Mother–infant separations in prison. A systematic attachment-focused review of the academic and grey literature

This review systematically searched UK academic and grey literature in relation to mother and child separation in prison. Attachment theory is referred to in current prison policy for mothers and could provide a framework linking policy and practice. Reviewing grey literature provided an opportunity to explore practice-based literature. Twenty-four academic papers and 51 grey documents were reviewed. Use of attachment theory in the academic literature varied according to discipline, ranging from extensive use to no use. There was greater use of attachment theory in the grey literature. Despite linguistic differences, all documents highlighted the detrimental impact of separation on imprisoned mothers. However, specificity was lacking regarding support for mothers, and staff needs were overlooked. Given its use across the sparse research and practice literature, and its basis for policy, attachment theory could underpin theoretically informed support for imprisoned mothers separated from their infants and staff who support them.     

Women in parliament: assessing the effectiveness of gender quotas in Poland

Gender quotas aim to increase women’s parliamentary representation. However, the effectiveness of quotas varies. This article explores this issue further by examining the case of Poland, where gender quotas were introduced in 2011. The Polish case presents an interesting puzzle. Although the overall number of women candidates increased almost twofold in comparison with the pre-quota period, this translated into only a slight increase in the number of women deputies in 2011 and 2015. Hence, the impact of quotas was limited. However, the partisan analysis shows that there was a significant variation among individual parties: whereas some parties promoted wholeheartedly women’s access to political office, other parties did not facilitate it. By drawing on rational choice institutionalism, this article shows that institutions and preferences of political parties matter for the effectiveness of gender quotas. In the case of ineffective gender quota policy, political parties have a final say in women’s parliamentary representation.     

Claiming rights in exile: women’s insurgent citizenship practices in the Thai-Myanmar borderlands

ABSTRACT

This paper examines insurgent citizenship practices employed by activists in the exiled Burmese women’s movement from the 1990s and onwards. Consisting of political exiles, refugees and ethnic insurgents, this movement has successfully used the transnational, transitory space of the borderlands to constitute its participants as political subjects with legitimate claims to rights, citizenship and leadership. Drawing on interviews, this analysis interrogates women’s activism through the lens of insurgent citizenship practices. Thus, how have Burmese women’s activists claimed rights and lived citizenship in exile? Three main strategies are examined: firstly, women activists have positioned themselves as political actors and authorities through involvement in governance and humanitarian aid delivery in refugee camps. Secondly, they have claimed rights and political subjectivity through engagement with international norms, networks and arenas. Thirdly, they have claimed citizenship and political influence in oppositional nation-making projects through engaging with and negotiating ethno-nationalist armed struggles. The analysis highlights the multifaceted nature of women’s insurgent citizenship practices, showing how they navigate multiple marginalized subject positions, direct their rights claims towards multiple governing authorities, and enact multiple political communities.     

When things get hairy: afros,cornrows, and the desegregation of US military hair salons in West Germany

This article employs ‘hair’ as a lens for investigating the ways in which black women’s experiences in the US military and West Germany were racialized and, at the same time, gendered. Based on the personal stories of Women’s Army Corps member Babette Peyton, who got court-martialed in Germany in 1975 for wearing her hair in cornrows, and Marie Davenport, teacher and beautician in Frankfurt, who desegregated the local military hair salon, this article uncovers black women’s mundane activism against racial and gender discrimination. Their experiences and perseverance demonstrate that black military women made critical contributions to the Civil Rights Movement while abroad in Germany.     

Rationalizing pay inequity: women engineers,pervasive patriarchy and the neoliberal chimera

This article argues that neoliberalism with its pervasive patriarchy and co-option of feminism, renders women tacitly complicit in gendered pay inequalities. We show that in New Zealand, one of the world’s most neoliberal nations, women who might precisely be best equipped to argue for equal pay – engineers – do not do so because neoliberalism makes many feel responsible for, and accepting of, their lower salaries. In interviews and focus groups, many women engineers talk of deserving less pay than men because of their ‘choices’, their ‘personality’ and their lack of ‘responsibility’. In a disempowering environment, some women show agency by disavowing gender as a reason for the pay gap. Such narratives of individualized shortcomings reduce hope of collective action that might uncover and dismantle the systemic causes of pay inequity, which are not due to a woman’s choice or personality but rather what we frame as the neoliberal chimera.     

US Women Federal Court Judges Appointed by President Carter

There is considerable disagreement as to whether any gender differences on the bench are symbolic, substantive, or both. This paper, based on never-before published surveys and personal interviews conducted in the early 1980s, contributes to that discussion by describing what women appointed to the federal bench by President Carter between 1976 and 1980 had to say about gender differences in their first years in office. I conclude that these early experiences and comments by women on the bench are still relevant today and presage much of the research on judicial gender which has followed.

“I’m Not a Vet!” Marginalisation and Practices of Resistance to Ageing by Women Hockey Players

ABSTRACT

Participation in team sports constitutes both a site for perpetuating discriminatory cultural perceptions of ageing women as well as a means of resisting and challenging such perceptions. Using Markula’s framework of Foucauldian feminism, we examine the marginalisation of women who play hockey in Australia and their acts of resistance against discriminatory processes related to ageing. This analysis draws on an ethnographic study of an Australian women’s field hockey club. Fifteen women took part in two one-on-one in-depth interviews focused on their experiences of mental health and emotional well-being in relation to playing hockey. Although participating in a team sport offers a means of resisting negative stereotypes of ageing women, the quasi-professionalisation that occurred at this particular club across the data collection period constrained these women’s acts of resistance. These findings illuminate the impact of a club’s structure and culture on women’s experiences of social inclusion in the context of Australian team sport.     

Do female legislators benefit from incumbency advantage? Incumbent renomination in a flexible-list PR system

This study investigates whether female legislators, just like their male colleagues, also benefit from incumbency advantage in the form of privileged access to candidate selection. This is done by examining whether female and male MPs receive the same reward for equivalent political performance when renomination decisions are made by political parties. Political performance is conceptualised in terms of incumbents’ popularity among voters, readiness to vote along the party line and legislative activity. An original dataset comprising 1032 observations on Czech legislators elected between 1996 and 2017 is used in the analysis. The results suggests that well-performing female MPs are just as likely as their male colleagues to secure a favourable renomination outcome. This result should not, however, be interpreted as evidence of gender-neutral access to re-election and political seniority as past research clearly indicates that female MPs need to work harder than men to produce the same political output.     

Not in our name: collective identity of the Serbian Women in Black

The Belgrade-based activist group Women in Black has been for twenty years now articulating a feminist anti-war stance in an inimical socio-political climate. The operation of this anti-patriarchal and anti-militarist organization, which has resisted numerous instances of repression, has not been until now systematically approached from a social movement perspective. This paper draws upon a range of empirical methods, comprising life-story interviews, documentary analysis and participant observation, to address the question as to how it was possible for this small circle of activists to remain on the Serbian/post-Yugoslav civic scene for the last two decades. My central argument is that a consistent collective identity, which informs the group's resource mobilization and strategic options, holds the key to the surprising survival of this activist organization. I apply recent theoretical advances on collective identity to the case of the Belgrade Women in Black with the view of promoting a potentially fruitful cross-fertilization between non-Western activism and the Western conceptual apparatus for studying civic engagement.     

Correlates of Pre-College Males' Sexual Aggression

Abstract

Current literature suggests that the causes of sexual aggression toward women lie in the fabric of a patriarchal society. The acceptance by males of negative, stereotypical and harmful myths about women, traditional sex-role stereotypes, the acceptance of interpersonal violence and the objectification of women foster an environment where sexual aggression can flourish. This paper explores several factors associated with male aggression and date rape in a sample of pre-college males entering a medium-sized Southern University. Indicators of the acceptance of rapemyths, hostility toward women, acceptance of interpersonal violence, adversarial sexual beliefs, drug and alcohol use and sexual history were examined in relation to three degrees of sexual aggression. Discriminant Analysis indicated that the four attitudinal and three behavioral variables successfully classified 56 percent of the original grouped cases.