Women’s Experiences of Micro-Enterprise: Contexts and Meanings

The article confronts global claims of micro-enterprise to promote poverty reduction and gender equality. The article examines 60 in-depth interviews with low-income Palestinian and Israeli Jewish women (aged 25–45 years) who engaged in micro-enterprises. The research particularly focused on women’s motivations, personal qualities required for success, systemic barriers and opportunities, and women’s constructions of micro-enterprise as a means to overcome poverty and achieve gender equality. The article indicates that in the frame of gender and economic exclusionary context, without comprehensive institutional support, micro-enterprise and self employment may not promise more than a partial solution to poverty and gender discrimination. The article questions the tendency to globalize policies without taking into account the local contexts in which these policies are implemented.     

Women’s Perceptions and Use of “Anti-Aging” Products

Recent advances in the cosmetics industry have accelerated the availability of products marketed as “anti-aging.” Our research goals were to identify the factors that predict women’s purchase of these products, and to gain insight into women’s perceptions of the anti-aging market. Three hundred and four Canadian women were surveyed about their use of anti-aging products, body satisfaction, aging anxiety, appearance importance, sociocultural pressures and self-esteem, as well as open-ended responses about their perceptions of anti-aging products. Greater aging anxiety and higher importance of appearance were related to greater likelihood of purchasing anti-aging products. Women also described an interesting paradox whereby they report using these products while remaining critical of media messages and embracing the idea of natural aging.     

It’s Not You,It’s Me: An Exploration of Mentoring Experiences for Women in STEM

Although the number of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) continues to grow, men still represent a significant majority of those employed in these industries. Mentoring programs have been identified as a useful tool to alleviate this gap and therefore have been developed in an effort to attract and retain women in STEM. However, research suggests that women are still being mentored less often than their male colleagues. To understand this issue in depth, 36 women holding managerial positions in STEM organizations in the United States and Canada were interviewed and their experiences with mentoring were discussed. The results suggest that women do have access and indeed find potential mentors but they perceive significant barriers that prevent these initial meetings from developing into long-term mentoring relationships. Specifically, four Barriers to the Development of Mentorship (BDM) were identified including: Need for Fit, Demonstrating Capability, Commitment of the Mentor, and Trust in the Mentor. BDM might help researchers and practitioners understand why women are under-mentored and consequently underrepresented in STEM workplaces. Implications of these findings are discussed, such as how to improve formal mentoring programs to overcome BDM and better serve women in STEM.

     

“I’m Not Your Stereotypical Mormon Girl”: Mormon Women’s Gendered Resistance

Research on women in gender-traditional religions has shown that women often exercise agency within the gendered confines of their religious institutions. This paper builds on the growing literature on women’s agency in gender-traditional religions by exploring whether and why some active Mormon women resist the gendered expectations of their faith more strongly than others. Drawing on interviews with women members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS Church, Mormon), we find that eight of the 30 women interviewed strongly resisted traditional Mormon gender expectations. We then explore their patterns of resistance and provide possible explanations for why they resist gender traditionalism more than the other participants. We discuss the wider implications of our findings, including a call for further examinations of the ways in which women’s religious experiences include both accommodation and resistance to traditional ideas about gender.     

Distancing Through Objectification? Depictions of Women’s Bodies in Menstrual Product Advertisements

Terror Management Theory has led to suggestions that humans may distance themselves from menstruation in order to avoid reminders of their own corporeality and mortality, and the objectification of women has received empirical support as one means to do so. A content analysis of 240 menstrual product advertisements published in Seventeen and Cosmopolitan over 12 years was undertaken to look for evidence of objectification. Idealized images of women were common, lending support to the idea that these tactics can be used to provide distance from reminders of our own mortality, but overtly sexualized images were less common. The fact that nearly half of the advertisements did not include images of women may provide even stronger support for this idea. This indicated that a sanitized female body is not just being paired with reminders of menstruation, we are, literally, removing the female body entirely in many instances.     

“Am I Going Crazy,Doc?”: A Self Psychology Approach to Therapeutic Assessment

In this case study, we explore the effectiveness of Therapeutic Assessment with a severely disturbed 25-year-old man, referred by his therapist, following Finn's (2007; Finn & Tonsager, 1992, 1997) model. This patient–therapist pair had been working together for approximately 2 months, but the therapy had ceased to progress. The therapist requested a clearer picture of his patient's affective functioning, interpersonal functioning, and self-functioning that might facilitate more effective treatment. Through a collaborative assessment process informed by the principles of Kohutian self psychology, the evaluator and patient slowly formed a working alliance that proved useful for the eventual communication to the patient of his psychologically tenuous reality. This case illustrates the utility of a collaborative, multimethod Therapeutic Assessment with a severely ill patient and the use of Therapeutic Assessment by a less experienced clinician.     

Exploring College Men’s and Women’s Attitudes about Women’s Sexuality and Pleasure via their Perceptions of Female Novelty Party Attendees

Women’s sexual desire, agency, and activity have long been stigmatized. In contemporary times, however, adult novelty parties, or gatherings where women can learn about and purchase sex toys or other sensual aids in a group setting, are widespread. The current pervasiveness of novelty parties may be indicative of greater acceptance of women’s sexuality in contemporary Western society. The goal of the present study is to determine whether young people are more accepting of women’s sexuality and desire via their evaluations of women who attend novelty parties relative to more traditional kitchen product parties. In two experiments, U.S. college students read either a novelty party catalog or a kitchen party catalog, and they evaluated hypothetical female attendees of their respective party catalog type across ten total domains. In Experiment 1 (n = 205), novelty party attendees were rated as more vivacious, less traditional, and more insecure than were kitchen party attendees. In Experiment 2 (n = 211), women were harsher than men on novelty party attendees compared to kitchen party attendees in most domains, and men rated novelty party attendees as more masculine than kitchen party attendees, whereas women rated novelty party attendees as less masculine and feminine than kitchen party attendees. Applied and social implications of the present results are discussed, highlighting ways to improve perceptions of women’s sexual desires and pleasure.     

Women’s porn sites—Spaces of fissure and eruption or “I’m a little bit of everything”

The historically significant but superficial divide between public and private spaces and identities has shaped women’s lives, subjectivities, and sexualities. In this article, I analyze women’s self-sponsored and self-published porn sites. Specifically, I focus on sites that demonstrate complex articulations of identity and subjectivity—sites that can be read as identity projects that appropriate cultural expectations of sexuality. To foreground this analysis, I first explore past work analyzing the public/private dichotomy and suggest that computers and virtual spaces are used to reinforce the flimsy separation between public and private. Using these discussions as scaffolding, I then read a selection of women’s porn sites, arguing that these women Web authors are inserting their embodied subjectivities into public space, and forcing a remapping of the lines of the public and private in ways that rupture public representations of sexuality. ‘Scarlet collar’ workers are the feminists of the modern age, say psychologists, free from coercion and the dangers of the traditional, male dominated business. In the past two years they have moved away from traditional activities such as prostitution and lap dancing to become the majority of cyberporn owners. —Cherry Norton, 2000, online The woman’s duty, as a member of the commonwealth, is to assist in the ordering, in the comforting, and in the beautiful adornment of the state. —J. Ruskin,Free and Ennobled, 1983, p. 291     

The Relationship Between Sexualized Appearance and Perceptions of Women’s Competence and Electability

Women do not have a uniform or standardized “suit” to wear in the workplace so they must make daily decisions about what to wear. Some propose that women should dress in a sexualized way to gain power and influence, but sexy attire is related to lower perceptions of competence for women in leadership positions. We explored the effect of revealing or conservative attire on perceptions of women’s leadership competence. We also used eye-tracker technology to determine whether looking at sexualized body parts (i.e., breasts, hemline) was related to lower perceptions of leadership competence and electability. A female candidate for a student senate presidency at a U.S. university wearing revealing clothing was perceived by 191 college students as less honest and trustworthy, electable, and competent than one wearing conservative clothing. Sexualized body parts were looked at longer when the candidate was wearing revealing clothing compared to conservative clothing. Furthermore, mediation analyses indicated that the revealing clothing led participants to gaze at sexualized body parts, which, in turn, led to perceiving the candidate as less honest/trustworthy, which lowered their evaluations of her competence and electability. These findings suggest that viewing a woman in a sexy outfit can lead others to stare more at her body and make negative evaluations of her personal attributes. This finding has implications for the choices women make in workplace and leadership contexts.     

Am I the Right Candidate? Self-Ascribed Fit of Women and Men to a Leadership Position

Women are assumed to show a self-ascribed lack-of-fit to leadership positions compared to men (Heilman Research in Organizational Behavior 5:269–298, 1983). The present study examined whether this gender difference would diminish when agency is accounted for and whether a stimulus person’s gender would alter women’s self-ascribed fit. German management students (91 women, 95 men) received a fictitious recruitment advertisement for a leadership position that portrayed a man, a woman, or both a man and a woman. Participants indicated their perceptions of agency and suitability to the advertised position. As predicted, women judged themselves as less suitable for the leadership position than men and participants’ self-reported agency mediated this effect. Furthermore, all participants felt most suitable if a male and a female stimulus person were portrayed.     

It’s Not You,It’s Me…No,Actually It’s You: Perceptions of What Makes a First Date Successful or Not

Early communication plays an important role in influencing the perceptions one has of an individual. The first form of in-person communication individuals often have with potential romantic partners is during the first date. This date tends to take on the form of a “dance” involving carefully orchestrated conversation and self-disclosures. What is said is certainly important, as are the behaviors exhibited by each member of the dyad. This study examined how individuals interpreted what potential romantic partners say and do during, or immediately following, the first date to get a sense of how they perceive these actions and words. Special attention was placed on the participants’ interpretations of whether or not their date was attracted to them. A survey was given to 390 participants, and many interesting differences were found between the genders. Certain behaviors, such as steering the conversation to the topic of sex signaled to men that their date was attracted to them. However, women looked for different behaviors to infer attraction on the part of their partner, such as mentioning future plans and kissing them goodbye. With a better understanding of how certain phrases and actions influence others, people can be more aware of the signals sent to others upon their pivotal initial encounters.     

Exploring Sexual Minority Women’s Experiences of External and Internalized Heterosexism and Sexism and their Links to Coping and Distress

This study examined experiences of external and internalized heterosexism and sexism and their links to coping styles and psychological distress among 473 sexual minority women. Using an online sample of United States lesbian and bisexual women, the findings indicated that many participants experienced heterosexist and sexist events at least once during the past 6 months, and a number of participants indicated some level of internalized oppression. Supporting an additive multiple oppression perspective, the results revealed that when examined concurrently heterosexist events, sexist events, internalized heterosexism, and internalized sexism were unique predictors of psychological distress. In addition, suppressive coping and reactive coping, considered to be maladaptive coping strategies, mediated the external heterosexism-distress, internalized heterosexism-distress, and internalized sexism-distress links but did not mediate the external sexism-distress link. Reflective coping, considered to be an adaptive coping strategy, did not mediate the relations between external and internalized heterosexism and sexism and psychological distress. Finally, the variables in the model accounted for 54 % of the variance in psychological distress scores. These findings suggest that maladaptive but not adaptive coping strategies help explain the relationship between various oppressive experiences and psychological distress.     

“This Temple is Our Natal Home!”: Women’s Experiences of Marriage and Possession in Maharashtra

This paper explores women’s experiences of marriage, stress, and spirit possession in the context of healing shrines. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork in three Mahanubhav temples in Maharashtra (western India). Women’s narratives emphasized the tensions and conflicts they experience in relation to marriage. These accounts about family stress were not just empirical accounts of stress but narrative devices that legitimize women’s stay in the temple. Thus, in referring to the temple as the “natal home”, women seek to access their privilege to periodically visit the temple “just as” they would visit the natal home. By making available to women alternative spaces and subject positions, these narratives of spirit possession and marriage emerge as powerful expressions of women’s agency.     

“Why me?”: Low-Income Women’s Poverty Attributions,Mental Health,and Social Class Perceptions

Although much is known about broad societal attitudes toward poverty, less is known about how women perceive their own poverty. We sought to examine the types of self attributions low-income women make about their poverty, as well as the association of self poverty attributions to women’s mental health and upward mobility beliefs. Using close-ended questions in a community sample of 66 low-income mothers from the Midwestern United States, we found these women were most likely to attribute their poverty to issues related to having children, their romantic relationships, and structural/government blame. The least endorsed attributions for poverty were fatalistic and individualistic reasons. Attributing one’s poverty to children and structural reasons was related to greater depression, and attributing one’s poverty to romantic relationships and structural reasons was related to greater anxiety. Moreover, attributing one’s poverty to children and romantic relationships was positively related to upward mobility beliefs, whereas individualistic attributions were negatively related to upward mobility beliefs. Understanding how women view their poverty and upward mobility can help to improve interventions and policies aimed at low-income women.     

To Die or Not to Die: Zhuangzi’s Three Immortalities

While it is known that the problem of death is a central topic animating the author/s of the Inner Chapters of the Zhuangzi, leading Chinese and Western interpretations of this Chinese classic have usually focused much more on other themes and aspects. Even more problematic in the author’s view is the fact that the Zhuangzi has been closely associated with one death philosophy, the set of concepts, arguments and figures present in chapter 6. This study puts death back at the very center of the Zhuangzian philosophical project yet insisting at the same time on the difficulties of defending one philosophy of death since different passages introduce new concepts, imagery, nuances and perspectives. The Zhuangzi’s focus on death is being situated within a discussion of the “immortality” ideal––accepting a total death (“to die”) or find refuge in immortality ideals (“not to die”). Different passages from the Inner Chapters are being presented as proposing three distinct immortality projects or strategies––personal, social and cosmic––to address the problem of death. E. Becker’s reflections on the challenge of mortality and the psychological need of a “beyond” in order to cope with the consciousness of death provide the basic theoretical framework underlying the discussion of the Zhuangzi in this essay.     

Black Women and White Women: Do Perceptions of Childhood Family Environment Differ?

INTRODUCTION: Few studies have examined racial differences in perceptions of childhood. Little is known about how Blacks perceive their own families, particularly the family environment that they experienced in childhood. METHODS: A community sample of 290 women (55% White, 45% Black) from two-parent families, heterogeneous in age and social class, was examined using a self-administered questionnaire, including the Family Environment Scale (FES), followed by a focused interview. Siblings were used as collateral informants. RESULTS: The psychometric properties of the FES showed remarkably little variation by race: The internal scale reliability, correlations between scales, and factor structures were quite similar. Although both White and Black women reported good childhood family environments, Black women when compared with White women rated their families of origin as more cohesive, organized, and expressive, and lower in conflict. Sibling responses corroborated these findings. DISCUSSION: This study addresses a gap in the research literature and provides important evidence of strengths in Black family relationships as reported by a community sample of women. The psychometric properties of the FES, found to be strong for families of both races, lends support to our findings and those of other researchers who have used this measure.     

Images of Women’s Sexuality in Advertisements: A Content Analysis of Black- and White-Oriented Women’s and Men’s Magazines

This article represents an analysis of the sexual images of women in magazine advertisements. I examined advertisements in Black- and White-oriented, mens and womens magazines to compare the images of womens sexuality that are constructed for each specific audience. Over 600 images of women were analyzed based on seven dimensions, including function/role, relative function/authority, physical/body position, relative size/height, character traits, body view, and physical characteristics. The images of womens sexuality vary depending on the race of the intended audience and the race of the women in the advertisements. Advertisements for White audiences portray women in roles and with characteristics that suggest dependency and submissiveness, whereas advertisements for Black audiences portray women as independent and dominant. I also found that White women are objectified much more than Black women are.