Showing papers in "Gender & Society in 2003"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore implications of a two-sided dynamic for understanding gendering processes in formal organizations, using stories from interviews and participant observation in multinational corporations, and define practicing gender as a moving phenomenon that is done quickly, directionally (in time), and (often) nonreflexively; is informed by liminal awareness; and is in concert with others.
Abstract: Recently, the study of gender has focused on processes by which gender is brought into social relations through interaction. This article explores implications of a two-sided dynamic—gendering practices and practicing of gender—for understanding gendering processes in formal organizations. Using stories from interviews and participant observation in multinational corporations, the author explores the practicing of gender at work. She defines practicing gender as a moving phenomenon that is done quickly, directionally (in time), and (often) nonreflexively; is informed (often) by liminal awareness; and is in concert with others. She notes how other conceptions of gender dynamics and practice inform the analysis and argues that adequate conceptualization (and potential elimination) of harmful aspects of gendering practices/practicing will require attention to (1) agency, intentionality, awareness, and reflexivity; (2) positions, power, and experience; and (3) choice, accountability, and audience. She calls f...
705 citations
TL;DR: Results from multiple regression analyses provide evidence of a gendered division of parental care tasks, a decline in the patrilocal tradition of caregiving, and a strong social pressure that influences caregiving behavior.
Abstract: The authors explore the changing dynamics of gendered familial caregiving in urban China within the context of economic reforms and the continued cultural influence of xiao (filial piety). Data collected in China through interviews with 110 familial caregivers were used to examine cultural and structural influences on the caregiving behavior of adult children. Results from multiple regression analyses provide evidence of a gendered division of parental care tasks, a decline in the patrilocal tradition of caregiving, and a strong social pressure that influences caregiving behavior. Structural factors linked to caregiving performance included family size, lack of pensions for elders, and caregivers’ employment status and income. Findings portend deleterious effects for the women who are now caregivers as they are likely to live longer but be more financially dependent and have fewer children available to help them.
380 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the way second-generation Asian American young women describe doing gender across ethnic and mainstream settings, as well as their assumptions about the nature of Asian and white femininities, and found that respondents narratively construct Asian and Asian American cultural worlds as quintessentially and uniformly patriarchal and fully resistant to change.
Abstract: Integrating race and gender in a social constructionist framework, the authors examine the way that second-generation Asian American young women describe doing gender across ethnic and mainstream settings, as well as their assumptions about the nature of Asian and white femininities. This analysis of interviews with 100 daughters of Korean and Vietnamese immigrants finds that respondents narratively construct Asian and Asian American cultural worlds as quintessentially and uniformly patriarchal and fully resistant to change. In contradistinction, mainstream white America is constructed as the prototype of gender equality. Hence, Asian American and white American women serve in these accounts as uniform categorical representations of the opposing forces of female oppression and egalitarianism. The authors consider how the relational construction of hegemonic and subordinated femininities, as revealed through controlling images that denigrate Asian forms of gender, contribute to internalized oppression and ...
329 citations
TL;DR: The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 has been presented as an important tool in combatingthe exploitation and abuse of undocumented workers, especially those forced into prostitution as discussed by the authors, which makes strategic use of anxieties over sexuality, gender and immigration.
Abstract: The Trafficking Victims’ Protection Act of 2000 has been presented as an important tool in combatingthe exploitation and abuse of undocumented workers, especially those forced into prostitution. Through a close reading of the legislation and the debates surrounding its passage, this article argues that the law makes strategic use of anxieties over sexuality, gender, and immigration to further curtail migration. The law does so through the use of misleading statistics creating a moral panic around “sexual slavery,” through the creation of a gendered distinction between “innocent victims” and “guilty migrants,” and through the demand that aid to victims be tied to their willingness to assist in the prosecution of traffickers. As a result, the legislation is less a departure from, than of a piece with, other recent antisex and antiimmigrant policies.
303 citations
TL;DR: The roles of women and of feminine identity have been historically and traditionally constructed around motherhood as discussed by the authors, however, recent years have seen a growing trend among women to remain childless/childfree.
Abstract: The roles of women and of feminine identity have been historically and traditionally constructed around motherhood. However, recent years have seen a growing trend among women to remain childless/ childfree. Drawing on interviews with 25 voluntarily childless women, this article considers the extent to which this trend results from the appeal or pull of the perceived advantages of a childfree lifestyle as well as the ways childfree women might represent a more fundamental and radical rejection of motherhood and the activities associated with it. The article concludes by considering how to recast understandings of feminine identity away from a mother-centered focus.
249 citations
TL;DR: In contrast to popular presumptions and prior research on women of the postfeminist generation, this paper found an appreciation for recent historicalchanges in women's opportunities, and an awareness of persisting inequalities and discrimination.
Abstract: In contrast to popular presumptions and prior research on women ofthe “postfeminist” generation, this study found anappreciation for recent historicalchanges in women’s opportunities, and an awareness of persisting inequalities and discrimination. The findings reveal support for feminist goals, coupled with ambiguity about the concept offeminism. Although some of the women could be categorized alonga continuum of feminist identification, half were “fence-sitters” or were unable to articulate a position. There were variations in perspectives amongthose with different life experiences, as well as by racial and class background.
222 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a study of service interactions in Korean immigrant women-owned nailsalons in New York City introduces the concept "body labor" to designate a type of gendered work that involves the management of emotions in body-related service provision.
Abstract: This ethnographic study of service interactions in Korean immigrant women–owned nailsalons in New York City introduces the concept “body labor” to designate a type of gendered work that involves the management of emotions in body-related service provision. The author explores variation in the performance of body labor caused by the intersection of the gendered processes of beauty service work with the racialized and class-specific service expectations of diverse customers. The study examines three distinct patterns of service provision that are shaped by racial and class inequalities between women: (1) high-service body labor, (2) expressive body labor, and (3) routinized body labor. These patterns demonstrate that a caring, attentive style of emotional display is dominant in workplaces governed by white, middle-class “feeling rules” but that different racial and class locations call forth other forms of gendered emotionalmanagement that focus on displaying respect, reciprocity, fairness, competence, and ...
203 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the extent and ways in which "feminine beauty" is highlighted in fairy tales and compare those tales that have survived (e.g., Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty) with those that have not.
Abstract: This study advances understanding of how a normative feminine beauty ideal is maintained through cultural products such as fairy tales. Using Brothers Grimm's fairy tales, the authors explore the extent and ways in which “feminine beauty” is highlighted. Next, they compare those tales that have survived (e.g., Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty) with those that have not to determine whether tales that have been popularized place more emphasis on women's beauty. The findings suggest that feminine beauty is a dominant theme and that tales with heavy emphases on feminine beauty are much more likely to have survived. These findings are interpreted in light of changes in women's social status over the past 150 years and the increased importance of establishing forms of normative social control to maintain a gender system.
182 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the complexity of domestic labor in the context of global migration is examined, and the authors demonstrate how women travel through the maid/madam boundary and bargain with the monetary and emotional value of their labor.
Abstract: This article examines the complexity of feminized domestic labor in the context of global migration. I view unpaid household labor and paid domestic work not as dichotomous categories but as structural continuities across the public and private spheres. Based on a qualitative study of Filipina migrant domestic workers in Taiwan, I demonstrate how women travel through the maid/madam boundary—housewives in home countries become breadwinners by doing domestic work overseas, and foreign maids turn into foreign brides. While migrant women sell their domestic labor in the market, they remain burdened with gendered responsibilities in their own families. Their simultaneous occupancy of paid and unpaid domestic labor is segmented into distinct spatial settings. I underscore women’s agency by presenting how they articulate their paid and unpaid domestic labor and bargain with the monetary and emotional value of their labor.
181 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored the experiences of 29 South Asian and Chinese Canadian female family caregivers and found that caregiving was central to their role as women and members of their ethnocultural community, and women were often engaged in paid labor that compressed the time available to fulfill their duties as caregivers.
Abstract: Migration often requires the renegotiation of familial and gender roles as immigrants encounter potentially competing values and demands. Employing ethnographic methods and including in-depth interviewing and participant observation, the authors explore the experiences of 29 South Asian and Chinese Canadian female family caregivers. Caregiving was central to their role as women and members of their ethnocultural community. The women were often engaged in paid labor that compressed the time available to fulfill their duties as caregivers. Women’s role in the transmission of cultural values that serve to shore up the boundaries of their ethnic community did not allow for significant renegotiation of their caregiving responsibilities despite disrupted family networks and increased demands. These caregiving arrangements are more costly to women in Canada than in their countries of origin.
150 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss three major dilemmas embedded in women's labor migration by focusing on undocumented Latina migrants in Israel and discuss the role of mothers who, to secure a better future for their children, are forced to leave them behind, thus subverting the traditional definition of motherhood.
Abstract: This article discusses three major dilemmas embedded in women's labor migration by focusing on undocumented Latina migrants in Israel. The first is that to break the cycle of blocked mobility in their homelands, migrant women must take jobs that they would have never taken in their countries of origin, despite uncertainty about possible economic outcomes. The second dilemma is that the search for economic betterment leads Latina migrants to risk living and working illegally in the host country, forcing them to remain on the margins of society. The third dilemma relates to the role of mothers who, to secure a better future for their children, are forced to leave them behind, thus subverting the traditional definition of motherhood. The absence of an egalitarian notion and the practice of citizenship for non-Jews leave undocumented labor migrants in Israel without prospects for incorporation into the society.
TL;DR: In this article, the societal and cultural image of Black women as strong and suggests that this seemingly affirming portrayal is derived from a discourse of enslaved women's deviance, and the analysis extends current feminist theory by considering the ways in which the weight many strong African American women carry is reflective of the deviant and devalued womanhood they are expected to embody both within and outside their culture.
Abstract: This article questions the societal and cultural image of Black women as strong and suggests that this seemingly affirming portrayal is derived from a discourse of enslaved women’s deviance. In highlighting connections between perceived strength and physical size among Black women, the analysis extends current feminist theory by considering the ways in which the weight many strong African American women carry is reflective of the deviant and devalued womanhood that they are expected to embody both within and outside their culture.
TL;DR: This paper found that white, middle-class, heterosexual women often worry about being nice, polite, kind, and selfless in their interactions during labor and childbirth, and that an internalized sense of gender plays a role in disciplining women and their bodies during childbirth.
Abstract: Relational, selfless, caring, polite, nice, and kind are not how we imagine a woman giving birth in U.S. culture. Rather, we picture her as screaming, yelling, self-centered, and demanding drugs or occasionally as numbed and passive from pain-killing medication. Using in-depth interviews with women about their labor and childbirth, the author presents data to suggest that white, middle-class, heterosexual women often worry about being nice, polite, kind, and selfless in their interactions during labor and childbirth. This finding is important not only because it contradicts the dominant cultural image of the birthing woman but because it reveals that an internalized sense of gender plays a role in disciplining women and their bodies during childbirth. The feminist sociological literatures on birth are concerned with how women and their bodies are controlled, yet they have overlooked this other dimension of control that is not institutional but is a product of how gender is internalized.
TL;DR: This article found that most women emphasize cultural and social issues, such as relationship status and quality, health, and sexual history, rather than menopausal changes when they describe sex after menopause.
Abstract: Past research finds that after menopause some women experience negative changes such as vaginal dryness, decreased libido, and decreased orgasm quality; very little research inquires about positive changes. In contrast, this study shifts the research focus from whether women experience menopausal changes to how women view any changes in sex life. Based on 30 in-depth interviews with heterosexual and lesbian women, the author finds that most women emphasize cultural and social issues, such as relationship status and quality, health, and sexual history, rather than menopausal changes when they describe sex after menopause. However, she finds a difference by sexual orientation in how women handle problems in sex. The author concludes by discussing the implication of this research for future menopause and sex research; most important, she emphasizes studying sex in the context of women's lives rather than as a result of the biological changes of menopause.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify four postfeminist claims: (1) overall support for the women's movement has dramatically eroded because some women are increasingly antifeminist, (2) believe the movement is irrelevant, and (3) have adopted a "no, but.."version of feminism.
Abstract: Accordingto the mass media, a postfeminist era emerged in the 1990s. The first objective is to develop a definition of the postfeminist perspective. Based on an informal content analysis of popular articles, the authors identify four postfeminist claims: (1) overall support for the women’s movement has dramatically eroded because some women (2) are increasingly antifeminist, (3) believe the movement is irrelevant, and (4) have adopted a “no, but..”.version of feminism. The second objective is to determine the extent of empirical support for these claims. Usingexistingpublic opinion data, the authors find little support for the four postfeminist claims. Implications of the unsubstantiated post-feminist argument are discussed.
TL;DR: In this article, the configuration of domestic service within local milieus under globalization is examined using Taiwan as a case study, and the authors argue that the state continues to have an impact even in this age of global interdependence.
Abstract: This article examines the configuration of domestic service within local milieus under globalization. Using Taiwan as a case study, the author argues that the state continues to have an impact even in this age of global interdependence. The management of foreign domestics within employers’ households is not only important for labor control but also central to the state’s administration over alien subjects. The case of Taiwan calls attention to the necessity of bringing the state back into the analysis of gender and carework.
TL;DR: This paper used the headscarf affair to explore Muslim immigrant women's views of their place in French society and reveal that even those who disagree with French public opinion often invoke arguments that are more French than North African.
Abstract: The “headscarf affair,” Muslim girls wearing veils to school, has generated a storm of controversy in France. This study uses the headscarf affair to explore Muslim immigrant women's views of their place in French society and reveals that even those who disagree with French public opinion often invoke arguments that are more French than North African. Interviews with 41 North African women show that younger, well-educated women defend the headscarf as a matter of personal liberty and cultural expression. Older, poorly educated women either defend or reject the veil but never discuss the issue of secularism. In dismissing the veil, they rely on a different understanding of Muslim womanhood. A third group opposes the veil, arguing that the goal of school is integration. Respondents' answers are interpreted according to structural factors and cultural repertoires, both North African and French.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the apparent paradox between women's positive perceptions of empowerment and the overall negative impact of structural adjustment policies on women in India and found that while there are increasing inequalities for households, women do not consider these to be gender disadvantages, emphasizing instead the opportunities for greater independence.
Abstract: Globalization of the Indian economy has dramatically influenced social life in India. The expansion of the middle class is said to have occurred as a consequence of this process. Based on ethnographic research among lower-middle-class families in West Bengal, India, the author examines the apparent paradox between women's positive perceptions of empowerment and the overall negative impact of structural adjustment policies on women. Many scholars argue that globalization has been detrimental to women due to growing structural gender inequalities, but many respondents identify greater opportunities to challenge preexisting patriarchal norms through the role models available in the globalized media. While there are increasing inequalities for households, women do not consider these to be gender disadvantages, emphasizing instead the opportunities for greater independence. The author pays particular attention to the confluence of the prowomen consumer discourses of the global market with earlier developmental...
TL;DR: The authors examines the tensions in the identities of men who belong to the Promise Keepers (PK) movement by uncovering the social conditions that lead men to rethink gender and racial ideologies.
Abstract: This article examines the tensions in the identities of men who belong to the Promise Keepers (PK) movement by uncovering the social conditions that lead men to rethink gender and racial ideologies. Using participant observation and in-depth interviews, the author draws on gender and social movement scholarship to reveal how contradictory gender and racial ideologies shape PKs' identities. Furthermore, the PKs' impact on gender and race relations is also contradictory. PK fosters men's growth on an interactional level, allowing men to embrace a more expressive and caring masculinity that includes cross-racial bonding. Simultaneously, however, PK ignores, and indirectly reinforces, the structural conditions that underpin gender and racial privilege among white men.
TL;DR: This paper examined how gender constrains global care work and found that women felt these effects more acutely than men given their primary responsibility for reproductive work, while men engaged in emotion work to cope with constraints, strategically rearticulating care work; yet unsuccessful strategies resulted in further emotional dislocation, particularly for women.
Abstract: Through in-depth interviews with 41 middle-class Puerto Rican transmigrants, this research examines how gender constrains global care work. Migration compromises embeddedness in care networks, concurrently heightening its meaning. Women felt these effects more acutely than men given their primary responsibility for reproductive work. Migrants engaged in emotion work to cope with constraints, strategically rearticulating care work; yet unsuccessful strategies resulted in further emotional dislocation, particularly for women. Migration led to a dichotomy in which professional success was pitted against emotional fulfillment through care work. Gender, cultural, and geopolitical factors mediated this split, contributing to a permanently unsettled flow of migrants.
TL;DR: In this article, a partial review of gender scholarship in India is presented, with a focus on the inequities of global knowledge production and consumption and the role of U.S. academic institutions and scholars in this project.
Abstract: The main purpose of this article is to broaden U.S. scholars' awareness of the similarities and differences of gender literature in another part of the world. In providing this partial review of gender scholarship in India, the authors hope to foster critical reflection on the inequities of global knowledge production and consumption and the role of U.S. academic institutions and scholars in this project. The article is written not by scholars who are based in India but by those who are based in U.S. academies. Given their location, linguistic and cultural competencies, and scholarly expertise, the review, at best, can be described as a glimpse of gender scholarship in India. The four sections of this article feature theoretical and methodological issues, the women's movement, and violence against women in India.
TL;DR: This article examined how immigration and gender ideology, mediated by a family's economic situation and the employment prospects for educated women of color, shape the organization of mothering and how each pattern of mother-ing affects the power dynamics underlying the gender division of labor in immigrant families.
Abstract: Despite the increase of middle-class people among Asian immigrants to the United States over the past three decades,research has paid little attention to these women. Focusing on women’s paid employment, prior research also tends to overlook the significance of mothering to the analysis of gender relations in immigrant families. By bringing together the literatures on gender and immigration and on mothering in families of color,this article examines how immigration and gender ideology,mediated by a family’s economic situation and the employment prospects for educated women of color,shape the organization of mothering and how each pattern of mothering affects the power dynamics underlying the gender division of labor in immigrant families. Three distinct arrangements of mothering emerge from in-depth interviews with middle-class Korean immigrant women collected from suburbs in New York State: (1) shared mothering based on transnational,transgenerational,and nuclear family networks; (2) isolated and privati...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors study the relations among the body, gender, and knowledge in social protest by comparing two Israeli-Jewish leftist protest movements, a woman-only movement (Women in Black) and a mixed-gender one (The 21st Year), which protested against the Israeli Occupation in the early 1990s.
Abstract: The authors suggest that social movements research should recognize more the potential of the protesting body as an agent of social and political change. This contention is based on studying the relations among the body, gender, and knowledge in social protest by comparing two Israeli-Jewish leftist protest movements, a woman-only movement (Women in Black) and a mixed-gender one (The 21st Year), which protested against the Israeli Occupation in the early 1990s. The comparison reveals reversed patterns of body/knowledge relations, each connoting a different meaning and outcome of the social protest. In the mixed movement, the body served as an instrument in carrying out the political knowledge and thus was left unmarked. In Women in Black, on the other hand, the body was the message, as it produced and articulated political ideology, simultaneously challenging the national security legacy and the gender order in Israel.
TL;DR: The authors argue that the ideal girl of the new millennium embodies both masculinity and femininity and that cheerleading offers a culturally sanctioned space for some girls to embody ideal girlhood, while simultaneously perpetuating a norm of femininity that does not threaten dominant social values and expectations.
Abstract: More than 3.5 million people participate in cheerleading in the United States, with 97 percent being female. A staple of American schools, American life, and popular culture, the cheerleader, however, has received scant attention in scholarly research. In this article, the authors argue that a feminist poststructuralist reading of cheerleading situates cheerleading as a discursive practice that has changed significantly in the past 150 years to accommodate the shifting and often contradictory meanings of normative femininity. They maintain that the ideal girl of the new millennium embodies both masculinity and femininity and that cheerleading offers a culturally sanctioned space for some girls to embody ideal girlhood. They argue that cheerleading is a gendered activity representing in some ways a liberatory shift in reconstituting normative femininity while simultaneously perpetuating a norm of femininity that does not threaten dominant social values and expectations about the role of girls and women in ...
TL;DR: Using an intersectional perspective, the authors analyzes how colonial power, gender hierarchy, and class were inseparably tied together to make the victims' lives miserable, and shows that a one-sided emphasis on colonization or gender hierarchy will misrepresent the feminist political issue an...
Abstract: During the Asian and Pacific War (1937-45), the Japanese government mobilized approximately 200,000 Asian women to military brothels to sexually serve Japanese soldiers. The majority of these victims were unmarried young women from Korea, Japan’s colony at that time. In the early 1990s, Korean feminist leaders helped more than 200 Korean survivors of Japanese military sexual slavery to come forward to tell the truth, which has further accelerated the redress movement for the women. One major issue in the redress movement and research relating to the so-called “comfort women” issue is whether Japan’s colonization of Korea or gender hierarchy was a more fundamental cause of the Korean women’s suffering. Using an intersectional perspective, this article analyzes how colonial power, gender hierarchy, and class were inseparably tied together to make the victims’ lives miserable. By doing so, it shows that a one-sided emphasis on colonization or gender hierarchy will misrepresent the feminist political issue an...
TL;DR: The authors found that competition from electronic communication networks and international markets has increased the pace of work for stockbrokers, spurred online and after-hours trading, and may prompt the major stock exchanges to establish later trading sessions known as extended hours trading.
Abstract: The authors study U.S. stockbrokers, workers directly affected by the technological and economic forces of globalization. Drawing on interviews with 61 brokers and managers in four firms, they find that competition from electronic communication networks and international markets has increased the pace of work for stockbrokers, spurred online and after-hours trading, and may prompt the major stock exchanges to establish later trading sessions known as extended-hours trading. These events are lengthening already long working days for brokers and contributing to a deficit of the time and energy they have to care for their families. These developments also reinforce gender inequality at home and in the workplace. The authors also find an alternative response to this globalization: The discount firm model, which creates the conditions for more gender balance in jobs and careers and thus the possibility for greater gender balance in the provision of care.
TL;DR: This paper explored how the acceptance of the battered woman syndrome as the explanation for why abusive relationships continue can be understood as a cultural compromise and pointed out that the syndrome's portrayal of battered women as passive victims resulted in an exclusive definition of who “counts” as a victim.
Abstract: This article explores how the acceptance of the battered woman syndrome as the explanation for why abusive relationships continue can be understood as a cultural compromise. The syndrome's portrayal of battered women as passive victims resulted in an exclusive definition of who “counts” as a victim. It further emphasized many abused women's weaknesses rather than their resourcefulness and overlooked the plights of a great variety of women in need of help. More important, it placed emphasis on individualized solutions for domestic violence rather than addressing structural inequalities in American society. These issues ultimately led to a critique by other advocates of the battered woman syndrome as an inadequate and flawed explanation for domestic violence. Yet despite its weaknesses, the syndrome allowed advocates the chance to appeal to the larger public and, ultimately, begin the process of alleviating structural inequalities.
TL;DR: Men respond to this male nude with overt rejection and stated disinterest, while women are more likely to reject the seductive advance or welcome it with attached feelings of guilt as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Drawing on 45 interviews, this article addresses how heterosexual men and women respond to and discuss opposite and same-sex nude images in distinctive ways. Viewing both female and male nudes provides an opportunity to observe the sexual and gender identity work men and women perform when confronted with this cultural object. Both men and women have access to shared, readily available cultural scripts for interpreting and responding to female nude images. Neither men nor women are culturally adept at the interpretation and use of nude male images, particularly the man in the soft porn frame. Men respond to this male nude with overt rejection and stated disinterest. Women are more likely to reject the seductive advance or welcome it with attached feelings of guilt.
TL;DR: This paper examined women who were antinuclear activists at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant for two decades and found that women perceived gender as both a barrier and a facilitator to activism, even after 20 years.
Abstract: This article examines women who have been antinuclear activists at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant for two decades. Qualitative interviews focus on their perceived transformations over time that are based on gender and everyday experiences. They perceive gender as both a barrier and a facilitator to activism, even after 20 years. Women describe their technological education as one strategy to overcome the barrier of gender. On the other hand, they consider the gendered role of motherhood as a primary catalyst for action. In addition, they discuss individual everyday experiences focused on the health concerns for family members that influenced their political activity. Over time, women linked personal transformations with increased political understanding and involvement.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used case study data to highlight how women in Northern Botswana are affected by the increasing burden of caregiving to children who are orphaned as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Abstract: The country of Botswana currently has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world. Government and international aid agencies have undertaken initiatives to address the rapidly growing epidemic, but few measures address the current crisis of care as a key element in that process. In this article, the author uses case study data to highlight how women in Northern Botswana are affected by the increasing burden of caregiving to children who are orphaned as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In particular, she describes how the role of women as caregivers in communities has been transformed as a result of the HIV/AIDS crisis. She suggests that the intersecting cultural patterns of migration and reproduction are central to understanding the spread of the disease in the current emerging crisis of care.