Is academic sisterhood an oxymoron?

This article examines the contradictions which occur when women try to work together as a feminist collective in an academic situation which promotes individualism and hierarchies. Rather than seeking a model based on family relationships [mother-daughter or between sisters] I suggest that women must develop new forms of professionally-based friendships and go on to exemplify this with the situation of an all-woman course team preparing an interdisciplinary, off-campus course on feminist theory. The differences which existed amongst the members were constructively channelled into illustrating the differences amongst various kinds of feminism.     

Multicultural fashion… stirrings of another sense of aesthetics and memory

This paper looks at the place of items long associated with the bodies of South Asian women in mainstream fashion. First, there will be a profiling of some of the scenes where bindhies, mendhies and related scents and sounds are donned and adored by white bodies. By participating in conversations with South Asian women in Britain in the second part of the article, the author is able to discuss some of the stirrings raised by the recent legitimization of these items by multicultural capitalism, leading towards an exploration of a different sense of aesthetics, memory and desire. The ambivalent attraction of limited recognition offered by the anthropological urge to ‘know’ the ethnic ‘other’ is noted. A consideration of the rage induced by the power of whiteness to play with ‘ethnic’ items which had not so long ago been reviled when they were worn by South Asian women points to the historical amnesia that underlies much multicultural celebration. The allure of images packaged as oriental for South Asian women themselves, although often from a different set of sensibilities and memories, stresses the importance of historical reconstruction.     

Women who do and women who don't,join the women's movement

Twenty-four women from five countries were asked to discuss their attitudes towards the women's movement. Half of this group were feminists and half were antifeminists. They ranged in background over class, race, age and sexual preference, and their comments formed the body of the book Women Who Do and Women Who Don't, Join the Women's Movement. This paper begins by discussing the women's movement as a social movement, its origins and the major issues involved in its struggle. The antifeminist ‘backlash’ is then analysed and its platforms clarified. The contributors' comments are summarised, bringing the issues alive, creating a diverse patterns of women's interpretations of ‘being female’. The issues of contention such as men, motherhood and the family are discussed, and the bases of the differences between feminists and antifeminists are analysed. Surprisingly, similarities between the two groups also emerge, particularly in terms of their experience of ‘self’. I conclude the paper by discussing why these splits among women occur, why one woman becomes a feminist while another is an antifeminist, and what this means for the future of women and of feminism.     

Ephemeral ‘communities’: spatiality and politics in rangeland interventions in Mongolia

In recent years, the number of community-based natural resource management projects for rangeland conservation and development has grown rapidly in Mongolia. Such projects seek to develop social capital through the formation of herder groups and pasture user groups, in order to enable the coordination of complex, collective tasks needed for sustainability. Through analysis of social networks, interviews and ethnographic data from two places where such projects have been implemented, Bayanjargalan, Dundgovi, and Tariat, Arkhangai, the paper demonstrates that the spatiality of pastoral social relations is much more extensive than assumed by these projects. Furthermore, rather than being neutral technical interventions, such projects are embedded in and proliferate politics. They often bolster the informal power of wealthy herders who gain more access to pasture, while at the same time leading to tensions between different levels of government and becoming objects of struggle between Mongolia’s two dominant political parties. For all of these reasons, these efforts have tended not to build trust, and the ‘communities’ they create, in the form of herder groups and pasture user groups, have tended to be ephemeral.     

Challenging constructions of nationhood and nostalgia: exploring the role of gender,race and age in struggles for women’s rights in Scandinavia

Drawing on a multi-sited ethnographic approach, this article aims to study interactions between women’s organizations, state agendas and national histories in the contemporary struggle for women’s rights in Scandinavia. Upon examining a diverse range of material (debates, survey responses, fieldnotes and interview data), it is revealed how the largest women’s organizations appeal to dominant discourses of Scandinavia as a homogeneous region and Scandinavian women as a uniform collectivity. It is shown how divisions between groups of women are shaped along categories of national belonging, race and age, and it is argued that a conceptualization of women as a uniform group offers a too simplistic frame for an understanding of these dynamics. By contrast, it is suggested that the contestations evoked by nostalgic articulations of homogeneity, and uniformity can be rich sources for social analysis, as attention to such tensions can help us to visualize the existence of multiple historical pasts and presents.     

‘lay experts’: women's social purity groups and the politics of sexuality in Switzerland, 1890–1915

Women's social purity groups were significant participants in the debates of the regulation of sexualities during the unification process of Swiss Criminal Law between the 1890s and the 1930s. Although not yet enfranchised, women claimed political participation through their status as ‘lay experts’ with regard to sexual matters and as an interest group with backing from their male counterparts. The article examines their demands in the reformulation of the regulation of sexualities and investigates their aims and strategies. Their expertise, gained through the experience of and investment in ‘moral guardianship’, is examined here in relation to their interventions on the age of protection, or the age of consent in contemporary terms. As ‘lay experts’ on sexual morality, the women's social purity groups participated in the increased interests and discourses of sexuality between 1890 and 1915 in the midst of legal, medical and political experts.     

Black women working together: Diversity in same sex relationships

As Black women choose to remain single longer, marry later or terminate through separation or divorce dissatisfying heterosexual relationships, relationships with other Black female become more critical to the maintenance of their well-being. Black women throughout history have been characterized by their intimate relationships with each other despite diversities in backgrounds, attitudes or beliefs. Variables of gender and culture/ethnicity are often overlooked in attempts to understand the interpersonal dynamics of their close relationships.This paper examines the influence of the social constraints of racism and sexism on the same sex relationship behaviors among Black women. Research is presented on the interpersonal behaviors of a group of diverse Black women when both gender and ethnic constraints were minimized. Implications for further research and interventions methods to eradicate lateral oppression among Black women are discussed.     

The conscientization of women: A rite of self- initiation with the flavour of a religious conversion process

In traditional societies, young men and women are initiated separately into the adult world and, for various reasons, the male rite has typically been much more dramatic and elaborate. In western industrialized society, the formal education system became the initiation rite, par excellence, by which boys passed from childhood and the world of women into the public, adult world of men. By gaining access, albeit belatedly, to this male initiation rite, many women have thus gained access to the public, adult world but have found that they have had to give up being women. Other women have remained with the traditional female initiation rites of marriage and motherhood and have discovered that society does not really consider them to be adults. Another group of women have tried both routes to adulthood and have been unable to integrate their identities as women and adults.When these women get together in consciousness-raising groups they find themselves undergoing a rite of self-initiation made necessary by the fact that neither the traditional female rites of marriage and motherhood nor the masculine rites of formal education are adequate for women who wish to be considered both female and adult. Women in CR groups develop a strong sense of themselves as adult women and then are faced with the crucial question of how to relate to a patriarchal society which does not accept or affirm this new identity. There is a parallel in the process of religious conversion which, if probed, can help feminists to reflect on what are the most effective ways for a minority group to influence the mainstream of society without losing its identity and original values in the process.     

when debility provides a future: preventing vertical transmission of HIV

Since coming to power in 2010, the UK Coalition government has enacted a series of cuts to public spending, under the auspices of austerity. Underpinning these cuts is a neo-liberal model of citizenship, in which citizens are expected to be autonomous, independent and economically productive, and in which the responsibilities of citizenship outweigh the rights. This model of citizenship is characterised by a paradoxical approach to social reproduction. The Coalition government has taken a significant interest in social reproduction as a means of creating the next generation of ‘good’ neo-liberal citizens; yet, the current austerity measures involve the withdrawal of state support for social reproduction activities. Drawing on participant observation carried out with migrant women’s groups in Sheffield and Manchester, as well as interviews with group members, this article demonstrates how the government’s paradoxical approach to social reproduction, combined with gendered and racialised discourses of citizenship and ‘Britishness’, have led to policies that place ethnic minority migrant women in an untenable situation. The social reproduction activities of ethnic minority migrant women are the subject of intense government interest, because of the concern that they will be unable to produce ‘good’ neo-liberal citizens. In some cases, this has led to government policies clearly intended to dissuade ‘undesirable’ migrants from having children. In other cases, migrant women are expected to show their commitment to integration, both for themselves and their children, specifically by learning English, even as the government has drastically cut funding for English as a Second or Other Language (ESOL) classes. While seemingly paradoxical, this is in keeping with a racialised neo-liberal model of citizenship under which the ‘responsible’ migrant mother should be able to parent and learn English without government assistance. Nonetheless, these policies are actually self-defeating, as they prevent migrant women from exhibiting the very characteristics of neo-liberal citizenship that they are ostensibly trying to encourage.     

Enjoy their symptom: of woman,men and other interesting figures in Greek literary texts

Voela and Tamboukou use Slavoj ?i?ek’s notion of the symptom as a lens through which to look at representations of female figures in Greek literary texts of the early twentieth century by Gregorios Xenopoulos. In mapping the construction of the figure of the modern woman in the matrix of discourses, fantasies and power relations of fin-de-siècle Greece, they draw on psychoanalytic insights, interrupted by Foucauldian interventions. Following Judith Butler’s move of making trouble they attempt to open up a dialogic space between psychoanalytic and Foucauldian approaches to the female subject, contextualized in a specific social, historical and cultural milieu. It is in this context that they discuss, first, how feminine and masculine subjectivities are represented in man’s speech; second, how unintended excesses and interruptions occur in the problematic representation of women; and, third, how madness and ultimately death come to play a significant role in the power relations between the sexes.     

gendered politics of alienation and power restoration: Arab revolutions and women’s sentiments of loss and despair

From the start of the Arab revolutions in late 2010, a connection between the law, state, political economy, gender norms and orientalist ideology has formed the foundation of women’s systematic exclusion from politics. By unmasking processes in Egypt that have created the ideological and material conditions of externalising women’s revolutionary acts, estranging their political involvement, and exposing them to various forms of violence, this article offers a gendered political reading of the concept of alienation. The article suggests that gender-normative ideology’s characterisation of women’s images, roles and acts during and after revolutions, corresponds to the most profound form of alienation. The article identifies the externalisation and subjugation of women, and objectification of their revolutionary acts as modes of alienation. Moreover, it proposes that the implementing of these modes of alienation are necessary for creating conditions that allow for the reconfiguration of power dynamics that restore the authoritarian power of the state. This discussion suggests that the sphere of politics not only relates to political activism and conflict between revolutions and counter-revolutions, but that it is also a battlefield for the (re)production of gender-normative knowledge.     

Margaret Thatcher is my sister: Counselling on divisions between women

This paper looks at the ways in which women are divided from themselves and each other as women: at the internalised oppression which results from THE oppression of patriarchy, at the systematic mistreatment of women as a group by men as a group reinforced by the social structures of male power. It also looks at the ways in which women are divided from each other as a result of other oppressive systems such as class and/or race or religion or physical ability or age.The paper then describes how the particular theory and practice of Re-evaluation Counselling can be used to ‘deconstruct’ or ‘discharge’ the internalised oppression of patriarchy and other oppressive systems, making the principles of Women's Liberation and sisterhood a practical possibility for ‘everywoman’ and all women—including Margaret Thatcher. Throughout, the word ‘patriarchy’ is used to mean the system of male power usually regarded as synonymous with sexism.The paper includes a basic summary of Re-evaluation Counselling theory and practice.     

Young Offenders' Experiences of Child Protection Services

Young adult offenders' experiences of child protection services (CPS) from birth to 16 years of age were examined using early files from various agencies. File data concerning childhood abuse and neglect, family problems (e.g., parental alcoholism and criminality), and CPS interventions were available for 78 offenders. The vast majority of offenders had been clients of the CPS, and most entered the system first when older than 13 years. Half of the offenders had been placed in foster care. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed two groups: 23 offenders with an early onset of foster care and multiple interventions and 55 offenders with a late-onset of outpatient services and a lower rate of interventions. A significantly higher proportion of the Early-onset foster care group than the Late-onset outpatient care group had records of psychological abuse and neglect, as well as of criminal and alcoholic parents. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted, with parental problems and maltreatment as predictor variables and the number of interventions as a dependent variable. When parental mental health problems, alcoholism, and criminality were entered first in the regression equation, maternal alcoholism and father's criminality predicted the number of interventions. When childhood maltreatment was first controlled for, neglect and father's criminality were significant predictors. The possible linkages between parental problems, maltreatment, and CPS interventions are discussed.     

Resisting the tyranny: Teaching women's studies in secondary and adult education

This is an account of teaching Women's Studies over a period of about 5 years to girls of mixed ability and low academic ‘achievement’ at secondary level, and to a small group of women in Community Education. The account is anecdotal rather than theoretical: teaching/studying this subject for one period per week is potentially a liberation for all the women in the class, teacher included, and what goes on may only approximate to what is on the syllabus. It is about school-girls and women having some access to a subject of radical potential, without having to go to university or follow the ghost of Karl Marx. Issues of power, such as obtaining validation from the Examination Boards, or time-table space are noted, as are aspects of the construction of the course, such as the multicultural nature of classes and the balance between the personal element and the more fixed areas of academic knowledge.     

The women’s liberation movement,activism and therapy at the grassroots, 1968–1985

The women’s liberation movement was the impetus for the founding of new institutions of psychological and mental health care for women in the late 1970s and 1980s. This article draws upon the archive of one such site, based in Islington, North London, to explore the ways that members of the movement interacted with local politics and were attentive to racial and economic oppression. It demonstrates that consciousness-raising groups and feminist magazines made women’s distress visible and that this visibility led to the development of feminist critiques of mainstream psychiatric care. The critiques of mainstream provision laid the ground for grassroots interventions into women’s mental healthcare in the community.     

The Changing Role of Women in Finance

Finance is a gun. Politics is knowing when to pull the trigger.' In these few words the taciturn Mafia boss Don Lucchese in The Godfather Part III highlights the inextricable link between money and power, which together represent most significant influences on society and gender throughout history. Until the 1960s the very title for this article would have been regarded as a contradiction in terms. With few notable exceptions, women and finance did not mix, largely because they were not given the opportunity to do so. Today, women represent a significant force for change in the financial services industry, both as a target market for financial products and as key employees within the financial institutions. To place the power of financial institutions in an economic context, pension funds and life assurance funds together own about two-thirds of the UK stock market, with a further tranche owned by other collective retail funds, such as unit trusts and open-ended investment companies. As a result, the investment companies that manage these funds effectively control British industry, and are the channel through which the funding for future businesses must flow. The simple fact is, therefore, that the boards of British companies are answerable on a more regular basis to private fund managers than they are to financial regulators or the government itself.     

‘It's easier that you're a girl and that you're Asian’: interactions of ‘race’ and gender between researchers and participants

This article is concerned with the ways in which ‘race’ and gender interact between interviewers and participants within the research process and the implications of differences/similarities between researcher and participants for feminist research and analysis. The paper discusses issues of power and representation within a research project conducted by the white female author and two Asian female interviewers with 64 British Muslim young men and women. Based on analysis of discussion group data, it is argued that ‘race’ and gender interact between researchers and participants in highly complex and unpredictable ways to produce particular accounts, but comparative analysis of accounts produced with different interviewers can help reveal ‘hidden’ structures of power within the texts.     

Power and empowerment

Feminists are understandably ambivalent about accepting and using power within mainstream hierarchical structures that support relationships of domination and inequity. Many feminists accept their membership in a marginalized group but are wary of relating to the dominant culture which threatens to absorb them. Instead, they emphasize the importance of empowering women by helping them to see the special values of their ‘proper sphere’. This position involves a choice to continue operating within the boundaries of women's oppression, since it ignores the extent to which language and consciousness, as well as the structures of power, are all socially determined. It seems more desirable for feminists to reject idealist views of female nature. Instead of disassociating ourselves from power, we should determine the ways in which power can itself be purged of its own crippling effects. An oppositional consciousness must be developed which allows engagement between those feminists at the margins and those who accept responsibility at the center.     

Gender,ethnicity and feminism: an intersectional analysis of the lived experiences feminist academic women in UK higher education

Studies have begun to explore how those women academics committed to social justice, namely feminist academics, are navigating the increasingly managerial Academy. To understand how these multiple social identities, including gender and ethnicity, interact and intersect, this paper adopts an intersectional approach to understanding the heterogeneity of women’s experiences in academia. Five focus groups with feminist academics (n = 6–10 in each focus group) reveal concerns of hampered career progression as a consequence of being female and openly feminist. Some ethnic minority academics felt that they were forced to choose between a feminist identity or that of their ethnic background. For some women, their feminist identity provided opportunities for challenging dominant practices. The paper concludes that the heterogeneity of feminist academics’ experiences within academia is under-researched and that the lens of intersectionality helps to illuminate this. This paper advances understanding of multiple identities at work, though demonstrating that intersectionality can lead to the accumulation of advantage as well as disadvantage in relation to social identities such as gender and ethnicity, and a political identity such as feminist.