Reproducing plantation society: Women and land in colonial South Carolina

Some women in colonial South Carolina inherited, possessed, and sold real property. This article examines how and why women took on roles as landowners. Such practices were part of a range of innovative strategies designed to hand down plantation capital to the next generation. High mortality rates in the region challenged white families as they sought to establish their children within the planter class. Recent scholarship on women in South Carolina has identified instances in which “female planters” wielded control over land and slaves, temporarily assuming authority otherwise reserved for men. Tracing the presence of female landowners in land records, plantation advertisements, and court records reveals that although women made up only a small minority of landowners, they performed an important role in transmitting land and bringing it into production. Unlike their counterparts in other slave societies, white women in the Lowcountry were engaged directly in managing the domestic economies of plantation businesses. Even the archetypical female planter, Eliza Lucas Pinckney, conceived of her influential experiments with indigo production as an extension of her primary, domestic responsibilities as a planter's daughter and as a planter's wife. Such intensive and extensive domestic experience accounts for the unusually active roles South Carolina women undertook as family agents tasked with reproducing plantation society.     

The forming and fracturing of families on a South Carolina rice plantation, 1812–1865

This case study traces family formation among enslaved people on a South Carolina rice plantation owned by Charles Cotesworth Pinckney in the first half of the nineteenth century. It uses a rare set of documents to show how enslaved people were brought together mainly via inheritance (rather than purchase) to form a new community, and how they responded to frequent mobility within the holdings of a single planter. It also highlights the peculiar challenges to stable family formation that were unique to the South Carolina lowcountry, including individuals being separated from the main body of the community for periods of time while working on other holdings; the presence of a higher percentage of African-born individuals than was usual for the antebellum South; and the devastating impact of the highest mortality experienced by a mainland slave population.     

Female homicide offenders: Trends over time in an institutionalized population

The records of 460 female homicide offenders, admitted to a state prison for women between 1940–66 and 1981–83, were examined to determine changes in the character of the offender and the criminal event itself. While there were several respects in which the contemporary murderess differs from her predecessor, overall the data have questioned the extent to which changing roles for women have influenced the character of female homicide over time. Whatever influence the women's movement might have had on middle- and upper-class women, the contemporary murderess seems as far from liberation as her sisters in the '40s, '50s, and '60s.     

The influence of suspect gender in domestic violence arrests

This study examines heterosexual domestic violence incidents involving male and female suspects. The sample includes 428 incident reports filed at the Columbia (South Carolina) Police Department between 1993 and 1997. Police officers appear to use different arrest determinants for women than for men. The implications of these differential law enforcement practices are discussed.     

A Separate Peace? The Politics of Localized Law in the Post‐Revolutionary Era

Law is often seen as peripheral to Southern life before the Civil War, and the South as an outlier in the American legal history of that era. In The People and Their Peace (2009), Laura Edwards demonstrates the profoundly legal nature of Southern society and takes an important step toward integrating the legal history of the South with that of the nation. Edwards identifies two dueling legal cultures in North and South Carolina between 1787 and 1840—the law of local courts, which she terms localized law, and the state law of professionalized lawyers and reformers. She argues that white women, slaves, and the poor fared better in localized law—which was based on notions of popular sovereignty and the flexible rubric of restoring “the peace”—than in state courts, which were steeped in a national culture of individual rights that led to more restrictive results. This essay questions Edwards's dichotomy between local law and state law and her depiction of the popular content of localized law, while building on Edwards's innovations to suggest a new direction for Southern legal history.     

中西方爱情剧中女性角色塑造意蕴谈

中西方在社会形态和文化传统等方面存在一定的差异，在爱情剧女性角色的塑造当中具体体现在主人公的身份、地位和追求爱情所采取的行动等方面，但其爱情剧都着力表现妇女要求个性解放和女性自我意识的觉醒这一主题则是共同的     

Maids and mothers: Domestic servants and illegitimacy in 19th-century Australia

Historically, domestic servants have been overrepresented amongst women whose ex-nuptial pregnancy became a public “problem.” Despite such apparent vulnerability, female rescue-workers also saw domestic work as the pathway to redemption for such women. Drawing on extensive Australian data on single mothers and their children in the 19th-century, this article investigates the complex relationship between domestic service and illegitimacy. While it will argue that the overrepresentation is more apparent than real, a product of the situation of the domestic servant whose workplace was her home and whose continued employment was often dependent on maintaining high moral standards, it will also contest the viability of domestic service as a “solution” for the mother compelled to work to support her child.     

Incidence and Correlates of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Australian Victims of Domestic Violence

In recent years, evidence has emerged of the significant incidence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among victims of domestic violence. The present study examined incidence and correlates of PTSD in 100 female victims of domestic violence resident in women's shelters in Adelaide, South Australia. Forty-five women were found to meet all diagnostic criteria for PTSD. Women meeting PTSD diagnostic criteria reported having experienced higher levels of violence and were more likely to report having a spouse with an alcohol problem and having believed they would be killed by their spouse than women who did not meet criteria. Diagnosis of PTSD was also associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression.     

Rita James Simon

Abstract

From her early days in Brooklyn, New York to her overflowing office at American University in Washington, DC, this paper traces the remarkable life of Professor Rita J. Simon. Rita Simon is considered one of the most accomplished, prolific, and respected sociologists today. She has authored twenty-six books, edited fourteen, and written over 230 articles on topics such as the jury system, immigration, public opinion, transracial adoption, and women and crime. Her scholarly contributions to the subject of women and crime have aided in our understanding of female criminal behavior, the types of crimes women commit, and the punishments they receive. Further, as the President of the Women's Freedom Network, she has worked toward celebrating and highlighting the achievements of women, but has steadfastly maintained that women do not need special protections or different standards of excellences philosophy that personifies Rita's life. In this biographical essay, the author outlines the early years, academic career, professional activities and recognitions, and offers a personal look into the life of Rita James Simon. It is based on interviews with her children, as well as the author's experience with Rita as her professor, mentor, co-author, and friend.     

Maids and mothers: Domestic servants and illegitimacy in 19th-century Australia

Historically, domestic servants have been overrepresented amongst women whose ex-nuptial pregnancy became a public “problem.” Despite such apparent vulnerability, female rescue-workers also saw domestic work as the pathway to redemption for such women. Drawing on extensive Australian data on single mothers and their children in the 19th-century, this article investigates the complex relationship between domestic service and illegitimacy. While it will argue that the overrepresentation is more apparent than real, a product of the situation of the domestic servant whose workplace was her home and whose continued employment was often dependent on maintaining high moral standards, it will also contest the viability of domestic service as a “solution” for the mother compelled to work to support her child.     

“‘I have done it and I have got to die’: Coroners' inquests of abortion deaths in Rhode Island, 1876–1938.”

This article offers an analysis of abortion deaths among white working-class women in Providence County based on thirty-three coroners records from 1876 to 1938. Most women were single and in their twenties: they chose abortion either because their lover was married, or they were too ashamed of their premarital sexual activity to confront their parents. Married women, on the other hand, did so primarily due to economic factors, extramarital affairs, or a strong desire for no more children. In seeking abortions, single women depended on lovers while married women relied on sisters or sisters-in-law. In investigating the deaths resulting from these abortions, coroners called husbands, but not lovers, before the inquests and sought out antemortem statements. Yet only 39% of cases had dying declarations: either doctors refused to participate in interrogating women on their death beds, or women refused to identify abortionists. Of the abortion providers identified, 45% were physicians. Working-class status did not prevent these women, and later their families, from securing expensive medical care from doctors. Both inquests and newspaper coverage in Providence County differ from studies by other scholars who find these venues used as mechanisms to embarrass women and warn single women of urban threats, and to target midwives over physicians. The evidence points to analogous handling of doctors and laypeople, and of married and single women. No intimate details of women's lives were exposed and newspapers did not use sensationalized headlines to draw attention to the illegal activity of abortion. Coroner inquests asked questions necessary to investigate death from a criminal activity, not to take a moral stance on female sexuality.     

Anything less is not feminism: Racial difference and the W.M.W.M.

Feminism is the political theory and practice to free all women: women of colour, working class women, poor women, physically challenged women, lesbians, old women as well as white heterosexual, economically privileged women. Anything less is not feminism, but merely female self-aggrandisement. White Middle-class Women's Movement. My special thanks to Susie Gibson for her insight and support on this project. Thanks to Akua Rugg for being there.     

Technology transfer and industrial development in Taiwan

Taiwan, in spite of its limited land and natural resources, has achieved remarkable economic growth during the past four decades. Taiwan's gross domestic product (GDP) has grown 40 times and its industrial production has increased 87 times. The Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan (ITRI) has played important roles in transferring applied technologies to industry. This diffusion of technologies, along with the government's efforts toward industrialization, has helped create a strong national economy in Taiwan.     

Older African American Women and Barriers to Reporting Domestic Violence to Law Enforcement in the Rural Deep South

Victims of domestic violence are legally entitled to police protection, but multiple barriers exist in contacting law enforcement. In this study, we used Federal Bureau of Investigation data, key informant interviews, and focus groups to examine barriers to reporting domestic violence among older African American women in the rural Deep South. Three primary barriers were identified: gender roles, age dependency, and mistrust of law enforcement. The main finding was that reports of domestic violence were deterred by fears of being stigmatized by church, family, and community. The one compelling and feasible resolution is for law enforcement to take a leadership role in educating clergy and other community leaders about domestic violence as a crime against older women.     

Homicides committed by youth assailants: a retrospective study

The pediatric population has received considerable attention in the forensic community; the youth assailant of homicide, however, is understudied. The authors retrospectively reviewed all cases referred to the Forensic Pathology Section of the Medical University of South Carolina between January 1991 and May 2006. Cases included in the study were homicides in which 1 or more assailants were 19 years of age or younger. The cases were examined as to the cause and manner of death, victim age, gender, race, incident location, weapon used, assailant-victim relationship, assailant age, gender, race, motive, and postmortem toxicology results. Assailant information was obtained from forensic records at Medical University of South Carolina, police department records, and online search engines of South Carolina State newspaper archives confirmed by law enforcement reports. The youth assailants were predominantly black men, 15 to 19 years of age (range, 4-19 years). Most victims were black male acquaintances, and the motive was most often an argument. The most common cause of death was cerebral laceration because of a gunshot wound. The incident occurred in the home in 41% of cases, followed by the street in 31%. Victim toxicology was frequently positive for cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol.     

Family biography,fertility and memory-making in an AIDS-affected South African site

The critical challenges of AIDS and poverty in post-apartheid South Africa impact the ways in which memories are articulated and family and fertility histories ultimately constructed. This article considers three life histories written in the course of ethnographic work on women's childbearing conducted intermittently between 1998 and 2014, and typical of other histories in the same peri-urban locale. Personal accounts of a mother and her two daughters initially centre on domestic strife and adversity – and the family as a whole is represented as struggling and disunited. In the aftermath of the death of one of the daughters from AIDS in 2001, the memories and discourse are subtly reworked by the two women in ways that are meant to counteract stigma, reclaim dignity and defend the family. The paper focuses on reproductive dynamics and memory-making in a hardship-driven and AIDS-affected setting and on the ethnographer's endeavours in witnessing, interviewing and making sense of people's ‘intent’ and ‘the urge to forget, to go on living’.     

Observations from practice: support group membership as a process of social capital formation among female survivors of domestic violence

This article explores the authors' practice observations of female domestic violence survivors' journey from first agency contact to active participation in a support group process. The authors have witnessed female victims of domestic violence challenging the social isolation imposed by their dominant partners as they search for meaning in their lives. As practitioners, they have observed women building trustful relationships and establishing supportive networks during the group process. In this article, the authors suggest that the support group process facilitates trust and network formation indicative of social capital.     

Women judges who judge women offenders: a Chinese case study on gender and judging

ABSTRACT

Based on an empirical study, this article examines Chinese female judges’ life experiences and worldviews by asking: are women judges feminist or pro-feminism? Given the very nature of feminism, if a large number of women judges are feminist or pro-feminism, they are likely to bring attention to women’s issues in the judiciary and the judicial process. If so, women’s equal participation in courts would make a vital difference in law and judicial production. The article first provides the context of the research on which this article is based. Next, it briefly outlines several key methodological issues. Then, it presents findings on female judges’ perceptions of women’s gender roles, their views about female offending and their awareness of feminism. Finally, it highlights the evidence presented and offers implications of the research.     

Public goods, taxes, and takings

Blume, Rubinfeld, and Shapiro [Blume, L., Rubinfeld, D., & Shapiro, P. (1984). The taking of law: When should compensation be paid? Quarterly Journal of Economics, 99, 71–92] first showed that compensation for takings can lead to a moral hazard problem that results in overinvestment in land suitable for public use. To the contrary, this paper shows that when compensation is financed by a proportional property tax, the compensation rule is irrelevant regarding the level of investment landowners make in their property, as well as the amount of land they authorize the government to acquire, both of which will be efficient. Intuitively, landowners recognize the equivalence of taxes and takings in budgetary terms, causing the distortionary effects of compensation and property taxation to cancel each other out through the balanced budget condition.