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.     

Where angels fear to tread? "Third World women" and "development"

Regarding debates between feminists from the North and South, it has been argued that Western feminists implicitly disparage Third World women by representing them as sexually oppressed. It has also been argued that Third World women's political struggles are trivialized when the women are so homogenized. The author argues that while there is some truth in these assertions, Southern feminists should beware of cultural fundamentalism. She welcomes their stress upon the importance of sociocultural analysis, especially in the interest of understanding Southern economic contexts, and notes that sociocultural analyses do not lead away from economic issues, but provide more explanatory variables and more complex models. Chandra Mohanty's critique is evaluated with regard to the three Zed Press books reviewed.     

Equality,empowerment, and choice: what does feminism mean to contemporary women?

Feminisms work to correct the social gender imbalance, necessitating women's continued self-identification as feminist. There are several reasons noted for women choosing to identify: (1) exposure to feminist beliefs through education, (2) personal influences such as strong feminist role models, and (3) awareness of gender discrimination. The current research literature on feminism has largely omitted the dynamic and contextual factors that may influence this decision. This study sought to fill this gap by utilizing qualitative methodology to evaluate reasons why contemporary women choose to self-identify as feminist. Overall, the data indicate that a general desire for equality, empowerment, and the freedom to make choices are instrumental in the decision-making process. Further, exposure to feminism, both through education and personal role models, has also led to their self-identification. The implications of these findings, as well as suggestions for the continuation of the feminist movement are discussed.     

Whatever happened to the women in folktale?

This study examines the representation and function of women in English romance, specifically their development from older traditional Western narrative forms. It considers three English romances and their analogues: Le Petit Berger from the Lorraine valley, Cu Chulainn and the Wooing of Emer from Ulster, both folktales, and The Lord of Learn, a Scottish ballad. Then to show how the function of women dilates in romance, Sir Orfeo, Havelok the Dane, and King Horn are examined. In Western folktales women are stock characters who symbolically complete the hero's experience; their marriage provides a resolution to the action. In romance, however, women begin to determine the hero's sense of himself and his role in the world. This study provides a new way to look at the structural function of women characters in a genre that is thought to reinforce the values of the ruling class.     

Beyond the Centre: women in nineteenth-century Iceland and the grand narratives of European women’s and gender history

In recent years, women’s and gender historians have paid attention to the dissonance between the grand narratives of European women’s history and the history and experiences of marginal regions and countries. This article discusses the challenge of writing women’s history from the margins—Iceland—into the framework of the grand narratives of European women’s and gender history. It is argued that this framework grounded in theories of progress and modernisation is too narrow, offering little space for different or marginal voices from rural societies. Using the case study of the ‘ordinary’ woman Sigríður Pálsdóttir (1809–1871), the article argues that more voices from the margins and different histories, broaden our understanding of the multi-vocal and multi-levelled history of women in Europe.     

Where angels fear to tread?: ‘Third world women’ and ‘development’

Male Bias in the Development Process, edited by Diane Elson. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1991. Pp.viii + 215. £29.95 (hardback). ISBN 0 7190 2555 9

Gender, Development and Identity: An Ethiopian Study, by Helen Pankhurst. London: Zed Books, 1992. Pp.216. £29.95 (hardback); £12.95 (paperback). ISBN 1 85649 157 9 and 158 7

Where Women are Leaders: The SEWA Movement in India, by Kalima Rose. London: Zed Books, 1992. Pp.286. £32.95 (hardback); £12.95 (paperback). ISBN 1 85649 083 1084 X

In debates between feminists from South and North it has been argued that Western feminists implicitly disparage ‘third world women’ by representing them as ‘sexually oppressed’. Further, it has been argued, ‘third world women's’ political struggles are trivialised when these women are discursively homogenised. It is argued here that while there is some truth in these assertions. Southern feminists should beware of cultural ‘fundamentalism’. However, their emphasis on the importance of socio‐cultural analysis is applauded, especially if we are to understand Southern economic contexts. Socio‐cultural analyses do not lead away from economic issues: they provide more explanatory variables and more complex models.     

First be a woman? rural development,social change and women farmers’ lives in Thessaly-Greece

This research is prompted by a desire to portray how Thessalian women farmers’ lives have been and are still affected by agrarian, economic, political and social transformations that took place in Greece from 1950 onwards. Using a cueing technique, we collected 2034 autobiographical memories from 74 women farmers. In general, the story our data tell indicates that the progress regarding woman’s position within family and society was slow and erratic, whereas it is still underway, since gender role appropriateness remains a robust construction. The analysis proved that the first signs of change appeared in the 1970s, when the migration from Thessaly to Europe brought about some unprecedented ideas on woman’s social and domestic roles. Other factors, such as the modernization of agriculture in 1980s and the consequent economic flourishing, along with the aura conveyed by the new (female) members of farming communities, and the opening of rural societies in 1990s and 2000s, facilitated this change.     

"Heavyweight" men and younger women? The gendering of selection processes in Norwegian sport organizations

This article concentrates on discourses and practices concerning leadership selection in Norwegian sport organizations, how meanings of gender are made relevant and how these processes may contribute to build and rebuild organizational gender structures. The empirical material focuses on selection procedures and how these are discursively underpinned. The analyses revealed that the selection discourses were strongly related to images of corporate leadership skills: skills associated with "heroic" masculine traits, but seen as gender-neutral. Most female candidates were not regarded as sufficiently possessing the most preferred skills. The selection procedures seem to indicate a gendered political situation, where overall organizational objectives to promote gender equality are relatively subordinated.     

Going backwards: Law ‘reform’ and women bashing

The 1970s and 1980s have seen a resurgence of interest in and concern about criminal assault at home, although the euphemism ‘domestic violence’ is generally used to describe the phenomenon. In Australia, it was the women's refuge movement, begun with the setting up of a refuge in Fremantle, Western Australia and the Elsie Refuge in Sydney, which directed attention to the rights of women victims and the need to combat the violence.In every jurisdiction the lack of attention paid to the commission of criminal assault at home has been high on the list of problems facing women bashed and brutalised in private. However, rather than recognising that police have powers to deal with those men who abuse their wives and that steps must be taken to force the police to enforce the law, the emphasis has been upon the ‘need’ to ‘reform’ the law to give police more powers.This has been a backward step. Not only does it confirm that the police, in (wrongly) saying they have no power to arrest or to enter homes where violence against women is occuring or has occured are somehow telling the truth. It also places violence against women at home in a category different from violence against strangers on the street. As well, it gives the illusion of something concrete—and useful—being done to alleviate the masculine destruction which is too prevalent in Australian homes.     

Preventing ‘robotised women workers’: women,sport and the workplace in Scotland 1919–1939

This article examines a new area of women's leisure; women's participation in work-related sport. The growth and development of industrial welfare in Scotland in the interwar period will be discussed. Within broader studies, Stephen Jones, Helen Jones and Melling have all indicated that there was a growth in industrial welfarism in Britain from the turn of the twentieth century. This development of welfarism, which included provision of educational classes, pensions and medical support, increasingly also encompassed a variety of sports and physical activities. By looking at case studies, developments in provision across a range of industries will be examined. This discussion will draw on a wide range of sources from a variety of women's employment, from factories to clerical positions and from the retail sector to the civil service. This article will examine the types of sporting opportunities open to women through their workplaces, including organised welfare schemes and independent employee-led activities. Moreover, it will explore working women's experiences of these activities and the ways in which they chose to participate in sport.     

same old story? children and young people’s continued normalisation of men’s violence against women

Globally, nationally and locally men’s violence against women is an endemic social problem and an enduring human rights issue within all societies and cultures. Challenging attitudes that condone violence both at the individual and community level is a key priority in its prevention. This paper brings together findings from two separate studies based on children’s and young people’s understandings of men’s violence against women. Both studies were located in Glasgow, Scotland, and used qualitative methods to explore children’s and young people’s views of men’s violence against women. The two studies, conducted nearly ten years apart, involved children aged 11 and 12 and young people aged 15 to 18. Despite the differences in age and the interval between them, there are remarkable similarities identified within both studies centring around children and young people’s normalisation of men’s violence against women. This paper presents a discussion of three of the key themes identified from these studies: the construction of men’s violence; gender roles and the naturalisation of difference; and the normalisation of men’s violence. In both studies the techniques of normalisation were employed by the participants to minimise both the seriousness of the violence and the significance of it to the victims. The findings clearly illustrate the widespread justification of gendered violence by both boys and girls. Thus, while the development and implementation of domestic violence/abuse education programmes need to take into account gender differences, targeting only boys’ attitudes fails to acknowledge an important component in reducing domestic violence/abuse: the internalisation of patriarchal norms by girls and women.     

Why does it happen? Explanations for men’s violence against women by women with interpersonal victimization histories

Men’s violence against women (MVAW) has been identified as a critical sociocultural problem. Gaining a better understanding of perspectives on the etiology of violence held by women with histories of male-perpetrated interpersonal violence provides insight into the processes of victimization and recovery. Furthermore, emerging research suggests that feminist beliefs may facilitate recovery and impact how survivors of MVAW perceive it. In this study, we aimed to explore, in women with histories of interpersonal violence, (1) the ways they explained the high prevalence of MVAW and (2) associations between the strength of their feminist beliefs and the participants’ explanations. Female college students (N = 32, ages 18–22) participated in qualitative interviews in which they were first presented with published statistics about the frequency of MVAW, then asked to provide explanations for the high prevalence of this phenomenon. Individual responses clustered into one or more of four factors: (1) societal influences, (2) blaming women, (3) familial influences, and (4) characteristics of men and women. The extent to which participants identified with feminist beliefs was associated with how they perceived their own victimization. Women who endorsed strong feminist beliefs more frequently cited societal influences on MVAW, whereas women who endorsed feminist beliefs less strongly were more likely to blame women for it and offered stereotypical views of women as passive and fragile.