The suffragist and the “average woman”

This paper questions the marginality of women's suffrage to the new social history of women in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Britain. In so doing, it seeks to challenge any notion of the suffragist and the “average woman” as absolutely distinct categories. Its argument draws on two major revisions underway in the historiography of this field: firstly, the growing recognition that “votes for women” was not simply a single-issue, equal rights demand, reflecting only a restricted liberal perspective; secondly, the equally significant insistence on the need to apply more extended definitions of both the “political” and the “public” to women's history in this period. The autobiographical writings of Helena Swanwick, Hannah Mitchell and Mary Gawthorpe, it is argued, suggest that the meaning of the vote lies in the mesh experienced by such suffragists between the politics of ordinary, everyday life and their subsequent involvement in the formal politics of parliament and political parties.     

Expropriated from the hereafter: The fate of the landless in the Southern Highlands of Madagascar

During the period following the abolition of slavery by the French colonial government in 1896, the Southern Highlands of Madagascar was settled by ex-slaves. These early settlers constructed a foundation myth of themselves as tompon-tany, or ‘masters of the land’, a discourse not only equating land with tombs, kinship and ancestors, but also coupled with a skilful deployment of ‘Malagasy customs’. In order to exclude later migrants who also wanted to settle, the ‘masters of the land’ attempted to establish control over holdings in the area. To this end, and to reinforce their own legitimacy as landholders, the tompon-tany labelled subsequent migrants andevo (‘slave’ or of ‘slave descent’) who – as a tombless people – have no rights to land. Because they have neither tombs nor ancestors, the landless andevo are socially ostracised and economically marginalised. As an ‘impure people’, they are not entitled to a place in the hereafter.     

The Relative Influence of Different Domains of Social Connectedness on Self-Directed Violence in Adolescence

Previous research has linked greater social connectedness with a lowered risk of self-directed violence among adolescents. However, few studies have analyzed the comparative strength of different domains of connectedness (e.g., family, peers and school) to determine where limited resources might best be focused. Data to address that gap were taken from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Student Health and Safety Survey, administered to 4,131 7th–12th graders (51.5% female; 43.8% Hispanic; 22.6% African American or Black). Logistic regressions (controlling for age, gender, race/ethnicity, family structure, academic performance, and depressive symptoms) suggest that family connectedness was a stronger predictor than connectedness to peers, school, or adults at school for non-suicidal self-harm, suicidal ideation, suicide plans, and non-fatal suicidal behavior. In some analyses, peer connectedness was unexpectedly a risk factor. Results have implications for prevention of suicide in adolescence, especially in the context of the current trend towards school-based prevention programs.     

On the Edge of the Law: Women's Property Rights and Dispute Resolution in Kisii, Kenya

Scholars have argued that economic efficiency requires a clear definition of the rights of ownership, contract, and transfer of land. Ambiguity in the definition or enforcement of any of these rights leads to an increase in transaction costs in the exchange and transfer of land as well as a residual uncertainty after any land contract. In Kenya, government efforts at establishing clearly defined property rights and adjudication mechanisms have been plagued by the existence of alternative processes for the adjudication of disputes. Customary dispute resolution has been praised as an inexpensive alternative to official judicial processes in a legally pluralistic environment. However, our research demonstrates that customary processes may also carry a monetary cost that puts them beyond the means of many citizens. This article compares the costs and processes of the formal and informal methods of property rights adjudication for women in the Kisii region of Kenya. The research results suggest that women have weak property rights overall, they have limited access to formal dispute resolution systems because of costs involved, and even the informal systems of conflict resolution are beyond the means of many citizens.     

Psychiatric Disorders of Parents of Physically Abused Adolescents

Psychiatric disorders of 142 parents of adolescents who were documented as physically abused during adolescence and 168 parents of non-abused comparison adolescents were assessed. Fathers and mothers of physically abused adolescents exhibited higher rates of Axis I diagnoses and co-occurring disorders, and had more impaired GAS scores than comparison parents. Fathers of abused adolescents had greater lifetime incidence of Conduct Disorder and Substance Abuse/Dependence than comparison fathers. Mothers of abused adolescents had more unipolar depressive disorders than comparison mothers. This study highlights the importance of mental health assessments and interventions for parents of physically abused adolescents. Since onsets of parental psychiatric disorders antedated the abuse, early recognition and treatment of parental disorders may contribute to prevention of the onset and/or reoccurrence of adolescent physical abuse.

Developmental Trajectories of Science Identity Beliefs: Within-Group Differences among Black,Latinx, Asian,and White Students

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Though adolescents’ science identity beliefs predict positive STEM outcomes, researchers have yet to examine developmental differences within racial/ethnic...     

Parenting in Battered Women: The Effects of Domestic Violence on Women and Their Children

This study integrates an ecological perspective and trauma theory in proposing a model of the effects of domestic violence on women's parenting and children's adjustment. One hundred and twenty women and their children between the ages of 7 and 12 participated. Results supported an ecological model of the impact of domestic violence on women and children. The model predicted 40% of the variance in children's adjustment, 8% of parenting style, 43% of maternal psychological functioning, and 23% of marital satisfaction, using environmental factors such as social support, negative life events, and maternal history of child abuse. Overall, results support the ecological framework and trauma theory in understanding the effects of domestic violence on women and children. Rather than focusing on internal pathology, behavior is seen to exist on a continuum influenced heavily by the context in which the person is developing.     

The Clinical Utility of Batterer Typologies

Domestic violence research has increasingly focused on the identification of batterer subgroups. Although typologies have been proposed using the utility of both empirical and theoretical methodologies, studies comparing empirically derived and theoretically based typology solutions have not been conducted. To what degree mental health practitioners can successfully classify batterers into subgroups is also not known. To address these questions, data were gathered from 49 male batterers who were treated for domestic violence in an outpatient mental health facility. A preliminary comparison of an empirically derived and a theoretically based typology solution revealed that many batterers were classified differently by the two strategies, although the overall grouping strategies were similar in content. Further, mental health professionals had substantial difficulty choosing which of the cluster analytically created subgroups into which to sort individual batterer's MMPI profile. Finally, different treatment efficacy indicators differentiated among the men in the two subtyping systems, suggesting that each system offers unique clinical information.The second author was supported as a predoctoral fellow by a NIMH Training grant