Reaching the marginalised? Gender value chains and ethical trade in African horticulture

Ethical trade, through codes of practice, forms an important part of the value chains for horticultural products sourced from Africa by major European buyers. This paper explores the relationship between value chains in the horticultural sector, the employment patterns of African producers, and the process of code implementation from a gender perspective. It asks whether, in the context of the gendered economy, codes alone can improve working conditions for all workers. Using case studies of Kenyan flowers, South African fruit, and Zambian flowers and vegetables, the article highlights the implications of flexible employment strategies for workers, and shows that social codes have not necessarily achieved better outcomes for women and informal workers, owing to the gendered economy. Ultimately, it is only by addressing the local gendered economy that the employment conditions of all workers, including those of marginal workers and women, are likely to improve.     

Breaking the Silence: Gender Mainstreaming and the Composition of the European Court of Justice

Why has it taken so long for member states to appoint women to the Court of Justice? Despite having won relatively significant policy instruments for equal treatment at work and high levels of legislative representation, women in the European Union have been slow to extend the demand for gender mainstreaming to courts. Prior to 1999, the Court of Justice had had one woman member until Ireland appointed Fidelma Macken in late 1999, and Germany appointed Ninon Colneric and Austria appointed Christine Stix-Hackl Advocate General in 2000.The 1995 U.N. meeting in Beijing was a catalyst for the demand for balanced participation of women and men in decision-making processes within the E.U., and it coincided with Sweden, Finland and Austria joining and championing the cause of gender equality. In 1999, the Commission published a report on women in the judiciary and women lawyers began to organize across Europe. After tracing the appointment process, I review the European Parliament's role in championing women on the Court and consider recent developments. Courts, particularly supranational and federal courts, are representative institutions even if their representative function differs from legislatures. Non-merit factors have always been a factor in judicial appointments and thus the demand for women on the bench is not a terrible deviation from merit. An all male bench is no longer legitimate.     

Alternative visions of security in Northeast Asia

Although no security structure exists yet in Northeast Asia comparable to Europe’s NATO, there is movement toward new arrangements as the century ends. Unresolved cold war disputes on the Korean Peninsula and between China and Taiwan as well as controversy over an appropriate Japanese role in the twenty-first century combine to sustain general regional support for a continued American force presence in Japan and Korea. Nevertheless, two potential developments could erode that presence over time: (1) the unification of Korea, after which U.S. troops on the peninsula might be unacceptable and (2) a change in American budgetary priorities that could significantly draw down forward deployments in the western Pacific. In anticipation of these changes, Northeast Asian states are beginning regional security dialogues.     

Are social class measures interchangeable?

This study analyzes the internal and external consistency of standard and alternative measures of stratification position. Researchers and theorists have used a number of concepts to describe individual's position within the stratification system, e.g., level of education, occupational prestige, and Marxist class position. The central issues of this paper are the degree to which each of the operationalizations of these concepts (current in the literature) are related to one another, the degree to which the operationalizations of each concept are related to the operationalizations of other concepts that measure stratification position, and the extent to which these operational measures are interchangeable. Using data collected in the SRC/CPS 1980 American National Election Study, we find the strongest relationships to exist among those indicators which measure the same concept (e.g., the NORC Prestige Scale and the Duncan SEI), although all indicators are positively related. Regression analyses employing different criterion variables as dependent variables and several measures of stratification position as independent variables reveal that these measures are not interchangeable.The authors are involved in an ongoing research project; the order in which their names appear is rotated.     

Perceived Equity,Satisfaction, and Relational Maintenance Strategies in Parent–Adolescent Dyads

Equity theory has often been applied and applauded for its explanatory power in casual relationships, since most casual relationships endure only as long as both parties benefit from the relationship. The present study examined satisfaction and relational maintenance strategies as a function of equity in parent–adolescent relationships. Data from both parent and adolescent perceptions were gathered. Results indicated that parents' reports of satisfaction by perceived equity supported predictions by equity theory. However, adolescents' reports of satisfaction offer only partial support of equity theory for participants in underbenefited and equitable relationships. Adolescents' reports of satisfaction for overbenefited participants was not consistent with equity theory. Parents' and adolescents' reports of maintenance strategies by perceived equity provided some support of equity theory. Adolescents' reports of maintenance strategies were also influenced by parent sex. Implications for equity theory in parent–adolescent relationships are discussed.     

ReConceiving Masculinity: Imagining Men's Reproductive Bodies in Law

It is not just women's bodies which can pose risks to the foetus but also those of men, with the quality of sperm playing an important role in foetal health. This article assesses why male antenatal behaviour has received such scant attention. It focuses on the regulation of liability for congenital disability and foetal protection legislation and policies, in order to uncover the received understandings of male and female reproductivity which have informed the law in this area. It argues that these understandings are predicated upon a particular vision of men's and women's bodies and of a gendered division of labour following the birth of a child.     

Safe or sorry? Rights,responsibilities and retribution—the new three Rs of education in New Zealand?

A school is a microcosm of society and thus is subject to the problems existing within society generally. The rights and responsibilities of persons outside the school gates apply within the school also. The school environment is unique in that not only is a young person compelled to attend but he or she must spend a great deal of each day within the school's jurisdiction. May it then be argued that there is an enhanced responsibility of schools towards the emotional and physical welfare of their students in relation to matters within their control? This article will examine whether a New Zealand public school has a responsibility that extends further than a moral duty for the safety of its students. Particularly it will consider a school's potential liability in respect of the various forms of student‐to‐student bullying and harassment. It examines the potential for an action against a school under human rights legislation, at common law, and in criminal law.     

Japanese biological warfare experiments and other atrocities in Manchuria, 1932–1945, and the subsequent United States cover up: a preliminary assessment

Japanese microbiologists and other scientists, as early as the 1930s, used humans for test purposes in their quest for a viable offensive biological warfare system. Thousands of men, women and children were tested with a host of pathogens to determine the appropriate dose required to kill. Those who survived the initial tests were subjected to other experiments. No one left the test sites alive. They were either killed in the experiments, or they were sacrificed when they outlived their usefulness. Field tests in China unleashed plagues that killed tens of thousands, and possibly hundreds of thousands.American intelligence in early 1942 discovered that Japan had a large biological warfare enterprise in Manchuria and China. By the end of the war, Intelligence was in possession of a comprehensive outline of Japanese operations. American scientists at Fort Detrick, Md., home of the American biological warfare program, learned of the Japanese research. They sent emissaries to Japan to negotiate with those scientists who escaped from Manchuria and returned home. After two years of negotiations, a deal was made. The Japanese would turn over to the Americans their research data. The Americans would not prosecute the scientists as war criminals. Not one Japanese scientist under American jurisdiction was ever prosecuted, but, instead, was permitted to live a normal life in post-war Japan.The paper was presented at the University of Cologne Forum on: Medicine without Compassion-Past and Present, September 29, 1988