As a result, Vichy officials ultimately guillotined a woman who defied the law and traditional gender norms.

Risking Relationships: Understanding the Litigation Choices of Sexually Harassed Women

Resource mobilization and gender socialization theories go a long way toward explaining why so many sexually harassed women opt not to report their problems, but they shed little light on why some still choose to take action and sue. This article examines how relationality can affect a sexually harassed woman's decision to sue. An analysis of 31 litigation narratives shows that regardless of the severity of the harassment, or the amount of legal aid available, maternal responsibilities, marital commitments and parental approval can become pivotal considerations. Some considered the integrity of familial ties to be priceless assets worth suing for. Others deemed them too valuable to risk losing in a contest over rights. These narratives confirm feminist assertions that relationships—especially familial ones—often play a central role in the choices that women make. They also challenge popular assumptions about what constitutes a “personal choice” and under what circumstances women are likely to chose to litigate.

Rethinking Home Economics: Women and the History of a Profession.

Until recently, historians tended to dismiss home economics as little more than a conspiracy to keep women in the kitchen. This landmark volume initiates collaboration among home economists, family and consumer science professionals, and women's historians. What knits the essays together is a willingness to revisit the subject of home economics with neither indictment nor apology. The volume includes significant new work that places home economics in the twentieth century within the context of the development of women's professions. Rethinking Home Economics documents the evolution of a profession from the home economics movement launched by Ellen Richards in the early twentieth century to the modern field renamed Family and Consumer Sciences in 1994. The essays in this volume show the range of activities pursued under the rubric of home economics, from dietetics and parenting, teaching and cooperative extension work, to test kitchen and product development. Exploration of the ways in which gender, race, and class influenced women's options in colleges and universities, hospitals, business, and industry, as well as government has provided a greater understanding of the obstacles women encountered and the strategies they used to gain legitimacy as the field developed.

Practice and Research

SUMMARY The Practice Research Center is a joint endeavor between Adelphi University Graduate School of Social Work and the Department of Social Work Services at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. This paper will describe the work of the research center from 1983 to date. This collaborative effort of agency and school is focused on the students' acquiring an understanding and appreciation of a scientific/analytic approach to knowledge building for practice. Research opportunities for social work staff and students contributed to the initiation of empirical studies. The studies focused on current topics of interest that formed the delivery of social work services, enhanced programming and added to the knowledge of practice. Studies included a hunger survey; a survey of psychiatric patients' understanding of their illness following a psycho education intervention; a retrospective study to determine the extent to which breast cancer information influences a woman's surgical options of a lumpectomy or mastectomy; a two-tier study focused on the characteristics of foster children and the delivery of social work services; a patient and family satisfaction survey of psychiatric patients and their families. The authors will discuss the educational principles related to this effort.

Balancing Home and Employment: Stress Reported by Social Services Staff

The paper aims to contribute to an understanding of how stress from the combined responsibilities of home and employment varies according to the family circumstances and employment characteristics of women and men. For women, family responsibilities are associated with shorter hours of employment and lower occupational achievement, whereas for men, marriage is a career asset. Yet the reason for women's underachievement is disputed: some researchers claim that women's part-time work in low-paid, low-status jobs represent women's voluntary choice. Others argue that women's employment options are constrained by their domestic responsibilities; and that reducing hours of work and modifying career aspirations may represent one way of balancing home and employment so as to minimise stress. Data are used from the National Institute of Social Work (NISW) Workforce Survey of over 1000 women and men in four broad types of work in the social service departments of five English local authorities. Information is available on staff's perception of stress from combining paid and unpaid roles. We examine whether there are gender differences in reported stress among those who have structurally similar domestic circumstances; whether gender differences in stress can be explained in terms of occupational segregation and hours of employment; and whether the lower stress reported by part-time employees is independent of family responsibilities and type of occupation. A key concern is to assess whether part-time employment enables women with family responsibilities to avoid high levels of stress. There was increased stress on those staff with dependent children or with informal caring commitments. Men reported higher stress than women, irrespective of family circumstances, but the difference disappeared once account was taken of type of work and hours. Family responsibilities and employment characteristics had independent effects on stress levels. Type of work, in terms of level of responsibility, had more influence on stress than hours worked. Among full-time non-manual staff, women with family responsibilities experienced more stress than equivalent men, suggesting that women's occupational advancement is achieved at greater cost in terms of stress than men's.

Violating an Occupational Sex-Stereotype: Israeli Women Earning Engineering Degrees

The percentage of women engineering graduates in Israel has increased fourfold during the last two decades, but only a small percentage of Israeli women opt for these fields. We account for the current trend by a general theory of patterned deviance, viewing the recent increase of women's studying for engineering degrees as a case of nonconformity with a traditional norm. A simulation model of that theory reproduced 85.8% of the variance in the data on women engineering graduates between 1966 and 1987, indicating that the theory applies also in this case. The simulations show that it is becoming increasingly legitimate for women to study engineering and informal social control keeping women from enrolling in engineering has almost disappeared, but the internalized sex-stereotype still deters many women from taking such courses.

Sexual and gender harassment at university: Experiences and perceptions of australian women

Abstract The present study investigated women students' experience and perceptions of sexual and gender harassment on a university campus, using an adapted version of the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire. Although only 31.7% of students perceived that they had been sexually harassed, 91.3% reported at least one form of behaviour which could be perceived as sexually harassing: 88.1% from students and 53.2% from academics. Academics mainly engaged in gender harassment. Behaviours which students perceived as sexually harassing were students making unwanted attempts at establishing a sexual relationship, academics and students making sexist remarks about women's behaviour and career options, and students making crude or offensive sexual remarks. Students were more likely to perceive that they had been sexually harassed by academics than by students when sexist remarks about women's behaviour and career options were made, lending partial support to the hypothesis that hierarchical level of relationship influen...

Whither Women's Studies: A Women's Studies University?

progress in all aspects of public life. While women's participation in the political process proved less vigorous than many supporters had hoped, a product of the changing national political climate as well as women's own interests, there is no doubt that the entitlement to vote ushered in a greatly expanded sense of w men's possibilities. But if the next decades marked a symbolic and actual triumph of women's political options, the record of their intellectual progress is less propitious. In certain respects, the 1920s witnessed a critical advance in the educated woman's prospects. As Patricia Graham points out, in the 1920s women achieved their highest proportion of the undergraduate population, doctoral recipients; and faculty members, reaching a peak not again equaled until the 1970s. Nevertheless, widespread sex discrimination in academic hiring, promotions, and salary denied educated women economic and occupational security and reduced their opportunities for intellectual productivity. These circumstances continued for the next half century. Discrimination was only partially considered in the slew of popular and scholarly articles at the time that criticized women's intellectual achievements and raised the question of whether, indeed, women possessed the highest attributes of mind. Although the empirical investigations more than two decades earlier of social scientists like Helen Thomas Woolley and Leta HollingJoyce Antler teaches American studies at Brandeis University, where she formerly directed the Women s Studies Program. She was a founder and cochair of the Graduate Consortium in Women s Studies at Radcliffe College.

Devices and Desires: Population Policy and Gender Roles in the Islamic Republic

There is a widely held assumption that Islamist ideology is incompatible with modernity and feminism. Active debate in Iran about the dynamics of population policy and women's rights and responsibilities, together with the government's efforts to build public consensus on the need for birth control and family planning, however, suggest that Islam may be flexible and adaptable in response to political and economic realities. Iranian women individually and collectively have questioned the male interpretation of the proper Islamic role of women. They have encouraged the government to introduce reforms in the areas of marriage, divorce, and education, and are agitating for more improvement in women's legal and social position. These activities indicate that reproductive choices and strategies are not decided by Islam, but are the product of the political and economic realities of a given society. The first population policy of the Islamic Republic was formulated in 1989. Since then, the Family Planning Board has regenerated itself well beyond its pre-revolution capacity in terms of research and public services. Population policy before and after the Islamic Revolution, building national consensus on family planning, the family planning network, women's status, contradictory signals, and women's options are discussed.

Transition to Divorce: A Life-Course Approach to Women's Marital Duration and Dissolution

This study integrates social exchange theory and the literature on stressful life events into a life-course approach to women's marital duration. We hypothesize that circumstances facilitating a successful transition into marriage have a cumulative effect, enhancing the likelihood of increased marital duration. By contrast, factors easing the transition to divorce have a negative impact on marital duration. We draw on a sample of 313 wives and mothers in an upstate New York community interviewed in 1956 and reinterviewed thirty years later. We find that structural factors (marital duration and previous marriage) and factors that increase women's options outside of marriage, such as self-esteem and returning to school, are more important than attitudinal factors in hastening the transition to divorce. Factors that ease the transition to marriage (similarity in religious beliefs and educational level) may not necessarily affects its duration.

The Structure of ‘Revealed‘ Preference: Race, Community and Female Labour Supply in the London Clothing Industry

ABSTRACTThis article takes as its starting point the overwhelming concentration of Bangladeshi women in the homeworking sector of the clothing industry in London. This pattern forms a contrast to the large numbers of male Bangladeshi workers also concentrated in the garment industry but who are to be found mainly in the factories and sweatshops. The article uses the accounts given by the Bangladeshi homeworkers themselves for their concentration in this form of work to explore different theoretical explanations of female labour supply behaviour, focusing in particular on questions of choice and constraint, culture and economy.The study suggests that the ‘preferences' revealed by the labour market behaviour of Bangladeshi women cannot be attributed solely to them, but must be seen in terms of bargaining and negotiation with other, more powerful members of the family. Furthermore, the intra‐household decision‐making process is itself embedded within a broader institutional environment which determines the access enjoyed by different groups to socially‐valued resources. For Bangladeshis, a key factor in this broader environment is the operation of racially‐based forms of exclusion from the mainstream opportunities. Consequently, community solidarity and networks represent important symbolic and material resources for members. However, these resources are distributed in highly gender‐specific ways, with very clear implications for women's place within the community. The article argues therefore that any attempt to explain Bangladeshi women's concentration in homework has to move beyond a focus on either individual circumstances or cultural norms to an exploration of the interaction of racism, community identity and gender relations in shaping women's labour market options.

A woman's psychological response and adjustment to the breast cancer diagnosis.

The permanent loss of a breast from cancer brings forth a range of emotional and behavioral reactions. As more and more women opt for immediate breast reconstruction, plastic surgical nurses need to recognize the acute stress reactions these patients are experiencing. Not only should the disease itself be treated, but the individual suffering from the disease. This article provides an overview of women's psychological responses and adjustments to the breast cancer diagnosis that plastic surgical nurses need to consider.

Injectable Hormones and Regulatory Controversy: An End to the Long-Running Story?

The major complaint about injectable hormonal contraceptives, e.g., Depo-Provera (DMPA), is changes in menstrual patterns. In fact, menstrual alterations are the leading reasons women opt to discontinue their use. Injectables' ability to suppress ovulation over a long period and to cause extended endometrial atrophy can delay a return to fertility. Prior to 1967, clinicians used DMPA to treat endometrial cancer. In 1967, its manufacture, Upjohn, requested the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) permission to expand its use as a contraceptive. FDA wanted more clinical data because it was concerned about its effect on future fertility. It also requested animal studies on DMPA's effect on bone deposition and cancer risk. By 1978, there was so much evidence of increase risk of cervical and breast cancer in animal models and of birth defects that FDA decided not to approve DMPA. Upjohn had exhausted all options by 1986. WHO clinical research (conducted in Kenya, Mexico, and Thailand) revealed in 1991 that DMPA was not a carcinogen. In fact, DMPA users had a significantly lower risk of endometrial cancer than women who did not use DMPA. Clinical research in Thailand suggested that DMPA causes an increased risk of low birth weight and neonatal mortality. A case-control study in New Zealand indicated that DMPA users experienced more bond density loss than non-DMPA users. Nevertheless, FDA approved DMPA as a contraceptive in October 1992. It did order Upjohn to do a postmarket study of DMPA's effect on bone density and risk of osteoporosis, however. Despite its approval, the controversies would continue until further research provided more details about cancer and other risks. Before January 1993, Upjohn sold vials of DMPA to clinicians at $11 to $12 per injection. After January 1993, it began selling it in single-dose disposable syringes at a cost of $29.50. When the cost of a clinic visit is added, the cost per DMPA injection increases to about $50 ($200/year).

Women and Aids in Zimbabwe: The Making of an Epidemic

As the AIDS epidemic in Africa assumes major proportions, the need to understand the social context in which heterosexual transmission occurs takes on urgent importance. In this article we explore how the intersection of traditional culture with the colonial legacy and present-day political economy has influenced family structure and sexual relations, and particularly the social position of women. Drawing on Zimbabwe's historical experience, we show how land expropriation, rural impoverishment, and the forcible introduction of male migrant labor fostered new patterns of sexual relations, characterized by multiple partners. Traditional patriarchal values reinterpreted in European law resulted in further subjugation of women as even limited rights to ownership were withdrawn. For many women, sexual relations with men, either within marriage (for the majority) or outside, become inextricably linked to economic and social survival. In this setting, all sexually transmitted diseases became rampant, including genital ulcer, which facilitates transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Intervention programs to halt the spread of AIDS need to take into the account the epidemic's historical roots and social nature. For example, efforts to reduce risk of HIV transmission should seek to expand women's limited options, both technically (e.g., by providing alternatives to condoms) and socially (e.g., by promoting employment).

A Case of Promoting Breastfeeding in Projects to Limit Fertility

More women are protected from pregnancy in many countries through breastfeeding than through all family planning program contraceptive methods combined. Yet actions to promote breastfeeding have generally not been a significant part of World Bank population projects. This paper presents the case for promoting breastfeeding in Bank projects with fertility limitation objectives. It challenges assumptions that may have worked against including breastfeeding components in projects. It synthesizes recent research findings that cast light on this subject and outlines why promotive actions are necessary if the contraceptive effects of breastfeeding are to be maintained or enhanced. The paper advocates breastfeeding as a complement to other contraceptives and calls for family planning programs that are designed with local breastfeeding patterns in mind. It examines the compatibility of breastfeeding with women's other roles and argues that reducing barriers to breastfeeding will increase women's options for infant feeding.

Empowered By an Alternative Tradition: Women's Options in an Uncongenial Church

Empowered By an Alternative Tradition: Women's Options in an Uncongenial Church

The deflective power of reproductive technologies: the impact on women.

Advances in reproductive technologies are altering women's experience of maternity and childbirth. They increase medical intervention while decreasing women's options and control over maternity. Although presented as increasing individual choices for women, their potential is to restrict choices for women as a group. The Baby M case illustrates that women's experience of maternity is belittled even in the least technologically dependent arrangement of surrogacy. These technologies deflect pressures for social reforms by promising technological fixes for reproductive difficulties. Often these problems have social causes. Women delay motherhood and increase reproductive risks, for example. to conform to male career timetables. Reforming employment policies is blunted, though, by the technological turn. These technologies should not be allowed to deflect the women's movement from pressuring for social change.