Journal of Research On Women and Gender (JRWG)

Domestic violence severely impacts individuals and society as a whole. The purpose of this research study was to explore the gender differentiation observed in police officers' perceptions on mandatory arrest policies and domestic violence incidents, as well as to examine how those perceptions influence the decision to arrest in domestic violence cases. The first research question attempted to identify how officers are guided by arrest policies, specifically, mandatory arrest policies. Secondly, the researchers wanted to examine how officers perceive having to use mandatory arrest policies. Finally, the researchers sought to find out what other factors guide their decisions to make an arrest, as well as the difficulties that may arise during a domestic violence incident. A majority of officers believed that mandatory arrest policies are effective. While most officers believed that mandatory arrest polices were effective, many suggested that they might step outside of policy during certain situations. Factors such as weapon use, child involvement, substance use, injuries, and the scene of the crime were all found to be predictors of arrest in domestic violence situations. Challenges discussed by both male and female officers included difficulty in determining who the perpetrator was and overcoming language barriers in domestic violence incidents. Gender-based differences observed in responses among officers were minimal.

Indigenous women are frequently the traditional caretakers of water for their peoples but often their personal experiences in response to relocation or environmental ruin are ignored by researchers. This study examines the environmental challenges and the negative impacts that indigenous women experience in their cultural and spiritual roles with regard to water. Featured in this paper are the results of a conference that was co-organized by the author’s Indigenous Women’s Leadership Project and the Indigenous Peoples Task Force in the state of Minnesota in March 2008 with follow-up participant activity reports from 2009 and 2010. The conference brought together several indigenous women and girls from the United States, Canada, and Mexico to discuss the importance of water policy issues for indigenous women in their traditional role as caretakers of the water. Of significant importance were the exchanges that focused on the sacred nature of water and the many customary activities that have been compromised by environmental impacts on the surrounding natural habitats of fish, terrestrial animals, and ceremonial and medicinal plants. The implications for future research suggest that the development of culturally relevant political and public policy strategies that integrate the traditional values of indigenous peoples is essential for developing the environmental management and leadership potential among indigenous women and girls.

This textual analysis of a gendered media framing process addresses news coverage of Sally Mason, who was inaugurated as president of the University of Iowa in 2007. The coverage analyzed here focuses on two crises which Mason faced shortly after taking office: The alleged multiple sexual assault in 2007 of a female student-athlete by two male student-athletes and the flooding of the Iowa campus in 2008. In examining the related news texts of the city’s principal newspaper, the Press-Citizen, the authors have engaged in a critical inquiry into the ways in which reportorial routines reproduce the cultural-historical themes of patriarchy. Their analysis of the divergent directions of these two frames assigned to Mason and her leadership style— one negative in the sexual assault case and one positive in the later flood— are explained based on Reese’s (2008) framing process model of reification, transmission, and naturalization.

Studies have linked thin-ideal imagery in popular media to eating pathologies and related disorders. Although these disorders have long been associated with middle- and upper-class white women, racial or ethnic status may no longer confer a protective benefit, in part because the dominant white society’s cultural values, as conveyed through mainstream media, reach all ethnic groups. This survey of 106 young African American and 102 young Latino women supports the conclusion that Latinas identify more closely with mediated thin-ideal imagery, while black respondents appear more satisfied with their body image. Acculturation theory suggests that ethnic minority individuals who maintain links, including ethnic-media use, to their culture of origin will be less acculturated to the norms and values of dominant white society. Three-quarters of Latinas read a mainstream fashion/beauty magazine regularly, while half of African-Americans read ethnic magazines published for the black community.

The bias against independent citizenship for married women in America was evident
from the first major Naturalization Act of 1790 to the 1907 Expatriation Act which took
over a decade to repeal. For a century and a half after the Independence of the American
Colonies from Great Britain, laws and policies in the United States continued to be
influenced by British derivative law with some unique American interpretation. The
ideology of John Locke concerning the ideals of subjugation and the tenets of marital
British law regarding coverture and legal rights of married women professed by Sir
William Blackstone laid the groundwork for America’s view of married women’s
citizenship. The subsequent naturalization acts based on these ideologies and the failed
court cases attempting to reverse these laws allowed for the passage of the Expatriation
Act of 1907 which forced married women to forfeit their United States citizenship due to
the ethnicity and/or race of their husbands. Although the Cable Act of 1922 gave the
opportunity of individual citizenship for married women, it provided it inequitably. It
wasn’t until more than a decade after the Cable Act that some of the deficiencies of the
Act were revised. The inequities were recognized by some who prior to and throughout
this period, as a result of their writings and court cases, highlighted the unequal treatment
of married women, but the resistance, inertness and agendas of American leaders
continued. It was not until the middle of the 20th Century that many of the inequities were
corrected. This paper examines the provisions and ramifications of the major federal acts
and laws affecting citizenship of married women, their possible historical intent, and the
writings, testimonies and court cases of individuals who brought to the fore awareness of
the inequalities of married women’s citizenship.

Despite trends to recognize people as organizations’ most important resource, many countries struggle to acknowledge women as part of their resource pools, especially when it comes to filling leadership positions. This results in many women remaining part of the historical trend of fewer opportunities for career advancement and lower wages than for their male colleagues. Women in South Asian media, Nepal in particular for this study, face this challenging reality daily. Attempts to redress these disparities in Nepal notwithstanding, much remains undone. The 2008 Global Gender Gap Report, for instance, ranked Nepal 120th out of 130 countries on the Gender Gap Index, in which the World Economic Forum evaluates women’s standing in areas including health, education and financial/professional status. Moreover, it ranked Nepali women’s ability to rise to enterprise leadership at 3.82 out of a possible 7. Nepali women clearly lag behind men in media participation and decision making. Men dominate in top management positions, with few women serving on media commissions or committees. One cause of this disparity is male-dominated management environments in which the difference between male and female management styles and approaches makes it difficult for women to advance. In addition, religious and cultural barriers limit media enterprises’ openness to change and prevent them from fairly advancing female staff members.
This study explores female journalists’ experiences of management in traditionally male-dominated Nepali media environments. The researchers qualitatively evaluated respondents’ views on the importance and implementation of three managerial competencies (communication, teamwork and self-management) that form part of a competency-based approach to general management. Against this background, the article outlines preliminary research results pertaining to gaps between the importance female journalists attach to the above-mentioned three managerial competencies and their experience of how their predominantly male managers implement them in daily management of media newsrooms. Based on the research results, the researchers aimed to determine whether current management approaches in the Nepali media restrict or liberate female journalists interested in assuming leadership roles in their professions.

This research applied Andrew Karmen’s classifications of shared responsibility to the fictional victimizations of “anonymous victims” in the television program CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, exploring the extent to which male and female victims were considered responsible for their attacks. Findings indicate a disparity between the victimization of men and women. Storylines and visual aesthetics suggested that the victimization of anonymous men was random, therefore, male victims were not responsible for their crimes and were considered “completely innocent.” The victimization of anonymous men was quick and no sexual assault was involved. Female victims, on the other hand, were typically considered “facilitators” in their victimizations because they ignored basic rules of crime prevention or behaved in a “sexually inviting” manner. Almost all female victims were sexually assaulted and murdered, suggesting that they were not just killed, but were punished for their careless behavior. For both male and female victims, resistance proved to be futile and, in some cases, incited further attack.

Given the popularity of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, these findings are alarming. Numerous storylines convey the message that that women place themselves in danger and therefore are, to extent, responsible for becoming victims, whereas, male victims are “completely innocent.” These diverging representations perpetuate myths about rape (that women somehow “ask for it”) and overall reinforce a patriarchal hegemony in which women are too vulnerable to venture alone in public. By implicating female victims in their crimes, these fictional representations could hinder overall support in victimization discourse, and may discourage victims from reporting their crimes.

A revisionist look at historical writing from nineteenth century Guatemala with the strong suggestion that historians include non-traditional forms of historical data, such as travel writing, to illuminate the lives of underrepresented peoples in society. The author investigates Anglo-American travelers, comparing and contrasting the accounts of male and female adventurers and their specific mention of Mayan women in dress, manner, occupation, and as primary examples of the exotic “other” in Latin American context.

The world in general has experienced the division of the society into public and private spheres as a consequent, in most cases, of the patriarchal nature of the societies. The private sphere has for long been identified as the preserve of women while the public sphere has been identified with men. The public is identified with decision making, control, economic participation and authority and as a sphere of cultural politics. Today calls are being made to reverse patriarchal thinking and engender the public sphere and do away with the idea of viewing women as inferior and taking them as capable and equal participants in the public sphere. The 21st century has moved to accept women not only as capable leaders but also talented persons. The African public sphere has been affected by both modernity and tradition in its attempt to address the issue of gender equity. This paper argues first that the African public sphere is an imagined concept and a social construct by the society. As a result, the public sphere has been shaped and reshaped, defined and redefined owing to struggles between tradition and modernity and women and men in trying to engender this sphere.This paper argues that the public sphere though trying to fit in the globalisation process where gender has become fashionable, tradition has remained afloat and very significant. A gender concept that has become powerful in the African public sphere is masculinity as opposed to femininity and gender equality. In as much as gender equity has been accepted, the African society has remained dominated by several masculinities. However, as this paper argues, this is done not to address the woman question but to use women in the ensuing fights between the society’s existing masculinities. This paper examines the question that “Is the numerical increase of women in the African public sphere part of affirmative action or it is a career punctuated by talent and leadership qualities in governing the African public sphere?” The other issue relates to women as a class and the inequalities that come with women representation in the public sphere. All these issues constitute the dynamics of making and remaking the African public sphere as modernity and tradition are at continuous loggerheads. The paper examines these ideas using Zimbabwean politics and women politicians. Politics has been chosen because it is the most significant public sphere that allows women into public governing organs of decision making and authority.

In less than ten years, Ntozake Shange‘s for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf transformed from a loosely connected group of poems and improvised dances, to a stage production that ran on Broadway for two years, to a telefilm broadcast nationally on PBS‘ American Playhouse. In light of its several successful metamorphoses, the piece‘s greatest strength, like that of the women it depicts, is its ability to adapt and endure. This adaptability stems from its origins as a hybrid work comprised of poetry, dance and music, as well as from Shange‘s impressive capacity to collaborate, improvise and allow the piece to morph as necessary for shifting audiences and mediums. An examination of for colored girls‟ three major versions: group of poems, choreopoem, and telefilm, is utilized as a basis to critique the latter both as an autonomous work of art, and in relation to the versions that came before it. Though some of her original feminist vision was diminished, the drastic changes Shange made to FCG– most notably the addition of male characters– yielded a version viable for television and thus accessible to an infinitely larger audience. Many of the changes also function as an artistic response to accusations that the piece vilified black men, which saturated the press during the Broadway run and have since remained a major preoccupation of the critical literature. Analysis of the telefilm, which has yet to be thoroughly discussed by literary critics or theater historians, provides insights useful for future incarnations of this groundbreaking, oft-produced work of feminist theater.

Over the past 30 years, a great deal of research has been undertaken to enhance understanding of individual and organizational characteristics associated with entrepreneurship in general and women entrepreneurs in particular. As the scholarly study of female entrepreneurs and their businesses increases, a clearer understanding of women entrepreneurs and their businesses has begun to emerge. This paper contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by organizing the research stream about female entrepreneurs into several key areas, taking a critical and timely look at the key issues, and providing recommendations for addressing gaps in the literature.

The last decades of the 20th century witnessed a renewed emphasis on issues of women’s rights in the world polity. However, the growing importance of the international economy, with its attendant migratory labor and capital regimes, has increased the potential to exacerbate economic inequities and cultural differences, including those that perpetuate gender inequalities. Using Grotian political theories and post-1989 data from diverse sources, this study analyzes macro-level world polity aspects of international development, gender equality, and the potential for achieving female eudaimonia. The study posits different testable hypotheses and supports these with a multivariate cross-sectional time-series analysis of the data.

Rock climbing and mountaineering have historically been viewed as “male only endeavors” which are too strenuous and too dangerous to be undertaken by women. However, since the 1970s, more women have joined the climbing community and have pushed the limits of difficulty once thought to be unattainable. Although still a minority, women do engage in this athletic endeavor yet receive little or no attention in the media for their successes. Climbing magazine is the longest running and most widely circulated publication in the United States that is dedicated solely to reporting on rock climbing and mountaineering. The purpose of this study was to analyze the way in which female rock climbers are represented in Climbing magazine by investigating the publication‟s feature articles and photographs over a 14-year time period, 1991-2004. Results suggest that the few images and descriptors of female climbers in Climbing work to “normalize” the female climbers as “real” women by emphasizing their heterosexuality and domesticity, highlighting their feminine physique, and infantilizing them as a means to disempower.

Susanna Haswell Rowson‟s novel, Reuben and Rachel (1798), offers readers an in-depth look at nation building through the eyes of her female, half Indian characters. The two volumes of the text have very distinct functions. Volume one represents Rowson‟s idealized vision of America; the America where women have active voices, Indians are represented as human beings, and the deserving are rewarded for their suffering. Volume two, on the other hand, represents the America that exists in 1798, full of fear, suffering, savage Indians, and women without voices. Since these volumes are polar opposites of each other, a bridge must exist in the text to unite the two volumes and complete Rowson‟s vision of the nation.

The au pair program is known as a cultural exchange providing its participants with the ability to see what life is like in a different part of the world. Advertised to potential host parents as one of “the most affordable childcare options available” (“Program costs § Cultural Care Au Pair”), au pairs are intertwined with the global market of migrant female domestic workers. The au pair program can be analyzed in conjunction with globalization not only from the standpoint of the transnational mobility of services, but also due to the clearly defined division of reproductive labor and intra-gender power relations that this type of work entails. Women entering the professional sector to work in high-powered managerial positions have contributed to the rise of what Saskia Sassen calls “professional households without a wife.” As a consequence, domestic roles get reconfigured: professional women leave the home, providing room for the young student from abroad in the form of an au pair.

The following paper is a qualitative analysis of the role of the au pair in light of her responsibilities as a domestic worker within the household. Data gathered for this paper have been a result of my work over a period of six months (January – june 2009) with a group of ten au pairs, serving the North Shore of Chicago, who were my students in conversational English as a Second language classes. After meeting on a weekly basis in the academic setting throughout the course of the semester, each woman sat down with me for two hours in a mutually agreed upon setting to discuss her role as a cultural exchange visitor in the United States, and as a member of the host family, with which she resided. The au pairs who are the participants in this study range in age from 19-26 and descend from both European and South American countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Brazil, Bolivia, and Colombia).

Queer theory keeps changing as scholarly studies introduce new hypotheses on the relevance of gender in examination of culture and art. Using the definition of transgender as crossing the boundaries of society’s “normative” sexual roles, this paper explores how transgender in Rachilde’s life significantly impacted her plays. It touches upon transvestitism, staging gender and adds to the scholarly works on women’s studies and gender studies. Marguerite Eymery Vallette presented herself as Rachilde, a man of letters in 1877. She was an important member of the symbolism and decadent writing movements in the 1890s. Cross-dressing and presenting herself as a man profoundly impacted the themes, symbolism and characters of her plays. Did this transgender give her freedom or did it become a straight-jacket limiting her work?

Even though she claimed she was not a feminist, Rachilde embodied the freedom that women sought and wrote plays that vivified the struggles men and women had against conventions of society that defined civilized or gentile behavior. The critical methodology used for the examination of her plays is to review her themes, symbolism, characters and dialogue in terms of transgender reflections. Rachilde used transgender in complicated forms to express her frustrations with society’s view of her personally and her works. Scholarly works on Rachilde have primarily focused on the translation of her work, her biography and analysis of her novels with no consideration of how the influence of transgender is manifested in her dramatic works. This paper will discuss transgender and explore its influence on Madame La Mort, La Poupee Transparent and L’Araignée de cristal to fill a gap in the analysis of Rachilde’s work. Rachilde’s plays express the complexity of transgender that is not only valid during le fin de siècle but continues to be significant during the current era.

In this paper, I explore the issues brought about by the barriers to healthcare for transgender, intersex, and the two-spirit peoples of Canada. I deconstruct specific policies that serve as major barriers in Canada; however, the ideological and theoretical underpinnings of heterosexism, sexism, and racism can be similarly explored across many geographical spaces. I draw upon critical theoretical literature, my own professional experience in social service settings, as well as activist work as a member of the queer community. The health care system is the main institution analyzed in this paper, yet broader social determinants of health policies and practices are also explored such as the right to affordable and quality housing, living free from violence, and the rights to employment equity and self-determination. This paper concludes with policy recommendations aiming to promote social justice for people who are transgender, two-spirit, and intersex.

This qualitative study examined female sportswriters‟ influences on sports journalism. Interviews with 12 women who broke the locker room barrier in the 1970s and 1980s showed that the journalists fought hard to gain access to athletes‟ inner sanctum. Once they gained access, they endured harassment and embarrassment, but ultimately landed compelling stories from their subjects. The women broke many barriers for women sportswriters today. However, with a shrinking journalism industry and continuing discrimination, their efforts are unlikely to produce job equity in the near future for women journalists or for media coverage of women‟s sports.

During six focus groups of mass communications majors viewing three music videos featuring women artists, women read the videos critically for gender. But their critiques relied on problematic “girl power” versions of feminism that resulted in incomplete or ineffective arguments. Although participants rejected what they perceived as unrealistically beautiful and hyper-sexualized representations of women's bodies, participants' interest in critiquing the videos was limited to what the artists looked like. Participants did not name the visual production techniques that objectify women's bodies and did not discuss industry sexism or power relations unless prompted. Instead, participants blamed women artists for exploiting “sex sells” in their videos.

The need to make a concrete connection between human rights and women’s rights is ironic considering that one half of humanity is female. Gender inequality is the most pressing contemporary human rights issue, including disparities in education, employment, healthcare, power and decision-making, violence, and poverty that impact billions of women and girls from every part of the world throughout their lifetime (UN Statistical Division, 2010; UNWomen, 2011a). Despite a long and documented history of virtual “gendercide” against women and girls, this disparity has been treated as non-existent or ignored or, if acknowledged, regarded as unimportant or insignificant by the global community. Led by the United Nations (UN), there is a growing global human rights effort to redress deeply rooted gender inequality. This paper will focus on sexual and reproductive health, examining both the extent of the problem and exploring some real and potential solutions. Specific topics addressed include an overview of gender-based inequality, female reproductive justice and healthcare, a brief history of women's health rights, the UN human rights framework, current global human rights initiatives focused on women, and action taken by women human rights defenders.

In this article, excerpts from a qualitative dissertation study conducted in 2009-2010 at the University of Denver are shared through the narratives of Rachel, Abbie, and Marilyn, three African American female students attending the institution. This article challenges us to consider the dynamics that occur between African American women and a predominantly white campus community within the physical and landscaped spaces of the campus. Through their narratives we discover their experiences of navigating the boundaries of hypervisibility and invisibility as racially gendered women. This inquiry posits that we need to consider the psychological impact of how the architectural design of a campus environment can create unwelcoming spaces and unpleasant experiences. These spaces serve to further perpetuate the historical dominant ideologies of identity that led to the marginalization and harassment of African American women.

This essay examines the roles of women in Mexican Revolution plays written by Mexican playwrights, María Luisa Ocampo, El corrido de Juan Saavedra (1929) and Elena Garro, Felipe Ángeles (1966). By theorizing the various roles that women held in the Mexican Revolution, these plays demonstrate how the female body consisting of sensuality and sexuality is negotiated within a political and social context to generate the roles of soldaderas, prostitutas, inteligentes and heroínas. The development of these terms intends to show the complexities that female bodies add to history, specifically, within the Mexican Revolution, as well as their impact on performative subjectivities, notions of femininity, and cultural production. Finally, by providing excerpts of the plays El corrido de Juan Saavedra and Felipe Ángeles, the essay provides a way to rethink the female body as something other than a sexualized and romanticized political symbol. The playwrights reflect on the connections and contradictions, as the Mexican female body constitutes sites for reconfigurations of power. The female bodies in each of the plays identify with a subjectivity that claims agency through a self-conscious process recreating the female body as an instrument of social and political resistance in the roles of soldaderas, prostitutas, inteligentes and heroínas.

Cultural continuity exists in Native America today, although the channel for transmission of cultural values continually changes. Athabascan women in both Alaska and Canada have been interviewed extensively throughout the Twentieth Century to show important ethnographic details of their lives. Four researchers in particular are of interest in this study because of their research on women’s puberty observances in Athabascan societies: Cornelius Osgood who worked with the Gwich’in in both Alaska and Canada in 1932; Dorothy Libby who worked over the summer of 1948 and 1949 in Southern Yukon Territory, Canada; Anna Rooth who worked in 1966 in Alaska; and Julie Cruikshank who worked in Yukon Territory 1975 – 1976. The above researchers identified personal challenges faced by Athabascan women during times of great change. Changes in government policies, western encroachment and subsequent historical events, such as the gold rush and the introduction of the Alaskan highway, have led Athabascan women to adapt age old observances, for example puberty observances, to incorporate in modern lives. In today’s Northern Athabascan society puberty seclusion is no longer followed, yet Athabascan values, which girls were taught during puberty seclusion and observances, can be seen in the everyday life of contemporary Athabascan peoples. The transmission of cultural values can be seen in contemporary vehicles such as Velma Wallis’ book Two Old Women. The discussion which follows illustrates cultural continuity in today’s Northern Athabascan societies, by comparing and contrasting Northern Athabascan people’s puberty observances and seclusion with Velma Wallis’ book Two Old Women. By first examining the early ethnographic scholarship and marking the changes over time, evidence of this continuity can be seen in the continuance of Northern Athabascan values such as self-sufficiency, hard work, and responsibility to village. Further illustrations of how such values have endured into the present day are shown.

Critical race theory has affirmed that popular culture represents African-American women in narrowly defined stereotypical roles that are long lasting, dichotomous and degrading. However, not as common are studies that look at creative and imaginative shared portrayals of the group. This essay applies symbolic convergence theory (SCT) with its critical method, fantasy theme analysis (FTA), to explore Don Imus and his co-hosts’ use of stereotypes in their depiction of members of the Rutgers basketball team. While Imus began the characterization of members of the mostly black team as “rough girls” and “nappy-headed hos,” his co-hosts contributed to his fantasy, resorting to stereotypes deeply entrenched in cultural narratives of black women. The Imus faux pas occurred several years ago; however, many of the same stereotypes continue to resurface in media portrayals of African-American women, particularly in social media outlets. For instance, dozens of Facebook hate groups target Michelle Obama, using both racist and sexist language that questions her personality, femininity and beauty. While media have made inroads in improving representations of women and people of color, historical stereotypes of black women are still a prominent part of cultural narratives. Scholars must constantly challenge such portrayals and advocate for alternative, meaningful and consistent depictions.

The Shack is a story about a Christian man, Mack, who encounters God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit one weekend after experiencing a family tragedy. Mack is surprised to find that each of the characters presents him or herself as a person of color. This seemingly progressive, anti-racist depiction of the trinity was wildly popular among evangelical readers, many of whom gushed that the story is life-changing and faith-renewing. Using feminist scholarship, critical whiteness theory, and a history of Evangelical race relations, this article gives an alternative reading of The Shack, making the argument that the story reifies racist stereotypes and reinstates the authority of the white, male liberal subject. Tracing the influence of Enlightenment discourse on Christian beliefs about bodily transcendence, this article makes the argument that the structures of whiteness are fundamental for American Evangelicalism’s culture and theology. Ultimately, The Shack is an exploratory story about racial reconciliation within the evangelical community; however, The Shack does not challenge the popular evangelical conception that racism is nothing more than conflict between individuals on the basis of racial stereotypes. The Shack continues to ignore the structural privileging of whiteness, colluding with racist systems by ultimately failing to undermine them.

Population policy, especially fertility control policy, has been vital for China in the past few decades. At the end of 1970s, due to the fast speed of population growth and eagerness of economic and social development, China started a unique population policy known as the “one-child policy”. In this paper, we will explore the effects of the current fertility control policy on Chinese women. More specifically, the paper will explain the gains of Chinese women from the policy. According to our study, we find that women benefited from dissemination and promotion of contraceptive uses, at least when the policy was implemented in the earlier 1980s. Through methods of contraception, women were able to control fertility by themselves. By reducing number of children each woman has, a family accumulates more resources for children in the next generation, including female children. Due to the reduction in family members by fertility control, Chinese find more female or female-related relatives in their life. These changes will lead to a more harmonious society among human beings as well as between humans and nature.

Current Chinese population policy started in early 1980s and is one of the most controversial population policies in the world. Some labeled the policy as an aggressive anti-natalist policy, due to coercion of the contraceptive practice (for example, Abrams, 1996: 23). Criticism comes mostly from Western societies and they viewed the policy from different angles. September 2010 was the 30th year since the controversial policy was begun. Experiences over the years enable us to reflect on the current population policy from its background of having the policy and the special effects of the policy on the Chinese. This paper will specifically examine the effect of population policy in 1980s on Chinese women and discuss the contribution of women in the sustainable development in China in general.

China is about to undergo a stunning demographic transformation, a rapidly aging population. Despite the influence of the aging process on women’s lives, very few works analyze the interconnectedness of gender and aging. This article analyzes the interrelationship between China’s aging population, gender inequality, and elderly women’s poverty. Since gender issues in aging have been ignored, idealistic models to promote the well-being of the elderly fail to address the specific needs of aging women. Traditional attitudes in China toward caring for the elderly have met serious challenges as a result of China’s economic reform, one-child policy, and social acceptance of individualistic development and competitive life-styles. I argue that a fruitful way for dealing with the “graying” population of China is not to abandon her traditions but to call upon a Confucian notion of reciprocity that provides guidelines for the respect and care for the elderly through a joint effort of family, community, and government support. When properly revised and infused with gender consciousness, the Confucian tradition points the way to attending specifically to the needs of disadvantaged elderly women.
While Confucianism emphasizes how humans can live together and create a just society with a benevolent government, it, like Daoism, points to the importance of harmony with nature. I will argue that the needs of elderly Chinese will be well-served not just by interweaving gender consciousness into the tradition of Confucianism, but also by emphasizing an ecological consciousness; cooperation with nature will foster limited growth within a steady state economy and sustainable development that will help all elderly, both women and men, in the long run.
 

African American and Black British women exhibited a complicated relationship with reproductive rights activism in the 1970s and 1980s. As women’s health work developed in both countries to focus attention on abortion or expanding women’s access to birth control methods, Black women were often wary of these new “freedoms.” Much of this reticence centered on the ways in which “choice” had been defined by mainstream society. Black women’s participation in the women’s health movement attempted to develop a more complicated definition of choice to demonstrate that more contraceptive options for White women could also mean fewer choices for Black women. They provided a critique of reproductive abuses that centered race, class, and immigration status as significant arbiters of Black women’s health status. They demonstrated a deep-seated hostility toward and mistrust of medical professionals who they saw as working to systematically strip Black women of their reproductive freedom. Black women believed that the medical profession saw them as incapable of controlling their fertility and used this as a reason to rob them of their agency. Opposition to Depo-Provera provides one demonstration of the complexity of this issue and illustrates that Black women’s reproductive rights activism was about protecting Black women’s bodies while also safeguarding Black motherhood. And in this way they connected reproductive health with the general health of all Black women, and at times the Black community as a whole to make reproductive rights the distinct domain of women of color, poor women and, at times, Black people writ large.

In this paper, a postcolonial feminist social work perspective is presented as key to analyzing the intersections between population growth and sustainability within the context of globalization. This new theoretical perspective offers attention to the historical complexity of gendered and racialized power relations within and between systems, honors the agency of all women and reflects core values of social work, social justice and self-determination. The application of this perspective to the intersections between population growth and sustainability can lead to a re-envisioning international and national policies to promote both reproductive justice and sustainability.
World population growth is identified in popular discourse as a key barrier to environmental sustainability (Campbell, 2007), causing or exacerbating a multitude of problems, including “climate change and global warming, fragile and failed states, migration and refugee crises, food and water insecurity, poverty, disease, debt, and illiteracy”(Redding, 2007, p. 1). The link made between women’s fertility and ecological and social disaster is not new, and has sometimes led to policies that impede women’s reproductive rights and jeopardize their health (Hartmann & Hendrixon, 2005).
A postcolonial feminist social work perspective draws attention to the context of global inequality, produced historically by colonialism and currently by the economic dimensions of globalization. It is the economic dimensions of globalization that threaten environmental sustainability and reproductive justice. A postcolonial feminist social work perspective reframes the discussion of population growth and sustainability, based on the core values of social justice and self-determination, and can promote optimum outcomes in terms of environmental sustainability and reproductive justice.