Narratives of race and nation in china: Women's suffrage in the early twentieth century

This paper explores the ways in which the Chinese women's suffrage movement used racializing narratives to alter the boundaries that had excluded women from full participation in politics in the first two decades of the 20th century. It extends existing work on the connection between narratives of race and women's suffrage in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA to explore how “race” was mobilized in China in the late-Qing and early Republican period. The article has three main areas of innovation. First, it explores the deployment of racializing narratives within the broader discourses of modernity circulating in China wherein modernization was premised on a racialized notion of national identity—that is “modernization as Han chauvinism.” Second, this article aims to participate in the process of extending the history of women's suffrage from primary reliance on class analysis and towards methods that explore the multiple categories of exclusion and inclusion. Third, this article aims to explore the manner in which narratives of race were invoked within a feminist political campaign that occurred in a nation without a history of European colonization. The article demonstrates that the multiplicity of possible gains sought under the banner of “race” makes it an unreliable category to invoke for struggles that are ultimately determined by “gendered” divisions.     

“Everybody's looking at you!”: Girls negotiating the “femininity deficit” they incur in physical education

There is a growing awareness of the complex and largely negative attitudes many girls in the UK hold towards physical activity in general and Physical Education (PE) in particular. This research in the UK involves a qualitative study of six Year 9 girls' experiences and motivations in PE.Reflexive interpretation and biographical analysis of in-depth interviews are utilized to explore the themes of the relationship between “sportiness” and heterosexual desirability; and the polarized images of “tomboy” and “girlie.” Work by Connell [Connell, R.W. (1987). Gender and power. Cambridge: Polity Press.] on the gender order, and theories arising from the cultural analysis tradition on teenage girls' subcultures and identity formation are drawn on in order to make sense of the girls' narratives.The findings of this research reveal that images of teenage girls and young women being physically active are non-congruous with the traditional ideologies of acceptable femininity. This paper describes how these girls negotiate the contradictions and the tensions caused by the “femininity deficit” incurred in PE by creating “double identities” and living “split lives.”     

Depoliticising the personal : A feminist slogan in feminist therapy

One of the great insights of second wave feminism was the recognition that “the personal is political.” Many feminist psychologists (both practitioners and researchers) claim a strong commitment to this slogan and attempt to implement it through their theory and practice. This article explores four interpretations of “the personal is political” in feminist psychological writing. It is argued that far from achieving radical feminist goals, psychological interpretations serve: (1) to personalise the political, translating social, economic, and ecological concerns into individual psychological matters; (2) to foster revolution “from within” at the expense of political change in the outside world; (3) that insofar as it aims uncritically to “validate women's experience,” it ignores the social and political factors which shape experience; and (4) that the concept of “empowerment” depends upon a radical split between the “personal” and the “political”. In sum, it is concluded that femenist acknowledgement that the personal really is political means rejecting psychology.     

A new dawn? french women and the liberation

This article draws on extensive archival and oral sources from Britanny, Toulouse, and Paris. It will discuss a number of aspects of the Occupation and Liberation experience for French women. It will first explore the importance attributed to the fact that women eventually gained their political rights in 1944, a measure that also saw an end to the “first wave” feminist movement that had believed that suffrage would resolve the “women's condition” and herald the start of a new era for women. This article will then move into an analysis of women and Collaboration during the Occupation offering a new approach to women's political involvement during the war. It finishes by presenting an overview of women's relationship to paid employment, the area where there was perhaps the greatest unfulfilled potential for women to experience a new beginning in the post-war period.     

Motherhood as a national mission: The construction of womanhood in the legal discourse in Israel

The paper looks at the notion of womanhood that emerged from the discourse around two laws passed in the first years of the State of Israel: the 1949 “Defense Service Law” and the 1951 “Women's Equal Rights Law.” Law is conceived of as “producing” the cultural meaning of “women” as a social category and defining its relations to the state. My main argument is that in this discourse, the Jewish-Israeli woman is constructed first and foremost as a mother and a wife, and not as an individual or a citizen. The construction of a distinct category of women that emphasizes women's difference takes place within an ideological context of the self-conscious myth of gender-equality. Motherhood is defined as a public role that carries national significance. And it is via this notion of “motherhood as a national mission” that women are incorporated into the state and not through the universal characteristics of citizenship. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict, coupled with the central role that the family and the military play within the Israeli culture and society are the major determinants of this specific definition of Jewish-Israeli women's citizenship.     

Child care: Love, work and exploitation

In Western countries child care is considered the private affair of parents, but it is in fact the responsibility of women. Thus child care is intimately linked with the sexual division of labour and leads directly to inequality and manifold discrimination against women. The situation of mothers with school-age children in western Germany shows that changes are more a question of ideology than of economic resources. Personal convictions and values on the subject of motherhood and femininity, as well as attitudes toward social structures supportive of these, lead to paradoxes which confuse women's perception and slow down change. This article contends that the discussion of child care must take account of the situation of mothers and that the ideological notion of the “normality” of motherhood has to be made visible as fictitious.     

Constructing Counseling Through Narrating Adolescence

In this paper we analyze personal narratives of school counseling students so as to better understand how they perceive the influence of their own adolescence on their present views regarding adolescence and counseling. Through the textual analysis of the narratives, we map their perceptions of adolescence and counseling. We consider if and how traditional adolescence views are replicate in the students’ narratives, and reflect on the students’ characterizations of the school counselor’s roles and tasks. The sample includes 34 female respondents aged between 25 and 47 years old. We show that many of the issues raised in the narratives seem to point to a perception of the participants of a need to radically change the school (institutional) culture. We conclude by pointing at the potential confluence between the narratives’ discourse and traditional conceptualizations in sociology and anthropology regarding the organization and practices of informal social spheres.Dr. Zvi Bekerman, teaches anthropology of education at the School of Education and The Melton Center, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His main interests are in the study of cultural, ethnic and national identity, including identity processes and negotiation during intercultural encounters and in informal learning contexts. He has also recently become involved in the study of identity construction and development in educational computer-mediated environments. He is one of the editors of the soon to be published “Learning in Places: The informal education reader” (Peter Lang).Dr. Moshe Tatar, Senior Lecturer with Associate Professor and Head of the Division of Counseling, School of Education, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Received Ph.D. in Psychology from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His major research interests are adolescent help-seeking behaviors and attitudes, counseling adolescent immigrant populations, and parental perceptions of schools     

Scholarship—the new dimension to equity issues for academic women

Over the last 25 years, Canadian women have made significant inroads to the academy as students, faculty, and administrators. Their contribution is reflected in curriculum that now addresses women and through the development of undergraduate and graduate programs in women's studies. Above all, certain aspects of women's work in the academy have challenged masculinist notions of research methodology and pedagogy. In spite of these gains and contributions, women largely remain in the “A” ranks in academe—assistant, associate, acting. This article argues, and demonstrates through personal accounts, that current definitions of scholarship, widely held in the academy, prevent the advancement of women precisely because some feminist models of research and pedagogy present a challenge to academic hierarchy. Hence, the new equity challenge facing academic women is found in definitions of scholarship used for evaluation in tenure and promotion cases.     

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

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.     

Learning about “the curse”: An anthropological perspective on experiences of menstruation

Learning about menstruation typically focuses on providing education about the biology and reproductive functions of a woman. This approach ignores individual variations of experience and the social influences in managing the menstrual event. A qualitative study of 20 women was conducted to explore how women learnt about the menstruation and its effect on their lives. With reference to medical discourse and medical anthropology, three themes will be examined: pollution, rites of passage, and the concept of secrecy and social seclusion. These themes are used to explore the role of menstruation in the emergence of female identity, the forces around women that influence their beliefs, and how these women manage their bodies. Some reference is made to the effects of menstruation on a woman's physical and mental health, sexual relationships, and perceived constraints during leisure time. A more phenomenological approach to menstruation should be considered by policymakers interested in “educating” young women about menstruation, where the emphasis should be on addressing women's experiences and concerns.     

Iranian women's pathways to imprisonment

Using official data and interviews with 101 women in Evin prison, Tehran, this article explores prisoners' pathways to incarceration. The concept of “intersection” is used to help understand how traversing and diverging networks of power position women in ways that encourage their criminal actions, criminalization, and contribute toward their imprisonment. The term also highlights points of overlap and distinction between Iranian and Western women's experiences. Importantly, it encourages us to consider the global context of criminal justice.     

A world in which women move freely without fear of men: An anthropological perspective on rape

In western scholarly debate, there is nearly universal acceptance of rape as a male trait typical of all time periods and cultures. However, cross-cultural data provide insight into societies where rape is rare or unknown and can therefore be helpful to develop strategies for prevention. The paper focuses on the question why men do not rape in these societies with rape being understood as a crime that reflects male dominance and entitlement.An earlier finding by Sanday [J. Soc. Issues 37 (1981) 5] that such “rape-free” societies attach importance to the “contributions women make to social continuity” is further analyzed by taking an in-depth look at matrilineal societies. The category “matrilineal” is chosen because these cultures recognize women's contributions to social continuity, and absence or rareness of rape has been repeatedly reported. Data from matrilineal cultures from the relevant literature including my own work in South America are compared with a select body of data discussing western rapists. As the discussion demonstrates, the specific gender dynamics in matrilineal cultures reduce the significance of man's sexual persona and thus male heterosexual authority which mitigates the potential of male dominance and rape.     

Pioneering women revisited: Representations of gender in some Israeli settlement museums

This study examines the representation of women in museums that are devoted to the preservation and celebration of the Zionist nation-building ethos of the 1920s and 1930s (i.e., Israel's pre-state era). These representations are encoded in the rhetoric of the museum guides. In the official discourse and the interpretive stances to which they give voice, the museums that provided ethnographic sites for this inquiry uphold the prevalent myth of gender equality in pioneering groups as if relates to women's participation in the male-dominated pubic sphere of “productivity” in agricultural and road construction work. At the same time, they reproduce representations of women as ambivalent participants in the pioneering enterprise. Their positioning within the redefined domestic sphere of communal living, women all too often remain marginalized participants; at times they are even “storified” as essentially objects of the male gaze.     

Women talking : Creating knowledge through difference in cross-cultural research

This paper discusses the research process of a cross-cultural study investigating the health care experiences of Chinese Canadian and Indo-Canadian women. Employing the notion of reflexivity, the paper discusses the use of an accepted feminist method, the in-depth interview, in a study involving women from racialized groups. The paper discusses the layering of power relations at the different sites of data gathering, and the negotiation of “difference” between researchers, research assistants, and study participants throughout the study. The position of research assistants, as mediators of the research process, is given particular attention. In discussing our attempt to put the principles of feminist research into practice in cross-cultural research, we argue that problems encountered in the interview method require critical reflection, not only on the grounds of the practical issues of gaining detailed, narrative accounts of women's lives, but also in relation to the way in which “others” are constructed through research practices.     

Dialogue, distance and difference: Feminism in contemporary japan

In this article, I examine the ways in which women’s groups in Japan have attempted to deal with issues of difference prompted by the co-existence of residents of different ethnicities in contemporary Japan, and the new issues raised by labour migration in the context of globalization of economies and labour markets. Japan’s place in contemporary East Asia can be clarified by using the term colonial modernity, to refer to Japan’s early 20th-century history; and the term postcoloniality to refer to the legacy of the colonial project in the culture of the metropolitan society. In representations of Japan’s contemporary “Others,” notions of gendered difference interact with representations of ethnic and cultural difference. Contemporary attempts to deal with these issues will be placed in the context of several decades of feminist activism in Japan.     

GO AHEAD, GO AWAY: A Poem by Fatoumata Keita, Mali Translated by Judith G. Miller

Translator's Note: This poem originally appeared in French in May 1999, in the first issue of a new Malian poetry review: Kuma, the literary magazine of the Union of Young Malian Writers. My former New York University in Paris student, Laura Starecheski, helped launch the review while studying in Bamako. An activist, sensitive writer, and reader herself, Laura seeks out women's voices wherever they can be heard. She especially wants people to be aware of Fatoumata Keita, a 23-year-old poet. I think that Laura Starecheski and Fatoumata Keita are part of the linking chorus of women connecting us to each other across continents and oceans. To me, they are the “inheritors”: carrying on, with their distinctive vehement energy, the life-long intellectual and emotional commitment of feminists such as Claire Duchen. Those interested in supporting this Malian writers' project should write to: KUMA, BP E3026, Bamako, Mali, West Africa.     

Mothers and daughters: Linking women's life histories in Grand Bank, Newfoundland, Canada

Grand Bank is a small fishing town on the southwest coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The oral history project, on which this paper is based, focussed on the “life stories” of women in three, four and sometimes five, different generations of families. My aim was twofold. First, I wanted to build a picture of the way to the economy, and the sexual division of labour has changed in the period 1890–present. Second, I wanted to see how, by focussing several accounts of the same family experience, I could break apart the ideological construction of the past. I could also use contrasting accounts of mothers and daughters to re-examine the role of “work” in the family and the construction of a sexual division of labour.This paper explores how women situate and construct both their past and present experience, and what the different accounts given by mothers and daughters and grandaughters tell us both about female family relationships and about the interaction of gender with economic, social and technological change. The paper also suggests why this particular oral history approach, using different generations of women in the same family, is especially relevant to feminist concerns.     

Teacher education and feminism

In this article I argue that recent years have seen a steady “reform” of teacher education. In the latest of a long line of initiatives, teaching is being restructured via a framework of National Professional Qualifications and Standards. These both centrally define the activity of teaching at various stages of the teaching “career” and establish new modes of progression for teachers. I argue that the framework neglects teachers' responsibilities in relation to social justice in ways that are particularly worrying for feminists. In addition, I argue that the masculinist nature of the standards, the managerialist restructuring of the social relations within schools, and the drive to recruit more men into teaching all connect to the international epidemic of concern about the “underachievement” of boys. The article draws evidence from two externally funded projects undertaken with Ian Hextall between 1995–1999.     

An honest human body : Sexuality and the continuum of resistance

Theories of resistance have informed ethnographic research over the last two decades. Researchers have been concerned to document the significance of counter-cultural acts of resistance and have highlighted intersections of class, gender and “race” within the processes of resistance. However, questions of sexuality have been largely silenced. This paper focuses on the experiences of six women who identify themselves as lesbian and attempts to assert the importance of sexuality within debates on resistance and accommodation. The experiences of these women reveal that lesbians are willing and able to use a conscious collage of bodily signifiers to resist the discourse of compulsory (hetero)sexuality. The “continuum of resistance” illuminated in this paper can encompass both the lesbian who wears her sexuality on a t-shirt and the lesbian who “passes” in a heterosexual frock.     

“All my life is one big nursing home”: Russian immigrant women in israel speak about double caregiver stress

Adding elder care to the list of women's multiple roles may significantly jeopardize their well-being and health. This qualitative study explored the experiences with multiple roles among 20 middle-aged Jewish women who immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union with their extended families. Before emigration, most informants were professionals or white-collar workers, but in Israel they experienced occupational downgrading and ended up working as attendants or nurses in geriatric care. At home, these women of the “sandwich” generation acted as informal caregivers to their husbands, children and elderly parents. Coupled with the challenges of resettlement, this double caregiver stress led to significant emotional and physical burnout. Exhaustion and tight time budgets led to health problems and poor self-care among these women. The informants' social networks were mainly coethnic, and their coping tools drew on the Israeli–Russian community. The study concludes that, even in the relatively egalitarian Russian–Soviet gender system, women function as principal caregivers, often at the expense of other life goals.