The psychological impact of reproductive difficulties on women's lives

Little is known about the long-term impact of reproductive experiences on women's lives. This paper uses questionnaire data collected from 107 White female college graduates, when they were approximately 47 years old. More than half the sample had experienced at least one type of reproductive difficulty (abortion, miscarriage, or infertility). The stress and coping model of life difficulties (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984) was used to examine the relationship between the women's reproductive difficulties and emotional sequelae, politicization, and orientation to motherhood at midlife. As predicted, emotional responses to the reproductive difficulties varied according to the particular nature of each experience. In addition, women who had abortions and no other difficulties were more politicized at midlife than other women. Women whose reproductive experiences were especially likely to arouse feelings of not being in control of their life (those who had miscarriages or infertility) described a more agentic orientation to motherhood when compared with other women.     

Greek women's attitudes toward pregnancy,labor, and infant: Their significance for intervention

Greek women's needs, attitudes, and experiences during the months immediately prior to and subsequent to the birth of their infants were evaluated. Themes considered were women's feelings and attitudes toward pregnancy, labor and the expected infant; breast feeding; emotional and practical needs; experiences from perinatal care and relationships with medical care personnel and with the family; perceptions of physical and emotional stress; and their relationships with infant and partner. Findings showed, among others, that women emphasized a desire for more personal care — more time, continuity of care, information about their pregnancy, and less distance from the doctor. Moreover, they expressed their need for emotional support. Anxiety was found to be a central feature of women's feelings during labor and delivery. The same anxiety was related to efforts to deal with infant crying, attempts to console the infant, and concern for picking the baby up. Understanding maternal attitudes provides guidelines for designing an intervention program that would integrate emotional and cognitive factors.     

Individual differences in women's perceptions of other women's dominance

Recent research on men's dominance perception suggests that the extent to which men perceive masculine men to be more dominant than relatively feminine men is negatively correlated with measures of their own dominance. In the current studies, we investigated the relationship between indices of women's own dominance and their perceptions of other women's facial dominance. Women's own height and scores on a dominance questionnaire were negatively correlated with the extent to which they perceived masculine women to be more dominant than relatively feminine women. In follow‐up studies, we observed similar individual differences when (i) women separately judged other women's social and physical dominance, suggesting that individual differences in women's dominance perceptions generalize across two different types of dominance judgment and (ii) we assessed the perceivers' dominance indirectly by using a questionnaire that measures the extent to which women view interactions with other women in competitive terms. These findings present new evidence that the extent to which people perceive masculine individuals to be more dominant than relatively feminine individuals is negatively correlated with measures of their own dominance and suggest that competition and conflict among women may have shaped individual differences in women's dominance perception. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Glass maze in women's leadership

Psychological gender discrimination explanations have changed over the past thirty years, becoming more complex in order to obtain a better understanding of the social reality. At the present moment, one of the most interesting research areas is the one referring to the 'glass maze' phenomenon in women's management careers. The main purpose of this work is to reveal the theoretical evolution in an attempt to explain the leadership study from a gender perspective. The consecutive hypotheses, starting with the labour sexual division idea, are becoming more interactive in order to understand the current labour-social situation. Social psychology has underlined the role of beliefs, observed via gender stereotyped roles, prejudiced attitudes against women, sexist and neo-sexist ideology, or masculine, feminine and androgynous identity development. New psychological interpretations insist on the variability of the gender concept, where gender is sometimes observed through men and women's behaviours, and other times through those behaviour expectations. But gender is mainly observed though the power relations between men and women during social interactions in labour organizations.     

Women in group and women's groups

Female development is characterized by the introjection of maternal and paternal objects, which creates a rich internal world for women. However, the feminine tendency to become diffused in identifications sometimes results in women feeling overpowered in mixed-gender groups. The author advocates women's groups for the traditionally "feminine" woman, that is, the woman who has a rather impoverished sense of self in terms of her internalized objects. Women's groups are also helpful during adolescence, pregnancy, and menopause, milestones of female development. These are times when women are in profound crisis and may find it difficult to speak about these quintessentially feminine events in the presence of men.     

Developmental processes in women's groups in Italy

The observation of women's groups in Italy has made it possible to outline specific developmental processes. Clinical illustration also suggests the emergence of specific group areas such as "interchangeability," which are not seen in mixed-gender groups. The safe and confident atmosphere of interchangeability stimulates the relaxation of defences and self boundaries. As a consequence, it allows profound exchanges, which have an immediate impact in enhancing the sense of value and self-esteem of group members. Further therapeutic potentialities of "interchangeability" are described. Women in the here and now acquire the strength necessary for reexamining and psychoanalytically working through unconscious unresolved gender identifications and consequent problems in present relationships.     

Potential implications of the objectification of women's bodies for women's sexual satisfaction

The present study tested a sociocultural model of women's sexual satisfaction grounded in Objectification Theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). One hundred and one college women attending university in the UK completed measures of media internalization, body surveillance, body shame, sexual self-esteem, and sexual satisfaction. Consistent with predictions, the results of a path analysis indicated that greater internalization of appearance ideals from media sources leads to more body surveillance, which leads to higher body shame and lower sexual self-esteem, which, in turn, predicts less sexual satisfaction (only reached marginal significance for sexual self-esteem). In addition, body surveillance and body shame directly predicted sexual satisfaction. These results further implicate the sociocultural practices that objectify women in the disruption of women's experiences of sexual satisfaction.     

Deterrents to women's careers in school management

There always have been more women than men schoolteachers since the Civil War. Yet the management of our schools always has been dominated by men. There is a prevailing social norm that management is a man's job. Today in education this norm is reinforced by an increasing number of men in the profession and a decreasing number of administrative positions available due to district consolidation. Women are not administrators because many women do not actively seek administrative jobs and because there are forces in the profession perpetuating a cycle which encourages men and discourages women seeking administrative positions. This article describes the operation of those forces which deter women's entrance and advancement in careers of public school administration.     

The Case for Markets in Citizenship

A number of countries sell citizenship rights to foreign buyers. Gary Becker makes an economic case for the state's sale of citizenship; more recently, Javier Hidalgo has offered a moral defence. However, the private sale of citizenship on a market remains largely unexplored and undefended. This article argues that under certain conditions states ought to permit their citizens to swap citizenship rights with foreigners in exchange for payment. I begin by offering two defeasible reasons to legalize citizenship markets: they would enable mutually beneficial exchange and increase the labour market opportunities of the global poor. I consider a number of counterarguments and conclude that none are dispositive, leaving the case for citizenship markets undefeated.     

Self-objectification and well-being in women's daily lives

Laboratory experiments and surveys show that self-objectification increases body shame, disrupts attention, and negatively predicts well-being. Using experience sampling methodology, the authors investigated self-objectification in the daily lives of 49 female college students. Building on the predictions of objectification theory, they examined associations between internalizing an observer's perspective on the self and psychological well-being, and examined the moderating roles of trait self-esteem and appearance-contingent self-worth. Within-person increases in self-objectification predicted decreased well-being, but this association was moderated by trait self-esteem and trait appearance-contingent self-worth; high self-esteem, highly appearance-contingent participants reported increased well-being when they self-objectified. Furthermore, perceived unattractiveness partially mediated the main effect and the three-way interaction: high self-esteem, highly contingent participants experienced smaller drops in well-being when they self-objectified, in part because they felt less unattractive. These results suggest that in daily life, some women receive a boost from self-objectification, although most women experience decreases in well-being when self-objectifying.     

The women's movement in the working class

Working-class women's reactions to the women's movement are frequently discussed, but there is little empirical research on the issue. The present study examines the dimensions of support in two planes: the particular issues that engender favorable or unfavorable reactions, and the characteristics of women who are generally supportive or hostile to the movement. Supporters are found to emphasize the movement's contributions to their sense of self-esteem and entitlement; opponents emphasize sexual morality and the social segregation of the sexes. The mildly sympathetic or tolerant, who comprise the majority of the sample, see the relevance of the movement primarily in terms of future generations. In a discriminant function analysis, work experience and personal satisfaction are found to significantly distinguish between these three attitudinal groups.     

Guatemalan women's paper making co-op

Founded in 1992, is an independent grassroots organization whose goal is to assist community development, health, education, clean water and income generation. The Q'eqchi' Maya Indians constitute the fourth largest indigenous group located on the banks of Rio Dulce, in the eastern rainforest of Guatemala. Project Ak'Tenamit helped the Q'eqchi' people revive their ancient art of paper making as a viable and self-sustainable source of income. As the material used by the ancient Maya--cork husk and banana stalks--are still abundant, it was decided that this art could be successfully re-introduced. With papermaking, the Q'eqchi women were able to earn money from their own production without even compromising their respective households. Ak'Tenamit was responsible for the distribution of paper making products in stores throughout Guatemala. Although there are still many obstacles confronting these women, the paper making cooperative provides employment opportunities and is indeed a great help to them. They produce a total of 15 different products including bowls, cards, and bookmarks.     

Dimensionality of women's career orientation

Two factor analytic studies were conducted in order to determine the dimensionality of women's career orientation defined by various extant measures. In Study I, 86 women employed by an insurance company responded to nine different measures of career orientation. A principal axis analysis produced two oblique factors, which were tentatively named Career Centeredness and Career Commitment, respectively. Study II sought to validate the factors found in Study I in a sample of 335 university women in various disciplines and at various class levels. Using the factor pattern from Study I as the target matrix, a restricted maximum likelihood factor analysis showed that two factors similar to those in Study I accounted for all the significant common variance. Based on both statistical criteria and psychological meaningfulness, the two oblique (r=.43) factors were again named Career Centeredness (lifestyle in which one's career is regarded as more important, time consuming, and satisfying than other aspects of life, particularly family) and Career Commitment (lifestyle involving continued employment throughout life stages regardless of financial need or competing obligations). These findings are discussed in the context of changing societal support for women's roles in business.This report is based on a portion of the first author's doctoral dissertation, supervised by the second author, done in the Department of Psychology of New York University.Both authors are currently at Merrill Lynch, 165 Broadway, New York, New York 10080.