Liberty, equality, sorority: Contradiction and integrity in feminist thought and practice

This paper provides an analysis of the inherent contradictions in and the essential integrity of feminist thought and practice. It is argued that three of the central concepts in feminist thought are liberty, equality, and sorority. By their very nature, these concepts conflict with each other and it is argued that the divisions within feminist thought and practice have specific roots in the inherent contradictions of these three concepts. It is also argued, paradoxically, that while these concepts tend to contradict each other, they are each necessary for the definition and integrity of the others. They act as limits towards each other. It is suggested that it is the balanced juxtaposition of these three concepts which maintains the integrity of feminism. Finally, it is suggested that the balancing of these three concepts provides the framework for a feminist ethic.     

Social work,the family and women's equality in post-war Australia

Social work as a profession supported the conservative norms of the post-war era in Australia regarding family life and women's roles, which emphasised the family responsibilities of women rather than their ongoing struggle for equality in public life and employment. The suggested reasons for the conservatism of social work include its emergence as a female caring profession, its struggle for credibility, the content of its training curriculum, the socio-economic characteristics of its members, the kinds of family-related employment in which they were engaged, and particularly the influence of the successful male minority within its membership. Women social workers were more loyal to the values and perceived interests of their profession than to the equality of their sex.     

subjects of debate: secular and sexual exceptionalism,and Muslim women in the Netherlands

This article attends to the transformation of national identity that occurs in the context of ‘the multicultural debate’ in the Netherlands, and unfolds on the terrain of Dutch (secular and sexual) exceptionalism. First, it explores the connections between two topics that are prominent in the ‘multicultural debates’ all over Europe and undergird the civilizational discourse of a post-Cold War geopolitical era: discussions about secularism on the one hand, and gender and sexual politics on the other. Through a mode of ‘secular nostalgia’, which mobilizes the understanding of the Netherlands as a place par excellence of emancipation for both women and sexual minorities, the Dutch secular arrangement is restructured in new exclusionary ways. Second, it explores how dominant discourses on the symbolic and material borders of the nation interpellate young Muslim women who often figure as the central ‘subjects of debate’. I rely on the notion of interpellation (Althusser) to explore the question of subject formation, with a particular attention to the epistemological conditions of ‘talking back’ as a subject whose constituency and agency is always already informed by the terms in which she is addressed.     

Fathers,mothers, and adolescents: Gender-based differences in parental roles during adolescence

This study examined the involvement and satisfaction of adolescents with their fathers and mothers. Possible age and sex differences were investigated for three components of involvement: proportion of time spent with fathers and mothers, type of activities engaged in, and degree of satisfaction with those activities. Telephone interviews were used to obtain information about previous day's activities from 61 adolescents in grades 6–12. For each activity, data were obtained on duration, who else was present, and satisfaction. Results indicated that adolescents spent a greater proportion of time in leisure than in work with fathers, and equal time in work and in leisure with mothers. In general, adolescents were as satisfied with activities with their fathers as with their mothers. Adolescents enjoyed working with fathers more than mothers, however. The results demonstrate that activity satisfaction varies as a function of what activities adolescents engage in and who is present.Received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University. Major research interests are in parent-adolescent relations.Received his Ph.D. from Georgia State University. Major research interests are in early peer relations and mother-child interactions.     

Midlife,adolescence, and parental employment in family systems

Parents' midlife concerns and the resolution of those concerns were examined as a function of their children's adolescence and their involvement in employment via analyses acknowledging the interdependence of mothers and fathers. Multivariate analyses of variance results demonstrated that fathers' and mothers' midlife concerns were similar and modestly related to their children's pubertal development. There were significant differences between families of sons and of daughters. Mothers' and fathers' temporal and emotional involvement in paid work were differentially related to their own and to one another's midlife concerns. Finally, the relationships among parents' midlife concerns, work involvement, and children's pubertal status depended in part on the degree to which spouses felt supported by one another.Portions of this paper were presented at the annual meeting of the National Council on Family Relations, New Orleans, Louisiana, November 1989.Received Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University. Research interests: work-family relationships, men's and women's development during midlife, and work-family issues in small businesses.Received Ph.D. from Cornell University. Research interests: relationships between work and family life in families with school-aged and adolescent children.     

nature,nurture and nation: Nísia Floresta's engagement in the breast-feeding debate in Brazil and France

This article looks at the way the Brazilian writer and educator Nísia Floresta addresses issues of race and class within her construction of nationhood. This is achieved through a consideration of the specific subject of maternal breast-feeding as discussed by Floresta in two texts, written in Brazil and France, respectively. A comparison of these works reveals a very different engagement with race and class factors in determining women's claim to citizenship. Floresta, in common with early 19th-century European feminism, believed this claim to lie within the domestic sphere, primarily in the role of mother and educator. The article considers how, as a vital aspect of that role, she portrays maternal breast-feeding as both natural and patriotic. It also highlights the extent to which Floresta was influenced by the prevailing concerns of her contemporaries regarding the risks of wet nursing and the threat posed by household slaves, before going on to consider how this discourse leads Floresta to exclude black slave women from her vision of patriotic motherhood, while acknowledging the maternity of women of all classes in a European context. Patriotic concerns, shaped by racial prejudices, overshadow Floresta's feminism, prohibiting the kind of unifying discourse of motherhood, which she claimed to profess.     

A model of parental involvement in adolescent drinking and driving

This article presents a model of parental involvement in prevention of teenage drinking and driving. Research findings are reviewed on why adolescents drink and drive, and what parents' knowledge, attitudes, and practices are related to youthful impaired driving. Reasons for parents' ineffectiveness at intervening to prevent their teenagers from drinking and driving are described. It is suggested that parents' effectiveness at preventing alcohol use and alcohol-impaired driving among their teenagers depends upon their stage of involvement. The different stages of parental involvement are defined as awareness, acceptance, action, and consequences. The specific components of these stages are described, and evidence is presented indicating that parents tend to be unaware of the true extent and nature of teen drinking, and thus less prone to acceptance and action.Received Ph.D. in social psychology from Syracuse University. Research interests: impaired driving, adolescent risk taking, substance abuse, and health threat perception.Received M.P.H. in health education from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Research interests: alcohol-impaired driving.     

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.     

Adolescents' Closeness with Parents,Siblings, and Friends in Three Countries: Canada,Belgium, and Italy

This study compared interpersonal relationships of adolescents from Canada, Belgium, and Italy. The sample of 377 subjects was composed almost equally of boys and girls, grouped into three age groups ranging from 11 to 18 years. Each subject participated in a semistructured interview designed to examine the levels of closeness with the mother, father, siblings, and close friends. The study revealed important discrepancies among the adolescents from the three countries. Family was found to occupy a more central role in the relational world of Italian adolescents, whereas friends were found to occupy a more important place for Canadian youth. Belgian adolescents were found to adopt a middle position between these two extremes. Variations in cultural context and cultural practices are explored as a possible interpretation of these differences. The study also revealed significant consistencies across the three countries: the importance of friends in the relational life of adolescents, the privileged position of the mother in the family, and the distant position of the father.     

A critique of the research literature concerning pregnant adolescents, 1960–1970

A perspective on the research literature from 1960 to 1970 concerning pregnant adolescents (this literature was abstracted and reviewed in a previous publication) is presented. Research methodology and potential content for research are examined and suggestions made that would contribute to a stronger empirical base for the research. Several assumptions (of difference, of homogeneity, and of special need) regarding pregnant adolescents that seem to be implicit in the research are brought to light. Finally, an analysis of the risk concept is presented.Has degrees in social work (M.S. and Ph.D.) and public health (M.S.), with research interests in adolescent health status, human service for youth, and the process of (research) consultation.Has M.A. in sociology.Has degrees in theology (B.D.) and medical sociology (Ph.D.). He teaches the latter, while focusing his research interests on the mental health consequences on women as a result of their labor force participation and the evaluation of accelerated medical education programs.M.D. degree and a degree also in public health. Before his academic career, he was a high public official in the New York State Department of Health. His publications include studies of the medical aspects of water fluoridation and high-risk groups receiving maternity care. Current research interests include studies of patterns of provision of maternal and child health services in the United States, the incidence and prevalence of long-term diseases of childhood, and followup studies of low birth weight and other vulnerable infants.     

Persistence and polarisation in rural Bangladesh: Response to a debate

The authors here respond to the various comments on their original article in Vol.13, No.3 of The Journal of Peasant Studies. Their differences with the more traditional understanding of the process of differentiation of the peasantry are stressed and certain points arising from the comments are clarified. It is stressed that theirs is not an ‘equilibrium analysis’, but, rather, an analysis of the slow dynamics of differentiation, as opposed to the fast dynamics implied in classical Marxist models (including Lenin's).