A New Generation of Women in the Wilderness

This article presents the author's personal account of her experience as a mentor for several young women who participated in a group independent study entitled "Women in the Wilderness." The young women's difficulty re-entering society after their profoundly transformational experience in the Sierra backcountry is told from the point of view of China Galland, a seasoned wilderness educator and guide. This article is excerpted from a non-fiction work-in-progress, Running Wild.     

When appearance concerns make women look bad: Solo status and body image concerns diminish women’s academic performance

Women entering male-dominated fields often find themselves the only women present, i.e., they experience solo status. Solo status diminishes women’s performance when women are negatively stereotyped in the testing domain (Inzlicht & Ben-Zeev, 2000) or when the performance is public (Sekaquaptewa & Thompson, 2002). Because women experience greater body image concerns than men and underperform when these concerns are high (Fredrickson, Roberts, Noll, Quinn, & Twenge, 1998), body image concerns may also cause diminished performance in solo women. Women were given a stigmatized (i.e., heavy) or neutral appearance (via a manipulated photograph), then tested as either solos or non-solos. Results showed that women performed more poorly when given a stigmatized appearance and placed under solo status compared to when only one of these factors were present. Social identity threat concerns (Steele, Spencer, & Aronson, 2002) mediated the solo status effect on performance for women given a stigmatized appearance.     

Balancing Personal and Professional Lives:

Graduate women have unique concerns as they cope with graduate school and attempt to balance their personal lives and relationships with their professional identity and achievements. In this article a review of women's developmental issues and the conflicts that women experience in graduate school will be described. Clinical observations of support groups for graduate women will be presented. The central themes described by both master's and doctoral level women who participated in these graduate women's support groups will be identified and discussed.     

Groups and Solos in Context: The Effects of Accountability on Team Negotiation

This study examines whether and how accountability to constituents affects the cognitions, performance, and outcomes of team and solo negotiators. Previous findings for solos were replicated here: solo negotiators respond competitively when they are accountable to constituents. For teams, however, accountability pressures were distributed across the members resulting in each team member experiencing little responsibility for outcomes. As a consequence, teams did not respond to accountability pressures by behaving contentiously as solos did. Analysis of negotiators' perceptions of advantage reveals that solos who negotiate under conditions of high accountability consider themselves to be at a disadvantage in the negotiation even before the negotiation begins. These perceptions may underlie the accountability/competitive relation that characterizes solo negotiation. Implications for negotiation research as well as the study of groups in organizations are discussed.     

Therapeutic Considerations of Wilderness Experiences for Incest and Rape Survivors

The purpose of this article is to examine the relevancy of traditional wilderness programs, such as Outward Bound, to women who have been violated by experiences of childhood incest and/or adult sexual assault. Applications to African-American women, women with physical challenges, and women who are economically disenfranchised will be emphasized. The overview is from a feminist perspective, one that advocates empowerment over struggle and resisting revictimization on any level. The Rape Assistance and Awareness Program (RAAP) is a non-profit agency in Denver, Colorado dedicated to providing low-cost group psychotherapy for women who have been recently sexually assaulted as well as for women with histories of incest. About five years ago, a three-day Colorado Outward Bound School (COBS) experience was incorporated into RAAP's treatment program. While the COBS weekend generally has been viewed positively by most of the clients and group facilitators, aspects of this element of the program have become increasingly problematic. Its applicability to women with physical disabilities and women with conflicting social and economic priorities is questioned. When RAAP received a special grant to provide sexual assault services specifically targeting women of color, groups for Latinas and African-American women were established and facilitated by therapists of color. These women of color, both clients and therapists, consistently challenge the relevance and practicality for them of the COBS experience. In this article, we contend that wilderness experiences, in their traditional application, do not support the feminist, woman-centered approach to life which is advocated and nurtured at RAAP, nor does it specifically honor cultural diversity or ethnic multiplicity. Recommendations for wilderness experiences attracting a broader range of the feminine experience are made.     

Black and White Tokens in Academia: A Difference of Chronic Versus Acute Distinctiveness1

Token status effects, also called distinctiveness, include feelings of racial/gender awareness, representativeness, and accountability. In this multimethod three-part research, it is argued that Black students in a predominantly White university feel chronically distinctive, whereas White students may feel acutely distinctive when they are in the numerical minority. However, this acute distinctiveness is situation specific. First a pilot study confirmed that Black and White females differ in their reports of distinctiveness. Study 1 showed that Black students feel chronically distinctive and that they are often “solos” in classrooms. Study 2 tried to separate race and solo status effects on distinctiveness by experimentally manipulating group solo status. Results indicate a main effect for solo status and also a main effect for race on feelings of distinctiveness across solo conditions. Applications of this research for the token literature and for distinctiveness theory are discussed.     

Solo pioneers: Single-minded rationality

There is an increasing number of single women in the United States. These women are having to confront new emotional problems as well as previously unknown opportunities for personal growth and development. The current article identifies two polarities of female singlehood, i.e., the desperate, dependent woman and the solo pioneer woman. The cognitive and behavioral characteristics of the two polar types are delineated.Desperate, dependent women endorse irrational beliefs which involve their self-worth being contingent upon the love and approval of men. Solo pioneers are autonomous in their personal identity and are able to construct meaningful lives for themselves outside of the context of marriage. Single mothers by choice are presented as being a prototype of solo pioneers.Laura Primakoff, Ph.D. has developed a cognitive-behavioral treatment program for individuals living alone (Primakoff, 1983).     

The Older Woman as Sage: The Satisfaction of Mentoring

Mentoring is important to the personal and professional lives of many developing professionals, but it is also beneficial in numerous ways to the mentor. This article focuses on the benefits of mentoring from the mentor's prospective, including satisfaction in seeing protégées succeed and empowerment of both the mentor and protégée. This article showcases the importance of being a mentor, the impact mentoring has on developing psychologists, and how mentoring sustains older women's connections and contributions to their field. The authors discuss what mentoring is, what mentors do, how to become a mentor, and the benefits of being a mentor. How one becomes a mentor in various work settings including academia is also discussed, as are concerns regarding inappropriate mentoring relationships and how to improve the quality of the mentoring relationship. The authors suggest that becoming a mentor can be empowering for women clients as well as therapists.     

Assuming preferential selection when the admissions policy is unknown: the effects of gender rarity

One hundred thirty-five undergraduates indicated the degree to which they believed gender played a role in the selection of an applicant for a graduate degree program. Both the gender composition of the cohort and the selection policy (explicitly merit-based, explicitly affirmative action, or ambiguous) were varied. Results indicated that preferential selection on the basis of gender was assumed when women were solos and explicit information about the selection policy was not provided and that these assumptions were as strong as when an affirmative action policy was explicitly stated. This did not occur when the female selectee was not a solo or when a male selectee was a solo. Evaluations of qualifications and prediction of success paralleled the preferential selection assumptions.     

Breaking Through Barriers

This article presents wilderness therapy for sexual assault survivors. A form of treatment that combines counseling wiht rigorous outdoor activities, it creates situations that relate metaphorically to the original assault. Women engage in activities designed to promote team building, trust, self-esttem, confidence, intimacy and personal growth. They are then faced with physically challenging situations that evoke the feelings of helplessness were experienced during the assault, only this time they are provided with the chance to conquer them, by climbing to the mountaintop, hiking the hill, or simply knowing and asserting their physical limits. This article substantiates wilderness therapeutic programming by looking at its appropriateness for sexual assault behaviors.     

The Jazz Solo as Virtuous Act

This article presents a new aesthetic of the improvised jazz solo, an aesthetic grounded in the premise that a solo is an act indivisible from the actor (the soloist) and the context. The solo's context includes the local and large‐scale conventions of jazz performance as well as the soloist's other work. The theme on which a solo is based serves not as a “work,” but as part of the solo's stylistic context. Knowledge of this context inheres directly into proper apprehension of the musical surface; it does not constitute a separate plane of appreciation. I begin by examining the improvisational error. This examination supports the position that the solo is an act, not a work. From this position, I detail a new aesthetic of the improvised solo, grounded in the soloist's virtues. In a successful solo, the soloist's actions display a balance of two aesthetic “virtues”: compositional skill and a commitment to the spirit of improvisation. Compositional skill manifests in a solo as coherence. The improvisational spirit manifests as courage, spontaneity, and related qualities. These virtues often come into conflict; each soloist negotiates this conflict differently.     

Effects of Gender Diversity on Performance and Interpersonal Behavior in Small Work Groups

We examined the separate and combined impact of gender composition and training method on both the performance and interpersonal behaviors exhibited in small work groups. Participants were scheduled in groups of three for two 1-h sessions that occurred 1 week apart. In Session 1, groups were trained to assemble the AM portion of a radio. In Session 2, groups were tested on their training. Analyses indicated that groups whose members were trained together took longer to assemble their radios and made more errors than groups whose members were trained apart. No performance differences were found between mixed-gender and same-gender groups. However, women were less task-oriented in mixed-gender than in same-gender groups, but men were more task-oriented in mixed-gender than in same-gender groups. Further, solo women were less talkative than women in the majority, whereas men were more talkative when they were solos rather than in the majority. Implications for the nature of training and gender composition in groups in the workplace are discussed.     

After the Next Full Moon

The wilderness, love and respect for nature, women's spirituality, and the challenge of new experiences are the basis for creating all-women river trips through the Grand Canyon. They are an opportunity for women to commune with each other, be physically active all day, discover new skills and strengths, create meaningful ceremonies, develop strong bonds, and be close to nature. There are distinct, wondrous, and life-challenging shifts in an individual's psyche that occur when faced with the unknown possibilities inherent in wilderness experiences. The grandeur of the canyon walls and the power of the river serve as keys, opening places in the human heart another human cannot open. Sharing that opening together in the Grand Canyon, as women, each of us bestowed with the honor of unbounded love and support, we marvelled with an unshakable reverence for the tenacity of nature.     

Bribery and Intimidation: A Discussion of Sandra Lee Bartky's Femininity and Domination: Studies in the Phenomenology of Oppression

A review of my undergraduate students’ commentaries on two of Bartky's essays serves as the occasion for elaborating on Bartky's analyses of factors that sustain and perpetuate the subjection and disempowerment of women. In my elaboration I draw from John Stuart Mill's statement: “In the case of women, each individual of the subject-class is in a chronic state of bribery and intimidation combined.” I conclude by raising the question, How is personal transformation possible?     

Solo status and women's spatial test performance: the role of individuation tendencies

The impact of anticipated solo status on women's spatial performance was investigated in an experimental study. The study was designed to test whether the underperformance of women entering testing situations who find themselves to be the only woman present is related to a tendency to individuate the self. Women performed a test of spatial ability under conditions of anticipated solo or non‐solo status and responded to a measure of self‐construal. In line with previous research, we found a disrupting solo status effect on women's performance on the spatial ability test. Most importantly, the negative effect of solo status on performance was partially mediated by individuation tendencies as reflected in a decreased predominance of the interdependent (as compared to the independent) level of the self under solo status conditions. These findings indicate that individuation tendencies play a crucial role in the process triggered in test takers under threatening performance situations. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Toward a Theory of Creativity in Diverse Creative Women

ABSTRACT: Little is known and limited research has been completed about creative women, their creative processes, and the decisions they face about their own creative productivity. Few books or even articles suggest how creativity can be better developed, enhanced, or increased in a diverse population of girls and women. The social and political movement focusing on women during the past five decades has provided some understanding of women's creative processes as well as the creative roles that women have played in our society and the forces that shape those roles. In this article, current research is analyzed, focusing on the development of women's creativity and the classification of this research into major themes. Internal and external blocks to creativity in women are discussed, as is current research on these blocks, and an explanation is suggested for different types of creative productivity exhibited by women. A theory is proposed regarding the diversion of women's creativity into multiple areas in their lives, including relationships, work related to both family and home, personal interests, and aesthetic sensitivities. This diversion of creative efforts may result in different levels of creativity applied to work, as well as the existence of very different patterns of creative productivity in creative women.     

Women's Centers: A Critical Appraisal and A Case Study

Women's centers can play an important role in counseling and educational development services that promote equity. Not all programs that carry the name “for women” automatically provide nonsexist or quality services for women. This article provides a critical overview of existing women's centers and the key problems regarding quality of services, organization, and funding. A model, financially self-supporting center, which was designed to address these problems, is described. The article suggests that financial self-sufficiency will be necessary to the long-term success of the women's center on a national scale and that model centers such as the one described can be used by communities for developing their own self-supporting women's centers.     

Solo status and self-construal: being distinctive influences racial self-construal and performance apprehension in African American women

A preliminary study and main experiment tested the hypothesis that racial solo status (being the only member of one's race in a group) increases racial self-construal among African Americans. The preliminary study showed that African American men and women reported greater collectivist (i.e., group-based) over individualist self-construal under solo compared to nonsolo status, whereas Whites did not. The main experiment showed that the increased collectivism among African American solo women appears to be strongly reflected in racial identity becoming a salient aspect of self-construal. African American participants were also more likely than Whites to perceive that their anticipated performance would be generalized to their race, to feel like representatives of their race, and to show greater performance apprehension (indirectly evidenced by increased self-handicapping) when in racial solo status. The implications of solo status for African Americans in evaluative situations (such as academic testing sessions) are discussed.