Gender Categorization of Perfumes: The Difference between Odour Perception and Commercial Classification

The odour perception of perfumes is claimed to be associated with gender. Although a gender-sensitive research approach is desirable when the gender variable is in focus, a deeper analysis of this association is uncommon. In this study, 18 participants (aged 20–30 years) gender categorized 12 perfumes. A gender-sensitive approach was applied to the analysis of the gender associations when sniffing perfumes, in order to examine how the participants' gender categorizations correspond to the commercial classifications of the 12 perfumes. The results demonstrate that the participants' gender associations of the perfumes constitute a scale reflecting the perfumes' odour qualities, where only the perfumes perceived as extremely feminine or masculine were categorized in the same way as the commercial classifications. It is therefore argued that the gender dichotomy of femininity and masculinity does not correspond to the perceived gender associations of perfumes in the present study.     

Equality versus difference and gender versus class in Danish women's history

The articulated goals of feminist research and politics in Denmark have been changing during the last twenty years, from “liberation” to “equality” and now perhaps to “difference”. Open theoretical debates on these changes have been rare in the Danish context, but the need for such debates has been made topical by the latest theoretical and political discourses in Denmark on equality and difference, gender and class. The American feminist historian Joan W. Scott has shown the detrimental effects to feminist research and politics of constructing the concepts of equality and difference as binary oppositions. She argues that women's equality with men could be claimed on the basis of sameness/ similarity as well as on the basis of difference. The same detrimental effects occur, however, when sameness/similarity and difference, gender and class, are constructed dichotomously. The history of the women's movements in Denmark around the turn of the century shows that some women have tried to avoid such dichotomies. Other women have contributed to them, however, and their arguments have been sustained by the hegemonic discourses of the time. Women's history research is part of competing discourses on gender. It may have political impact on the gender relations of today. Therefore, an important purpose of feminist history is to expose the way dichotomous discourses act against feminist goals, and to avoid making such discourses part of one's own theoretical framework.     

Feminism and the Technological Age

Abstract

Feminism advocates for the inclusion of women within the modern economy, but this has implicated feminism in a hyper-capitalist and instrumental mode of organising social life. Feminism has helped to legitimise the ubiquitous reach of this regime into all areas of social life, even parenting. Feminism can learn from Heidegger's proposition that in questioning modern technology we may open up a way of coming into a free relationship with it—to be open to the divinity of living beings and things. Jessica Benjamin's account of the relationship between the mother and her infant in terms of intersubjectivity seems to fit Heidegger's proposition for it highlights a dynamic and receptive exchange between two unique living beings. The question for feminism at this time is: how can it own its complicity with modern technology while opening up its distinctive contribution to finding a way of coming into a free relationship with it?     

“Strangers in the new homeland?” Gendered citizenship among non-Jewish immigrant women in Israel

As part of the recent wave of immigration from the former Soviet Union (FSU), about 300,000 non-Jews came to Israel as spouses of Jews or partly-Jewish offspring of ethnically-mixed families. The purpose of this article is to examine the experiences of non-Jewish women, wives of Jewish husbands, who came to Israel after 1990 under the Law of Return. The study is based on the qualitative analysis of 20 semi-structured in-depth interviews with these immigrant women, aiming to explore their perceptions of religious practices, Jewish holidays, conversion (giyur), and their political views — in order to understand their constructions of Israeli citizenship. The issues of citizenship and loyalty to the Jewish state are resolved by Russian immigrant women in a variety of ways. Some women (a small minority) opt for ethno-national citizenship through religious conversion — giyur, typically for the children's sake. Others prefer to become part of Israeli society through experiences connected to the military service of their children and grandchildren, which can be seen as a version of republican citizenship. For most women in this study, the process of getting closer to the Israeli society and its traditions often occurred via embracing local culinary customs and specific holiday foods. In any case, the gender roles as wives and mothers appeared to be central in our informants' understanding of Israeli citizenship. The adoption of political views of Israeli Right and militant anti-Arab discourse also served as a venue for their ‘nationalization’ through republicanism.     

The dissemination and utilization of welfare‐to‐work experiments in state policymaking

Abstract This paper reports the results of a telephone survey of state‐level officials as to the influence of evaluations of three state welfare innovations: California's GAIN, New York's CAP, and Florida's Project Independence. The three experiments were known to those interviewed, yet they did not have dramatic, decisive effects on policymaking. However, GAIN and CAP appear to have influenced policymaking in less dramatic and more subtle respects. Much more important than empirical findings about the effects of tested programs was information about how these programs actually operated in the field along with evidence that the policies tested in welfare‐to‐work experiments were logically consistent (that is, there was no obvious reason to think that they would be unsuccessful), could clear federal waivers, and would not encounter major political resistance. © 2000 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Assessing the property value impacts of the dispersed subsidy housing program in Denver

This study tests the hypothesis that the acquisition of existing property by the public housing authority and its subsequent rehabilitation and occupancy by subsidized tenants significantly reduced the property values of surrounding single‐family homes in Denver during the 1990s. This assessment examined pre‐ and post‐occupancy sales, while controlling for the idiosyncratic neighborhood, local public service, and zoning characteristics of the areas in order to identify which sorts of neighborhoods, if any, experienced declining property values as a result of proximity to dispersed housing tenants. The analyses revealed that proximity to a subsidized housing site generally had an independent, positive effect on single‐family home sales prices. The most notable exception to this pattern occurred in neighborhoods more than 20 percent of whose residents were black. Proximity to dispersed public housing sites in these neighborhoods resulted in slower growth in home sales prices in an other‐wise booming housing market and suggest a threshold within “vulnerable” neighborhoods whereby any potential gains associated with rehabilitating existing units are offset by the increased concentration of poor residents. © 2001 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Maternal and Family Correlates of Intrinsic Religiosity Profiles Among Low-Income Urban African American Adolescents

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - National trends show that African American adolescents, relative to most other demographic groups, are more religious, and show fewer declines in religiosity,...     

High-quality Digital 3D Reconstruction of Microscopic Findings in Forensic Pathology: The Terminal Pathway of a Heart Stab Wound*

High-quality digital three-dimensional (3D) reconstructions of microscopic findings have been used in anatomical and histopathologic research, but their use in forensic pathology may also be of interest. This paper presents an application of these methods to better characterize the pathway of a stab wound of the anterior surface of the heart in a case of suicide. A portion of the heart wall including the stab wound was serially sectioned for microscopic analysis along the full extent of the wound. Histologic sections were digitally acquired, and a 3D reconstruction was created with ImageJ software for 3D computer graphics. This showed a full-thickness wound path extending to the endocardial surface of the left ventricle, curvilinear in appearance. After correction for shrinkage, 3D reconstruction allowed estimation of the dimensions of the myocardial injury and comparison of the appearance of the wound with the suspected knife used. The curvilinear appearance was considered to reflect injury during myocardial contraction. Complete microscopic sectioning and 3D reconstruction may allow virtual sectioning through various orientations and also provide useful forensic information for selected injuries.     

Relationship Trajectories and Psychological Well-Being Among Sexual Minority Youth

Dating in adolescence plays an integral part in the development of sexual and social identities. This process is particularly salient for sexual minority youth who face additional obstacles to their identity formation due to their marginalized status. We investigated the influence of participating in a same-sex relationship (SSR) or an opposite-sex relationship (OSR) on sexual minority youths’ psychological well-being (i.e., symptoms of depression, anxiety and internalized homophobia, and self-esteem) in an ethnically-diverse sample of 350 youth (55% male) between the ages of 15–19 years, recruited from three GLBT drop-in centers in the New York City area. Using longitudinal data, we examined youths’ SSR and OSR over time. Multivariate regression analyses suggest that involvement in a SSR was positively associated with changes in self-esteem in males, and negatively correlated with changes in internalized homophobia in females. We discuss the implications for positive development in sexual minority adolescent populations.