Remembering Benalla migrant camp

Abstract

The former migrant camp at Benalla (1949–1967) is one of the least publicly remembered of twenty-three similar centres which provided temporary housing for non-British arrivals in post-war Australia. One of Benalla’s keenest observers saw it as ‘a sad and tragic camp where widows and single mothers were sent’. Another claimed that, as a consequence, it had ‘peculiar difficulties’. The camp ended miserably with the forced relocation of several widows and their families who had been resident in Benalla’s ‘short-term accommodation’ ever since their arrival in Australia seventeen years before. Migrant camps, like Benalla, are difficult heritage places. They raise embarrassing questions about discrimination against the non-British, family separation, forced movement and the inadequacy of support services for the most vulnerable. Benalla has hitherto seen no grand camp reunion, plaque, memorial, public history or heritage listing which raises questions about the perceptions and experiences of the facility while it operated and broader questions about remembering and heritage-making. Benalla was a unique migrant centre and as such provides rare insight into the place of single refugee women and their children within the frames of national/state, local and migrant family heritage.     

Age,Role Changes and Gender Power in Family Relationships

Abstract

This article explores the effect of a prison sentence on an inmate's female partner, with particular reference to the impact on ‘older’ women. Drawing on the findings of an empirical qualitative research study and the existing literature, this article considers the gender role changes prompted by imprisonment, and the strategies utilized by women in coping with consequent strain. The gendered nature of the impact of imprisonment is explored, and the article concludes by drawing on multidisciplinary feminist perspectives in criminology and family studies to assess the centrality of institutionalized ‘traditional’ expectations of appropriate women's behavior to women's experiences of, and responses to, male imprisonment.     

‘It’s Not OK’, but ‘It’ never happened: parental alienation accusations undermine children’s safety in the New Zealand Family Court

ABSTRACT

While the public campaign slogan in New Zealand when referring to family violence, is ‘It’s Not OK’, many women in New Zealand report that the Family Court prefers the catchphrase ‘It never happened’. When women and children escaping violence and abuse reach out to the New Zealand Family Court for protection believing the justice system will help them, they often enter an alternative reality where they are not believed and are subsequently made less safe. This is particularly so for those women whose well-founded fears for their children’s safety get reinterpreted as evidence of a deliberate attempt to alienate the children from their fathers. The Backbone Collective, an independent organisation, surveyed New Zealand women about their experiences in the Family Court, finding that many women reported being accused of parental alienation. This paper investigates the sources of these allegations of parental alienation and how they impact mothers and their children. We argue that the use of parental alienation in the New Zealand Family Court is undermining the international rights of children.     

Barriers to marriage and motherhood: the experiences of disabled women in Malaysia

ABSTRACT

The conceptualisation of disability is contested globally and issues in gender studies further complicate the movement towards the development of an inclusive and equal society. However, most disability and gender research studies are based on the data collected in the Global North, and little is known about disabled women in the Global South. The data presented here is from a bigger study focusing on the lived experiences of women with disabilities. This paper sets to explore how disabled women in Malaysia experience their lives in terms of marriage and motherhood prospects. The data of this qualitative study was collected from a set of in-depth interviews involving 32 women in Malaysia with physical (mobility) impairment. Over a period of 6 months, 16 Malays, 8 Chinese and 8 Indian women were interviewed twice. The analysis proposes both retrospective and introspective accounts on marriage and motherhood. The data gathered from the in-depth interviews was transcribed and analysed thematically with the help of NVivo software. The findings indicated that most participants have experienced significant barriers concerning individual constraints, familial control, and societal barriers. These were discussed with the intrinsic aspects and contextual factors of living in a patriarchal and traditional society that significantly undermined the wellbeing of disabled women in this study. Nevertheless, many of those interviewed refused to give up their hope of having a family life despite the constant struggles they encountered in their pursuit of happiness. However, their aspirations to experience family life were restricted and this caused them to experience significant psycho-emotional problems. They were constantly reminded that they were ‘disabled’ and not worthy of experiencing life like other women. The paper will discuss these challenges and negative societal attitudes towards the issue.     

Women Police Stations as a Dispute Processing System

Abstract

In 1992, the Tamil Nadu State government in India began to introduce all-women police stations whose primary role is to deal with crimes against women, including family violence and dowry disputes. Dowry giving is a customary practice in India, which often results in disputes between young wives and their new families. As a result, the young women may be subjected to physical and mental ill treatment, sometimes resulting in death. Using detailed data from 474 case records and interviews with 60 dowry victims, the present study examines how women police stations serve as a dispute processing system, and describes the services extended by the stations to the victims of dowry disputes. Many cases were successfully resolved and violence was frequently reduced. The study holds implications for the extension of training in dispute resolution for women police in India.     

Seasons of labor:: Family,Work, and Land in a Nineteenth-century Nova Scotia Shipbuilding Community

This article examines the place of occupational pluralism in the adaptive family economy of rural shipyard workers in nineteenth-century Weymouth, Nova Scotia. The concept of the adaptive family economy emphasizes that families attempt to maximize economic well-being by diversifying the employment opportunities of family members. For most shipyard workers, shipbuilding was a part-time activity that complemented seasonal farming and lumbering activities. The role of space, land ownership, and the characteristics of workers reveal certain economic and sociocultural features that are associated with pluralism, including larger family size, the use of land for farming and security of food production, and the importance of job location for participation in pluralist activities. These features stand more clearly revealed by examining them within the larger economic and cultural context of shipbuilding, farming, and lumbering in the Confederation era.     

Seasons of labor:

This article examines the place of occupational pluralism in the adaptive family economy of rural shipyard workers in nineteenth-century Weymouth, Nova Scotia. The concept of the adaptive family economy emphasizes that families attempt to maximize economic well-being by diversifying the employment opportunities of family members. For most shipyard workers, shipbuilding was a part-time activity that complemented seasonal farming and lumbering activities. The role of space, land ownership, and the characteristics of workers reveal certain economic and sociocultural features that are associated with pluralism, including larger family size, the use of land for farming and security of food production, and the importance of job location for participation in pluralist activities. These features stand more clearly revealed by examining them within the larger economic and cultural context of shipbuilding, farming, and lumbering in the Confederation era.     

Gender, traditionalism, and attitudes toward domestic violence within a closed community

This research was aimed at examining the attitudes toward domestic violence of people living in communal secular and religious kibbutzim. The findings, disregarding gender or traditionalism, indicate that most of the kibbutz members examined view the kibbutz as almost totally lacking any problem of violence toward women by their partners. The belief that the kibbutz home is a secure place for women within the family framework appears, surprisingly, at a higher frequency among women than among men. There are two possible theoretical explanations for this finding. First, the kibbutz lifestyle has indeed brought about equal power relationships, which explains why domestic violence is not viewed as a social problem, mostly by secular women. Second, women, who play a relatively minor role in constructing the public agenda in the kibbutz, have not become aware of the existence of this issue in the closed community.     

The ‘unwanteds’ and ‘non-compliants’: ‘unsupported mothers’ as ‘failures’ and agents in Australia’s migrant Holding Centres*

Abstract

Ideas of assimilated citizenship are inherently gendered and during Australia’s post-World War Two migration boom they were deeply and explicitly invested in marriage, children and domesticity. In this period of social conservatism and economic boom, assimilation rhetoric functioned as a reassuring mirror for the host population, promoting the dream of prosperous family life as the ultimate aspiration for refugees and migrants. The role of immigration Holding Centres within this vision was to provide a context in which migrants and refugees could take their first steps towards accomplishing this dream. These Centres of necessary temporary residence were designed as sites of transition towards autonomous, assimilated family life. However, those families headed by single mothers, often referred to in government records as ‘unsupported mothers’, had limited opportunities to live up to such images of assimilation, or even to comply with the economic imperatives of the migration scheme that had brought them to Australia. Based mainly on Department of Immigration records, this article demonstrates that despite recognising the long-term economic and social prospects their children represented, government agencies viewed many unsupported mothers as system failures. They attempted to remedy the situation by turning these women into live-in domestic workers, at times placing pressure on them to institutionalise their children in order to facilitate this, thereby prioritising their compliance with economic imperatives over support for their parenting. Within the limited scope of their agency, unsupported mothers responded by attempting to negotiate the terms of their compliance or simply refusing to comply. For the latter group, Holding Centres became a more permanent home. This permanence is read here as a gendered form of resistance to a system that struggled to foster their economic self-reliance without compromising their capacity to be mothers.     

Building ‘healthy happy family units’: Aileen Fitzpatrick and reuniting children separated by the Greek Civil War with their families in Australia, 1949–1954

Abstract

This article explores the efforts by Aileen Fitzpatrick, the Australian social worker, who repatriated child refugees from Greece at the height of the Greek Civil War, to reconstruct ‘healthy, happy family units’. I explore several themes. First, Fitzpatrick’s argument for the unification of families echoed the view that the family unit represented democracy and freedom in the post-war period. Second, an appeal to reuniting family became a successful strategy for crossing cold war lines when dealing with several governments. Third, for Fitzpatrick child saving from war and reuniting families was perceived to be essential to democracy, humanitarianism and internationalism. Finally, by taking a biographical approach, the details of the experience of family emerge in new ways. A focus on Fitzpatrick’s strategies suggests family rhetoric could be used to both promote and yet also cross cold war lines. More broadly, this article seeks to embed the history of the family within the general history of the post-war period as a way of highlighting how the ideal of the family was mobilised in rhetoric on freedom, democracy and the future and which in practice revealed the severe challenges facing families after the war.     

Migration as family strategy: Rural-urban labor migration in India during the twentieth century

"The article analyzes the role of families in processes of rural-urban migration in India in the twentieth century. It shows that the continuous circular form of this migration should be explained as a consequence of rural family strategies. Already established kinship relations or marriage opportunities in the future act as a centripetal force, drawing the labor migrants back to their communities time and again. In addition, the article shows how labor migration is informed by economic and cultural considerations which determine the socioeconomic behavior of men and women."     

Distributive Justice Norms and Family Work: What Is Perceived as Ideal,What Is Applied,and What Predicts Perceived Fairness?

Members of married couples rated how ideal communal, exchange, and equality rules were for their marriages. They also reported on whether they and their spouses followed each norm in general in their marriages and in the domains of housework and child care. Both men and women considered a communal norm to be more ideal than the other norms and reported that they and their spouse followed a communal norm to a greater extent than an exchange or equality rule, both in general and in the domains of housework and child care. In addition, links between reports of actual division of labor in each domain, as well as reports of norm use, and perceived fairness of the division of family work were examined. Greater inequalities in the division of labor were linked to decreased perceptions of fairness. Controlling for reports of division of labor, women's reports of the self and of the spouse following a communal norm were linked with increased perceptions of fairness as were women's reports of the spouse following an equality rule. In contrast, and again after controlling for reports of division of labor, women's reports of the self following an exchange rule and men's reports of the self and of the spouse following an exchange rule were associated with greater perceived unfairness of the division of family work.     

Multiple stressors,violence in the family of origin,and marital aggression: A longitudinal investigation

The negative perception of stress is significantly associated with marital aggression, as is violence in one's family of origin. However, most individuals experiencing stress do not engage in family violence. The present study tests an aspect of social learning theory, proposing that violence in one's family of origin predisposes one to react to stress by aggressing against one's spouse. Two hundred and seventy five couples completed questionnaires measuring multiple (work and life) stress, and marital aggression 6 and 18 months following their wedding. Information on violence in their family of origin was collected 1 month prior to their wedding. Moderated multiple regressions showed that for women, stress predicted marital aggression 1 year later after controlling for age, education, and initial marital aggression. No effects emerged for violence in the family of origin for either men or women. Conceptual implications for further studying the role of violence in the family of origin and the relationship between multiple Stressors and physical aggression are advanced.     

What Was It They Lost?

Abstract

The issue of family violence is a modern scourge on Canadian society. Recent estimates indicate that during the previous five years in Canada, 7% of women and 6% of men encountered spousal violence (Statistics Canada, 2005). Furthermore, Aboriginal communities in Canada experience disproportionately high rates of family violence, due to a myriad of reasons. While the impact of colonization continues to affect the lives of Aboriginal people, what is less well known are the more recent social and emotional effects of excessive resource development, particularly in isolated communities. Through an examination of the perspectives of community workers regarding family violence in their community, located in northern Canada and displaced by hydroelectric development, a range of ideas were explored. Critical race theory provides a backdrop for understanding the endemic nature of the systemic racism that characterizes the relationship between Aboriginal peoples and the government. The study demonstrates that the social and emotional impact of excessive resource development continues to resonate in a negative manner, even many years following displacement.     

“I'm calling my mom”: The meaning of family and kinship among homegirls

This paper explores the relationships and experiences of a group of young Latina women. The material is drawn from an ongoing comparative qualitative study of ethnic youth gangs in the San Francisco Bay area. The information collected highlights the female gang members' complex relationships with their families, with one another, and with male counterparts. By focusing on the elaborate networks of support and strong attachments that women form, we suggest a reexamination of the relationships between family and gang in the gang members' lives.     

The Complex Relationship Between Motherhood and Desistance

Using a sample of 118 drug-involved women originally released from prison in the 1990s and re-interviewed between 2010 and 2011, this paper examines the role motherhood played in the desistance process from crime and substance abuse. Interview narratives revealed that motherhood rarely functioned as a turning point per se that activated desistance, but caring for children did serve to solidify prosocial identities once offenders had transformed their addict/criminal identities. Despite their identity transformations, however, the journey of desistance for the majority of mothers was still a long and arduous path. The reality for these mothers most often resembled a hostile terrain marked by the competing demands of battling addiction, finding employment and suitable housing with a criminal record, establishing visitation and custody rights in family court, and regaining the trust of children and family members who had long ago lost faith in their commitment to their families. This research illuminates the complexities inherent in the desistance process for a contemporary sample of drug involved adult women entrenched within the criminal justice system.     

Damned if They Flee,Doomed if They Don’t: Narratives of Runaway Adolescent Females from Rural India

Within the cultural context of rural India that emphasizes familial roles for women, this qualitative study explored the experiences of adolescent females who run away from their family homes. Ten adolescent females from rural areas or small towns of Gujarat, India were individually interviewed while they temporarily resided in an institution, along with six members of the institution staff. Throughout childhood, participants described experiencing differential attention and care to domestic violence and abuse within their families. In the context of this life-long mistreatment, the immediate trigger for the decision to flee was family disapproval of the romantic partners that adolescent females had chosen for themselves. Each of the females eloped with the male romantic partner, which led to severe opposition from their families, including explicit threats of endangering their or their partners’ lives, in turn, destroying the promise of a better life that the girls likely sought through escape. Prevention and intervention approaches are needed that promote community change and provide adaptive options for adolescent girls in distress.     

SELF-CONCEPT, NEGATIVE FAMILY AFFECT, AND DELINQUENCY: A Comparison Across Mexican Social Classes

Using a semistructured measure to minimize cross-cultural biases, we examined the relationship between negative self and family-other affect and delinquency among 135 Mexican families of varying social class. The results indicated that: (a) both processed and released delinquent youths and their parents evaluated themselves more negatively than nondelinquent youths and their parents; (b) appraisals in the families of processed and released delinquents did not differ appreciably; (c) migrant families tended to manifest the most negativity and lower-class families the least, with middle-class families in between; and (d) socioeconomic status did not predict the relationship between family hostility and delinquency. The results are seen as providing more support for the family control theory of delinquency than for processing-labeling theory.     

Intergenerational transmission of longevity is not affected by other familial factors: evidence from 16,905 Dutch families from Zeeland, 1812-1962

ABSTRACT

Studies have shown that long-lived individuals seem to pass their survival advantage on to their offspring. Offspring of long-lived parents had a lifelong survival advantage over individuals without long-lived parents, making them more likely to become long-lived themselves. We test whether the survival advantage enjoyed by offspring of long-lived individuals is explained by environmental factors. 101,577 individuals from 16,905 families in the 1812–1886 Zeeland cohort were followed over time. To prevent that certain families were overrepresented in our data, disjoint family trees were selected. Offspring was included if the age at death of both parents was known. Our analyses show that multiple familial resources are associated with survival within the first 5 years of life, with stronger maternal than paternal effects. However, between ages 5 and 100 both parents contribute equally to offspring’s survival chances. After age 5, offspring of long-lived fathers and long-lived mothers had a 16-19% lower chance of dying at any given point in time than individuals without long-lived parents. This survival advantage is most likely genetic in nature, as it could not be explained by other, tested familial resources and is transmitted equally by fathers and mothers.