Showing papers in "Womens Studies International Forum in 1989"

Interviewing—An “unnatural situation”?

Abstract: This paper seeks to explore what feminist concerns may mean in the minutiae of the personal relations that develop within interviews, for example, notions of reciprocity, friendship, and collaboration. While the paper draws on the author's current experiences of qualitative interviews with various family members, especially mothers, it also considers how some of the issues are intrinsic to the research interview per se, of whatever style. The actual relations within the interview have to be considered against wider frameworks and assumptions. Interviews are a particular type of social encounter. All interviews, and interview “data,” are socially constructed. The researcher will inevitably have some power over the research process, and she must take responsibility for this power in the context of her own purposes in the interview. We may have to accept that research relationships are in some senses public, which creates inescapable tensions if we seek to regard them as purely private ones.

Speaking about rape is everyone's business

Abstract: The silence regarding intra-racial rape is profound. Two recent cases of rape of Aboriginal women by Aboriginal men in the Northern Territory, Australia led to this attempt to map terrain on which informed discussion may occur. Socialist and radical feminists dispute whether it is class or gender that has primacy in their analyses of rape while black activists accuse both of being insensitive to issues of race. This paper interweaves anthropological and indigenous insights regarding the shifting contexts within which rape occurs and is analysed; the strategies women pursued in the past; and argues for the provision of services which take account of the needs of Aboriginal women.

Life in the XY corral.

Abstract: Synopsis This essay outlines some of the ways in which contemporary developmental biology has been shaped by the exigencies of particular social movements and ideologies. The work is divided into three parts. Part One explores how the removal of the developing organism from its environmental context and the placement of the nucleus rather than the integrated cell at the head of a developmental control hierarchy has powerfully advanced our abilities to create chimeric organisms, to use genetic engineering for better and for worse and even to create mammalian clones. Part Two outlines a relationship between a central tenet of developmental and evolutionary theory, the continuity of the germ line, and the eugenics movement active during the first quarter of this century. Part Three discusses how assumptions about gender which are deeply embedded in our language have affected theories of male and female development.

Scientific objectivity and the concept of “the other”

Abstract: Synopsis The concept of scientific objectivity, which incorporates the dichotomies of “intellect versus emotions” and “self versus other,” is considered the cornerstone of modern science. Until recently, western science has been conducted primarily by white, upper and middle class, heterosexual men of Christian background. This has resulted in the identification of these characteristics with “the self” and, consequently, with their being regarded as valuable and “normal.” All else was relegated to the status of “the other,” lacking in value and, therefore, necessitating scientific explanation. Thus, the self versus other split, in conjunction with the intellect versus emotions dichotomy, has provided the justification for the oppression and domination of “the other,” which has been prevalent throughout the history of western science. While women have been equated to nature and both have been oppressed, this oppression is the result of a broader dynamic which labels everything different from the scientist's “self” as inferior. The history of biological determinism is used to demonstrate that all oppressed groups have been used interchangeably and equated with each other, as well as with nature. Examples of the treatment by science of women, racial minorities, Jews, the poor, and gays and lesbians are discussed to illustrate the dynamics of scientific oppression, and the equation of all categories considered as “other.” The resistance of many scientists to animal welfare concerns is discussed within the same framework and shown to be also the result of the identification of animals with “the other.”

Teaching techniques to attract women to science: Applications of feminist theories and methodologies

Abstract: Synopsis In order to increase the number of feminist scientists, we need more women in science. During the last decade, a growing body of research has explored possible factors which may deter young women from majoring in science, leading to a loss of increased employment opportunities and better paying careers for them and a valuable source of talent needed by our increasingly scientific and technological society. In this paper methods and approaches based on an examination of the ways in which feminists have suggested that women may approach science differently from men are explored to ascertain means to attract women to science. The likelihood that scientists are now more willing to entertain alternative, including feminist, approaches to teaching is increased by the predicted shortage of scientists in the 1990s.

Through each other's eyes: Egyptian, Levantine-Egyptian, and European women's images of themselves and of each other (1862–1920)

Abstract: This article attempts to analyze the images that Egyptian, Levantine-Egyptian, and European women produced of themselves and of each other These images help us understand the sources and the causes of tension that existed among them then and continue to the present Because all of these images were partially inspired by cultural nationalism, their critique allows one to assess how European and Egyptian women were influenced by modern national ideologies and rivalries It prevented them from using each other's experience to push for a more radical critique of their own societies

Women and substance use/abuse: Towards a feminist perspective or how to make dust fly☆

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to offer a feminist perspective in the area of women and substance abuse. A major strand of thinking highlighted throughout this paper is that a women- orientated response rooted in the identity and consciousness of women substance users/abusers is essential. Five key areas are explored and these include: (1) the need for a feminist perspective which moves beyond ‘masculinist’ truths; (2) substance abuse as a “gender illuminating notion”; (3) the “unacceptable” and “acceptable” faces of dependency; (4) the development of a women- orientated methodology in the field of substance abuse; and (5) substance abuse and “pleasure”: is this relevant for women? While pointers for future research are indicated, it is suggested that more work “by women and for women” is needed in the area.

Feminist critiques of rationality: Critiques of science or philosophy of science?

Abstract: Synopsis Three strategies in feminist critiques of rationality are examined: one proceeding via a critique of science, one via a critique of the methods/philosophy of science, one via a critique of the modern bureaucratization/industrialization of science. While each of these moves from an important initial insight about contemporary science, each also has distinctive weaknesses. This paper explores their strengths and problems and their roots in standard philosophical approaches to science. The second half of the paper explores the implications of our alternative approach to the problem of rationality. This approach, which treats the cognitive process of scientific inquiry as social processes, enables us to see how social values and ideology can be expressed in so-called “good science” as well as in methodologically deficient inquiry. It thus provides a basis for thinking about feminism in science that avoids the problems identified in the earlier part of the paper.

Monkeys, aliens, and women: Love, science, and politics at the intersection of feminist theory and colonial discourse

Abstract: Synopsis This paper explores two U.S. white women's field studies of wild primates in Africa since 1960 and Octavia Butler's science fiction novel about an alien primatoid species enforcing a gene exchange with humanity in order to recolonize a devastated earth. Shirley Strum studied baboons in Kenya, intending to test hypotheses about male dominance that made sense in her own political and scientific cultures. In interaction with the people and land of her study site, she was forced to come to terms with different ways of seeing the animals and asking questions about their lives. Transforming her ideas of human social relationship with each other and with land and animals, Alison Jolly studied Madagascar lemurs before and after decolonization in the Malagasy Republic. Consumed with questions about human siblingship with aliens and the failure of sibling-ship within humanity, Butler uses the conventions of science fiction to fashion speculative pasts and futures for the species from the implicit perspectives of black and feminist inquiry. The three narratives are linked by the argument that race, gender, and nature are complexly renegotiated in post-colonial conditions and that new—but not innocent — forms of love and knowledge emerge. Knowing about the terrain on which love and knowledge of animal, nature, self, and other have been constructed within western culture at particular historical moments is prerequisite for remapping the possible ground for new stories. The paper emphasizes the need to see women's relations to the animals they study and love and the monsters they imagine in the intersecting contexts of science fiction, fictions of science, feminist theory, and the critique of colonial discourse.

Biography and the search for women's subjectivity☆

Abstract: This paper considers women's biography as an important connecting link between the study of microinteractions of social history and macropolitical structures and transformations. As the search for women's subjectivity requires the fullest possible historical contextualization for the subject of women's biography, identifying the sex-class conditions of women is essential. In studying the structuring of sex classes, it is found that both sexism and racism produce domination by essentializing physical or biological differences. But the dyadic character of gender domination differentiates sexism from all other conditions of exploitation. Because gender power is basically dyadic, interpretative interaction is offered as an appropriate methodological approach to women's biography. Further, when meaning and situation are extended to consciousness and praxis, interpretive interaction can encompass the full range of historical structure which shape sex-class. This theoretical-methodological approach forms the basis for a critique of deconstruction which depoliticized gender research by decentering the subject and dismissing binary oppositions such as gender dyads.

How the women's movement benefits science: Two views

Abstract: Synopsis What resources does the women's movement bring to the growth of scientific knowledge? Here I consider conflicting evaluations of such resources as women in science, feminist, politics, and feminist theories about science. Critics of “bad science” and critics of “science as usual” understand these resources in different ways. Should we try to ameliorate the tensions between these feminist approaches? Or, alternatively, should we regard only one of these conflicting positions as the intellectually and politically correct one? I argue that the tension between them is important to maintain as our feminisms attempt to remake the production of knowledge in conditions not of our own choosing.

A feeling for science: Female students and biology texts

Abstract: Synopsis While the inclusion of more women in science will not in itself transform science, it may make the environment more supportive of anti-sexist and anti-racist approaches to science. This article discusses the issue of helping female students see science as enjoyable and desirable, with a specific focus on the role of science textbooks. Eight secondary biology texts were examined for their visual representations of scientists, which were divided into the categories of science-related careers, scientists at work, and specific contributions of scientists. In addition to examining these images in terms of gender equity and racial diversity, I attempted to evaluate their potential effectiveness at arousing student interest in science. An effort has clearly been made in texts to represent scientists who were not all white males, but work also needs to be done in identifying and recognizing the specific contributions of women.

Support for soft and hard path American energy policies: Does gender play a role?☆

Abstract: Women comprise a heterogeneous, issue-oriented voting segment and now represent the majority of United States voters. Energy issues are among a core group of environmental issues, around which political coalitions can form and which are linked theoretically and empirically with gender differences. Univariate and multivariate analyses are used to analyze the relationship between gender and preferences for a variety of energy policy options. Energy policy options are aggregated conceptually as “soft,” “hard,” and “conservation” paths. Women are found to be more opposed to hard path policies such as coal and shale development, than men. Results regarding support for soft and conservation paths vary. Univariate analyses show women to be more supportive of conservation and some soft-path options than men. Multivariate analyses indicate that women and men support soft path options equally and that men are more supportive of conservation policies than women.

“Women take action!” Women's direct action and social change

Abstract: This article presents a framework for understanding women's nonviolent direct action in terms of its definition, history, varieties, and significance. Definitions are suggested for the terms direct action, nonviolence, and militancy. The history of women's nonviolent direct action is briefly surveyed, from early times to the 20th century. The great variety of actions, particularly in recent decades, is analyzed as falling into a number of categories described in the words of participants. Though the history, scope, and influence of women's direct action are still too little known to be fully assessed, and many questions remain to be explored, it is clear that it has had a more extensive history than has been generally recognized and has had major impact in manysignificant movements for social change.

Feminist critiques of science: The epistemological and methodological literature

Abstract: Synopsis Feminist critiques of science are widely dispersed and often quite inaccessible as a body of literature. We describe briefly some of the influences evident in this literature and identify several key themes which are central to current debates. This is the introduction to a bibliography of general critiques of science, described as the “core literature,” and a selection of feminist critiques of biology. Our objective has been to identify those analyses which raise reflexive (epistemological and methodological) questions about the status of scientific knowledge and practice, both in general terms and in relation to biological research. We have abstracted these listings from a body of material compiled by members of the research project, “Philosophical Feminism: The Critiques of Science,” which covers a range of discipline-specific critiques beyond biology, as well as the more general philosophical critiques which constitute the core of the present bibliography.

Hormonal cocktails: Women as test-sites for fertility drugs women as test-sites for fertility drugs

Abstract: Synopsis Clomiphene citrate is a drug that has been given to women for conventional fertility treatment for over 20 years. It is also now being administered—often in connection with other hormone-like drugs—to an increasing number of women in IVF programmes-(many of whom are fertile), in order to stimulate egg cell growth. Clomiphene citrate is handed out as if it were a “safe drug.” This paper analyses some of the medical and scientific literature on the drug including its effect on the women themselves and the children born after such treatment. It also incorporates our research with women who have used the drug. What surfaces is a disturbing array of health hazards ranging from depression, nausea, and weight gain, to burst ovaries, adhesions, and the promotion of cancer leading to death in some women, worrying rates of birth anomalies in the children and severe chromosomal aberrations in egg cell development. Of great concern is the evidence that the drug may stay in a woman's body for at least six weeks. Since clomiphene citrate has a chemical structure similar to DES there may be as yet unknown long-term adverse effects similar to those from DES. Given the fact that all these “side-effects” have stirred considerable debate in the medical and scientific literature, we are shocked to learn that (a) the women taking the drug are not informed of its possible detrimental effects; and (b) that researchers continue to state, contrary to scientific evidence, that the drug has no side effects. We posit that the potential risks from the drug are too great to administer it to any women and demand the development of a different science that places values on women's lives instead of using them as “living test-sites.”

The limits of gender ideology: Bengali women, the colonial state, and the private sphere, 1890–1930

Abstract: Colonial as well as Indian nationalist concern for so-called female issues was to a certain extent due to the significance of the “female discourse” within the colonial conflict which was primarily articulated by men Women's interests clearly came second Here the concept of the “private sphere” is singled out in order to investigate the development of gender stereotypes in a changing historical context The British and Bengali discourse on gender was marked by culturally specific notions of femininity and masculinity Despite these differences, women's identification with the domestic sphere allowed British and Bengali men to acknowledge the situation of women when it suited their wider political aims, but to banish women — figuratively speaking — to their zenana when legislative innovations or female activism threatened to clash with male political or patriarchal prerogatives

Women biologists and the “old boy” network

Abstract: Synopsis Women scientists continue to face exclusion from predominantly male “old boy” networks that provide access to important career opportunities. A small national sample of junior faculty in biology—women and men—was surveyed in the present study to determine how women were faring in terms of gaining entry to these networks and the networks' impact on their careers. Women's networks were found to be less effective than men's at providing friendship, especially with higher ranking men, and at helping them gain visibility as professionals. Married women were at an even greater disadvantage than single women. However, women did not perceive their networks to be less effective than men's. The long-range impact of these findings on careers is discussed and compensatory strategies women scientists can use to develop their networks are proposed.

The “other voices” in contemporary ethical dilemmas: The value of the new scholarship on women in the teaching of ethics

Abstract: This paper addresses the need for alternative ethics courses in the Academy which value the ‘other voices’—the voice of the marginal and the disempowered; the voice of those who abjure the values of competition and success and uphold those of cooperation and caring; the voice of those who value private as well as public issues. The objective of this communication is to present information on an alternative ethics course where time is given to listening to other voices experienced through an analysis and synthesis of feminist discourse and philosophy. In this course, students were provided with historical perspectives and contemporary views of critical societal problems and were asked to analyze complex ethical dilemmas against a background of 19th Century liberalism and conventional male-dominated ethics. Through their writings and answers to these dilemmas, students tended to move from an ethic of rights and justice to one of care and concern for others.

Virtuous wives and kind mothers: Concepts of women in urban China

Abstract: China's leaders since 1949 have generally held that women's emancipation is an automatic result of socialist economic development and that a separate focus on gender issues is therefore unnecessary. This has left certain structural and conceptual problems of gender inequality unaddressed. Old and new concepts defining and giving value to women and women's activities result in limiting the development of a feminist consciousness among urban women, and limit opportunities and choices for these women in education, jobs, and leadership. Comparison of the perspectives of women in official positions with urban working class and college-educated women shows that class differences affect their responses to the current concepts of and opportunities for women. These differences are also reflected in their assessment of the degree to which women have achieved emancipation in China, and their interest in further work toward creating gender equality.

Intergenerational occupational mobility within the Republic of Ireland: The ignored female dimension☆

Abstract: Since the early 1960s, feminists have challenged the sexist nature of social mobility research, deriding sociologists for their universally accepted research practice of excluding women from social stratification analysis. The present article is addressed to the general issue of female social stratification. Specifically, using a Republic of Ireland sample, the contribution of both male and female parental background characteristics as well as the influence of women's own educational achievements on their intergenerational occupational mobility patterns are investigated. The general conclusion of this paper is that both mothers and fathers exert significant effects upon the occupational attainment of Irish women. Although a woman's own education remained the primary determinant of her occupational rank, maternal occupational status also played a major additional contributory role, both directly and indirectly, in predicting the occupational attainment of Irish women. Thus, future social mobility studies must take into account the male and female parental background characteristics as independent vital determinants of the occupational attainment of women.

Technocratic organization and gender

Abstract: Technocratic control is the most recent in a series of different types of workplace control: precapitalist craft/guild control, simple control, technical control, bureaucratic control, and professionalism. In recent years, as organizations have been socially and politically transformed around advanced technological systems, observable changes in structure have occured. Technocracies are characterized by a polarization into expert and nonexpert sectors, the declining importance of internal job ladders in favor of external credentialing barriers, the increased importance of technical expertise as a central basis of organizational authority, the transformation of professionals and managers into specialized experts concerned with administration and efficiency, and the emergence of a world-wide technocratic system. Technocratic reorganization is parallelling and reinforcing sex segregation, with women disproportionately found in the “nonexpert” sector, where mobility prospects are minimal or nonexistent and working conditions poor. Even women in the “expert” sector of technocratic organizations are disadvantaged, as stereotypes persist which define women as antithetical to technocratic norms of scientific rationality.

Holding the center of feminist theory

Abstract: Synopsis Despite the multiple fractures that have occurred over the last few years in feminist theory, I argue that the center of that venture continues to hold firm. If nowhere else, it holds in the force of the transcultural association between women's bodies and the birth of new living beings. But equally, it holds in the recognition of the cultural variability of the meanings attached to this basic association. Indeed, it is here that I would invoke (and perhaps reinstate) a form of that distinction that was so important to feminists of the seventies, namely the distinction between sex and gender. If “sex” is that which we are given by “nature,” and “gender” that which derives from culture (i.e., the cultural representation of sex), then we need to underscore that what is left to both “sex” and “nature” is now little enough. But it is not yet nothing. Even disavowing all representational plasticity, there remains a core of observational experience that has thus far defied modulation. The premises of feminist theory require us to both acknowledge this observational core, and, at the same time, expose and examine the enormous variability in meanings that are inevitably superposed on it. Only when we have revealed the specificity of the forms and consequences of the interpretive structures built around this core in any given particular cultural context, ultimately in all cultural contexts, will we have done our work.

Women and third world countries—What do we have in common?

Abstract: In this essay the relationship between women vis-a-vis men is compared to the relationship of developing countries vis-a-vis the “advanced” industrial world of the 1980s. She finds that such analogies teach us something about the nature of oppression wherever it is found. In her comparison, the author first looks at some similarities and concentrates on the following four aspects: the paternalistic attitude, the necessity of changing society, the fallacy of unilinear thought and the concept of relative dominance. At the end she discusses why the analogy is not a perfect one and looks at how patriarchy unites men everywhere in their domination of women. Her response to this is to build a unity of women everywhere.

Putting the politics back into lesbianism

Abstract: This article contrasts lesbianism as a political movement to lesbianism as a lifestyle. It addresses the current emphasis in lesbian circles on “sex as salvation,” and maintains that this emphasis re-sexualizes women and de-politicizes lesbianism. The liberalism of lesbian lifestylism makes the male-power modes of sexuality, such as s & m, butch-femme, and bondage and domination, sexy for women. In the name of tolerance, difference, and lesbian community, many lesbians are dissuaded from making judgements and opposing such acts. Finally, the article describes the values of a lesbian feminism that has principles, politics, and passion. It proposes a context for what lesbian sexuality might look like rooted in lesbian imagination — not lesbian fantasies.