Everyday Stranger Harassment and Women’s Objectification

The present research suggests that stranger harassment (i.e., experiencing unwanted sexual attention from strangers in public) is a frequent experience for young adult women, and that it has negative implications for their well-being. First, stranger harassment was positively related to self-objectification (Fredrickson & Roberts, Psychol Women Quart 21:173–206 1997). This was true for women who coped with stranger harassment using common strategies (passive, self-blame, or benign), but not for women who used an uncommon, active coping strategy (e.g., confronting the harasser). Second, stranger harassment experiences and self-objectification were positively related to women’s fear of and perceived risk of rape. Further, women who feared rape were more likely to restrict their freedom of movement. In concert, the findings suggest that stranger harassment may have both direct and indirect negative effects on women’s lives, and that it is a phenomenon worthy of future research.

Women’s Productive Role and Marital Violence in Bangladesh

This study assesses the role of womens participation in productive activities in reducing the risk of marital violence. Data were collected from villages where numerous nongovernment organizations (NGOs) had microcredit-based income generating programs for the poor. Both the survey and in-depth interviews were used to collect information from a randomly selected sample of 500 currently married women aged < 50 years living in 70 villages in 10 districts of Bangladesh. Findings reveal that the prevalence of marital violence such as mental torture and physical assault had negative association with womens participation in economic activities. Situation that invoked violence against women had most often been their failure of performing expected role in the household. Womens productive roles not only improved womens position in their household but also significantly reduced both mental torture and physical assault against them. The paper argues that participation in productive activities has the potential to bring a significant reduction in the risk of marital violence among women in the poor community.     

Gender and Risk Assessment Accuracy: Underestimating Women’s Violence Potential

Understanding factors that contribute to mental health professionals (MHPs) accuracy in assessing patients risk of violence can inform efforts to improve accuracy and to integrate risk assessment technology with practice. Based on a sample of 147 clinicians who assessed 680 patients in a psychiatric emergency room, this study investigates the influence of patient gender, MHP gender, and their potential interaction on MHPS risk assessment accuracy. The results indicate that MHPs of both genders are particularly limited in their ability to assess female patients risk of future violence. This finding was not limited to a particular professional group and was not attributable to gender-related differences in violence. Implications for future research on the judgment processes that may underlie MHPs limited accuracy with women and for training programs in violence risk assessment are discussed.     

Race and Women’s Imprisonment: Poverty, African American Presence, and Social Welfare

Female imprisonment rates have increased proportionately more than male imprisonment rates over recent decades. There are substantial race differences in women’s rates, as is the case for men. Yet, there has been little quantitative research on the correlates of women’s imprisonment using data over time, or on potential race differences in those correlates. The present research analyzes data on black and nonblack female imprisonment rates in the 50 states for the period 1981–2003. The analyses are guided substantively by existing research on race, social threat and criminal punishment, and theory and research on the penal-welfare hypothesis. The study uses bivariate-response multilevel modeling to simultaneously examine the factors associated with black and nonblack women’s imprisonment rates. The results show that black female imprisonment rates increase when the concentration of African Americans in metropolitan areas and poverty rates grow, whereas nonblack female imprisonment rates are unaffected by poverty rates and actually decrease when African American populations become more concentrated in metro areas. Both black and nonblack women’s imprisonment rates increase when welfare spending declines. The results are consistent with social threat perspectives and the penal-welfare hypotheses.     

American Indian and European American Women’s Perceptions of Domestic Violence

American Indian and European American women’s definitions and perceived causes for domestic violence were examined. Attitudes towards violence and battering as it relates to the self were measured with two scales. As predicted, results indicated American Indian women and European American women held different conceptualizations of what constitutes domestic violence and different notions concerning the cause of domestic violence. Also, American Indian women were more attuned to external causes for violence, while European American women referred to internal explanations for such violence. Differences in social and psychological histories of violence and attitudinal orientations toward violence were indicated. Legal and health system changes are recommended in order to combat violence in Indian country.

‘Women’ Detectives and Perceptions of ‘Oppressive’ Experiences: Exploring Experiential Essentialism and Phenomenology

The purpose of this paper is toexplore whether female Detectives perceptionsof their own work experiences include oppressive experiences because of their sex. It attempts to evaluate these perceptions ofoppressive work experiences or lack thereofvia a feminist viewpoint that embraces variousaspects of phenomenology with regards towomens experiences. More importantly, itrecognizes that experiential essentialistarguments cannot be ignored. The word womanis in quotes because it has been used,historically and presently, as a category toposition females according to mainstreamsocietys standards. The word oppressive isin quotes because even though the researcherdescribed oppressive instances in specificways, there were times, where some subjects didnot identify those experiences asoppressive. The majority of 60 female CanadianDetectives identified oppressive experiences,and an important task of this paper is toexamine experiences that fit the researchersdefinition but were not considered oppressiveby the subjects.     

Women in IPV Treatment for Abusers and Women in IPV Survivor Groups: Different or Two Sides of the Same Coin?

The Calgary Counselling Centre offers therapy groups for both women whose partners abuse them, “You’re Not Alone” (YNA) and women who abuse partners, “Responsible Choices for Women” (RCW). The study examines 262 group members (157 RCW & 105 YNA), comparing their demographics and scores on measures of physical and non-physical partner abuse, and mental health symptoms. At pretest, women in YNA reported significantly more problematic depression, anxiety, general distress and trauma symptoms than women in the RCW program. Nevertheless, the factorial repeated measures analysis of variance on pretest/posttest data from 177 women found statistically significant improvements on all four outcomes measures for women in both groups, although women in the YNA survivor groups made the most improvements on depression, stress and general distress. Clinical implications are described.     

College Women’s Experiences of Dating Violence in Casual and Exclusive Relationships

Using a sample of female college students involved in a current dating relationship, we investigate the nature of violence in these intimate relationships to better understand the concept of violence mutuality. To do so we explore womens’ experiences with violence as both perpetrators and victims and examine the prevalence, chronicity, and severity of violence experienced by young women. We also examine whether there are differences in experiences of violence for women in casual versus exclusive dating relationships. Our findings suggest that when violence is present in a dating relationship it is likely to occur within a mutually violent relationship where women are both victims and perpetrators of violence. More importantly, within these mutually violent relationships, women reported being more likely to perpetrate violence at higher rates than they experience as victims. We find no notable differences in experiences with violence among those in casual versus exclusive relationships. The methodological limitations and policy implications of our findings are discussed.     

Women in campaigns 1550–1850 household and homosociality in the Swedish army

The article presents the main results from my study of social conditions in the Swedish Army between 1550 and 1850. The focus is on women's involvement and importance in the military. The most strikingly result is that women for a long time played a more crucial role in the Army than many people are unaware of. As a consequence, the unisexual, masculine, compulsory, military service which existed during most of the 20th century can be treated as an historical parenthesis. Nowadays women are permitted to serve in the military as soldiers, in older times women fulfilled their military duties as soldiers' wives. In a long-time perspective, the military role of women has shifted from wife to professional: the article explores this process. Soldiers on campaigns in the 17th century built households and had families, regardless of wartime or peacetime, and their households were also a natural part of the military, simultaneous with a strong male bonding principle, homosociality. Although conflicts existed between the two principles of organization, household and homosociality, they operated together at any rate until the beginning of the 19th century. The article illustrates how this cooperation worked, but also how the rise and fall of the household system in the military may be explained. Military thought, growth of state authority, a professionalization process and changed cultural norms were crucial. However, I want to emphasize the social practice of gender relations as a promoter of change: how norms and measures connected with marriage affected the military.     

Domestic Violence against Women in Cambodia: Husband’s Control,Frequency of Spousal Discussion,and Domestic Violence Reported by Cambodian Women

This study sought to examine the effects of husband’s control and frequency of spousal discussion on domestic violence against Cambodian married women, using the 2005 Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey data. The sample included 1,707 married women, aged 16–49 (M = 35.14). Structural Equation Modeling showed that husband’s control positively predicted both emotional and physical violence. Frequency of spousal discussion positively predicted emotional violence, an association consistent with the idea that a husband holding patriarchal beliefs would interpret women’s more frequent discussion as a violation of Cambodian norms for quiet, submissive wives. Frequency of spousal discussion and husband’s control were positively correlated. The role of gender issues in husband’s control and frequency of spousal discussion are discussed with respect to violence in the lives of Cambodian women.     

Childhood Maltreatment,Intimate Partner Violence,Work Interference and Women’s Employment

This study examined the long-term effects of childhood maltreatment, intimate partner violence (IPV) and work interference on women’s employment in a sample of 135 housed or homeless women. Work interference (defined as a partner’s interference with or restraint of a woman’s working) was reported by 60% of women who had experienced IPV and was more common among non-Hispanic White women. Abuse history of any type was not predictive of women’s employment or receiving job training, but child sexual abuse history and lifetime IPV were predictive of non-Hispanic White women’s not looking for a job. Receiving job training was negatively correlated with women’s current mental health. The study suggests different but overlapping pathways to the outcome of underemployment for racial/ethnic minority and majority women—namely, macro level factors and individual vulnerability factors, respectively. The need for trauma-informed services for unemployed and/or homeless women is highlighted.     

Relationships Between Adult Women’s Mental Health Problems and their Childhood Experiences of Parental Violence and Psychological Aggression

We used the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales (M. A. Straus, S. L. Hamby, D. Finkelhor, D. W. Moore, & D. Runyan, 1998) to assess retrospectively women’s childhood experiences of both mother and father physical abuse and psychological aggression, and assessed mother and father alcohol problems based on criteria derived from the Family History Research Diagnostic Criteria (N. C. Andreasen, J. Endicott, R. L. Spitzer, & G. Winokur, 1977). Data were collected from 447 women (age 18 or higher) from seven domestic violence programs and five substance use disorder treatment programs in a midwestern state. Using OLS regression with backward elimination (p < .10 as criterion for removal from the equation) we found that higher levels of mother physical abuse, father psychological aggression, and presence of mother alcohol problems predicted higher scores on the Beck Anxiety Inventory and Trauma Symptom Checklist. Higher levels of mother physical abuse and father psychological aggression predicted higher scores on the Beck Depression Inventory. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Are Transition Houses Equipped to Meet the Needs of Women in Midlife and Older?

This study addresses the extent to which transition houses, defined as residential facilities for abused women and children, meet the needs of women in midlife and older. Seventeen transition house directors completed an on-line survey and eight participated in an interview. Women in midlife and older comprised 28 % of the transition house population. Thematic analysis resulted in the identification of three key themes: life at home and in the community, living in the transition house, and starting a new life. While policies, accessibility, privacy, support and outreach could be improved, the transition houses offered safety and security for women across the lifespan. Recommendations for research, policy and practice are included to ensure that transition houses offer a welcoming, suitable, and supportive environment for women in midlife and older.     

‘Wayward Girls and Wicked Women’: Two Centuries of ‘Semi-Penal’ Control

This paper explores the way in which unruly or `deviant' women have historically been subjected to various strategies and mechanisms of control, designed to regulate and reform them back to the acceptable and appropriate standards of femininity from which they were perceived to have strayed. In particular the way in which `semi-penal' institutions were utilised for this purpose is examined. It is argued that `semi-penal' institutions such as refuges, reformatories and homes, occupied a unique position within the social control continuum, somewhere between the formal regulation of the prison and the informal control of the domestic or communal sphere. What made them particularly unique was the way in which they managed to combine both formal and informal methods of control in order to produce feminising regimes, aimed at reforming recalcitrant women into respectable, gendered subjects. In addition, these institutions had the effect of `widening the net' of control for women, establishing an all-encompassing system of surveillance which was at once punitive and reformative. To facilitate this analysis, five groups of women have been identified; prostitutes, criminals, the `wayward', inebriates and the `feeble-minded'. The specific methods utilised to control and reform each of these groups will be discussed along with the themes of continuity which serve to synthesize the history of the treatment of such women. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.