Women's Identity

No abstract available for this article.     

The Women's Clinic

No abstract available for this article.     

Caribbean Women's Empowerment

This article focuses on the necessity for theological education and theological participation for women in the Caribbean to be formally trained to participate in the restructuring and developing of any institutional programmes and training regarding theological education.     

Non-Traditional Women's Group

This paper focuses on an intensive large group experience for women that addresses issues of female identity and the cultural constructs that contribute to women's basic experience of self. It includes a discussion of self-concept and the social constructionist theory of the social, emotional, and psychological processes of the development of an individual's view of herself and the world. The author contrasts aspects of traditional group psychotherapy leadership, which tends to perpetuate society's devaluation of the feminine, with the leadership style of this workshop. The use of story and metaphor and other techniques used to achieve the workshop goals--including narrative therapy, guided imagery, movement and dance, and ritual enactment--are also discussed.     

Women's Health Care

No abstract available for this article.     

Measuring the Dimensions of Women's Sexuality: The Women's Sexual Self-Concept Scale

The sexual self-concept is an important component of the self-concept that researchers have rarely examined. The Women's Sexual Self-Concept Scale (WSSCS) is a 39-item measure designed to assess women's sexual self-concept. Women rate the extent to which various behaviors, cognitions, emotions, and adjectives describe their sexuality. In a study with 262 women, the measure was found to be both reliable and valid. Three factors were identified through exploratory Principal Components Analysis. Women rated themselves highest on the Reserved Approach subscale, followed by the Agentic Sexuality subscale, and the Negative Associations subscale. Compared to a stereotype of women's sexuality (obtained with a mixed-gender group of 444 participants), the women in the present study rated themselves higher on the Reserved Approach subscale and lower on the Negative Associations subscale. Group differences in women's sexual self-concepts were identified by past xinvolvement in romantic or sexual relationships, and current sexual involvement.     

Transforming Women's Body Image

No abstract available for this article.     

Women's Mental Health Issues

No abstract available for this article.     

Black Women's Career Aspirations

A 2-page questionnaire dealing with career aspirations and expectations was administered to undergraduates at four institutions, of which two were women's colleges and two were universities. Results suggest that Black women as a group predict that they will be earning less than Black males; white women as a group predict that they will be earning less than white men but the pay gap is narrower. While some employers may believe that Black women enjoy a special advantage in the job market, students who are Black and female do not, it seems, share that optimism.     

Spirituality and Women's Midlife Development

This qualitative study describes midlife spiritual practices of 2 groups of minority women, 1 lesbian/bisexual group and 1 Black group. Each group attended 3 focus group meetings in New York City. Grounded theory was used for data analysis. Implications for counselors working with middle‐aged women were discussed.     

Women's communication in Mexican organizations

This study attempts to derive a communication profile of women in Mexican organizations of the private sector. The questions that guided the study were the following: (1) Do women perceive their communication behaviors as similar to or different from those of men at their same organizational level? (2) If women do perceive differences, what is their nature? (3) Do perceived similarities to and differences from men vary by organizational level? Forty-five women in 14 Mexican organizations were intensively interviewed in the winter of 1980. The interviews were distributed equally at three organizational levels—secretarial, middle management, and upper management. It was found that women respondents perceive themselves to differ from men on 18 of 40 verbal and nonverbal communication variables. The average woman in this study perceived that verbally she is more courteous, cheerful, assertive, careful, likely to talk with males, self-confident, and directive than men, and that she expresses less agreement than men. Nonverbally, the average woman was found to look more at the eyes, smile more, give more attention to dress, be more punctual and flexible than men, and to be less rigid in posutre, touch less, invite co-workers to her home less, and take less work home. Organizational level differences were also found. The results are discussed in the light of the theoretical paradigms presented in the study.     

Women's disclosure of sexual abuse

Abstract

In this qualitative study of women who have experienced nonconsensual sexual activity, participants were asked to write accounts of their experiences focusing on what motivated them to confide in someone, to whom they confided, what the outcome was, and how it effected them. Participants had to be female and 18 years of age or older, and they had to have been sexually abused at some point in their lives. A total of 10 women participated. Nine of the women wrote about an abusive experience that happened to them as a child, and one wrote about an experience that occurred in adulthood. The participants wrote that they were able to disclose their past sexually abusive experience because they felt safe with the person to whom they confided, they felt they needed help, and the opportunity presented itself. They were more likely to disclose to non-family members than family members, and the majority of the people they disclosed to had a positive reaction. Consequently, most of the women in this study were positively affected by their disclosure. Findings of this study are similar to those of other studies on disclosure and sexual abuse.     

Women's self-reported responses to abortion

The legalization of abortion in many states has allowed an alternative for women with unplanned or unwanted pregnancies who do not wish to deliver and raise their children or to place them for adoption. Of 158 women asked to recall their responses to the experience, 21% reported psychosocial satisfaction at the time of abortion, and 45% reported satisfaction several months later; over half reported an improved outlook on life, and nearly half found abortion preferable to other alternatives for future unplanned pregnancies. It may prove important to make counseling or therapy available to about 10% of women who report negative responses (guilt and confusion) to the abortion.     

Women's housing conditions in Bangladesh

This news article describes women's housing conditions, housing policy, and pilot programs to house poor women in Bangladesh. Although Bangladesh has a constitution that reinforces the equal status of women, in practice, men dominate and patrilineal customs determine inheritance and property rights. Religious affiliation also determines land tenure and inheritance. Muslim women can inherit 12.5% of their husband's property if there are children. 25% is inherited if wives are without children. Hindu women without sons can inherit their husband's property, but not parental property. Many families refuse to release property to women without a fight. Women, regardless of ownership of land, rarely control or use their land. The custom of requiring men to maintain wives during the marriage, and daughters until marriage, creates obstacles to women's decision making about property. Without collateral and other security women are unable to secure bank loans. Many women are also constrained by the requirement of male consent or guarantees for bank transactions. Banks do not have a gender responsive criteria for selecting loan recipients. The government does not provide sufficient housing to satisfy the growing housing needs due to population growth. Some housing is available from slum landlords. A National Housing Policy was formulated in 1993. Priority would be given to the housing needs of low income women in urban areas and women-headed households with income below the poverty line. The policy does not address the underlying factors that prevent equal access to housing for women. The government prepared a Human Settlement and Urban Development proposal for the Habitat II conference. The plan did not address gender issues. Special efforts are being made by nongovernmental groups to meet the housing needs of professional women and for some disadvantaged women.     

Women's Opposition to Race-Targeted Interventions

Work on the correlates of opposition to race targeted interventions (ORTI) has neglected gender specific analysis. Given that women themselves have been subject to collective discrimination, this experience could conceivably offset or reduce the effect of standard predictors of ORTI in the case of women. The present study employs multiple regression analysis on national data from the General Social Survey. The results indicate that indicators of all three standard theoretical perspectives (self interest, stratification ideology, and prejudice) tend to be more predictive of female ORTI than male ORTI. The hypothesis that the collective experience of discrimination would offset standard predictors of ORTI is not supported. The model explains 36% of the variance of womens' ORTI and 21% of the variance in ORTI among men.