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Recent Titles in
Womens Psychology
Intimate Violence against Women: When Spouses, Partners, or Lovers Attack
Paula K. Lundberg-Love and Shelly L. Marmion, editors
Daughters of Madness: Growing Up and Older with a Mentally Ill Mother
Susan Nathiel
Psychology of Women: Handbook of Issues and Theories, Second Edition
Florence L. Denmark and Michele Paludi, editors
WomanSoul: The Inner Life of Womens Spirituality
Carole A. Rayburn and Lillian Comas-Diaz, editors
The Psychology of Women at Work: Challenges and Solutions for Our Female
Workforce
Michele A. Paludi, editor
PRAEGER
An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC
11 10
2 3 4 5
Contents
Series Introduction
ix
Acknowledgments
xi
Introduction
Michele A. Paludi
Chapter 1: The Myth of the Man-Hating Feminist
Melinda Kanner and Kristin J. Anderson
xiii
1
27
43
63
65
85
97
viii
Contents
125
149
161
187
233
Appendix:
249
Index
255
Series Introduction
Series Introduction
It is my hope that readers of the books in this series will also reect
on the topics and look at themselves, their own lives, and what they
see for the future. This three-volume book set on Feminism and Womens Rights Worldwide provides readers with the opportunity to accomplish this goal and offers suggestions for all of us working for
gender justice within our friendships and romantic relationships, in
guiding institutional and social policy change in workplace and educational institutions, and in lobbying state and federal legislators on
issues related to reproductive rights, pay equity, education, sexual violence, and childcare.
Michele A. Paludi
Series Editor
REFERENCE
Paludi, M. (2002). The psychology of women. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Acknowledgments
Teaching and writing are separate, but serve/feed one another in so many
ways. Writing travels the road inward, teaching, the road outhelping
OTHERS move inwardit is an honor to be with others in the spirit of
writing and encouragement.
Naomi Shihab Nye
Nyes sentiment is echoed throughout this three-volume set on feminism and womens rights. Most of the contributors have taught courses
in womens studies and feminism as well as conducted research and
written about feminist issues. Many contributors have been advocates
on behalf of feminist principles through working with local, state and
federal agencies, legislators, and the United Nations. And many of us
have collaborated with students in our classes in writing chapters for
this book set. These students have made us believe that all of them, in
their individual ways, will continue to do what this book set intends:
value feminism and work toward equality. It has been exhilarating for
me to see a new generation of feminists collaborating with mentors
and colleagues on the chapters for this book set.
I have been honored to have collaborated with the contributors to
these volumes. Several friendships with contributors have been
rekindled and strengthened, and I have met many new colleagues from
around the world who taught me about their disciplines through their
writing. You have all shown me the great accomplishments of feminists
as well as the work we have yet to do. Thank you.
I wish to thank my sisters, Rosalie Paludi and Lucille Paludi, for
their support during the preparation of this book set. I also thank Carmen Paludi, Jr. for his guidance and encouragement. Our discussions
about feminism brought back wonderful memories of my mother,
xii
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Michele A. Paludi
And how do you look backward? By looking forward. And what do you see?
As they look forward, they see what they had to do before they could look
backward. And there we have it all.
Gertrude Stein
xiv
Introduction
toys considered sex inappropriate for them; being tracked into different high school and college programs because of being women or men;
women being told by family and friends to hide their achievements
from potential dates and mates. I was unable to relate to these experiences and realized for the rst time that my parents were feminists, a
term to which I was introduced formally in this class and then subsequently as a graduate student when I took courses with Dee Graham
and Edna Rawlings. I also learned that I had been exposed to nonstereotyped role models, and because there were all girls in our family, we
were not raised to conform to stereotyped behavior.
It was in graduate school that I decided to pursue research in feminist psychology, especially in womens career development. I was fortunate to have a mentor, William Dember, who encouraged me to
pursue this research, even though it was not in his area of specialization (i.e., visual perception). Bill encouraged me to take courses with
faculty in departments in addition to psychology: educational leadership and family development. He told me this would help put pieces
together in understanding the research I was conducting. I thank Kathy
Borman and Judy Frankel for their roles in my feminist identity development.
A few years later when my father died, Charlie, who attended my
fathers wake, came to my mother, my sisters, and me and told us how
my father had impacted his life. Charlie, an African American man,
told us my father was the only coworker (both were skilled workers at
General Electric) who treated him fairly, didnt talk with him in a derogatory manner, and stopped others from making racial slurs and epithets. I learned for another time what it meant to be a feminist.
I dedicated the three-volume set on the Psychology of Women at Work
to my parents: For Antoinette and Michael Paludi, who encouraged
me to dene what womens work is for myself. They wanted all their
daughters to be independent thinkers and doers and to help others.
They gave us no templates to follow but encouraged us to navigate our
own paths. And, especially in my case, encouraged me to leave home
to attend graduate school in a city that seemed, to my parents, to be
very far awaybut they never said no.
My parents thus taught me that not only did they believe in the economic, educational, social, and political equality of women and men, but
they favored the social and legal changes necessary to achieve equality
between the sexes and among races, and they were committed to implementing these principles. Perhaps they could not effect change at the
national level, but they did do so in personal relationships with their
family and friends and on the local level. This is the legacy they left my
sisters and me. This book set is a tribute to Antoinette and Michael.
I have been reminded of Antoinette and Michael throughout the
writing and editing of these volumes on feminism and womens rights.
Introduction
xv
xvi
Introduction
pattern. But we have not stopped questioning the process of quilting
itself.
In Volume 2, Mental and Physical Health, contributors deal with violence and discrimination against girls and women and the resulting
impact on womens emotional and physical well being, interpersonal
relationships, career development, and self-concept. Types of discrimination and victimization addressed are sexual harassment, sexual violence, harassment of sexual minorities, and rape and violence in the
context of womens HIV risk. Contributors have addressed these issues
globally. Bethany Waits and Paula Lundberg-Love offer new cutting
edge evidence on neurological responses in women victims of sexual
violence. Therapeutic support for women victims of violence is also
addressed in this volume, including feminist therapy and ethnocultural
psychotherapy.
All contributors note that sexual victimization is prevalent in the
United States and globally, as is sexual harassment and sexual orientation discrimination. As Waits and Lundberg-Love note:
Female survivors of sexual violence are everywhere. They are in universities, religious institutions, court rooms, hospitals, and the military. They
are daughters, mothers, spouses, sisters, friends, next-door neighbors,
and co-workers. Many differ in age, education, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. . . . However, their lives are connected by the violence that
they have experienced.
Introduction
xvii
The international focus on feminism and womens rights is continued in Volume 3, Feminism as Human Rights. In this volume, contributors address laws on sexual harassment, pay equity, and rape.
Furthermore, contributors speak to the injustices to women with disabilities. Human rights issues such as arranged and forced marriage
for women, pornography, and the globalization of western appearance
ideals are also presented in this volume. All contributors to this volume call for further advocacy on behalf of women. As Noorfarah Merali stated:
It is only if arranged marriages are understood in light of their intentions, diverse forms, actual outcomes, and local or international contexts
that laws, policies, and human rights advocacy can be appropriately
channeled to protect and preserve womens well-being.
xviii
Introduction
Chapter 1
The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a
socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave
their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism,
and become lesbians.
Reverend Pat Robertson (Robertson letter attacks feminists, 1992)
Spanky: Lets start a club right now. The He-man Woman-haters. Ill be
president.
Alfalfa: And Ill be second president, and you can be third president.
Buckwheat: Thanks.
Spanky: Alright, get up and do exactly what I do. Put your hand on your
heart, and raise your other hand. We, the He-man Woman-haters club . . .
Alfalfa and Buckwheat: We, the he-man woman-haters club . . .
Spanky: . . . promise not to fall for this Valentines business . . .
Alfalfa and Buckwheat: . . . promise not to fall for this Valentines business . . .
Spanky: . . . because girls are the bunk.
Alfalfa and Buckwheat: . . . because girls are the bunk.
Hearts and Thumps (1937) from the Our Gang comedy lm series,
directed by Hal Roach
feminists is strikingly small. In surveys of university women, the percentage who identify as feminists range from 8 (Myaskovsky & Wittig,
1997) to 44 percent (Bullock & Fernald, 2003) depending on the demographic makeup of the students. What accounts for these low numbers? When you consider the misconceptions we carry around with us
because of the way in which feminism is portrayed in popular culture
and politics, it is not surprising that relatively few women call themselves feminists. Anti-feminists blame feminists for a variety of social
problems: for young men entering college at a lower rate than that of
young women (Sommers, 2000); for the decline in manliness in
American culture (Manseld, 2006); and even for the terrorist attacks
of September 11, 2001 (Falwell, 2001).
MOST WOMEN ENDORSE FEMINIST PRINCIPLES
Surveys nd that women hold feminist beliefs but are hesitant to
describe themselves as feminists because they know that feminism is
viewed by some as anti-male (Alexander & Ryan, 1997; Aronson, 2003).
If it is the case that most peoplemen and womenendorse the fundamental principles of feminism, it should stand to reason that most
people would actually support feminism. Even among individuals who
endorse or embrace feminist principles, the adoption of the identity
feminist is resisted. One study of mostly white American women
who were college students found that of the women who did not consider themselves feminists, 81 percent agreed with some or all of the
goals of the feminist movement (Liss, Hoffner, & Crawford, 2000).
DO FEMINISTS HATE MEN? WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?
Now let us address the common belief that feminists are man-haters.
While there are abundant of examples popular culture purporting to
reveal feminists attitudes toward men, there are very few empirical
studies on the subject. In addition to our own empirical study that we
describe shortly, Iazzos 1983 study is the only one we found that
examines feminists attitudes toward men. Iazzo (1983) developed the
Attitudes toward Men scale. He measured the degree to which women
agreed with statements about Marriage/Parenthood (e.g., Men consider
marriage a trap.), Sexuality (e.g., A man cannot get enough sex.),
Work (e.g., A mans job is the most important thing in his life.), and
Physical/Personality Attributes (e.g., An athletic man is to be admired.)
of men and gender roles. Women expressed their agreement on a 1 to
4 scale, and a score of 80 would indicate a neutral attitude toward
men. The control group sample was 104 mostly white women
recruited from a university, department stores, and other places of
business. They were compared with battered wives, rape victims,
lesbians, and feminists from a local chapter of the National Organization for Women. The control group mean score was 89.93, above the
neutral midpoint of 80.00, suggesting slightly positive attitudes toward
men. The average score of feminists was 79.54, not statistically distinguishable from the 80.00 midpoint, suggesting neutral attitudes toward
men. So feminists did not have negative attitudes toward men. What
about lesbians, a category that is often conated with feminists? Lesbians scored, on average, 70.97, so somewhat lower than neutral but
hardly indicative of man-hating. Further inspection of the statements
that make up the Attitudes toward Men scale may shed light on why
lesbians scored lower than both feminists and the control group of
women. Some of the statements may not be relevant to lesbians. For
instance, some of the items are as follows: Male sex organs are attractive, The male body is visually unappealing, and The sight of a
penis is repulsive. These are questions from the Sexuality subscale. It
would have been interesting to have analyzed how feminists and lesbians scored on each separate subscale. For instance, perhaps lesbians
had relatively anti-male attitudes on the 7 items that made up the
Sexuality scale because they do not nd mens body parts attractive.
Conversely, their scores on the other subscales could have been neutral
or positive. The limitation of Iazzos study is that many of the statements might be irrelevant to lesbians because the statements assume
that women have intimate relationships with men.
Maltby and Day (2001) studied British college students and examined various psychological characteristics as they correlate with attitudes toward women and men. For women, a feminine-stereotyped
gender role self-conceptthe degree to which people see themselves in
terms of feminine stereotypeswas found to be correlated with negative attitudes toward men. In other words, the more women saw themselves as feminine, the less they liked men. While Maltby and Days
study did not measure feminists attitudes toward men, their results
imply that perhaps it is non-feminists who do not like men because
feminists tend to have relatively more masculine and androgynous
gender role self-concepts than do non-feminists. Another way to put it
is that, in this study, women with traditional gender role orientation
who are likely to be non-feministshad more negative attitudes toward men than did women with nontraditional gender self-concepts
who are more likely to be feminists. Another study with an ethnically
diverse sample of university students found that those women who
perceived large value and belief differences between women and men
tended to like men less than did those women who did not perceive
large value and belief differences (Stephan, Stephan, Demitrakis,
Yamada, & Clason, 2000). Again, this study did not examine feminists
attitudes per se; however, we can extrapolate from the data. Other
studies have found that feminists tend to think women and men are
not very different (Liss et al., 2000; Liss, OConnor, Morosky, & Crawford, 2001), whereas non-feminists are more likely to think that women
and men are fundamentally different (Yoder, Fischer, Kahn, & Groden,
2007). Therefore, it appears non-feminists see women and men as fundamentally different and have more negative attitudes toward men
than do feminists.
AMBIVALENCE TOWARD MEN: TWO ASPECTS OF
ATTITUDES TOWARD MEN
The most recent method of measuring attitudes toward men has
been the Ambivalence toward Men Inventory (AMI), developed by
Glick and Fiske (1999). They found two aspects of womens (and to a
somewhat lesser extent mens) attitudes toward men. Hostility toward
men represents overtly negative attitudes toward men. It characterizes
men as inferior in ways that are safe to criticize, such as that men are
babies when they are sick. Hostility toward men also taps into resentment about mens power relative to women, mens aggressiveness, cultural attitudes that portray men as superior, and the way men exert
control within heterosexual intimate relationships. Individuals with
high hostility toward men scores tend to agree with statements such
as, When men act to help women, they are often trying to prove
they are better than women, and Most men pay lip service to equality for women, but cant handle having a woman as an equal. The
second aspect of attitudes toward men is benevolence toward men. Benevolence toward men does not represent overtly negative attitudes toward
men, but rather overtly positive or affectionate attitudes toward men. It
is a set of beliefs that includes the idea that just as women are dependent on men, so too are men dependent on women. Benevolence toward
men suggests that a womans role is to take care of a man, but only in
the domestic context. Experiencing subjectively positive feelings of affectionate protectiveness, admiration, and connection with men in intimate relationships represents benevolence toward men. Those who
score high on benevolence toward men agree with statements such as,
Women are incomplete without men, and Even if both members of
a couple work, the woman ought to be more attentive to taking care of
her man at home.
Hostility and benevolence toward men are distinct concepts, although
they tend to occur together. That is, women who have high hostility toward men scores tend to also have high benevolence toward men scores.
Thus, women may resent mens power even as they subscribe to beliefs
that support it. Women tend to score higher than men on hostility toward men and lower than men on benevolence toward men.
Attitudes of hostility and benevolence toward men are correlated
with other kinds of beliefs. For instance, benevolence toward men is
correlated with sexist attitudes toward women: those who believe that
men should protect women, and that women should take care of men
at home, also tend to believe that women need protection because they
are inferior to men. Interestingly, womens hostility toward men and benevolence toward men scores correlate, indicating that some women
simultaneously hold beliefs that actively support and justify male dominance (benevolence toward men) at the same time they resent the consequences of this dominance (hostility toward men). Glick and Fiske (1999)
speculate that the greater the dependence a woman has on men, the
more she is likely to experience both benevolence and hostility toward
men; the former because of her recognition of her investment in men
and the latter because of resentment over her dependence.
Although Glick and Fiske do not directly answer the question of the
relative position of feminists in terms of their benevolent or hostile attitudes toward men, they do explore the relationship between gender inequality and hostility toward men and benevolence toward men, which has
implications for feminism and attitudes toward men. In a massive
study across sixteen nations, Glick et al. (2004), along with several colleagues around the world, used many translated versions of the AMI
to investigate attitudes toward men.
Glick et al. (2004) found that in most nations, hostility toward men
was higher among women than among men. Hostility toward men
scores correlated with the national measures of gender inequality. Specically, hostility toward men was higher in traditional than in egalitarian nations. At the same time, benevolence toward men was higher in
traditional than in egalitarian nations. The authors speculated that
women in traditional nations may be more resentful toward men for
what they view as abuses of power, but that this resentment is not necessarily a challenge to gender hierarchy because it coexists with benevolent beliefs about mens roles as protectors and providers. The more
hostile men are toward women, the more women resent and show hostility toward men. Heightened resentment of mens hostility may
explain why womens hostility toward men scores increasingly outstrip
mens in more traditional cultures.
It is worth noting that there were many more gender similarities
than differences across nationswomen and men in the sixteen nations
tended to have similar attitudes toward women and men. In terms of
addressing the myth of feminists and man-haters, the Glick et al. (2004)
study on attitudes toward men suggests that man-hating is linked
more to anti-feminism and gender in equality, than it is to feminism
and gender equality.
Although the AMI is widely used, it had not been used with feminists until Anderson, Kanner, and Elsayegh (2009) conducted a study
that examined feminists and non-feminists attitudes toward men that
surveyed an ethnically diverse sample of 488 American college
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15
16
17
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life and that heterosexual women complain about men all the time.
More systematic research needs to be done in the area of lesbians-asman-haters. We suspect another stereotype will be debunked, just as
the feminists-as-man-haters stereotype has been.
CONFUSING THE UNIT OF ANALYSIS: WAR AGAINST
THE SEXES VERSUS PATRIARCHY AND PRIVILEGE
Feminists are accused of man-hating when they object to gender discrimination because some interpret the objection as being anti-man (as
complaints about particular, individual men, or even all men) rather than
as a protest against the patriarchal system that gives power and privilege to men relative to women. Feminists see sexism as part of a system
of inequality (Kane, 2000). Those who do not understand the systemic
nature of gender inequality translate feminists activism as complaints
directed at particular men or at men as a category, as if feminists blame
each man or all men. For instance, in his book, Manliness, Harvey
Manseld describes feminism as women being none too pleased with
men and not shy about letting them know it (Manseld, 2006, p. 4).
The incorrect notion that stems from and engenders hatred of men,
rather than the accurate framing of feminism being a critique of a patriarchal system, does more than make women afraid to call themselves
feminists, thereby contributing to gender inequality. In the studies we
have reviewed in this chapter that revealed gender discrimination,
nearly all found that men and women participants discriminate against
women. Sexism and gender discrimination is not just something men
do to women. Everyone participates in a sexist system, although it is
certainly true that men benet through the male privilege inherent in a
sexist system. Ignoring the systemic nature of gender inequality also
leads men to feel stuck in a defensive response rather than being able
to see that men too are conned by gender expectations. Trivializing
feminists resistance to inequality as anger at men insults the womens
liberation movement that ghts for the right to vote, for equal pay, for
educational equity, and for reproductive freedomefforts focused on
changing the system, not on bashing men.
One manifestation of the focus on individual men versus the focus
on systemic gender discrimination and male privilege is the battle-ofthe-sexes (e.g., Heard, 1989) rhetoric that is prevalent in popular
culture. Battle-of-the-sexes rhetoric produces false neutrality and false
parallelism of the advantages/disadvantages of women and men and
suggests that both women and men are equally advantaged and disadvantagedjust in different ways (e.g., OBeirne, 2006). For instance, in
Time magazine article, Men, Are They Really That Bad? Morrow
(1994) takes on what he describes as the overt man bashing of recent
years (p. 54). He says, both men and women have been oppressed
19
by the other sex, in different ways (p. 56), and American men and
women should face the fact that they are hopelessly at odds (p. 59).
Judy Markey (1993) says, How can we gripe that they put us down as
a group, if we do the same thing to them? (p. 105) and, Well wind
up sounding like squabbling children crying, He started it! No, she
did! (p. 105). This popular discourse that women-and-men-areat-odds suggests that womens and mens complaints are parallel and
equal. The sex wars rhetoric trivializes genuine critiques about patriarchy and male supremacy and reduces discrimination to a he-saidshe-said dynamic in which there are no real winners and no real losers,
but only miscommunication between the sexes.
This view of individual-based gender debates can reduce things
such as rape and sexual harassment to miscommunication that can
leave men victims. For instance, in his book, The Myth of Male Power,
Warren Farrell (1993) writes Feminism has taught women to sue men
for creating a hostile environment or for date rape when men initiate
with the wrong person or with the wrong timing (p. 18). Similarly,
Morrow (1994) claims that a successful approach to a woman is called
romance and courtship. Sexual harassment, according to Morrow, is
simply an unsuccessful approach, and, in his view, is unfairly treated
as a crime. This rhetoric suggests that the real victims of sexual harassment and rape are not women, but men who are victimized by womens irtations and mixed messages.
STEALING THE CENTER STAGE OF OPPRESSION:
THE BOY CRISIS
In recent years, another manifestation of the accusation of manhating comes in the form of the popular discourse on the boy crisis.
Beginning in the 1980s, there was an increase in awareness regarding
the male bias in clinical and popular psychological theories that treated
girls like deviants and boys as the norm, with books such as Carol
Gilligans (1982), In a Different Voice and Mary Piphers (1994) Reviving
Ophelia. Part of this focus was a critique of the educational system that
seemed more geared toward the benet of boys. Myra and David
Sadkers (1994) book, Failing at Fairness: How Americas Schools Cheat
Girls, as well as a report from the American Association of University
Women (1992), generated headlines in the popular press. As these
works grew in popularity, a backlash in the form of a recovery effort
for boys supposedly wounded by the alleged disproportionate attention given to girls and women during the 1980s and early 1990s began
to grow as well. Several anti-feminist pop psychology books on boys
development became best sellers. Christina Hoff Sommers (2000) book,
The War Against Boys, and now more recently, Kate OBeirnes (2006)
book, Women Who Make the World Worse and How Their Radical Feminist
20
Assault is Ruining Our Schools, Families, Military, and Sports, accompanied hundreds of books and newspaper and magazine articles published in the United States, Europe, and Australia about the boy
crisis. Writers cite the disproportionate numbers of women entering
and graduating from college compared to men who do so as their evidence of women getting one up on men. Typical newspaper and magazine articles of this type are entitled At Colleges, Women Are Leaving
Men in the Dust (Lewin, 2006), Silence of the Lads (Stark & Ebenkamp, 1999), and How Boys Lost Out to Girl Power (Lewin, 1998).
According to Meads (2006) analysis of National Assessment of Educational Progress data, in primary school, boys overall academic
achievement is increasing, but girls academic achievement is increasing at a faster rate. Girls still outperform boys in reading and writing
and boys outperform girls in math and science. Thus, mens higher
education attainment is not declining; its increasing, albeit at a slower
rate than that of women. Women still earn fewer than half of U.S. doctorates and professional degrees, such as those in law and medicine.
Women earn more masters degrees than men, but these are heavily
concentrated in female-stereotyped elds, such as education and psychology. Womens college degrees are more likely to be for low-paying,
low-status occupations such as teaching, and recent women college
graduates earn less than men even after controlling for choice of eld.
Anderson and Accomando (2002) analyzed the literature on the
boy crisis that claims that girls have myriad advantages over boys.
They nd that this literature reveals a panic reaction that amounts to
center-stealing (Grillo & Wildman, 1997). Center-stealing occurs when
members of a privileged group imagine a threat when attention, even
temporarily and briey, is directed away from them and toward members of a marginalized group. Center-stealing occurs when the dominant and privileged group steals back attention from the subordinate
group, putting the focus back on the dominant group. While books
and articles that focus on how the educational system has been biased
against girls assume that it is necessary to redress past wrongs including sexism, discrimination, and exclusion, boy crisis authors see the
focus on girls as a takeover by girls and women. The boy crisis
authors assume that the playing eld for girls and boys (and men and
women) was level before this relatively brief focus on girls, rather than
seeing the decades of disadvantage of girls. The brief moment of academic, educational, and popular focus on the inhospitable nature of
classrooms for girls and of the workplace for women has been perceived as a conquest by girls and women.
This backlash against feminism may account for some of the apparent internal contradiction among those who, while claiming to support
egalitarianism, think that feminists have gone too far. Much in the
ways that cries of reverse racism attract attention, engender fear,
21
22
On the very social bruises where attention should focus on the epidemic problem of mens violence against women, we nd instead
media attention proclaiming that there is a war on boys and that there
is an epidemic of male-bashing. Instead of social and educational programs, we have unsupportable claims that feminism brings with it
man-hating. The feminist critique of gender-based social inequality
may be disconcerting to men and some women; it might hurt feelings,
it might seem unfair, and it might seem to disregard mens good intentions. It certainly does problematize and complicate the privileges that
accrue to men in patriarchy. Although these challenges and their
results make menand doubtless many womenfeel resistant and
uneasy, these challenges do not constitute male bashing. Feminists are
not critical of men simply for being men.
A feminist social critique targets systems of gender-based inequality
and their connections to other forms of oppression based on sexuality,
class, and race. The stronger women become, the more gains they
make, the more pernicious are the representations of the feminist. A
living and vivid image in many domains in mass media, there appears
to be no real-life support for such fears. Indeed, given the goals and
values central to feminism, it is anti-feminists rather than feminists
who harbor and express hostility toward men in a patriarchal society.
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Seidman, S. A. (1999). Revisiting sex-role stereotyping in MTV videos. International Journal of Instructional Media, 26, 11.
Sommers, C. H. (2000). The war against boys. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Stark, M., & Ebenkamp, B. (1999). The silence of the lads. Brandweek, 40, 2223.
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D. L. (2000). Womens attitudes toward men: An integrated threat theory
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Chapter 2
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Gender stereotyping has much to do with this debate, for it can lead
to gender discrimination; it can also create low expectations for the stereotyped. When people have low expectations for women attempting to
enter a nontraditional eld, for example, they may be less likely to hire
them based upon said stereotypes. Negative stereotypes based upon
gender can also lead to diminished expectations, which can affect people
on an individual level: where people expect little for themselves and live
up to that expectation. When expectations are low, so too is achievement; thus negative self-fullling prophecies are perpetuated. No matter
what the cause, gender discrimination is still a major problem for girls in
schools and for women in the workplace and in academe (Carr, Szalacha, Barnett, Caswell, & Inui, 2003). In order to be successful, girls and
women have to overcome more obstacles in a variety of different areas
simply by virtue of their gender. This fact is often compounded by
racial, socioeconomic, and heterosexist biases as well. Despite the fact
that, according to Lorber, . . . gender, like culture, is a human production that depends on everyone constantly doing gender (1994, p. 13,
as cited in Lueptow, Garovich-Szabo, & Lueptow, 2001, p. 3), people do
not generally view gender as a construction. Many view gender as a
naturally occurring phenomenon where behavioral roles are determined on the basis of biology and are thus unchangeable.
Gender socialization theory posits that gender differences in academic and career choices stem from stereotypeswhich are handed
down via socialization (Konrad, Yang, Goldberg, & Sullivan, 2005).
Women and men unknowingly accept traditional norms, values,
expectations, roles, as normal, natural, and their own (Konrad et
al., 2005; Martin, 2008). Adherence to such norms is reinforced by the
culture; those who deviate from proscribed behaviors are punished by
isolation, social and workplace exclusion, ridicule, etc. Because masculine and feminine stereotypes are still enforced for males and females,
often boys and men gravitate toward academic areas and careers that
relate to or represent the masculine role. The same is true for girls and
women (Konrad et al., 2005). Such stereotypes are bound to have an
effect on girls and womens perceptions of themselves and on what
they are capable of achieving. In sum, sociocultural inuences play a
large part in supposed gender differences (Whiston & Bouwkamp,
2003). The extent to which people challenge such norms has much to
do with individual expectation and future individual success. Although
feminist educators are working to alleviate the effect of gender stereotypes through education and to lobby for more egalitarian treatment of
girls and boys within the family, the schools, and in the workplace,
these cultural traditions and their effects still persist.
Perhaps the most telling facet of womens success in the workplace,
or lack thereof, is this psychological precept: observers perceive that the
abilities, attributes, and personality factors that enable a person to
29
30
Workplace stereotypes often hinder womens advancement (Crampton & Mishra, 1999): Women are thought to be weaker than men;
women are thought to lack commitment to their employment, for they
may leave to have or rear children. It is assumed that women cannot
work long hours because of household responsibilities; women are
thought to lack judgment in making difcult decisions or in high-stress
situations. The prevailing feminine stereotypes promote the prototype
of woman as nurturing, soft, caring, emotional, and communal. Midgley and Abrams (1974) indicate that societal expectations and stereotypes have had negative effects on womens motivation. Women must
ght these stereotypes in order to compete and succeed.
Gender schema theory argues that perceptions develop regarding
gender based upon the information we receive from a variety of areas.
As Bem (1983) states, Adults in the childs world rarely notice or
remark upon how strong a little girl is or how nurturant a little boy is
becoming, despite their readiness to note precisely these attributes in
the appropriate sex (p. 604). For todays girls and boys, such schema
can have negative effects on social and academic development and on
eventual career choices and advancement.
In the early 1980s, a series of articles was published by Benbow and
Stanley (1980, 1982) that attributed the gender differences between boys
and girls on the mathematical portion of standardized tests to biological
causes (Jacklin, 1989). The popular media then publicized these ndings. The effect of these studies and the subsequent communication of
them resulted in the support of the already popular myth that males
possess superior abilities in mathematics. As Jacklin indicates, although
these authors reported a biological explanation for gender differences,
they possessed no biological data. During this time, another larger-scale
study conducted by Eccles and Jacobs (1986) found that math anxiety,
stereotypical beliefs of parents with regard to gender, and the perception
of the value of math account for gender differences in mathematical
achievement. According to Jacklin, . . . Eccles and her colleagues have
found that most strongly related to their mothers beliefs concerning the
difculty of mathematics for their children. Mothers beliefs were also
important in that they directly and strongly inuenced their childrens
math anxiety (p. 127). Despite the results of this study, the overwhelming impact of the initial communication of innate differences between
the sexes in the press had long lasting and far-reaching effects.
This media campaign had a direct impact on parental perceptions,
which further caused more gender-based stereotypes regarding math
abilities of children. As Jacklin (1989) states, As mothers came to
believe that mathematics was much more difcult for girls than boys,
their daughters become less likely to take additional math courses
(p. 128). Linn and Petersen (1985, 1986) found that there is no consistent pattern of gender difference regarding mathematics, science, and
31
32
(Robinson et al., 1996), which may affect their performance on standardized tests; girls underrepresentation in the same courses also contributes to the explanation of the achievement gap of girls. Despite the fact
that girls achievement in mathematics has improved in recent years,
girls perceptions of their math achievement remain dysfunctional
(Preckel, Goetz, Pekrun, & Kleine, 2008). This is also true of girls who
are gifted in science. As Preckel et al. (2008) indicate, In the general
population, fewer women than men chose academic courses or careers
in mathematics, the inorganic sciences, and engineering. This also
holds true for women of high scientic ability. Research has further
documented that the underrepresentation of women in these elds
grows with increasing scientic ability (p. 147).
Gender differences in math and science have much to do with the
expectations of future success and perceptions of competence (again
the self-fullling prophecy). Parents expectations do much to inuence
their childrens perceptions along these lines (Preckel et al., 2008). Girls
feel they have to work harder to achieve success in math, and they
show less condence in their abilities (Preckel et al., 2008). In sum, stereotypical gender role expectations on the part of the individual, in
conjunction with the expectations of parents and teachers, work to
shape achievement-oriented motivations, which inuence development
(Preckel et al., 2008). This can have negative consequences for girls in
mathematics and science courses. In addition, female students tend to
rate their competence levels in mathematics lower than their male
counterparts (Preckel et al., 2008). The corresponding stereotype that
still persists is that girls are better at reading and writing; this expectation can obviously do much to hinder boys in these areas.
Beginning at an early age, boys possess a higher level of general
self-esteem than do girls (Hergovich, Sirch, & Felinger, 2004). Moreover, boys have been found to possess higher self-concepts in the area
of mathematics, whereas girls possess higher self-concepts in language
(Hergovich et al., 2004). Furthermore, males tend to be more likely than
females to suffer from reading disabilities (OReilly & McNamara,
2007). Females tend to use overt study strategies more often than males
and have higher grade point averages (GPAs) (OReilly & McNamara,
2007). Reasons for gender difference include gender-stereotyped socialization (Hergovich et al., 2004). According to OReilly & McNamara
(2007), . . . we also recommend addressing gender differences by
working together with teachers and parents to reduce stereotypical attitudes and behaviors that support gender differences. This is important
because research has shown that gender differences are supported by
socialization. For example, recent work has shown that mothers engage
in more science talk with boys than they do with girls . . . and teachers
are often more responsive with boys than girls (pp. 187188). In short,
self-perceptions are often not only echoed by others, but also
33
inuenced by them, e.g., by parents and teachers. For example, according to Hergovich et al. (2004), Parents especially tend to judge their
children in a gender-stereotypical way, so that boys are rated better in
the areas of mathematics and sports and girls are rated better in verbal
areas (p. 208). Even if performance rates do not accord with these perceptions, sons are still rated higher than daughters.
Research indicates that expectation has much to do with academic
achievement. To illustrate this point, males estimate their general intelligence higher than do females (Rammstedt & Rammsayer, 2002). Beloff
(1992) found self-estimates to be related to gender stereotypes. According to Rammstedt and Rammsayer (2002), Such gender stereotypes
may be based on minor though true gender differences that become
overpronounced by ignoring intragender differences and, concomitantly, by focusing on the intergender bias (p. 276). Thus, the story
becomes: there are biological differences based upon gender which
explain academic differences. Historically, this has been demonstrated
on standardized assessments and it was seen as natural. Now we see
that there can be cultural and sociological factors that contribute to
such explanations. Geary (1989) argues that the explanation for gender
differences in academics is not biological, but cultural: specically, that
culture can inuence the development of cognitive skills. However, this
cultural explanation (that the experiences of males and females are
becoming increasingly similar over time) does not account for the complexity of this phenomenon. In other words, Geary argues that there is
more to this than simply the effect of culture on humans. Hormones
and anatomy still play a part in cognitive development, which may
inuence choice, which then may further inuence male advantage in
certain areas. According to Geary:
Culture, however, may attenuate or exaggerate these early biologyrelated behavioral gender differences by directing the focus of the experiences of male and female individuals to be more or less similar, which
would thereby inuence the pattern of gender-related abilities. Within
this model, the male performance advantage on measures of spatial ability would be related to prenatal hormonal factors, but the magnitude of
this advantage would not be immutable and in fact could vary across
generations and across cultures. (p. 1155)
If this is in fact the case, then, as Geary argues, as females and males
continue to engage in increasingly similar activities, gender differences
in terms of cognitive abilities may cease to exist. Also, as Geary argues,
these experiential differences may interact with hormonal differences,
which may further lessen gender differences. In short, biology and
human development are not immutable. For example, as Geary states,
. . . the distribution of these early sex-dimorphic behaviors might be
34
35
between: boys are more different from each another than they are from
their female counterparts (Mead, 2006). The true test of equity in America is the wage gap, which still disproportionately affects women negatively (women earn .77 to a dollar earned by a man) and is a telling
example of just what kind of crisis we are still experiencing (Institute
for Womens Policy Research, 2008).
The data suggest that boys have made progress in most academic
areas, but girls have made improvements faster in certain areas, such
as math, science, and geography. Consequently, girls have narrowed
some academic achievement gaps, creating the fear that boys are in crisis (Mead, 2006). The idea that girls are surpassing their male counterparts in certain academic areas (although they are still behind in
others) seems hard for many to accept. Instead, many blame feminism
for shortchanging boys. According to some critics, feminists have
advocated for allotting monetary resources on girls (at the expense of
boys) and demonized typical male behavior. Perhaps the conversation
about gender and achievement should shift to one that is not based
upon one group at the expense of another, but on interventions that
are necessary at all levels; scholars and advocates should be able to discuss boys and achievement without unfairly undermining the gains
girls have made. When disaggregating data for race and class, white
suburban boys are not signicantly affected by this crisis. Again, the
privileged perform well on standardized assessment, and thus the status quo is maintained. The boys who truly need academic interventions
are many rural and inner-city boys.
Despite all of the attention in the popular press about boys in crisis,
the fact remains that academic faculties in U.S. institutions, especially
in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) areas,
are still predominantly male (Spelke, 2005). Popular belief suggests that
this is the case because rst, women are less talented in these elds;
and, second, this gender difference has a genetic explanation (dealing
with intrinsic aptitude). According to Spelke (2005), males possess
greater variability in their inherent talent in mathematics, and thus,
they predominate in professions such as mathematician and scientist:
that a genetic predisposition to learn about particular, gender-specic,
things exists. Females have made gains in these areas, largely because
of Title IX. For example, the gender gap has closed with regard to
enrollment in calculus courses (Spelke, 2005), and in 2000, women
received 47 percent of the bachelors degrees awarded in mathematics
(Spelke, 2005).
According to Spelke (2005), men do not possess greater intrinsic aptitude in mathematics and science, Although older boys and girls
show somewhat different cognitive proles, the differences are complex and subtle (it is not the case, e.g., that women are verbal and men
are spatial) (p. 956). Spelke argues that such differences are caused by
36
37
Again, despite the attention in the popular press that girls and
women are outperforming boys and men in a variety of areas, there is
still much work to be done. For example, women comprise 79 percent
of public school teachers, but only 44 percent of the principals. Women
represent less than one in ve faculty members in STEM elds. In engineering in particular, women account for just over one in ten faculty
members. Women are 49 percent of all part-time academic employees
at the college level, but hold only 39 percent of full-time academic jobs.
The salaries of women K12 teachers in 1973 were 84 percent of male
teachers salaries. The discrepancy in female and male teacher earnings
is smaller than the national average for all working women in 57 percent in 1973 and 77 percent in 2006. In institutions of higher education,
overall wages for women faculty have remained at approximately 81
percent of mens earnings since the late 1970s (National Coalition for
Women and Girls in Education, 2008).
Many inequities still exist because of a lack of understanding and
implementation of the law. Title IX is often poorly understood and
poorly implemented by educators, parents, and students. For example,
relatively few education agencies comply with the Title IX regulation
to appoint, train, and make available their Title IX coordinators.
Parents and community members can help this problem locally, by
calling their local school districts and asking about Title IX coordinators, state-wide by contacting their congress members in order to put
pressure on school districts to comply with these regulations. Specically, every recipient of federal funding (under Title IX) must designate
and adequately train at least one Title IX coordinator.
Prior to Title IX, many educators and counselors accepted the stereotype that girls could not achieve in STEM subjects. Unfortunately, these
stereotypes still exist, as illustrated by the comments of Lawrence
Summers, which were discussed at the beginning of this chapter, for
example. Despite the perpetuation of these stereotypes by some, signicant progress has been made by women in many nontraditional areas,
dispelling the myth that academic ability has inherently something to
do with ones gender. However, there is still much more work to be
done. Unfortunately, girls still comprise approximately 90 percent of
students enrolled in classes, which will lead to traditionally female
occupations and only 15 percent of classes in traditionally male elds
(National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education, 2008). There are
many factors that contribute to this occurrence: the perpetuation of
gender stereotypes being one. Other factors, which may stem from the
adoption of or adherence to said stereotypes is a distinct possibility;
for example, biased career counseling, discriminatory treatment by
teachers, sexual harassment, and other sexist practices, can result in
limited educational opportunities for girls and women. This translates
to signicant negative consequences for womens current and eventual
38
39
40
violations. Such a listing will also assist Title IX coordinators nationwide in the sharing and dissemination of information.
In sum, there are many arguments for and against gender-based differences in ability leading to gaps in achievement. Similar arguments
have been made with regard to race. They are both devised to the
same end: to perpetuate privilege and maintain the status quo. Since
we know that culture inuences biology, it seems prudent to focus
energy on creating systemic change with regard to how we view gender and ability, and in creating interventions to foster gender equity
for both girls and boys.
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Chapter 3
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academic interests start appearing by high school. In developed countries, more high school boys than girls take computer design and
Advanced Placement (AP) science courses, and more girls than boys
take AP courses in English, biology, and foreign languages (Koch,
2003). (AP courses allow high school students who achieve high grades
on standardized tests to attain college credit for their work.) Vocational
education is highly gender-segregated in virtually all cultures, with
construction, skilled trades, information technology, and engineering
viewed as the province of men; and child-care and hairdressing viewed
as the province of women (Leathwood, 2006). College majors reect
this gendering of academic interests, as well: Women are overrepresented in the humanities, some social sciences (especially psychology),
and biology; men are overrepresented in the physical and computer
sciences, business, and engineering.
Gender messages also permeate the classroom experience of girls
and boys through the interactions they have with their peers and teachers. Peer inuence is a particularly powerful barrier to gender equity in
education. Girls and boys typically grow up in different cultures,
with different language and play styles, different clothes and customs,
and different expectations from adults (Basow, 2008; Leaper & Friedman, 2007; Maccoby, 1998). For example, girls activities, such as playing house, tend to be cooperative and verbal. Boys activities and
games tend to be more competitive and physical. Because of these gendered play styles, girls and boys tend to segregate themselves into
same-gender groups, which further reinforce gendered patterns of play
and behavior.
By ignoring or discouraging play with a child of the other sex, peers
are major enforcers of gendered norms (Bigler & Liben, 2007; Koch,
2003). Peers often police gender-boundary violations by using derogatory language and harassing behaviors toward those who do not completely conform to gender expectations (Basow, 2008). For example,
boys who might be interested in the arts, or girls who might be interested in mechanics, typically get a clear message that their interests are
not gender appropriate. Because boys have a stricter and narrower gender role than girls, boys are more often punished by their male peers
via verbal denigration, physical assault, and social ostracism (Renold,
2006; Wolke, Woods, Stanford, & Schulz, 2001). In a 2001 survey on
sexual harassment conducted by the American Association of University Women (AAUW, 2001), 83 percent of boys reported having experienced unwanted sexual behaviors (including accusations of
homosexuality) during their school years, usually from male peers.
Girls too are pressured to conform to the feminine gender role by
their peers, but because their role is more exible than is boys in the
early grades in developed countries (e.g., girls can wear dresses or
pants, can be athletic or bookish, can be assertive or dependent), the
49
conformity pressures on girls are somewhat less intense than for boys,
at least until puberty (Basow, 2008). It is around this time that the
major imperative for girls in developed countries, to be sexually attractive to boys, intensies. Girls uninterested in boys do risk being called
queer or dyke, but most of the epithets used for girls refer to heterosexual promiscuity (slut, ho). In the 2001 AAUW sexual harassment survey, 88 percent of the girls reported having experienced
such behaviors during their school years, mainly from male peers
(AAUW, 2001). Other research supports these ndings and suggests
that sexual harassment is virtually a universal experience for adolescent girls in coeducational institutions, in the United States and elsewhere (Leach, Fiscian, & Kadzamira, 2003; Leaper & Brown, 2008). A
majority of middle- and high school girls report having been the brunt
of unwanted or inappropriate romantic attention from a boy, having
been the target of unwanted physical contact from a boy, having been
called demeaning names or told an embarrassing or mean joke about
being a girl, as well as being teased about their appearance. Furthermore, at least one in four girls in the United States report having been
teased, bullied, or threatened by a boy (Leaper & Brown, 2008). European American and African American girls report more unwanted sexual attention than do their Asian American and Latina counterparts in
the United States; still, nearly all girls experience at least some of these
harassing behaviors (Leaper & Brown, 2008). In addition to sexual harassment, about 30 percent of girls report having received some type of
academic discouragement about their math, science, or computing abilities from male peers (Leaper & Brown, 2008).
The results of peer sexual harassment are negative for both sexes,
although the negative effects are more intense and pervasive for girls
(AAUW, 2001; Ormerod, Collinsworth, & Perry, 2008). Girls who experience peer sexual harassment, compared to their male counterparts,
report feeling more self-conscious, less condent, and more negative
about their bodies and about school. Girls also are more likely to try to
avoid the harasser and to keep silent in class. Thus, peer harassment is
a major barrier to gender equity in education.
Unfortunately, teacher behaviors often create additional inequities for
girls and women in schools. In some cases, the inequities are quite
overt, such as teachers who either harass female students themselves
or who tolerate peer harassment. In a study at several high schools in
the United States, about half of all school personnel (53 percent) were
found to have sexually harassed female students themselves (Ormerod
et al., 2008). Students in general tended to perceive school personnel as
tolerating such behaviors. Consequently, most female students do not
report incidences of sexual harassment; instead, they are likely to experience lowered self-esteem and withdraw psychologically or physically
from school. In some cultures, there may not even be recognition that
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51
school at a higher rate (9.7 percent in the United States) than do White
boys (6.4 percent). Hispanic boys may be even more neglected by
teachers; their dropout rate is 25.7 percent (NCES, 2008). Black girls
also may become disengaged due to lack of teacher attention and discouragement of their typically more verbal and active behaviors (Wilkinson & Marrett, 1985). In 2006, the high school dropout rate was 5.3
percent for White girls, 11.7 percent for Black girls, and 18.1 percent
for Hispanic girls (NCES, 2008). Research conrms that teachers
expectations strongly affect students, especially students from groups
that are academically stigmatized (Blacks and Hispanics, in general,
and girls in math) (McKown & Weinstein, 2002).
On the college level, similar patterns are found. Women college students appear to receive less encouragement than men do for speaking
in class, and they are more likely to be ignored or interrupted by both
peers and professors (Sadker & Sadker, 1994; Whitt, Edison, Pascarella,
Nora, & Terenzini, 1999). The qualities that seem to facilitate more gender equity in the college classroom include a smaller class size, more
feminine-oriented or androgynous subject matter, more classroom
interactions, a more cooperative than competitive atmosphere, and a
more gender-balanced or female-dominant student gender ratio (Brady &
Eisler, 1999).
EFFECTS OF DIFFERENTIAL SCHOOL EXPERIENCES
The barriers to gender equality in education are numerous: different
social roles, gender (and racial) stereotyping of academic abilities, a
male-centered curriculum, peer harassment, and differential teacher
treatment. As a result, girls and boys typically develop different levels
of academic self-condence (Dweck, 1999). Boys in the United States, at
least European American boys, tend to believe in their ability to solve
problems, so they typically attempt and persist at challenging tasks.
Girls are less likely to believe in their ability to gure things out;
instead, girls tend to believe that they either have academic ability or
they do not have it. Thus girls, especially high-achieving ones, tend to
develop more feelings of helplessness when they encounter academic
difculties, and they give up more quickly than do their male counterparts. Girls often feel more valued for being good and for their
appearance than for their intellectual skill. Academic self-condence is
important when attempting and persisting at new tasks. It is in this
area that girls increasingly fall behind boys, even as girls generally continue to attain higher grades. This occurs on the college level as well.
Annual surveys of entering students show that nearly two out of three
men rate themselves as at least above average in academic self-condence, whereas less than one-half of the women make similar ratings
(Sax, 2007).
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54
There has been change over time in the United States; increased
numbers of women have joined educational administration, the professorate, and science elds. For example, in the decade from 1993 to
2003, the percentage of women principals in elementary and secondary
schools increased 10 percent, and the percentage of women teaching in
colleges and universities increased 6 percent (NCES, 2008). These numbers still fall short of gender parity, however. Furthermore, gains by
women in traditional male-dominated careers have not been matched
by increased numbers of men in traditional female-dominated careers,
such as early childhood education and the humanities. Thus, the overall pattern is one of many changes for women in terms of nontraditional career choices but few changes for men. Gender segregation in
eld of study and careers may be particularly difcult to change
because it appears to be based less on beliefs about gender equality
than on beliefs about innate gender differences in abilities and interests
(Charles & Bradley, 2002).
Another barrier to equal representation by women and men in education is the same one affecting women in nearly all occupations: balancing work/family responsibilities (Gambles, Lewis, & Rapoport, 2006;
Ward & Wolf-Wendel, 2004). Because women still are primarily responsible for child-care, employed women with children often are more limited than their male counterparts in terms of time, energy, and overall
freedom to pursue their careers. For example, a recent study of female
Harvard University alumnae who had gone on to attain a doctorate
found that 91.5 percent of those without children were employed fulltime 15 years after college graduation, compared to 65 percent of
those with one child and 57.5 percent of those with two or more children (Jaschik, 2009). Having children did not affect the employment
rates of their male counterparts. Indeed, one of the few careers open to
educated women for many years was grade-school teaching, since such
jobs were fairly compatible with caring for ones own children in terms
of hours. (That is, teachers work pretty much the same hours and number of days that their children are in school.) In higher education, however, time demands are much greater (if somewhat exible), especially
when research and publications are required. Not surprisingly, then,
women are over-represented in more teaching-oriented higher education
positions, while men are overrepresented at major research universities
(American Association of University Professors, 2008). In fact, both
women and men considering academic careers view research universities as not family friendly (June, 2009).
Gendered Teaching Styles
Not only are women and men frequently teaching in different grades,
types of schools, and disciplines, but gender also may affect teaching
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students aged 12 to 16 years old did not show that boys beneted more
from male than from female teachers (Marsh, Martin, & Cheng, 2008).
In fact, both boys and girls typically had higher self-efcacy in classes
taught by women. Other research also has failed to show a signicant
effect of male teachers on boys behavior or achievement (e.g., Bricheno &
Thornton, 2007, in the United Kingdom), although more research is
needed on this topic, especially in elementary school, where female
teachers typically outnumber male teachers 9:1 (NCES, n.d.).
In summary, women in education are typically overrepresented in
the lower grades and lower-status teaching positions and institutions,
and underrepresented in the highest status positions and institutions.
Within the classroom they often teach in different elds and appear to
be more student-oriented than their male peers. While male professors
are generally perceived and evaluated similarly by their male and
female students, female professors typically receive different ratings as
a function of student gender (and discipline). In general, male students
tend to rate their female professors lower than their male professors,
while female students sometimes do the reverse: rate their female professors higher than their male professors (and higher than their male
peers).
CONCLUSION
In this chapter, we have examined the status of women in education.
As students, girls and women are disadvantaged in several ways. For
example, in developing countries, girls often are not encouraged to
attend school. In nearly all countries, girls are viewed in stereotypic
ways that may restrict and/or shape their educational and occupational potential. Girls are likely to experience both a gendered curriculum as well as sexist treatment from their male peers as well as from
their teachers. These educational experiences may cause girls and
women to doubt their academic abilities and impair their academic
performance, especially in nontraditional elds. Although women in
developed countries currently are matching or surpassing their male
counterparts in terms of educational achievement, their predominant
elds of study still are gendered.
As teachers, women are overrepresented in lower grades and lower
status educational positions, and underrepresented in the higher status
ones. In colleges and universities, women are more likely to use student-focused methods (e.g., discussions, group work) than their male
peers, while their teaching prociency may be more heavily scrutinized. Overall, women professors are marked for gender in ways their
male counterparts are not, a fact that contributes to the heavier burden
they bear to prove their worth.
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Chapter 4
In Womens Voices
Samantha Smith
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though all that feminism achieved is being undone by this choice, and
that women who only aspire to motherhood are not modern, progressive women. There are other women, of course, on the opposite side of
this argument who feel, as I do, that women should have the choice to
pursue whatever avenue they want.
As I came to the end of my undergraduate studies, my goals
included attending graduate school and pursuing a career in addition
to being a mother. After I complete my studies, I will be confronted
with the dilemma that so many women face. I will be married, starting
a career, and deciding when to start a family. This leads to the question of whether I am going to continue working while raising my children or whether I am going to put my career on hold and be a stay-athome mother while my children are young. Despite the strides that
feminism has made, many women feel the challenge of simultaneously
pursuing a career and raising a family. Feminism has given women the
right to choose, but not all aspects of society have changed to allow
women to follow through with their choices. It is helpful that more
men today are open-minded and are being brought up with the idea
that women are equals and that various domestic duties should be
shared, but I do not feel that this is yet the norm. The feminist movement provided women with more choices, but as a result, many
women feel pressure to perform at the highest level both inside and
outside the home.
In my opinion, feminism still has many areas in which progress is
necessary. Feminism is about helping and supporting each other and
not about discouraging women or making them feel that any of their
life choices are less valuable than others. Some of the issues that need
to be addressed include helping women to balance career and family
and helping them to achieve equal pay and promotion in the workplace. These issues may be advanced through government programs,
such as mandatory daycare in ones place of employment and family
leave. Although society and the government have given women more
rights and choices, a support system must be established so that
women can utilize all of their choices and be free to pursue their goals.
Chapter 5
It may be embarrassing to admit, but I felt validated when I read a broadsheet book review about a quaint little paperback titled Why Women
Shop (Minahan & Beverland, 2005). The short answer to the question of
why women (or men) shop would surely be: to buy something. Undoubtedly, some people would draw the analogous (and simplistic) conclusion
to the question of why women work outside the home. Their response to
that may be: to earn something. And yet just as I learned (and how normalizing it was!) that women shop for a whole raft of reasons that include
the feel-good benet of retail therapy, so do we generate a plethora of
explanations as to why women (choose to) engage in paid work and
begin to contemplate an onslaught of potential barriers, threats, and challenges they meet along the way. Of course with various motives to work
outside the home, it is humbling and important to acknowledge that not
all women believe they have the luxury of a choice to work, or a particular role to accept or decline. Some women may not ever believe they are
afforded the opportunity to set their sights on something as lofty and selfactualizing as a career. However, cant they still boast the right to enjoy
that which may consume their time and energy for over half their waking
hours? Therefore, in the approach I have taken to this chapter, I humbly
acknowledge the need of many women to work through sheer nancial
necessity, the schema and societal inuences that may have shaped some
womens self-limiting beliefs (which should not be seen as any criticism
of those women), and the fact that women who choose to be full time
stay-at-home careers make enormous familial and communal contributions. They are simply not the subject of our conversation.
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aura that surrounds women who work outside the home. If we consider all the research surrounding the psychological devaluation of
women who devote themselves to full-time care giving (Adams, 2008),
we could be forgiven for thinking we are damned if we do and
damned if we dont.
Even in 2009, a woman rising to the top of her profession (particularly a male-dominated profession like the law) appears to acquire an
automatic prole a la Dati. The hopes and aspirations of other women
accompany her wherever she goes and the acerbic judgments and perceptions of men and women seem to follow her every decision and
action.
In this chapter, I would like to reect on the relevant contextual factors
for women working today, explore some of the difculties and barriers
that still challenge us (including some of our own making), and provide
some commentary on the hot contemporary issues for women who work
outside the home. In relation to specic aspects of legislation, change to
Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) law and government agency
direction, I will be referencing the Australian context.
MAPPING THE TERRAIN
There are many interesting discourses on the psychology of women
and the issues they face as a longstanding minority group (in sphere of
inuence if not always numbers), and I dont intend to duplicate their
efforts here. One comprehensive and well-written account of womens
lives and issues of particular relevance to women is discussed in
Denmark and Paludi (1993). Some political, social, and cultural markers
would seem to indicate that things are certainly happening, albeit at a
pace best described as painstakingly slow.
WORKFORCE PARTICIPATION AND EARNING PARITY
It is an all too common indictment of the gender gap that women in
Australia are paid 85 cents in every male wages dollar, and the Australian disparity is typical of other Western countries. Australian Bureau
of Statistics (ABS) (Ofce for Women, 2009; ABS, 2005) data suggested
that on average, hourly earnings of full-time males and females (allowing for the exclusion of overtime) are $30.41 and $25.87, respectively.
This is an earning ratio of 85 percent, which has narrowed by around 4
percentage points over the last decade. The original compelling metaphor of the glass ceiling was coined to describe this gap in earnings
between the genders (Wirth, 2002). The gender-wages gap has long
been considered a powerful and telling metric by which to analyze
gender inequality. The existence of a gap reects two discriminatory
phenomena; women being paid less money to do the equivalent job of
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maleseven in the same pay scale women can start at the bottom of
the scale while men are paid at the middle or the topand, women
tend to dominate the so-called pink jobs (i.e., secondary labor market
job roles that reect gender stereotypes in male-dominated societies
because they are seen to echo domestic responsibilities, (e.g., librarianship, nursing, teaching, secretarial).
These roles are remunerated at a lower level than the so-called
blue-collar jobs (manual labor requiring technical ability and
strength) or white collar (e.g., salaried professionals like engineers,
accountants, lawyers, some managers) with the latter roles regarded as
being higher in complexity and accountability (Fontenot, 2007). Nevertheless, not all disparity can be accounted for by the differential complexity of these jobs or the higher percentages of women working
part-time.
Despite the remarkable changes in recent labor market structure,
women in 2001 held just 1.3 percent of the top management positions
in the largest Australian companies (Kee, 2006) According to the Annual Report of the Government Equal Opportunity for Women in the
Workplace Agency (EOWA), only two of the top 200 companies were
chaired by women and just four had women chief executives (EOWA,
2004).
Over the past few years, more women in Australia pursued tertiary
study than men. It is reported that 51.7 percent of professionals with
bachelors degrees in 2005 were women (Kee, 2006), and that is on the
rise. According to a professional survey in 2008 by Beaton Consulting,
women now comprise over half the graduates in accounting yet
account for less than 15 percent of accounting rm partners. While one
would not expect the numbers entering the profession at the bottom
end to reect in leadership composition at the top end overnight, the
persisting differential is hard to ignore. Similarly, the percentages of
women at lower job classications in banking and nance (e.g., tellers)
is high yet numbers of senior women in banking and nance is still
very low. These ndings underscore the slow tortuous progress in equity experienced by women on two distinct fronts. We see systemic
discrimination, which perpetuates the cycle of disadvantage for minority groups including women and/or women can vote with their feet
and elect not to pursue senior positions in sectors or companies that
appear to them to be so inhospitable toward women.
Thus we can see a duality of disadvantage where women are involuntarily blocked and/or potentially self-select out of what they believe
will be a working life lled with unacceptable challenges once they do
the sums on the payoffs and penalties. In our discussion on ceilings,
oors, and walls later in the chapter, the glass ceiling and the maternal
wall are representations of the rst phenomenon, and the sticky oor,
the second.
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85 cents in every male dollar across all sectors, and workforce participation rates among women between 25 and 44 years is one of the lowest in OECD countries (Abhayaratna & Lattimore, 2006) even after
adjusting for variances in statistical practices. The Human Rights and
Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) blames that in large part on
problems with child care and the absence of taxpayer-funded maternity
leave and other measures to support primary careers.
WOMEN AS CONSUMERS
Interestingly, women in the almost identical age bracket (25- to 40year-olds) are the fastest-growing Australian wealth demographic and
are being targeted for potential sales growth (Young, 2008). Furthermore, the proliferation of new businesses of small and medium size is
attributable predominantly to women. In a study commissioned by a
major non-bank lender (Wizard Home Loans, 2006), women declared
they were the home managers in 93 percent of cases, that one-third
made decisions on nance loans and other nancial products entirely
on their own, and that in 61 percent of cases they were joint decision
makers on big home nancial decisions.
Women are becoming a consumer force to be reckoned with. However, interest in nancial planner seminars on how to attract the female
dollar are spawned by the recognition of business opportunity; not necessarily underpinned by sincere moral and feministic attempts to right
the injustices of the past. There are still a lot of obstacles to women
achieving their potential, including structural barriers to workforce participation and therefore to nancial independence. Women now ofcially
number just under half the Australian workforce (45 percent) (ABS,
2007), but sheer numbers dont tell a story of equity and access unless
we look at the proportion of women in an organization vertically. In
other words, if the numbers of men and women in an organization are
exactly balanced but the vast majority of positions at the top end of
organizations are occupied by men, then we have achieved equity of
access (to work) but not equity of outcomes (to workplace opportunities). Most human rights commentators agree it is happening but far too
slowly despite almost three decades of an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) regime that outlaws discrimination on gender grounds.
WOMEN AND EEO LAW
Australia has a 25-year history of gender (sex) discrimination legislation at the federal level, and for the most part the legislation has served
them well. The federal Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) was passed in
1984 and outlaws direct and indirect discrimination on the basis of
gender, marital status, pregnancy, potential pregnancy (being female
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see the difference between the glass ceiling, where disadvantage and
unfair treatment morph into each other but are perpetrated by others, to
what we might refer to as the sticky oor, where the fears and apprehension of women, combined with the goals they want to achieve, are
best addressed by other means (e.g., becoming small independent homebusiness owners). In this paradigm, even if opportunities present themselves, women may elect not to pursue them.
GLASS CEILINGS
As noted earlier, the so-called glass ceiling is a powerful metaphor for invisible yet actual barriers to the ascendance of women in
workplaces, often reected and measured by a gender wages gap that
can not be accounted for by number of hours worked or job complexity. Thus, the glass ceiling attests to the inequity of outcomes, not just
access, for women at work. Moreover, the notion of a glass ceiling
implies that the barriers are extrinsic to the hopes and aspirations of
those women and are enacted and enforced by others in positions of
power (presumably men). The barriers may come in the form of spoken and unspoken barriers to entrywomen need not applyand/
or unspoken barriers to advancement. The barriers come in the form of
gender-based roles with differential income earning potential and the
complementary devaluing of pink jobs nancially and societally.
(For a fascinating discourse on the devaluing of motherhood, see Crittenden, 2001.) The barriers can be measured quantitatively in the form
of differential pay more than fty years after the 1951 International
Labor Organization (ILO) convention mandating equal pay for work of
equal value was ratied and the barriers can represent indirect blockages to advancement in the form of restricted/differential access to
training, coaching, and mentoring.
More subtle factors are also at work here, which may involve more
than the conscious rejection of everything female or feminine by male
powerbrokers. The reality is that business organizations are typically
still male-led and are dominated by male culture and assumptions.
Corporate language is often competitive, even ruthless: idioms are
based on sport and war, deals are made on the golf course, corporate
boxes at the tennis are legitimate business expenses, and men receive
informal mentoring and support and they know it.
In the early 1990s, working as a senior consultant with a major Australian Bank, I was struck by how many times other women there told
me how my story inspired them. There was nothing terribly remarkable about my story as far as I was concerned except that I had a middle-management position in a bank and several children. I think it did
occur to me when I was pregnant with my third child that perhaps I
was somewhat of an anomaly for the bank when they told me they
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didnt have a policy provision on what would happen with my company car when I went on maternity leave. I was told they would have
to go away and consider it. When I asked for clarication they told me
they had never had a woman at my level that was still of childbearing
age, had actually decided to have a baby, intended to take maternity
leave, and actually return. As I tried to determine whether women at
my age didnt tend to hold such positions, or didnt have babies or
didnt come back after babies, I was told the answer was all of the
above.
It was certainly the case that some women rose to the position of
chief manager in the bank at that time, but every one of them resigned
within a year citing lack of acceptance at best or downright sabotage at
worst. The culture was relentless in its expectation of these women
(almost all of whom were single and driven) or ruthless in the exclusion or harassment these women experienced, yet the bank continued
to pat itself on the back for their appointment. It appeared to me even
then that there were few overt suggestions these women werent competent, far more so that they simply werent welcome.1
Women face other difculties that may be partially explained by
gender attribution theory (Wagner, Ford, & Ford, 1986). Behavior of
the respective genders is perceived and labeled differently. Assertive
men are nagging women; strong, decisive results-oriented women
can be referred to as ball breakers. A tough negotiation stance can
be perceived as aggressive. In addition, women who are comfortable
with their femininity are often seen by other women to be exploiting it
to get ahead. With that phenomenon we observe alarmingly that
women can be just as tough on other women, thus buying in to the
male conspiracy. The archetypal feminine values reect a socialization of women taught to t in, collaborate, be nice, to be not pushy
nor to sound their own trumpet. Even if they do, some women sanction them for breaking the unspoken rule of equality (Peltier, 2001).
Karina Butera, an Australian sociologist, has done extensive research
into intergender conict among women and concludes that women surveyed typically said they would rather work with men and that interpersonal conict at work was their major source of stress (Butera,
2008). One biological explanation is that to ensure the survival of the
species, women must gravitate toward men, not women. However,
most of Buteras research points to psychosocial explanations for
female intragender conict. Butera adds that women do tend to be
other-oriented and can go out of their way to avoid upsetting others.
However, given they legitimately need reection and emotional release,
they may speak to others about negative feelings rather than directly
address the party with whom they have an issue. Men expressing anger or frustration as they feel it are often described as straight
shooters or using the Australian idiom, they call a spade a spade
75
(or a spade a shovel if theyre very direct!). Thus, women in their gender-based behavior can reinforce unsavory stereotypes among men and
other women as bitchy, dishonest (i.e., indirect), or irrational.
If we postulate that masculine traits are still heavily valued in
organizations but only if exhibited by men, women are caught in a
double bind; wanting to be taken seriously, expected to get results but
judged harshly for adopting male mores.
This pressure or even deep-seeded value to be nice does not
explain why some women can be so hard on other women. It is also
not easy to determine whether women displaying masculinized
behaviors ascend in organizations because of it or feel pressured to
adopt such behaviors in order to stay there. However, in an era where
women have been the pervasive minority for so long at senior levels in
organizations, one could intuitively hypothesize that consciously or
unconsciously women might see other women as their competition for
choice roles and business opportunities.
It has often been said that the wise executive will nurture, mentor
others, and succession plan to free himself or herself for even bigger
and better things. But this takes a degree of security and emotional
intelligence that may be lacking in those consumed with what I will
call the scarcity mentality. It is as if those women looking around
the deck on the Titanic and seeing that iceberg approaching believe it
is the other women in the executive boardroom who are really competing for the few working life rafts available on the ship. This could be
further exacerbated with a gender neutral but powerful cultural norm
that rewards competitive behavior as people scramble over each other
to get to the top.
Whatever the reasons for any women treating women badly, some
feminists will say weve had men to do that for centuries. Is it fair to
expect more of women by virtue of their attribution as naturally collaborative and harmonizing? One sobering reality is that gender attribution theory as portrayed here judges womens language, style, and
behavior by a double standard. It is not fair and just to judge them by
a second; a higher moral plane than that by which men might be
judged. In the past few months as the global economic crisis has seen
businesses crumble and the spotlight has turned sharply on executive
remuneration, I do not recall reading or hearing anything that blights
the entire population of men in business.
The minority of women who treat women badly are responsible to
themselves and accountable to the organizations that hire them. People
treating other people badly at work is not a gender-based issue but rather
a cultural one. As Butera says, gone are the days when we had to ght
for the attention of cavemen (to procreate). Women can push hard
against the glass ceiling, use the best of their feminine and masculine traits
and build strong, constructive relationships and strategic networks.
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At the end of the day, the most thriving organizations I have seen
are those in which emotional intelligence, meritocracy, empathy, visionary leadership, and social conscience are practiced and afrmed.
Furthermore, they are cultures in which bad behavior, whether it be
indirect destructive communication, bullying or unethical treatment of
other staff is actively disincentivized and if it is committed, is both
called and consequenced. Women and men should be able to
thrive in organizations where all are genuinely afrmed for their contribution to their organization and where collective pride in what they
do and why they do it is found in shared purpose and discretionary
effort akin to being a corporate religion (Kunde, 2002).
Putting aside issues (and double standards) around acculturated
behavior, Peltier (2001) claims that women face an additional challenge,
which is that women usually do not get second chances. He argues
that women are given less scope to experiment and err in the learning
process and that after the rst big mistake, instead of being given the
benet of the doubt, they are out the door. Couple this with the selfresponsibility many women feel to pave the way and pioneer for other
women (that other-orientation), and you could forgive women for deciding the challenges are insurmountable and the risks just not worth taking.
THE STICKY FLOOR
Let us acknowledge there are self-imposed limitations on women
who could achieve more in work and career but decline opportunities or
elect not to pursue them at all. I would prefer to distinguish this phenomenon as the sticky oor as opposed to the glass ceiling (Kee,
2006). Many times, well-intentioned and egalitarian senior male clients
rue the decisions of female staff when those women decline to be interviewed for more senior positions. The same males are often frustrated
and shocked when they hear these competent women expressing a lack
of condence in their own ability to meet the demands of the job. Some
of these sincere and supportive males comment on the fact that they
have never heard a male applicant express apprehension about the possibility of letting (his) team down. Indeed these feministic men have
reected on how often they nd themselves seeking to lower the expectations of male applicants who feel the next step up is their birthright. In
interviewing so many working women over many years, I have found
their reluctance to set their sights higher usually stems from one or more
realistic concerns. First, they voice some doubt they will be seriously
considered for the job and dont want the humiliation of a tokenistic
recruitment exercise (thus concerns about a glass ceiling). Second, their
perceptions may be that the culture that exists in that upper echelon will
be inhospitable, and their attempts at success may be/will be thwarted
or sabotaged (referencing the notion of the sticky oor keeping them
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where they are). Third, they feel they have seen and heard enough about
the pressures on those performing in those roles to believe the demands
are unrealistic and incompatible with their family obligations (thus the
existence of a maternal wall) with real or imagined consequences
keeping them where they are as soon as they commit the seemingly ultimate crimemotherhood (Sachs & Painton, 1993).
THE MATERNAL WALL
Yes, weve come a long way from the days where a woman working
for the government or as a teacher got married and received two gifts
in the forms of a wedding present from all the staff and termination of
her employment. This strategy was, no doubt, deemed to be the ultimate in practical workforce planning, as organizations would not have
to worry nervously about whether or not the married woman in question might disrupt the workplace with a pregnancy and subsequent absence. The organization was proactive in terminating her employment
before she and her new partner could get a twinkle in their eyes.
While it is clearly unlawful to discriminate against any woman
today on pregnancy or potential pregnancy (assuming she could perform the inherent requirements of the job), the law can scarcely monitor the cultural or psychosocial backlash against the woman who
seemingly commits the ultimate career slap in the face and decides to
have a baby. In some cases that is clearly observed to be the ultimate
in ungracious behavior, and the men (and women) whove taken that
risk on them, only to have it blow up in their faces may demonstrate
their displeasure. A landmark case in Australia in 1998 went the way
of the complainant, Marea Hickie, who had attained partnership with a
law rm Hunt and Hunt and found as she returned from maternity
leave that the majority of her big les had been handed on to someone
else (their concern was that she wouldnt be able to cope) and that she
had ostensibly been demoted. She was awarded damages in the
Human Rights Commission and subsequently went on to attain partnership in another rm (Hickie v. Hunt & Hunt, 1998).
In one sense, the maternal wall is a synthesis of the glass ceiling and
the sticky oor where the demands of the job and/or the culture are
fundamentally inhospitable to women with children. It could mean
their status as mothers is obstructing opportunities and/or they are
reluctant to seize them. A woman may be discriminated against and be
directly or indirectly undermined in the role because she has a child or
may be harassed by those who pay out on her lack of commitment
because she refuses to work ridiculous hours. As in the case of Hunt
and Hunt an organization can assign sexy high-prole projects/les
elsewhere citing work/life balance as their excuse to give the plum
opportunities to others. Management may simply assert the working
78
mother is not a team player because she wont stay back on Friday
night for drinks with the others or show enthusiasm for residential
retreats and overseas conferences. However, the woman seeing this
played out in front of her may not take this lying down. She can and
may make changes. In the research discussed in a Time Magazine article
by Andrea Sachs, 53 percent of almost one thousand Harvard graduates said theyd changed their jobs or specialties because of family
responsibilities, and 25 percent of female Harvard MBAs had bugged
out of the workforce completely. This is alarming if one considers that
Harvard MBAs may have been more empowered and had more attractive choices and better earning capacity than some other women. On
the other hand, it is also possible the Harvard grads believed their
qualications would open all doors (excessive Harvard hubris?), and
they became more frustrated and disappointed sooner than most.
Such can be the fear of the maternal wall that women may delay or
abandon starting a family until they have got to a place (job and/or career) that they believe will make them seemingly impervious to the
threat of the wall. Wheeler (2005) refers to them in her studies as
postponers as opposed to early deciders; the latter who are distinguished as making the decision not to have children independently of
whether or not they are or arent in a relationship and how their partner feels about their decision.
Wheelers study is interesting because the widely held view is that
women will remain childless by choice almost exclusively because of
the maternal wall. Wheeler found that while this was certainly true for
many, and work was a strong driver, a distinct and substantial percentage of women expressed negative sentiment about the motherhood role
and the impact of potential motherhood on a range of life aspects. In
2002, the percentage of Australian women who would not have children was 24 percent, with an estimated 7 percent having fertility problems and the remaining 17 percent making the choice. Researchers are
agreed this gure will rise (ABS, 2002).
According to the fourteenth annual report on pregnancy and childbirth in Australia released by the Australian Institute of Health and
Welfare (AIHW) National Perinatal Statistics Unit, over 40 percent of
births in 2004 were to rst-time mothers, who, at an average age of 28
years were about two years older than their 1991 counterparts. Mothers
aged 35 years or older made up 12.5 percent of new mothers in 2004,
compared with 6.9 percent in 1995 when the average age of rst-time
mothers was 26.5 years.
Fertility specialists are in high demand. Assisted pregnancies and in
vitro fertilization (IVF) are booming industries in this country. Having
babies while single has been destigmatized to a degree, and same-sex
couples are accessing assisted reproductive technologies via recent
changes to legislation.
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automatically mean they will travel well. The happiness movement has
discovered a lot about what contributes to health and well-being, and
if women believe they can have it all rather than have it most, they are
potentially doomed to abject disappointment (as well as accusations of
delusional thinking).
Regretfully, it seems clear we are still a long way from World Peace,
but we can work on achieving a better form of inner peace. Dening
our goals and being purposeful, negotiating for what we want, looking
after other women and helping them be successful, afrming men who
support our successes, furthering our own cause by refusing to succumb to age-old stereotypical versions of ourselves, and realistically
appraising what is possible based on real needs and values will be the
things that help get us there.
Even if we move beyond equity of access at work to tangible equality
of outcomes, it is humbling to remember that a persons identity is not
dened solely by their work, nor could we say that factors outside the
workplace will have no bearing on a persons status at work. What is
possible for women at work is merely an extension of, or adjunct to,
the societal context in which women live. Indeed, a holistic approach is
required to ensure womens standing in society is elevated.
I was lucky enough to grow up in an era where women started to
appreciate they could have it most. Exercising self-responsibility and
owning the choices we make demonstrates the emotional intelligence
we want everyone to demonstrate. My daughters truly believe they can
have it all. Life may not quite live up to that version of utopia, and
there may always be a struggle with juggle, but the will to strive is a
big part of what makes us human and ironically, being human is not
gender-specic.
NOTE
1. Interestingly and heartwarmingly, the bank was headed up the past ten
years by a most visionary and compassionate egalitarian leader, and engagement in the same organization under vastly different leadership would be the
envy of all other major Australian banks.
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Abhayaratna, J., & Lattimore, R. (2006, December). Workforce participation rates:
How does Australia compare? Staff Working Paper (Report for the Australian
Government Productivity Commission). Retrieved August 2009 from http://
www.pc.gov.au/research/staffworkingpaper/workforceparticipation.
Adams, J. (2008). Womens place is in the home: The ideological devaluation of
womens work. Report for the American Anthropological Association, 12, 211.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2002). Australian social trends 2002. Cat.
No. 4102.0. Canberra: ABS.
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Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2005). Trends in the gender pay gap. Cat.
No. 6306. Canberra: ABS.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2007). Australian social trends 2007.
Cat. No. 4102.0. Canberra: ABS.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2008, December 9). Media release:
More births to older mother trend continuing. Australian Institute of Health
and Welfare. Retrieved August 2009 from http://www.aihw.gov.au/
mediacentre/2008/mr20081209.cfm.
Beaton Consulting. (2008). Annual business and professions study. Melbourne:
Beaton Consulting.
Broderick, E., Burrow, S., & Ridout, H. (2008). Maternity scheme is overdue in
Productivity Commission research on federally funded maternity leave (Joint project with Australian Industry Group, Australian Council of Trade Unions
and Human Right and Equal Opportunity Commission. Retrieved April 8,
2009 from http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/maternity-scheme-isoverdue/2008/04/07/1207420296235.
Butera, K. J. (2008). Breaking down inter-gender workplace conict. Corporate
Wellness, Summer 08/09, 3841.
Courcol, C. (2009). Supermum MP angers French feminists. Retrieved
January 9, 2009, from http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world.
Crittenden, A. (2001). The price of motherhood: Why the most important job in the
world is still the least valued. New York: Metropolitan Books (Holt).
Denmark, F. L., & Paludi, M. A. (Eds.) (1993). The psychology of women: A handbook of issues and theories. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Duxbury, L., & Higgins, C. (2003, October). Work-life conict in Canada in
the new millennium: A status report. Ottawa, ON: Public Health Agency of
Canada.
Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency. (2004). Annual report.
Canberra: EOWA. Retrieved August 2009 from http://www.eowa.gov.au/
EOWA_Events_LandingPage.asp.
Faraday-Brash, L. (2006). Struggling with juggling. Retrieved March 30, 2009
from www.brashconsulting.com.au.
Fontenot, R. (2007). Blue, pink, and white collars. Retrieved March 3, 2009 from
http://hercules.gcsu.edu.
Hickie v. Hunt & Hunt. (1998). Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOCA) 8.38. 2008.
Kee, H. J. (2006). Glass ceiling or sticky oor: Exploring the gender pay gap.
Economic Record, December, pp. 408-427.
Kunde, J. (2002). Corporate religion. London: United Kingdom: Financial Times/
Prentice Hall.
Medd, R. (2008). Still no cracks in the glass ceiling. Retrieved October 30, 2008,
from http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2405232.htm.
Minahan, S., & Beverland, M. (2005). Why women shop: Secrets revealed. Qld:
John Wiley & Sons AustraliaWrightbooks.
Morgan, D. (2009, March 3). Getting off the treadmill and on the program. Ofce
for Women. (2009). Women in Australia 2009, Chap. 3. Canberra.
Peltier, B. (2001). The psychology of executive coaching: Theory and application. Sussex: Brunner-Routledge.
Sachs, A., & Painton, P. (1993, May 10). The maternal wall, Time Magazine.
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Chapter 6
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(al Qaeda, Susm, Shiite, and Suni Muslims) are very much present in
human awareness worldwide. Every one of these religious systems has
been an arena in which the issue of women in religious leadership has
been a signicant contest and the source of noteworthy ferment.
At least since the shift from matriarchal human communities to patriarchalism, about 5000 BCE, in all facets of society the role of women
has been repressed, suppressed, and oppressed. This aspect of the
human experiment has been a relatively consistent history of keeping
women under control; that is, whether consciously intentional or motivated by other drivers, the story is one of power brokering in which
women have been most of the time disenfranchised. The most unfortunate aspect of this tragic narrative is the fact that religious institutions
have, until recently, been the most powerful agents and agencies of this
injustice. The misfortune is compounded by the fact that repressing the
contribution of women has been a deprivation and self-defeat of those
very persons and institutions that have perpetrated and perpetuated
this unwisdom and injustice.
It started very early in the history of religious institutions. Though
women have always been a key part of religious communities of every
kind, in the last 3,000 years for which we have some kind of historical
record, their role has been relatively subservient most of the time. For
about 250 years, in the early centuries of the Jesus Movement and the
Christian faith groups that followed it, women were quite obviously the
prominent leaders of the developing religious communities. When Christendom was established by Constantine, creating the Imperial Church in
325 CE, the role of women was severely and permanently suppressed,
as was the role of dissenting spiritual or theological opinion.
Karen Torjeson (1993), Dorothy Irvin (1980), and Joan Morris (1973)
published notable books on this issue, naming the Constantinian revolution and its women-suppressive antecedents the scandal of their subordination. In elegant elegiac prose, Torjeson (1993) regales us with a
story that xes her thesis rmly in empirical historical data. She writes:
Under a high arch in a Roman basilica dedicated to two women saints,
Prudentiana and Praxedis, is a mosaic portraying four female gures: the
two saints, Mary, and a fourth woman whose hair is veiled and whose
head is surrounded by a square haloan artistic technique indicating
that the person was still living at the time the mosaic was made. The
four faces gaze out serenely from a glistening gold background. The faces
of Mary and the two saints are easily recognizable. But the identity of
the fourth is less apparent. A carefully lettered inscription identies the
face on the far left as Theodora Episcopa, which means Bishop Theodora.
The masculine form for bishop in Latin is episcopus; the feminine form is
episcopa. The mosaics visual evidence and the inscriptions grammatical
evidence point out unmistakably that Bishop Theodora was a woman.
(pp. 910)
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teams of scholars at the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, deciphering and publishing the library of Gnostic manuscripts discovered at Nag
Hamadi in upper Egypt, contributed greatly to our understanding of early
Christian practices. In many of them, we have indications that in the second to the fth century CE there were still lively memories and legends of
women as religious leaders, indeed women ordained as bishops, in the
early church.
As the Constantinian revolution established a church polity model
that not only suppressed women religious leadership but excluded it
completely in Christendom, so also after the fall of the Roman Empire
in the West, the church of the Middle Ages afforded virtually no
role for woman religious leadership. The only exception to this statement is the revolutionary role some women carved out for themselves
in the form of operational ministries in applied modes, down on the
ground where the great needs were, so to speak. These roles were
usually carried on outside the ofcial structure of the church. They
eventually led to the rise of sanctioned orders of women in ministry,
usually regularized by attachment to male orders, such as the female
order associated with the Franciscans (Clara), the Jesuits of St. Ignatius,
and the Dominicans (Catherine of Siena).
Julian of Norwich, St. Theresa of Avila, and the other noted Medieval female mystics represent a mere tip of a huge iceberg of incredibly
devoted women who carried out ministry within and beyond the
bounds of the Medieval Church. When Protestantism arose after the
Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anabaptist Reformations, women continued to
have distinctive roles in the diaconate and its ministries of mercy, consolation, and healing to suffering humanity. Regardless of the patriarchal pressure to the contrary, the presence of women in ministry has
always been irrepressible. The repression and overt oppression that
existed in the Christian community for 18 centuries, however, took the
form of a glass ceiling that obstructed the movement of women into
the ofces, authority, and empowerment of ordination.
Only in the mid-twentieth century did women nally manage to
achieve ordination to Christian ministry in some Protestant Churches.
Methodism in the United States began to ordain women to the ofces
of Minister of Word and Sacraments in the late 1930s. Independents
and Pentecostals preceded that date but only in the cases of exceptional, independent, charismatic, self-appointed, and self-made prophets such as Amy Semple McPherson and Mary Baker Eddy.
Presbyterianism began to ordain women to the ofces of the word and
sacraments in 1957. A similar pattern of development took place at
approximately the same time in the various Jewish denominations. Of
course, in Muslim communities no gain has been achieved in ordination of women to such roles as leaders of congregations, ofcials of
mosques, or the function of Iman. So the regularization of the roles of
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erosion of hope in church and society can corrupt the victims vision of
her own destiny, and in the case of religious leadership issues, prompt
singularly able persons into tasks and careers that are not real ministry
and are inferior to their ability and vocation.
This raises the profound and life-shaping issues of values, objectives,
goals, and identity in terms of womens authentic vocation. Then a
woman must try to discern where one can still serve best, in spite of
being shut out of the arena of esteemed and standardized ministry. This
is ultimately what religious and secular women face today. Every individual woman then is faced with making that isolated personal decision.
Mother Theresa of Calcutta and her similar saintly antecedents were
forced into that position and resolved it by heroic individual service to
the most needy in our world, person by person and situation by situation. Inadvertently, her solitary ministry grew into a communal calling
for many women, through her houses of ministry, throughout the world.
Women have always sublimated their loss of institutional certication
and ordination by pouring their spiritual energies and sense of vocation
into such community or worldwide missions. They are the ones who
chose to move away from the struggle for ordination and simply
immersed themselves in ministry to specic human needs, such as contemplation and prayer, teaching, or care of the needy and suffering.
They are the ones who bore the burden and the heat, while they could
have been those who spiritually conquered and subdued the land.
Religious institutions, which resist honoring the ministry of women
and the institutionalization of womens leadership, invite thereby a
counterforce to their institution in the form of a congealing group of
those women who see it as a matter of ethical integrity to stay and
ght. It is these women that the present papal housecleaning of the
female orders is endeavoring to eliminate from places of inuence.
There is, of course, in every institution or society that represses religious leadership by women, a group of women who prefer to stay in
the community, adapt to its prescriptions, dene themselves in terms
of its rubrics, and enjoy that traditional status quo. Such women or
groups tend to go to the margins and work in peripheral ministries
without pursuit of denitive central leadership roles. Others enter the
academy and invest their energies there instead of in the church, and
still others simply abandon the cause of religious service and move
into a kind of freedom of forced secularity.
If this were only true of the Roman Catholic Church and the Muslim
congregations and Mosque-centered communities, it might be possible
for most of us to ignore them and leave them to their benighted and
misbegotten selves. However, the trouble, as hinted above, lies in the
fact that this ancient mode of repressing women in religious institutions tends to reinforce the long-standing pattern of those same regressive values and behaviors in the culture and society in general. When
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is, they are of far less ability, skill, motivation, and productivity than
their women colleagues, for the most part. This is not true of all males,
but a high percentage of those becoming ordained ministers, doctors,
and university professors. Conversely, excellence does not mark all
women entering the historically prized professions, but only a high
percentage of them. This sociological and psychological shift represents
a major modication in our culture.
I was, for the rst half of my professional career, an ordained minister in a denomination that would not ordain women to the roles of either deacon or teaching (preachers and pastors) and ruling elders.
Many of us young men carried a brilliantly burning torch for the cause
of womens ordination. We were fathers of brilliant and appropriately
passionate daughters whose future in ordained ministry was quite
obvious. We gained some ground in the late 1970s and succeeded in
getting women ordained as deacons. When we overtured the denomination to ordain women as elders and ministers, an aggressive political
backwash both denied the overture for ordination of women as ministers, and rescinded the previous decision of years before regarding
ordination of women deacons.
After a decade of this struggle, constantly failing in our objective, I
left that denomination on the grounds of its failure to measure up to
the biblical and ethical imperatives for the equality of women and their
opportunities as women religious leaders. This struggle continues in
many religious communities, and most unfortunately of all, the Roman
Catholic Church under Benedict XVI is rushing that communion rapidly into the Middle Ages. All prospects of any gains in ordained
women in religious leadership in that most inuential of all Christian
communions is being regressed severely, with a vengeance.
So the picture and prospects for women as religious leaders in the
Americas, and throughout the Western World, are quite ambiguous. In
the Christian denominations and non-Christian communities of faith
that invite women as religious leaders, women are generally doing a
brilliant work and exceedingly effective service to those institutions
and their constituencies, as the effectiveness of males in comparable
roles is in decline. On the other hand, in those religious groups who
resist women as religious leaders, the anti-feminine prejudice is hardening and becoming more and more regressive, to the great detriment
of those institutions and their constituencies, especially of the women
in their communions. There seems to be more and more likelihood that
women will increase in prominence and effectiveness in religious leadership where they are certied to do so; and less and less likelihood
that women will ever have that opportunity in such regressive communions as the Roman Catholic Churchat least under the present Medieval papacy.
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Barrett, D., Kurian, G., & Johnson, T. (2001). World Christian encyclopedia (2nd
ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Brosnan, A. (1999). Discerning ministerial transition. Unpublished doctoral
dissertation, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago.
Fiorenza, E. S. (1975). Mary Magdalene: Apostle to the Apostles. United Theological Seminary Journal, April, 2224
Fiorenza, E. S. (Ed.). (1984). In memory of her (2nd ed.). New York: Crossroads.
Fiorenza, E. S. (2009, April 16). Unpublished lecture, University of Detroit Mercy.
Gryson, R. (1976). The ministry of women in the early church. Collegeville, MN:
Liturgical Press.
Morris, J. (1973). The lady was a bishop: The hidden history of women with clerical
ordination and jurisdiction of bishops. New York: Macmillan.
Schaberg, J. (2002). The resurrection of Mary Magdalene: Legends, apocrypha and the
Christian testament. New York: Continuum.
Schaberg, J. (2006). Mary Magdalene understood. New York: Continuum.
Torjeson, K. (1993). When women were priests: Womens leadership in the early
Church and the scandal of their subordination in the rise of Christianity. San
Francisco: Harper.
Wikipedia. (2009). Denominations. Retrieved May 10, 2009, from http://www.
wikipedia.com/denominations.
Wink, W. (1984). Naming the powers: The language of power in the New Testament.
Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press.
Wink, W. (1986). Unmasking the powers: The invisible forces that determine human
existence. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.
Wink, W. (1992). Engaging the powers: Discernment and resistance in a world of
domination. Minneapolis: Fortress Augsburg.
Wink, W. (1998). The powers that be. New York: Doubleday.
Wink, W. (2003). Jesus and nonviolence. Minneapolis: Fortress Augsburg.
Chapter 7
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99
100
101
postal system, among other topics. Clearly, the Queen labored in the
delivery of both babies and mail.
As they introduce their subject, each of these memorial writers
presents Victoria as a woman whose domestic life informed her public
existence. Morris (1901) says that no other British sovereign lived so
noble and pure a life and presided over such a grand era of progress
as the royal lady Victoria, whose late decease plunged the nation into
such a depth of grief (p. xi). The regal state and sovereign rank
strike the imagination, Morris adds, but the homely virtues of Victoria, her maternal love, her life-long touching devotion to the memory
of the Prince Consort, the picture of domestic felicity in which she is
represented as the central and venerable gure, appeal to the common
heart (pp. xiixiii). Along the same lines, Rusk (1901) announces Victoria as one whose life and name stood not alone for the sceptered
majesty of a great kingdom and empire, but also for one of the noblest
and purest ideals of womanhood (p. 23). She was a queenly woman
and a womanly queen; had she been less worthy as a woman she
could not have been so great as a queen (p. 41). Argyll (1901), an Englishman, is more specic about both Victorias traits and her accomplishments, but he joins his American contemporaries in linking her
family role with her sovereignty. He concludes his preface as follows:
The English love cleanliness and healthiness, and so did their Queen, in
this a typical Englishwoman. In one word, she did all that woman and
sovereign could do to inuence for good all movements of her time.
Through a moderating, wise, motherly mind, she worked with effect for
her countrymen in their relations with foreign powers, in the bettering of
their own legislation, and for the social life of the whole community. She
made herself understood, beloved, and revered. (p. xii)
102
103
my people like and appreciate and that is home life and simplicity
(Arnstein, 2003, p. 155).8
Throughout her reign, Victoria consistently represented herself visually and verbally as the fulllment of this ideal, ultimately transform
[ing] the gendered body into a national icon (Armstrong, 2001,
p. 522). As an icon, Victoria remained dened by an explicitly familial
version of femininity that corresponded to the ideals of her people.
Female heads of state in the early twenty-rst century can respond to
the hopes of their own constituents by deploying a feminine political
persona that follows Victorias model. The remainder of this chapter
will discuss two examples, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Michelle Bachelet,
as contemporary leaders whose public images are familial at the same
time as they are political, and whose leadership tends to follow a transformational style associated with femininity.
ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF: MA ELLEN
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was sworn in as Liberias president in 2006 after twenty-ve years of war, dictatorship, and coups in that country.
Born in 1938, she is divorced and has four sons and six grandchildren.
Johnson Sirleaf earned an economics degree from the University of Colorado and a Masters degree in Public Administration from Harvard
(Caballero, 2006). She was also an ofcial at Citibank. During the 2005
Liberian presidential runoff election, the Liberian media focused on
Johnson Sirleafs strengths of experience and credentials over the popularity of George Weah, her male opponent (Shaw, 2007). These experiences speak to her qualications as president, but they do not dene
her leadership style or her political persona.
Johnson Sirleaf has been described by her constituents and in the
press with a number of feminine terms, including as a diminutive
grandmother gure who campaigned as someone who would bring
motherly sensitivity and emotion to the presidency (Johnson Sirleaf,
2006), enabling Liberia to heal after twenty-ve years of civil war, dictatorship, and coups. Liberians refer to her as Ma Ellen or just
Ma, a woman who sees Liberia as someone who needs to be taken
care of with the dedication and commitment that a mother takes care
of a sick child (Johnson Sirleaf as cited in Caballero, 2006). Comments
such as this show that Johnson Sirleafs public persona is not simply
feminine but specically maternal.
Johnson Sirleafs own writing speaks to a transformational leadership style in which consensus building or bridging social divisions can
heal the collapse brought on by competition (in the form of sociopolitical rivalries) in Liberia. She sees the historical conict between the
various ethnic factions in Liberia as needing a transformational leader
who will create consensus and a shared identity:
104
105
106
in 2004. Half of her cabinet is women. She has worked to allow prescriptions for contraception and morning-after-pills for all women over
the age of fourteen. Although Chilean society is historically patriarchal,
she is drafting controversial legislation that will mandate gender quotas among the political nominations to the Chilean Congress. She is
working to give Chilean women more protection from abusive husbands. Bachelets achievements are evidence of her success as Chiles
transformational leader and of her ability to use a specically feminine
political persona to advance policy goals, which include gender parity
and the rights of women.
CONCLUSION
This chapter speaks to possibility, not probability or proportion.
Women are still underrepresented in political leadership. This may be
in part attributable to a more male/transformational leadership tradition that views feminine women as being weak. Given such a context,
a woman political leader may become more masculine/transformational in her leadership style, as Margaret Thatcher (Prime Minister of
Britain, 19791990) and Golda Meir (Prime Minister of Israel, 1969
1974) tended to do, or may become a more feminine transformational
leader, who risks being perceived by voters as weak. Currently, at least
two successful women leaders cultivate and maintain feminine political
personae: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Michelle Bachelet. Elected after
long histories of political unrest and violence in their respective countries, both women are qualied for the positions that they hold, and
both are successfully using feminine transformational leadership styles
in conjunction with a feminine political persona.
Queen Victoria had no choice but to adopt a transformational style
of leadership to some extent, simply because as the titular head of a
parliamentary monarchy, her direct role in government was constitutionally limited.9 She relied on personal relationships with her prime
ministers and others in parliament to give her preferences a political
life. As Arnstein (2003) explains, her persuasion was often effective,
with the result that she had a greater inuence in the governance of
Britain and the Empire than has sometimes been assumed. The emphasis that Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Michelle Bachelet have placed on
social healing and the repair of damage to the body politic suggests
that they too have found that a transformational style enables them to
be effective leaders, despite the very substantial differences between
their contemporary contexts and that of their nineteenth-century predecessor.
Moreover, as our discussion has shown, these three leaders deployment of a transformational style is supported, and perhaps even made
possible, by their common emphasis on the sort of familial femininity
107
NOTES
1. Arnsteins (2003) comment is to the point: Except for the time of Princess
Charlottes courtship and marriage, for half a century the royal family had
been identied with madness, with eccentricity, with proigacy, and with old
age (p. 33).
2. Casteras (1997) analyzes images of Victoria as a girl and young woman to
show that she was a symbolic child as well as a mother gure (p. 183).
For further discussion of the conict between Victorias marital role and her
obligation to the state, see Armstrong (2001, pp. 498500), Casteras (1997, p.
192), Houston (1997, pp. 172176), Plunkett (2003, p. 125), and Thompson
(1990, p. 143144). Munichs argument that the ideology of Victorian femininity constantly disrupts the discourse of the monarchical body (p. 47) is especially relevant in this respect, as is much of the argument offered by Munich in
Queen Victorias Secrets (1996).
3. Along the same lines, Watson (1997) notes that Elizabeth I was culpably
unwomanly because . . . she had retained absolute executive authority (p. 82).
Langland (1997) also offers a productive comparison of Victoria and Elizabeth I
(pp. 2729).
4. There were more than a dozen of these published 1901 and 1902.
5. A productive comparison might be made between this portrait and the
three-dimensional efgy of Victoria created for her tomb just after she was
widowed in 1861. In this recumbent efgy (an image of which is reproduced in
Arnsteins book), she is very clearly crowned, and her only accessory is a scepter. Although a veil descends from her crown, it is of a heavy material, not the
light fabric associated with a bridal veil, and there are no owers in evidence.
The four decades that intervened between the sculpting of this efgy and the
Queens death apparently allowed for a very different approach to the representation of the dead monarch.
108
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Chapter 8
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113
their heads. These strategic maps are often in conict with the actual
actions of an individual. In other words, people say one thing and do
another. While on occasion there is deliberate hypocrisy in organizations, very often people and organizations are completely unaware that
they are saying one thing and doing another. The organizational drift
(Coates, 2009) or divergence from espoused values and action can be a
mild drift that corrects itself, but at other times it moves away more
strongly leading to goal distortion or goal neglect (Gouldner, 1959).
Goal distortion can lead to the greater pathology of goal displacement
when parts of the strategic map dissociate from, and lack relationship
to, what actually happens in practice (Merton, 1957)7 (see Figure 8.1).
In such cases, the organization could appear to be hypocritical in the
eyes of many of its constituents, when in fact, the organization is
adapting to survive in an uncertain environment. The idea that the organization is being hypocritical is exacerbated over time, when
espoused values continue to be pronounced by the leadership, despite
evidence to the contrary from the eld.
Goal drift to distortion and displacement often comes about through
the unintentional workings of street-level bureaucrats who make
amendments to policy guidelines while operating in the eld (Lipsky,
1980).8 These come about primarily due to environmental imperatives.
If these policy distortions are either not reversed to be congruent
with policy, or if the policy does not recognize the need to adapt to
environmental conditions, then organizational truth-telling becomes
compromised. It is the job of leadership to dene strategy, provide
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115
recognizing women in combat would be to provide appropriate training for women who might nd themselves in combat roles, as did the
women in the documentary lm Lioness. If one is not supposed to
be in combat, there is less training provided. Finally, women in combat
may, and often do, require posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) therapy. However, as the true case of Shannon Morgan who returned with
PTSD from Iraq after being caught in a reght showed in the lm the
therapists did not have the context to help her. Again, this is an issue
of women being invisible.
HISTORY AND LAW
While one may think that women in uniform is a new phenomenon
arising out the Womens Armed Forces Integration Act of 1948,12 and
other civil rights legislation in the twentieth century, and as Mitchell
(1998) asserts political correctness put women in the military
(p. 341),13 in reality, women have served in the military since the Revolutionary War (Lindon, 2008) in positions such as laundry services,
seamstresses, cooks and water bearers, and even spies. It is known that
hundreds of women disguised themselves as men in order to ght
(Willens, 1996) were wounded in battle alongside men. The most wellknown case is that of Deborah Sampson, who took the name of Robert
Surtlief (McSally, 2007). Sampson, it is said, herself cut out a musketball from her thigh rather than go to a doctor and thus reveal her gender. Another woman, Margaret Corbin, took up her slain husbands
position in the artillery after he died at Fort Washington. Corbin was
later wounded herself, and when her gender was discovered she was
discharged (McSally, 2007). Another famous case was that of Lyons
Wakemand, alias Sarah Wakeman, who served in the Civil War. Thus,
while women served in the military, it often was a service provided in
hiding, as the battleeld was seen as a male-centric workplace. Society
was then not able to stomach the very idea of women serving in the
military, getting wounded and killed. Today, even though it is
acknowledged that the service of women is essential to getting the job
done in the military, there are still lingering cultural barriers thrown
up institutionally. For example, Michele Putko (2008) observed that at
the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and other military institutions, there is a distinct combat arms supremacy attitude. Female
cadets at West Point, noted Putko, are often advised by mentors to
join the Military Police Corps which is the closest branch to Infantry
that is open to women. At the same time, there is overt pressure on
males to join combat arms elds, and it is mandatory at West Point
that at least 80 percent do so (Putko, 2008).
In 1973 when Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird made the announcement of the end of the conscription (the draft), and the creation of an
116
117
118
119
120
2. Format: The survey was a census survey, but it was anonymous and voluntary. The survey consisted of 17 questions, with responses emplaced
within a Likert-type scale.
3. Population: N 300
4. Response Rate/Breakdown: A total of 300 students were surveyed with
a 78 percent response rate. The breakdown by service was as follows:
Army 76 percent; Air Force 8 percent; Marine Corps 6 percent;
Navy 5 percent; Coast Guard 1 percent, and Department of State
1 percent. Males 89 percent and Females 11 percent.
5. Main Outcome Measures: The survey showed that the Army does not
follow the ground combat exclusion policy, and that female soldiers are
engaged in ground combat given the asymmetric nature of the war in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
6. Individual Outcomes, Based on Particular Questions:
.
7. Conclusions of the Study: The study concluded that DoD should consider a revision of the female combat exclusion policy to reect a more
realistic view of the current asymmetric nature of warfare and the combat roles female soldiers are currently engaged in (USAWC, 2006).
CONCLUSION
As of September 30, 2008, DoD Manpower Research Statistics, 197,765
women serve on active duty, 163,414 are enlisted personnel, and 34,351
are ofcers. Since the September 11, 2001, attack on America, a total of 103
121
women deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait have lost their lives
(Center for Military Readiness, 2009).24 Most of the soldiers serving in the
Middle East and Afghanistan are in harms way, whether they serve in
artillery, infantry, or armor or not. It is time to give them credit for doing
so, instead of letting their service to the nation y below the radar. Film
Directors Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers (2008) did just this in their
award-winning documentary lm, Lioness: There for the Action, Missing
from History. The lm documents the soldierly solidarity, faith, and duty
of ve of the earliest lionesses who wound up in active ghts in erce
neighborhood conicts in Iraq. Trying to restrict women from the risks of
combat is a awed position, as women already participate in the dangers
of war. Thus, the exclusion of women from combat policy should be
rescinded as voiced by Rep. Sandlin in a March 2009 showing of Lioness.
Is national security being undermined by having women in combat
positions? The positions held against women in combat do make a persuasive arguments, and at the same time evidence from the eld show
that women have served with honor, valor and dedication on the front
lines on a voluntary basis, as consistent with the Soldiers Creed that
each of them took as recruits: I stand ready to deploy, engage and
destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.
This statement represents a key espoused value of the militaryservice
in combat, regardless of gender. Because of the attention this issue has
received, not changing espoused values to match enacted values might
be seen as organizational hypocrisy on the part of the DoD. It is time
to un-gender combat roles to reect reality, and thereby and move the
sacrices and valor of women from the place of invisibility to visibility.
In conclusion, some general recommendations can be extrapolated from
this examination of the issue:
. Recognize that strategy (espoused values) and practice (enacted values)
do drift apart as a natural consequence of multivariate intervening factors,
and that such has happened with respect to women in combat. Realize
that incongruence between espoused and enacted values undermine
organizational image, diminish trust among stakeholders and created confusions and contradictions that can degenerate into divisive rhetoric and
shadow boxing.
. Re-examine and Re-align organizational espoused values with enacted experience on a constant basis.
. Rescind the collocation and ground combat exclusion policy to eliminate
double standards, and adopt a gender-neutral policy in its place.
NOTES
1. Memorandum from Secretary of Defense Les Aspin to Armed Service
Secretaries, January 13, 1994, entitled, Direct Ground Combat Denition and
Assignment Rule.
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123
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Chapter 9
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some scholarship from queer and cultural studies into this chapter, the
bulk of the resources cited have been derived from psychological books
and journals.
UNDERSTANDING STIGMA
This chapter aims to discuss stigma against women who engage in
same-sex sexual practices or adopt a lesbian identity. Stigma is a
powerful tool of oppression throughout the world, which can be used
in many ways, for many reasons, and by many different groups. It is
important to rst identify what stigma is, where it comes from, and
what purpose it may serve in a given society. A common linguistic
mistake to make in English is to use the terms stigma, stereotype, prejudice, and discrimination interchangeably. While these terms do bear
some relationship to one another, they actually all represent somewhat
different constructs.
Stigma
Stigma refers to the devaluation of individuals within a group based
on some discernable characteristic or mark. In order for stigma to exist,
two fundamental elements must be present: there must be some distinguishing feature that is recognizable and serves as a delimiter of difference, and some devaluation of the individual (Dovidio, Major, &
Crocker, 2000). Devaluation of stigmatized individuals refers to the
beliefs that these persons are less than human, spoiled, defective, or
inferior. Goffman (1963) hypothesized that stigmas are attached to
three different types of conditions: physical deformities, tribal identities (race, religion, nationality, or sex), and blemishes of character
or weak will (imprisonment, unnatural passions, unemployment,
mental health problems). Lesbianism or same-sex sexuality would fall
under the nal category of weak will, as it has been viewed by many
as both an unnatural passion and a mental health problem, in spite
of the fact that the American Psychological Association has not considered it such in over 36 years.
Recently, it has been argued that the two most important features of
stigma are how visible or concealable they are and their perceived controllability (Dovidio et al., 2000). It appears that if one can hide their
stigmatized characteristic or if they cannot be blamed for having it,
they will be allowed to pass. This brings to light the two-sided nature of stigma. Stigmatization is not a one-way process, and the stigmatized are not simply helpless, passive objects upon which stigma is
placed. The reaction of the stigmatized is integral to the process of stigmatization (Goffman, 1963). Stigmatized individuals may shun their
stigma, nding it ludicrous or misplaced, thereby rendering it less
127
effective. They may also accept the stigma, internalize it, or focus heavily on it, increasing its power to harm. Internalization of the stigma
against lesbians by lesbians is commonly referred to as internalized
homonegativity and will be discussed in a later section.
Judging from the variety of conditions outlined earlier, it appears
obvious that most people will fall into at least one stigmatized group
at some point in their lives. Yet stigma persists in almost all societies
possibly because they may serve to enhance the lives of stigmatizers in
a number of ways (Dovidio et al., 2000). Stigmatizing others can raise
ones own self-esteem, relieve anxiety, and create a perception of control. In addition, stigmatization can also serve to reinforce a cultures
norms. We will explore the various norms and institutions within different cultures that contribute to the stigmatization of lesbians and
women who engage in same-sex sexual behavior.
Prejudice
Prejudice can be dened as an irrational and rigid belief about a
group of people, which can be either positive or negative. For example,
one can have a positive prejudice toward the group she considers herself a part of and a negative prejudice toward all members of another
group. Unlike stigma, prejudice can extend to any type of behavior or
identity and is not conned to social deviance. However, prejudice and
stigma are strongly linked to one another and share a great deal of
overlap in terms of application and measurement (Phelan, Link, &
Dovidio, 2008). Prejudice tends to be viewed as an attitude toward a
specic group of people. General acceptance for all heterosexuals and a
disdain for lesbians would be an example of such a prejudicial attitude.
People with prejudicial attitudes may ignore or fail to notice individual
differences between members of a group. Someone who holds a prejudicial attitude toward lesbians, for example, may view a shy, passive
woman who identies as lesbian, as not being a real lesbian. This
would be an example of a stereotype that all lesbians are aggressive
and pushy.
Stereotyping
Stereotyping is a cognitive process by which one attributes certain
characteristics to certain groups of people. According to Allport (1954),
the vast diversity and complexity of the world around us makes it
impossible to hold accurate concepts of everything in existence. While
human beings need some sense of understanding to function in the
world, complete understanding of everything is impossible. Therefore,
we tend to create some well-formed categories consisting of more complex, comprehensive understandings and other malformed categories
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SOURCES OF STIGMA
Religion
In many countries, some religious groups provide a great deal of
fuel for the stigma against lesbians and women who engage in samesex sexual behavior (Miracle, Miracle, & Baumeister, 2003). While
same-sex sexual behavior is generally viewed as unnatural and intolerable by most religions, there are a few exceptions in the United States
where it is accepted, even blessed, according to the San Francisco
Chronicle (as cited in Miracle, et al., 2003). However, the report appears
bleak for most other religions, with homosexual acts being overwhelmingly condemned by virtually all other major religious institutions,
such as Catholicism, Mainstream Christianity, Mormonism, Muslimism,
and Orthodox and Conservative Judaism. In spite of reported ambiguity in the Quaran regarding the morality of homosexuality, 26
Muslim countries condemn homosexual acts, and 7 of them do so with
the threat of the death penalty (Helie, 2004). This widespread disdain
for homosexual identities and behaviors has been linked to Christian
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and Islamic proselytizing throughout the world over the course of time
and the subsequent dissemination of repressive beliefs about sexuality
in general (Miracle et al., 2003). The far-ung disapproval and even
contempt expressed by many religious organizations has become a
painful source of stigma against lesbians and has often isolated them
from a powerful source of support and happiness: religion (Ferriss,
2002; Yakushko, 2005). In Yakushkos (2005) study of 82 lesbian, gay,
and bisexual (LGB) participants, those who attended churches they
perceived as conservative reported greater stress surrounding their
LGB identities and lower self-esteem than those attending churches
that fully accepted their LGB identity. The often painful experience
of being shunned by these hegemonic institutions can be heard in the
voice of a 26-year-old Kenyan woman:
I am Christian by religion and this has been a great challenge for me. All
my family have entered religion very deeply despite my father being initially Hindu, so I choose to ignore religion and follow what my heart
desires. I have always believed that if one has love in ones heart that is
what matters. I stopped going to church because I used to leave feeling
like a sinner. (Baraka & Morgan, 2005, p. 39)
Westernization
In some non-Western parts of the world, same-sex sexuality is considered a perversion sent from Western countries. Because Western
countries are viewed as being accepting of homosexuality (however
inaccurate this perception may be), same-sex sexual practices are often
viewed as being another grand overindulgence of the decadent West.
This means that oftentimes same-sex sexuality will be stigmatized as a
betrayal of ones nation or heritage (Blackwood & Wieringa, 1999). Little is known about the effects of this specic stigma on lesbians in
these areas, but some information has been garnered from interviews
and other research. One example is that of reactions to a hate-lled
anti-gay speech made by Zimbabwean president Mugabe at the Zimbabwean International Book Fair in 1995. In addition to a number of
cruel, scathing comments made in this speech about the LGB community, Mugabe articulated his sentiment that same-sex sexual behavior is
the sole purveyance of Americans and that such ways are stupid and
foolish (Aarmo, 1999). While many members of the lesbian community reported being scared and forced into hiding, some lesbians in
attendance at the book fair stated that they had felt free and nally
able to express themselves (Aarmo, 1999).
A recent example of same-sex sexuality being viewed as the inuence of other nations can be intuited from statements made by the
Ethics Minister of Uganda. The United Nations (UN) has recently been
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Expected Discrimination
The experience of discrimination may lead those who are discriminated against to come to expect discrimination from others. The belief
that one will come to experience prejudice or discrimination has been
referred to as stigma consciousness (Pinel, 1999). In Pinels work, lesbians and gay men high in stigma consciousness were more likely to
have greater self-consciousness and to worry about how others viewed
them. Other studies have linked stigma consciousness to a variety of
negative outcomes. One study found that stigma consciousness is
related to internalized homophobia, physical complaints, lesbianrelated stress (stress perceived to be brought on specically because of
lesbian identity), negative mood, and intrusive thoughts (Lewis, Derlega, Clarke, & Kuang, 2006).
Internalized Homonegativity
The stigma attached to homosexuality is often consciously or unconsciously adopted by the stigmatized themselves. When LGB people
internalize the stigmas and negative attitudes held by society about
their behaviors and identities, it is referred to as internalized homonegativity, internalized homophobia, or internalized heterosexism. The
experience of internalized homonegativity has been associated with a
greater risk for a number of mental and physical health problems. In a
sample of 157 U.S. lesbians, researchers found that internalized homonegativity was correlated with a number of mental health problems. In
this study, which developed a separate scale for lesbian internalized
homonegativity (LIH), LIH was highly correlated with lower selfesteem, depression, lower satisfaction with social support, and a higher
number of somatic complaints (Szymanski, Chung, & Balsam, 2001).
Internalized homonegativity has also been correlated with a number of
self-destructive behaviors in lesbians, including suicide, self-mutilation,
risky sexual behaviors, and alcoholism (Williamson, 2000). These studies lead us to believe that internalized homonegativity has the potential
to be a extremely destructive force in the lives of some lesbians and
most likely occurs because of the stigma attached to same-sex practice.
The negative effects of internalized homonegativity can also carry
over into lesbian relationships. Holding negative beliefs about ones own
sexuality may cause some LGB individuals to feel less satised or positive about their romantic relationships. LIH has been found to be associated with a decrease in satisfaction with romantic relationships and
a decrease in attraction toward ones partner (Mohr & Daly, 2008). In
a qualitative study of 40 same-sex couples, half of which were female, a
little less than half of the couples reported themes of internalized homonegativity toward themselves or their relationships (Rostosky, Riggle,
Gray, and Hatton, 2007). One in four of couples in this study articulated
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low expectations for the durability of their relationship. One couple cited
the lack of social support around them stating that this factor may cause
them to feel that the relationship was bound for failure (Rostosky et al.,
2007). It seems logical that in a society where there is not only little support for your relationship, but outright hostility toward it, the possibility
of a break up may seem more likely.
Internalized homonegativity has also been highly correlated with
intimate partner violence among lesbian couples (Balsam & Syzmanski,
2005). It is believed that individuals that hold negative beliefs about
homosexuals are more likely to act violently toward them. This can
unfortunately mean that LGB persons high in internalized homonegativity are more likely to act violently toward members of their own
community, including their partners (Balsam & Syzmanski, 2005). Intimate partner violence may be yet another devastating force threatening
the health and safety of lesbians and their romantic relationships.
The experience of internalized homonegativity may not be isolated
to individualistic, Western cultures. It cannot be known at this time
whether lesbians or women who engage in same-sex sexual behaviors
in collectivistic cultures experience internalized homophobia because
there is a paucity of literature or research on this subject. There is some
evidence that these processes may be present in the Damara community of Namibia, as might be intuited by some excerpts from interviews
conducted with women who have sex with women there:
She hated me, sometimes the same kind hate each other. Once she called me
and beat me up in her classroom, saying What kind of child is this that is
acting like a boy?. . . This teacher, she became the school principal there and
is now together with another sister. (Khaxas & Wieringa, 2005, p. 137)
She told me about caressing and kissing and she told me that she felt that
she was my girlfriend and that I was her man, but because of youthful
shame I did not say something . . . When I got home I thought, to do this in
the Bible schoolyard I have done a big sin. (Khaxas & Wieringa, 2005, p. 136)
CONSEQUENCES OF STIGMA
Stigma and discrimination impact lesbian and bisexual women in a
number of ways. In the next section of this chapter we will discuss the
legal, nancial, social, and health impacts for lesbian and bisexual women.
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and their religious background. Bryant and Demian, (1994) found that
out of 12 possible sources of support, sexual minority individuals rated
church as the least supportive and the most hostile. In a qualitative
study of 14 same-sex couples and their lived experiences with religion,
Rostosky, Riggle, Brodnicki, and Olson (2008) concluded that heavy
reliance on social support from family and religious communities may
exacerbate minority stress in ethnic minority and religious minority
GLB individuals who want to integrate their religious and same-sex
relational values.
Lesbian women may also feel socially isolated at places of employment. In most states in the United States, lesbian and bisexual women
can still be red for their identity and as a result, may hide their identity, thus isolating themselves. This experience is epitomized in the
U.S. militarys Dont Ask, Dont Tell policy, which forces U. S. service members to silence themselves, forgo social support for their identity and the possibility of building community. The social costs to
lesbian and bisexual women are often innumerable.
Mental and Physical Health
Sexual minority women have higher rates of a number of physical
health and mental health concerns. Actual and perceived discrimination has been found to account for a large proportion of the disparity
(Mays & Cochran, 2001). We will rst describe several of the barriers
to health prevention and care services. Next we will discuss the known
mental health and physical health disparities.
History of the Study of Lesbian Health Disparities
The burgeoning gay rights movement in the United States in the
1960s and 1970s began to take notice of the existence of health disparities for sexual minority women and men. As a result, a number of
community-based health centers began to emerge to provide sensitive
care to the sexual minority population (Mayer et al., 2008). At the same
time, a number of clinicians and doctors began to recognize that their
sexual minority patients had unique needs because of the hostile and
homophobic environment in which they live. In 1973, the American
Psychiatric Association recognized that homosexuality was not a psychiatric illness and removed the diagnosis from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). However, removal from the manual did not
eliminate the prejudice and sometimes toxic environments in which
sexual minority individuals live.
The Institute of Medicine in 1999 issued a call for more populationbased research to understand the clinical problems in the lesbian community. Community groups lobbied hard to have the government
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1996). In fact, Cochran (2001) noted that several researchers have identied attitudinal and behavioral responses on the part of providers to
disclosure by sexual minority clients. For example, a practitioner may
focus too much or too little on sexual orientation in therapy (MacEwan,
1994), avoid topics that make him/her uncomfortable (Hardman, 1997),
and be unable to recall information that the client provided (Gelso, Fassinger, Gomez, & Latts, 1995). All of these consequences of homonegativity are thought to result in a lower quality of care (Garnets,
Hancock, Cochran, Goodchilds, & Peplau, 1991). One consequence of
lesbian and bisexual women having physicians that lack knowledge
and sensitivity is lower satisfaction with source of health care (Diamant
et al., 2000). This lower satisfaction may in turn lead to sexual minority
women choosing to delay or avoid health care.
The third barrier is more structural and legal in nature than the rst
two. Cochran and colleagues (2001) found that compared to similarly
matched women, lesbians were less likely to have health insurance
than their heterosexual counterparts. Many sexual minority women do
not have access to quality health care because they are denied insurance benets through a partners employment. Even if an employer
allows a same-sex partner to be insured, the federal government then
taxes the benet as income, thus costing the couple valuable resources and possible forcing some people to forego coverage. In a
study utilizing the federal governments population survey, Ash and
Badgett (2006) found that 18 percent of individuals in same-sex romantic relationships lacked health care compared to 11 percent of married
heterosexual individuals. Furthermore, even when a partner has insurance, the other partner in a same-sex relationship is still uninsured 15
percent of the time, compared to 4 percent of married partners. In
other words, lesbian and bisexual women are less likely to be insured
than their heterosexual counterparts. As a result, lesbian and bisexual
women are much more likely to forego health services because of nancial reasons (Diamant et al., 2000). This translates into less preventative care and a more likely chance that acute issues become chronic.
In addition, because many states to not recognize same-sex relationships with the same legal standing as marriage, partners are often not
allowed visiting rights and decision-making powers, which can impede
care provided. This varies greatly state by state, but most states do not
have any legal protection for same-sex couples. In the United States,
only four states allow same-sex marriages (with another 10 having
some form of legal protection). Around the world, only seven countries
perform same-sex marriages, with another four recognizing same-sex
marriages performed elsewhere. Women who are in relationships with
other women are often denied the legal protections that are granted to
heterosexual relationships. Some of these legal protections aid in
receiving quality and culturally sensitive health care.
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Finally, Mayer et al. (2008) identied the lack of LGBT-specic prevention services as a barrier to quality health care. There is a dearth of
services that deal with the effects of a stigmatizing society. These
include a lack of services that target negative health behaviors and the
increased prevalence of mental and physical health issues in the LGBT
community.
In summary, because of the stigma of a sexual minority status, many
barriers exist to receiving timely and adequate healthcare. This failure
to receive timely and adequate healthcare may translate into greater
mental and physical health disparities between heterosexual and lesbian/bisexual women. In the following section, the research on existing
health disparities is described.
Mental Health Disparities
Early work by Evelyn Hooker in the 1950s with small community
samples found no differences in the psychological adjustment of sexual
minority individuals and heterosexuals (Hooker, 1993). This work was
critical to the removal of homosexuality as a psychiatric diagnosis
(Cochran, 2001). However, in the years since Hookers important work,
large representative samples have revealed that lesbians and gay men
have a higher prevalence rate of certain mental health disorders. In
particular, sexual minority individuals appear especially susceptible to
the disorders that are most sensitive to minority stress (Cochran, 2001).
These include depression, anxiety, and substance abuse disorders
(Cochran, Sullivan, & Mays, 2003).
A number of large-scale, nationally representative samples have
found that lesbian and bisexual women have higher rates of certain psychiatric syndromes than heterosexual women (e.g., Cochran & Mays,
2000; Gilman, Cochran, & Mays, 2001; Sandfort, de Graaf, Bijl, & Schnabel, 2001). Furthermore, lesbian women were more likely than heterosexual women to have used mental health services in the prior year
(Cochran, 2001; Cochran et al., 2003). In a large survey of women in Los
Angeles County, Diamant and Wold (2003) found that lesbians reported
more poor mental health days when compared to heterosexual women.
A number of studies have used population-based surveys to extrapolate
rates of disorders among lesbian and bisexual women. The evidence is
quite strong that sexual minority women experience higher rates of certain disorders as a result of prejudice and stigma in society.
Depression and Anxiety Disorders
In a nationally representative sample of middle-aged adults in the
contiguous United States, lesbian and bisexual women reported higher
prevalence of anxiety disorder and greater likelihood of having a second
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to past reports, the lesbian women in this sample appeared to participate in physical activity at about the same rate as the national sample
of women. In fact, lesbian women were slightly more likely than other
women to report vigorous activity. Additional research is needed to
sort out the research on weight and exercise. Despite an increased need
for health screening and preventative services, research indicates that
lesbian and bisexual women may fail to obtain proper care.
As discussed earlier, whether for fear of discrimination from a doctor, a lack of health insurance, or a misunderstanding of the risks, lesbian and bisexual women often are found to have poorer rates of
preventative health screening compared to heterosexual women. Two
large studies have found that lesbian women were less likely to have
had a papanicolaou (pap) test in the past two years compared to heterosexual women (Aaron et al., 2001). Failure to see gynecologists and
have recommended examinations is of particular alarm because many
lesbian women do not have a history of oral contraceptives, pregnancy,
and breastfeeding, all of which are protective factors for ovarian and
other cancers (American Cancer Society, n.d.).
The combination of risky behaviors and a failure to obtain preventative health screenings may account for some of the physical health disparities that are discussed in the next sections.
OUTCOMES
Although the evidence is mixed, a number of studies have found
that lesbian and bisexual women have higher incidence of a number of
physical health outcomes. A few of the studies are reviewed below.
In one study of 4,023 women who participated in the Los Angeles
County Health Survey, it was found that lesbian and bisexual women
had a higher rate of being diagnosed with heart disease. Importantly,
this nding persisted even when controlling for age, race, education,
income, health insurance, tobacco use, and obesity (Diamant & World,
2003). Furthermore controlling for those same variables, bisexual
women also reported more poor physical health days compared to
the heterosexual sample.
In another large-scale study that included heterosexual, lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual-with-homosexual-experience women, several physical health differences emerged (Cochran & Mays, 2007). For example,
bisexual women reported a greater number of health conditions than heterosexual women. These health conditions included digestive complaints,
back problems, and chronic fatigue syndrome. Heterosexual women with
homosexual experiences reported more back problems and asthma than
other heterosexual women. And nally, lesbian women reported having
arthritis more than other heterosexual women. However, most of these
health disparities became nonsignicant once the researcher factored in
142
psychological distress. The root of the problem may lie in the experience
of minority stress that contributes to psychological distress. As discussed
earlier, both lesbian women and bisexual women report higher levels of
psychological distress than heterosexual women.
Drawing from psychological research on women who identify as lesbian or bisexual, it is clear that the impact of stigma is far-reaching.
Stigma effects sexual minority women in a number of ways including
in legal domains, in terms of economic resources, family and friend
relationships, and in terms of health and well-being. More research is
needed to understand how the consequences of stigma and minority
stress are experienced around the world. The next section discusses
ways in which lesbian and bisexual women may cope with stigma and
minority stress.
COPING
The experience of minority stress may lead lesbians and women
who engage in same-sex sexual behavior to adapt coping strategies to
deal with the stressors they experience. Considering the weight of the
research we have presented up until this time, the outlook may seem
bleak for members of the LGB community. However, many of the individuals within these communities do not express high levels of the
negative outcomes associated with stigma and minority stress (Herek &
Garnets, 2007). Numerous means of coping with minority stress have
been seen in gay, lesbian and bisexual populations in the United States,
which may serve as a buffer against some of the aforementioned negative outcomes.
Recently, various anti-gay legislative efforts in individual states within
the United States have provided researchers with the opportunity to
examine the coping skills employed by sexual minority persons. At the
forefront of this research is the work performed by Russell (2003) investigating responses to an amendment to the Colorado State Constitution
stripping sexual minority persons of protections as minorities, including
nondiscrimination. This amendment was designed to remove sexual
minorities from protected status and make it illegal for them to le complaints based on discriminatory treatment as minority persons. A study
of LGB people in Colorado revealed that this anti-gay campaign was
very stressful for many participants. The coping skills employed by
these participants fell neatly into 5 categories: movement perspective,
confronting internalized homonegativity, expression of affect, connecting
to community, and successful witnessing (Russell, 2003).
Taking a movement perspective entails stepping back from an antigay experience and seeing it as a small part of a larger picture, progressing toward optimal changes (Russell, 2003). In other words, individuals taking a movement perspective may not focus on a specic
143
incident such as being the victim of a derogatory slur, but may instead
consider it to be a lingering fragment of a gradually dissolving heterosexist society. This way of thinking could be very helpful to persons
experiencing set backs such as the passage of anti-gay legislation. The
movement perspective can be seen in statements such as the following:
I am 100 percent opposed to Amendment 2 (like I really need to say that)
but I think that its doing good for the gay/lesbian/bisexual community
in the long run. People are now being forced to deal with something
theyd rather ignore. Theyre being educated and taught that there is
more to homosexuality that perverted sex. This will eventually be seen
as the catalyst for the successful civil rights movement of the 90s.
(Russell, 2000, p. 198).
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anti-gay actions. In addition to this, interaction with the LGB community may also serve as a way to battle the stress of anti-gay actions.
The community can be both a source of information about being LGB
and a forum for activism, both of which may help buffer stress (Herek &
Garnets, 2007; Russell, 2003). Participation in the community may foster a collective identity because it expands an individuals resources to
the level of the entire group (Herek & Garnets, 2007). As a part of this
community, individuals have a new set of norms with which to compare themselves against, norms which are more accepting of their sexuality or sexual identity than those of the mainstream, heterosexual
community (Meyer, 2003). Through the lesbian community, lesbians
can engage in fruitful social comparison outside of mainstream heterosexual norms, which can lead to the amelioration of the stress that feeling shunned or outcast by the mainstream community can create
(Meyer, 2003).
While there may be many obstacles for lesbians and women who
engage in same-sex sexual practices around the world, human beings
are also a very adaptive species and may sometimes be able to combat
these negative inuences with the use of coping strategies. The formation of communities of like-minded women and individual-level coping
strategies may be powerful sources of strength and resilience in the
face of great disparity for women engaging in same-sex sexual practices and identities throughout the world.
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Chapter 10
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SUMMARY
Rehabilitation Psychologists Treating Abused
Women with Disabilities
Rehabilitation psychologists have a responsibility to determine
whether a Woman with Disabilities is in danger of being abused and
should explore the nature and extent of any discovered or suspected
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Chapter 11
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section will also identify major gaps in our knowledge and suggest
how feminist theory may guide future research.
HISTORY OF EATING DISORDERS AND BODY IMAGE
Life-threatening food refusal among Western women has been
described for several hundred years. Before the nineteenth century,
published descriptions of food refusal usually occurred in a religious
context (e.g., Bynum, 1987). Although it was described as a psychiatric
syndrome in the 1870s, it was considered extremely rare for much of
the following century. In his clinical training in the 1960s the second
author can recall a supervisor commenting that he had seen only two
cases of anorexia nervosa in over 30 years of clinical practice. Similar
experiences have been reported by many mental health practitioners
trained before the mid-1970s (e.g., Gordon, 2000).
Public and professional interest in anorexia nervosa increased
greatly in the late 1970s and 1980s. In 1983, the tragic death of the
gifted popular singer Karen Carpenter focused both media and professional attention on anorexia nervosa and the previously almost
unknown disorder of bulimia. In the early 1990s, Princess Dianas public acknowledgment of her long struggle with bulimia focused public
attention on a disorder that by then approached epidemic proportions
among young women in the United States and United Kingdom. By
the 1990s, it was generally recognized that dissatisfaction with the
appearance of ones body was an essential precursor to eating disorders (Polivy & Herman, 2002). (For a history of anorexia nervosa and
other eating disorders, see Brumberg, 1988.)
EATING DISORDERS AND BODY DISSATISFACTION
AS CULTURE-LIMITED PHENOMENA
For many years, body dissatisfaction, particularly weight dissatisfaction, excessive dieting, and life-threatening eating disorders, were thought
to be culture- and social class-limited phenomena that occurred primarily
or exclusively among afuent white women in English-speaking Western
countries (Nasser, 1997; Prince, 1983). Two seemingly compelling sources
supported this view.
First, over a century of reports by mental health practitioners, and
more recent reports by researchers, indicated that eating disorders are
much more common among upper class white women than women
from lower classes or ethnic minorities (Brumberg, 1988).2
Second, a large anthropological literature demonstrated that the majority of human societies associated slender womens bodies with illness,
poverty, and diminished fecundity (Brown & Konner, 1987; Cassidy,
1991). Conversely, almost 80 percent of societies associate moderate to
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developing world (e.g., Bordo, 1993; Jeffreys, 2005; Wolf, 1991). For
recent reviews of televisions role in body dissatisfaction and disordered eating, see Gilbert, Keery, and Thompson (2005); Ward and Harrison (2005); and Cafri, Yamamiya, Brannick, and Thompson (2005).
The work of Becker, Burwell, Herzog, Hamburg, and Gilman (2002)
is a particularly dramatic example of the inuence of Western television in the developing world. In their frequently cited study, Becker
and her associates found that the introduction of Western television to
the traditional culture of Fiji was quickly followed by increased body
dissatisfaction, dieting, and behaviors associated with disordered eating (e.g., self-induced vomiting) among young women.
Although most research and theoretical discussions emphasize the
role of television and, to a lesser extent motion pictures, the print media,
particularly magazines, are also an important inuence. Studies have
shown that exposure to thin models in popular womens magazines contributes to body dissatisfaction; decreases self-esteem and condence;
and produces negative feelings of guilt, anxiety, shame, and depression
(Pinhas, Toner, Ali, Garnkel, & Stuckless, 1999; Tiggemann & McGill,
2004). Similarly, exposure to thin models in magazines has been linked
to eating disorder symptomatology in both adolescent girls and adult
women (e.g., Harrison, 2000; Pinhas et al., 1999; Vaughan & Fouts, 2003).
In the last 10 years pro-anorexia Web sites and social networking sites
have appeared that encourage young women to pursue extremely thin
bodies through severe dieting, vomiting, and other extreme weight-loss
techniques (Morris, Boydell, Pinhas, & Katzman, 2006). Although scholarly research on the inuence of these sites is still very limited, a recent
study found that exposure to these sites increased body dissatisfaction
among college women (Bardone-Cone & Cass, 2007).
THEORETICAL MODELS OF BODY DISSATISFACTION
The two most common theoretical approaches to the understanding
of body dissatisfaction are sociocultural theory and feminist theory.
The inuence of Western media plays a crucial role in both theoretical
models.
Sociocultural Theory
This theory seeks to understand body dissatisfaction as a consequence of social and cultural variables (Thompson et al., 1999). Most
of the research based on sociocultural theory has focused on the role
of the thin body ideal and the unrelenting pressure from media,
peers, and parents to attain it. Although it is clear that Western media
is a major vector in transmitting the thin body ideal to non-Western
culture, it is also clear that many other factors are involved (e.g.,
Anderson-Fye, 2003, 2004; Anderson-Fye & Becker, 2004). Feminist
167
theory suggests that rapid social change may be one of the important
additional factors.
Feminist Theory
This theory, which may be viewed as an expanded form of sociocultural theory, also recognizes the important role of the unrealistic body
ideals portrayed in the media. However, feminist theory goes an
important step further: it emphasizes and describes the social and
political purposes served by these body ideals. According to theorists
such as Bordo (1993), Dworkin (1974), and Faludi (1991), the purpose
of unrealistic appearance standards is to perpetuate gender inequality.
This goal is pursued through two mechanisms. First, attention is
diverted from womens competencies and accomplishments; instead it
is focused on supercial aspects of their appearance. Second, womens
emotional and nancial resources are diminished and their selfcondence is undermined by expensive, exhausting, and usually futile
attempts to conform to unrealistic appearance standards. For a review
of these theories, see Jeffreys (2005). Wolf (1991), in describing beauty
standards as a backlash against American womens strivings for gender
equality, captured a central feminist argument when she stated, The
more legal and material hindrances women have broken through, the
more strictly and heavily and cruelly images of female beauty have
come to weigh upon us (p. 10).
Both sociocultural theory and feminist theory would predict that the
more a society is exposed to Western media and Western appearance
standards, the greater the level of body dissatisfaction and disordered
eating within that society. However, feminist theory goes a step further
and suggests that increases in body dissatisfaction and disordered eating
should be largest in societies in which women have made the greatest
and most rapid strides toward social, economic, and political equality.
SOCIAL CHANGE AND BODY IMAGE
Consistent with feminist theory, rapid social change, particularly
rapidly changing roles of women, has been identied as an important
factor in increasingly unrealistic appearance standards and increased
body dissatisfaction in Western societies (Nasser et al., 2001). This relationship has been reported by clinicians treating young women with
eating disorders (e.g., Bruch, 1980) and has been widely recognized by
theorists (e.g., Travis, Meginnis, & Bardari, 2000). Consistent with these
observations, Silverstein and Perlick (1995) reported that the two
decades in the twentieth century with the greatest change in Western
womens roles, the 1920s and 1970s, were also the decades in which
Western fashion models were the most slender and least curvaceous.
Indeed, as the social and gender role changes associated with rst and
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169
participants are readily available to the researcher. In the case of clinical reports, these samples almost always consist of patients with identied eating disorders. Because only a small minority of women with
eating disorders seek professional services, particularly in cultures
where these services are limited and highly stigmatized, women in
these samples are usually from the highest socioeconomic stratum and
have very severe symptoms. Results from such samples are not representative of most women in their culture. In the case of research
reports, most studies have been done with college women. Similarly,
these samples are not representative of most women in their society.
Third, studies almost always depend on the use of Western measures
that must be translated into the local language. The use of translated
measures is always problematic (Forbes, in press). Even when translations
are carefully done, it is often difcult to determine whether the concepts
measured in the translation are the same as the concepts measured in
their native culture and language (Brislin, 1986). In addition, when specic diagnostic instruments or criteria are employed researchers make the
assumption, usually implicitly, that the symptoms of a disorder are the
same in all cultures. However, the specic symptoms associated with eating disorders may vary across cultures (Lee, Chiu & Chen, 1989; Lee et
al., 1993). Similarly, because both physical features and appearance standards vary across ethnic and cultural groups, the specic features associated with body dissatisfaction may show cultural or ethnic differences as
well (e.g., Jung & Lee, 2006; Kaw, 1993; Root, 1990).
Fourth, studies have often dened and measured eating disorders and body dissatisfaction in many different ways. Often relationships among these measures are unknown. As a consequence,
differences among cultures must often be determined using different denitions and different measurement techniques. In the case of
eating disorders these problems are lessened by the existence of standard diagnostic criteria and several widely used measures. However,
the problem is much more serious in the area of body dissatisfaction
because there are no standard criteria and very little consistency in measurement. In recent years, there have been some notable efforts to study
reasonably large numbers of countries using the same measures (e.g.,
Etcoff, Orbach, Scott, & DAgostino, 2004, 2006; Ojala et al., 2007; Wardle
et al., 2006). The 26-country, 40-sample study of preferred body type and
body dissatisfaction by Swami et al. (2009) is particularly important.
AN OVERVIEW OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
There is a substantial and growing body of research on ethnic differences within English-speaking countries. For reviews of these differences, see Smolak and Striegel-Moore (2001) or Wildes and Emery (2001).
These studies provide helpful information on ethnic differences within
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the racist belief that disorders found among afuent white women
would not occur among Africans, probably resulted in an underidentication of these problems during apartheid. Even allowing for this
bias, it seems clear that both body dissatisfaction and disordered eating
have greatly increased since the end of apartheid (Szabo & le Grange,
2001). In fact, most recent studies have shown no meaningful differences in the incidence of these problems in black, colored, and white adolescents or college students (e.g., Caradas et al., 2001; le Grange, Louw,
Russell, Nel & Silkstone, 2006; Senekal, Steyn, Mashego, & Nel, 2001;
Wassenaar et al., 2000). Importantly, there have been some reports that
black college women actually scored higher than white college women
on measures of eating pathology (e.g., le Grange, Telch & Tibbs, 1998).
Consistent with feminist theory, Szabo and le Grange (2001) suggest
that role conicts, particularly the conict between the greatly
expanded roles and opportunities for women and traditional African
values, play an important role in body dissatisfaction and eating pathologies. To the extent that these observations are accurate, there is a
clear possibility that in the not too distant future black and colored
South African women, like East Asian women, will have greater body
dissatisfaction than their Western cohorts.
With the exception of a few single case studies of severe eating disorders (e.g., Buchan & Gregory, 1984), very little information is available on body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in other subSaharan countries. Recent research in Tanzania (e.g., Eddy, Hennessey, &
Thompson-Brenner, 2007; Hennessey, 2008) and Nigeria (e.g., Izevbigie &
Owie, 2006; Toriola, Dolan, Evans, & Adetimole, 1996) indicate that
levels of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating approach those of
Western Europe. However, studies from Ghana suggest that, although
possibly diminishing, the preference for relatively large womens bodies
is still present in both college students (Cogan, Bhalla, Sefa-Dedeh, &
Rothblum, 1996) and adult women (Frederick, Forbes, & Berezovskaya,
2008).
There has been very little research from North Africa. Popenoes
(2004) important work suggests that among traditional North African
societies, a preference for large womens bodies persists. However, evidence from Egypt, the most highly developed North African country,
indicates that college women have levels of body dissatisfaction and
symptoms of disordered eating that are approximately equal to those
of college women in Western societies (e.g., Ford, Dolan, & Evans,
1990; Nasser, 1994a, 1994b).7
Taken as a whole, research in African countries indicates an increase
in body dissatisfaction and eating disorders as the nations modernize.
In the most developed sub-Saharan country, South Africa, the incidence of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating equals, and on
some measures exceeds, the levels found in English-speaking Western
176
countries. Similarly, in Egypt, body dissatisfaction and disordered eating approximate levels found in Western Europe. However, there is
evidence that the traditional African preference for larger womens
bodies persists, particularly in relatively undeveloped rural areas (e.g.,
Frederick, Forbes, & Berezovskaya, 2008; Swami et al., 2009).
INDIAN PENINSULA
Recent studies of young women in India have reported levels of
body dissatisfaction and disordered eating that are similar to, although
perhaps slightly lower than, the levels found in Western countries and
Japan (Gupta, Chaturvedi, Chandarana, & Johnson, 2001; Kayano et al.,
2008; Rubin, Gluck, Knoll, Lorence, & Geliebter, 2008). However, these
were highly advantaged urban samples. Information on body dissatisfaction in less advantaged rural Indian women is not available.
Similarly, recent studies among advantaged young women in
Pakistan reported levels of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating
that were similar to, but modestly lower than, levels found in Western
countries (Mahmud & Crittenden, 2007; Mujtaba & Furnham, 2001).
However, studies of women in very conservative and traditional Kashmir indicated levels of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating that
were substantially lower than those found in samples from the United
Kingdom (Choudry & Mumford, 1992; Mumford, Whitehouse, & Choudry, 1992). Importantly, both Mumford, Whitehouse, and Choudry
(1992) and Mahmud and Crittenden (2007) reported that body dissatisfaction and disordered eating were most common in the participants
who were the most Westernized.
SOUTHEAST ASIA AND POLYNESIA
This large area includes a wide variety of societies and nations.
Some parts, such as Singapore, are highly developed, whereas others,
such as some of the remote areas of New Guinea and Borneo, have
been relatively untouched by development. In keeping with other
research using Chinese samples, ethnic Chinese women in Singapore
had greater body dissatisfaction and a higher incidence of eating disorders than Europeans and Australians (Soh, 2008). In contrast, women
living in remote areas of New Guinea exhibited the traditional preference for relatively large bodies (Wesch, 2006). Consistent with the previously cited work of Becker et al. (2002) and Lee and Lee (2000)
linking economic development and exposure to Western culture to
body dissatisfaction and disordered eating, Weschs data suggested an
increasing preference for smaller bodies and greater body dissatisfaction among New Guinea women living in a town with electricity and
access to Western media.
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179
Disorders (World Health Organization, 1992). There are many excellent references on the diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders. The interested reader
should consult recent edited volumes or handbooks, such as Thompson (2004).
2. The effects of both social class and ethnicity, although still present, may
have diminished in recent years (Gard & Freeman, 1996; Grabe & Hyde, 2006;
McClelland & Crisp, 2001).
3. The most extreme preference for large female bodies appears to be found
among the Azawagh Arabs of Niger. Here, the forced feeding of girls begins at
the age of 5 or 6 and continues until marriage. Even following marriage many
women continue to eat large amounts of food in an effort to become as large
as possible. For an insightful and sensitive description of this society, see Popenoe (2004).
4. A complete discussion of the complex problems associated with crosscultural research is far beyond the scope of this chapter. The interested reader
can nd more information in van de Vijver and Leung (1997) and Ember and
Ember (2001).
5. Body mass index is a widely used measure of body size. It is computed
with the formula: BMI = Weight in Kilograms/Height in Meters2.
6. In a sixth sample from Havana, Cuba, 29 percent wanted to be thinner,
and 31 percent wanted to be heavier. This may be a consequence of food scarcity and Cubas relative isolation from Western beauty ideals.
7. For insightful historical and cultural discussion of women in Egypt,
including parallels between the new veiling phenomenon and anorexia nervosa, see Nasser (2003).
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Chapter 12
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Mirsky, 2003; Ward, 2005). Leach asserted that sexual violence to girls
in schools has far reaching consequences to society:
It undermines the pursuit of internationally agreed public health goals to
enable adolescents to deal in a positive way with their sexuality and to
reduce unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections
including HIV infection. For girls and young women, it severely limits
their ability to achieve their educational potential. For society, therefore,
it undercuts the transformatory power of education. Female education
has been shown not only to contribute to improved family health but to
be a major driver of social and economic development. (p. 1)
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used. As Barak (1997) noted, it is not the phenomenon of sexual harassment that is different among countries, but rather the way it is
being behaviorally manifested, which is probably due to different behavioral standards related to different cultures (p. 268). With this
thought in mind, this chapter will use the terms mentioned interchangeably to demonstrate the broad scope of the phenomenon. Some
sexually harassing behaviors may be found in some of the literature
addressing school bullying (Stein, 2003, 2005). However, the literature
on bullying was not searched in researching sexual violence in schools
for this chapter because the term, bullying, is a gender-neutral reference to behaviors that are not often studied through a gendereddynamic lens, even though some behaviors that are labeled as bullying,
would fall within sexual harassment (Stein, 1995).
Whatever the term used, the behaviors are generally indistinguishable and include a progression of behaviors from sexist and misogynist
comments, verbal sexual comments, physical fondling, sexual assault,
and rape. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), For
many young women, the most common place where sexual coercion
and harassment are experienced is in school (WHO, 2002). Gendered
violence against girls and women in education is a pandemic that transcends race, culture, geography, religion, and class (Ward, 2005).
With the electronic communication age comes cyber-harassment/
bullying through e-mails, text messaging, Facebook, and mobile
phones. Dalaimo (1997) stated that a closer look reveals that the same
types of inequalities and discrimination that plague the physical world
are also present in the virtual world. Power is inherently unequal, and
electronic communication is no exception (p. 101). Though not all
online perpetrators are classmates, students are sometimes unaware
who the harasser may be and when the harassment continues during
school, it distracts them from their schoolwork and can be psychologically traumatic (Shariff, 2004). Shariff and Gouin (2006) and Barak
(2005) describe this cyber violence in many forms including, rude, offensive, sexist, homophobic, misogynist and vulgar messages or photos,
and pornography sent to groups and individuals via text messaging,
chat rooms or Web-logs.
Sexual harassment occurs in public places of the school (Leach, 2006;
Mirsky, 2003; Stein, 1995; Timmerman, 2003), with faculty and staff
observing the behavior and often colluding with the perpetrators by
not intervening to stop the abuse. The message to the boys and the
girls is that sexual violence is an accepted school norm; this, then, can
be a catalyst for increased sexual violence within the school and the
community. When teachers do intervene, even in instances of sexual
assault, the boys face few consequences by the school.
Sexual violence is a reection of gender inequality and manifests
itself specically to cultural beliefs and tenets that also condone
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violence that result in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women (United Nations, 1993). The
declaration recognizes the vulnerability of girl children and specically
singles out schools as a location of gender violence.
Governments worldwide, except the United States and Somalia
(Education For All Global Monitoring Team, 2003), committed to the
1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). CRC requires countries to protect children from sexual abuse and sexual exploitation and
to provide equal education to both genders (HRW, 2001a).
The right to education is also proclaimed in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with both ensuring equal
education to both males and females (HRW, 2001a; Education For All
Global Monitoring Team, 2003). In addition, the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) requires equal rights for men and
women and to establish effective redress for abuse.
In 1996, the WHO created two resolutions recognizing that gender
violence to women and children was a public health priority (WHO,
2002) In 2000, Dakar hosted the United Nations Millennium Summit,
and announced the eight UN Millennium Development Goals. Goal
number two is to achieve universal primary education by 2015, and
goal three requires gender inequality in all levels of education by 2015
(http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/gender.shtml).
Kazue (2004) asserted that legalization is not the sole answer: It is, however, important to bear in mind that legislation and regulation from
above is not the only way to deal with sexual harassment, a phenomenon
that is deeply rooted in culture, gender norms and gender power structures. Without genuine respect for women and womens human rights,
sexual harassment can still happen despite laws and orders. Sometimes,
the effect of legislation and regulations can be supercial and very limited. (p. 13)
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perpetrator (Young, Allen, & Ashbaker, 2004). Disabled students experienced more sexual harassment incidents than nondisabled students,
but there were no signicant mental health differences between the
two groups as a result of their victimization (Fineran, 2002). When students are disabled and sexually harass another student, teachers must
intervene. According to the U.S. Department of Education, Ofce of
Civil Rights (1993), the students special education status cannot be
used as a defense for sexual harassment.
The HRW researched sexual harassment of U.S. gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered (GLBT) students and found they are unmercifully and relentlessly harassed by their peers, teachers, staff, and
administration (George & Thonden, 2001). The students were verbally,
physically, and sexually assaulted; they were spit and urinated on,
thrown against lockers, cut with knives; some feared going to the bathroom alone, others dropped out of school, some ran away from home,
participated in risky sexual behavior, were diagnosed with depression
and committed suicide. School ofcials, who were not actively involved
in the harassment of these students, gave tacit approval by ignoring
incidents that they observed, or of which they were informed.
Many research projects have been conducted by the Gay, Lesbian,
and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and can be found at their
Web site (http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/research/index.
html). One example is a 2007 survey of over 6,000 students which
found that 60 percent did not feel safe at school (33 percent skipped
school as a result), probably because 86 percent of GLBT students were
harassed due to their sexual orientation.
Sexual harassment by teachers is considerably less frequent than sexual harassment by peers (AAUW, 2001; Lee et al., 1996). If students
younger than 18 are sexually harassed by a teacher or school ofcial,
criminal child abuse statutes, criminal sexual assault or rape laws, as
well as other criminal and civil charges, may be instituted against the
perpetrator (Strauss, 2003). One of the highest reports of teacher sexual
abuse was the Texas Civil Right Project, in which 58 percent of female
students acknowledged being victimized by school employees (Texas
Civil Rights Project, 1997). In contrast, the 1993 AAUW study found
that 25 percent of girls experienced sexual harassment by school
employees (AAUW, 1993). Research by Lee et al. (1996) found 16 percent of students had been harassed by a teacher, 2 percent by a school
administrator, and 44 percent by another school employee. Sexual
abuse by school teachers and staff are a challenge to study because students generally do not report the abuse nor do they tell their parents
(AAUW, 1993).
The most common adult school abuser is a male, well liked by students, parents, and teachers, and involved in extra-curricular activities
with students such as athletics, art, and debate (Shakeshaft & Cohen,
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United States
Numerous studies of sexual harassment to U.S. college women indicate that 70 percent have experienced the behaviorincluding gender
harassmentfrom a minimum of one college professor (Barickman et
al., 1990; Dziech & Weiner, 1990; Fitzgerald et al., 1988; Sandler, 1997).
Thirty to 40 percent of graduate women experienced sexual harassment
by faculty (Barickman et al., 1990). Between 70 and 90 percent of college
women experience sexual harassment by their male classmates. Kelley
and Parsons (2000) found that 19 percent of female graduate students
and one in ve undergraduate and graduate female students had been
sexually harassed. Undergraduates were more likely to identify their
male peers as the harasser while graduate women named male faculty
as the perpetrator. The students experienced gender harassment and sexual coercion with equal frequency. Most of the women ignored the
behavior or talked about it with a friend or family member; only 8 percent reported it through ofcial channels within the university. More
than 60 percent of presidents at research institutions acknowledged that
sexual harassment was a problem at their university (Boyer, 1990).
Frannklin, Moglen, Zatlin-Boring, and Angress (1981) discussed two
forms of gender harassment in college and university classrooms. The
rst form reported by female students included facultys use of female
stereotypes in addressing women students or in their pedagogy. Examples included name calling such as, fat housewives, dumb blondes, and
dirty, as well as the use of Playboy centerfolds during anatomy class,
and offensive comments about womens anatomy. This behavior created
a bond between the male faculty member and the men in the course at
the expense of the women students. The second type of gender harassment was facultys sexist comments about womens physical appearance, and if women were enrolled in a traditionally male course such as
engineering, implying lower expectations relegated towards the women.
A wide variety of behaviors may constitute sexual harassment,
according to Sandler (1997). These include asking for sex, sexual grafti,
ogling or elevator eyes, staring at body parts, fondling or grabbing,
sexually offensive jokes or comments, threatening rape or other forms of
abuse, calling women sexist or misogynist names, ongoing unwanted
sexual attention or asking for dates, sexually offensive gestures, ridiculing, sending letters or e-mails or gifts, exposing genitals, and sponsoring
degrading activities such as a wet t-shirt contest, among others.
The U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics conducted The National College Women Sexual Victimization (NCWSV)
study of 4,500 two- and four-year college and university women in
1996 (Fisher, Cullen, & Turner, 2000). The study measured sexual harassment including sexual coercion (penetration), unwanted sexual contact with force or threats but no penetration, and stalking both on and
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minimum of one sexual harassment incident, with boys the most likely
perpetrator. Eight percent of students (no differentiation between genders) in fth to eighth grade were bystanders to sexual violence in
school (World Bank, n.d.) They also found that if both male and female
students bullied, they were more likely to sexually harass other students as well.
Ecuador, Haiti, and Jamaica
Twenty-two percent of Ecuadorian teen girls were victims of sexual
abuse within and about the school (World Bank, 2000, cited in Blaya &
Debarbieux, 2008). Amnesty International (2008) reported that sexual
abuse of girls in Haiti is common by both teachers and administrative
staff. Girls in Jamaica experience their breasts and buttocks touched
and pressure to engage in sex so often that it is considered the norm
(DevTech Systems, USAID, 2005, cited in, Amnesty International, 2008).
Colleges and Universities
Puerto Rico
Ramoss (1999) quantitative and qualitative research of sexual harassment at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) demonstrated that 65
percent of female students experienced a minimum of one sexual harassment incident, and 35 percent indicated that they had not experienced any incidents. Of those who experienced sexual harassment, 61
percent reported gender harassment, 28 percent identied unwanted
sexual attention, and 2 percent indicated they had experienced sexual
coercion. In addition, 49 percent experienced a combination of both
unwanted sexual attention and gender harassment. Interestingly, of
those women who reported experiencing at least one of the items on
the sexual harassment survey, only 81=2 percent labeled their experience
as sexual harassment; they were more likely to label their experiences
as offensive.
These results are similar to Hernandez (1988, cited in Ramos) who
found that 63 percent of Puerto Rican women experienced sexual harassment. Torres (1989, cited in Ramos) reported that 73 percent of victims were harassed by professors, 15 percent by their classmates, and
12 percent by directors or a librarian.
Not surprisingly, those students who were more tolerant of the
behavior were not as distressed (Ramos, 1999). Other women reported
psychological ramications such as fear, anger, depression, and humiliation. Academically they experienced lowered grades and loss of
excitement and fervor about school. Those women who were harassed
by a professor reported feelings of hopelessness due to the universitys
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perceived lack of caring and their complex procedures, fear of retaliation, and the recognition that a tenured professor was protected from
consequences.
Coping responses included silence, avoiding the harasser, denial of
the behavior, dropping a professors/harassers class, informing the harasser the behavior was unwanted, and seeking out someone to talk to
(Ramos, 1999; Torres, 1989, cited in Ramos). Puerto Rican women view
avoidance as an assertive response to harassment by perceiving it as taking control of the situation (Ramos, 1999). It is rare for a victim of sexual
harassment to report the behavior. The qualitative interviews demonstrated that the women blamed the sexual harassment by men to factors
other than the men themselves; for example, the way women dress, and
on nature and society, thereby negating any male responsibility for their
own behavior. In addition, the male harassers were viewed as perverts,
sick, obsessed, weak, and with psychological problems.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN EDUCATION IN EUROPE
Research on sexual violence in schools is limited in the European
Union. Smith (2003) compiled school violence studies from seventeen
countries, but the construct of gendered violence towards girls and
women was quite limited. Witkowska and Menckel (2005) indicated
that addressing the sexual component of school violence is lacking in
various European Union programs and projects.
Secondary Schools
England
Duncans (1999) study of four urban multi-ethnic secondary schools
in England identied numerous forms of what he labeled as sexual
bullying, including physical assault, sexual name calling, negative commentary regarding physical appearance, verbal attacks, sexual gossip,
and propositioning. Duncans observations demonstrated sexual power
struggles (p. 131), and a sexualized comment during what would otherwise be civilized exchanges, is the marking out of gendered role limits; reminders that relationships are ultimately structured by power
and that power is gendered (p. 128). His ndings supported the
framework of gendered bullying occurring between boys, from boys to
girls, between girls, and from girls to boys.
Girls are called slags, sluts, bitches, whores, and slappers for various
types of behavior such as irting, being unfaithful to their boyfriend,
or demonstrating their sexuality in the clothes they wear (Bell, 2008).
One study found that 80 percent of students thought girls and women
brought on their own victimization by their attire. Boys pull down or
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pull up a girls skirt, tell a girl he wants to nger her, and taunt girls
because of the clothes they wear or because of their weight. Boys use
electronic means to sexually bully their female classmates (and staff)
when they send sexual messages or pornography via their cell phones.
As three 14-year-old boys gang raped an 11-year-old girl, they lmed it
from the camera on their phone and sent the video to students at
school.
A British Broadcasting Company (BBC) news program reported that
government statistics showed there were 3,500 xed-period expulsions
and 140 expulsions from school in England due to sexual misconduct,
including sexual assault and rape (Murphy, 2009). Of those, 280 expulsions were from the primary grades, and twenty involved children ve
years old. These statistics are considered an underreporting of the
abuse partially because it is excused as typical behavior.
Female students in Larkins study (1994) identied how sexual harassment was normalized in their schools. First, sexual harassment was
rarely, if at all, discussed at school; second, the regularity and pervasiveness of the behavior; and third, the interpretation of the behavior
by others, especially the male perpetrators, that the behavior was fun
and no big deal.
Netherlands
Twenty-two high schools in the Netherlands were studied by Timmerman (2003) for evidence of sexual harassment to teenagers. Ninety
percent of the perpetrators were male faculty and staff, and 87 percent
were male classmates with girls more likely to be targeted by the harasser than were the boys. One in four girls was sexually harassed, and
20 percent of the harassment was perpetrated by their teachers in the
form of nonverbal sexual advances. Verbal sexual harassment was
experienced most often. Girls were twice as likely to experience more
physical forms of sexual harassment as were their male peers, and
were also more likely to experience combined types of sexual harassment. One percent of the girls experienced a rape or attempted rape
within the school.
Teacher harassment of girls often occurred in public places, with 69
percent of all students asserting it occurred in the teachers classroom,
followed by hallways and the cafeteria (Timmerman, 2003). These
results acknowledge that sexual harassment by teachers was not proscribed. Peer sexual harassment was reported to occur in small groups
in classrooms, hallways, in the immediate area outside the school, and
other public places. Girls were more likely to report psychosomatic
consequences to their health when sexually harassed by teachers than
when harassed by their peers.
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France
Sexual violence to students by teachers has occurred in France
(Bodin, 2005). Though the gender of the victim and the position of the
perpetrator was not revealed, 556 sexual abuse incidents were reported
in France during one academic year, and 12 percent were rapes (Blaya &
Debarbieux, 2008). According to the Collectif feminist contre le viol
(cited in Blaya & Debarbieux, 2008), a little over 3 percent of sexual
attacks occurred within the school. Bodin (2005) found 11=2 percent of
French students experienced sexual abuse.
Finland
Sexual harassment was experienced by 41 percent of 15-year-old
Finish female students, yet only 2 percent reported it to school ofcials
(Honkatukia, 2000, cited in Laheelma, 2002). Gender conicts between
male and female students were perceived by teachers as merely joking,
irting, or playing (Aaltonen, 2002). Sexual harassment was not a term
that was used in their descriptions of the behavior because gender
tends to be invisible; consequently the gender-neutral term, bullying,
was used to dene aggression even from males to females. According
to the author, the victim of bullying was blamed.
Germany and Belgium
Bodin (2005) found that a little more than 6 percent of German students and 1 percent of Belgium students experienced sexual abuse. It is
not known who the perpetrators were or the gender of the students.
Spain
Ninety percent of both girls and boys reported sexual harassment,
with verbal harassment as the most common (Vicario, 2008). There was
no difference in the amount of sexual harassment each experienced,
with 90 percent reporting their victimization. However, the type of harassment varied in their assertions of homophobic barbs and sexual
comments, but further delineations were not provided.
Sweden
The Swedish National Agency for Education researched sexual harassment to grade school children and found over 50 percent experienced sexually offensive name calling; pressure to have sex was found
in 7 percent of the students, and 4 percent were sexually assaulted,
including 1 percent by teachers (Skolverket, Dnr 012001: 2136, cited in
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legislation throughout Asia, except for Pakistan, however sexual violence within the school milieu is rarely addressed.
Secondary Schools
Japan and China
Data from the Japanese government demonstrated that 115 public
school teachers were disciplined for fondling or harassing students as
well as molesting colleagues and graduates (The Bangkok Post, December 28, 2000, cited in Haspels, Kasim, Thomas, & McCann, 2001). The
Chinese Ministry of Education requires that minor students are taught
about sexual harassment (Xinhua News Agency, 2007). China passed
the Law on the Protection of Minors in 1991 legislating sexual harassment to minors as a crime. Sexual harassment of Tibetan girls by Chinese teachers is rampant, however, with the teachers pulling the girls
into rooms to touch them (Tibet Justice Center, 1998).
Pakistan
Parents of rural Pakistani elementary school children do not want
their daughters walking long distances to get to school because they do
not want them leered at by men (Warwick & Reimers, 1995). The
authors asserted that parents removed their daughters from school,
when they feel that conditions there do not respect female students or
protect their honor (p. 28). Parents of daughters would prefer that
their daughters are not in contact with boys during the school day,
therefore, single-sexed schools are the preferred option by parents of
female students.
Secondary school female students are the more likely targets of sexual harassment to and from school and in school by older boys, school
staff, and men who are passing by (Brohi & Ajaib, 2006). The sexual violence consists of singing sexually explicit songs, writing love letters,
making sexually vulgar comments about anatomy, and touching or
pressing up against female students. The behavior is pervasive and the
boys nd it fun. According to Brohi and Ajaib, The onus of responsibility is on the woman or girl. At times, her mere existence is considered a provocation and any sexual act, with or without her consent,
carries a suffocating stigma (p. 81). Pakistan has no laws against sexual harassment.
Girls do not report their sexual harassment because to do so means
they have to choose between going to school and staying home because
their parents would not approve of their daughters victimization
(Brohi & Ajaib, 2006). In addition, Pakistan places great honor on girls
sexual purity, and there is a presumption of guilt that the girl herself
did not preserve her own sexual dignity if she is sexually harassed.
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the harassment (Tang et al., 1996). Chinese students were less aware of
sexual harassment on their campus than were U.S. students awareness
of the behavior on their campuses. The authors posited that this may
be due to less sexual harassment occurring on Chinese campuses than
the United States, a difference in the sizes of the universities studied, a
Chinese patriarchal culture so that Chinese students dont view some
of the sexist comments as harassing, embarrassment within the Chinese
culture to discuss such issues, and the emphasis on harmony and mutual respect within their society.
A second study by Tang (2001, cited in Equal Opportunities Commission of Hong Kong, 20062007) showed that students from eight
institutions of higher learning believed that sexual harassment on their
campus was due to women wearing sexy attire and therefore, appearing sexy. More men than women perceived sexual harassment as irtation and admiration of women. Students also believed that sexual
harassment was really about the victim overreacting.
India
Lewd songs, harassing phone calls, sexual verbal comments, and
womens breasts as the object of mens glares, were experienced by 39
percent of female college students in Mumbai, India (Bajpai, 1999). The
womens bathrooms were surrounded by men making the location a
threatening place for women to use, as were the canteen and the entrance to the university. Male faculty subjected the women students to
sexual innuendo, touching, staring, and offering grades for sex. Fortyve percent of women students at the University of Peradeniya in Sri
Lanka discussed their sexual humiliation, called ragging (Finney, 2000).
Roughly half the women who took part in a Delhi University study
indicated that they were harassed by either a teacher or a non-teaching
employee. In addition, 92 percent of women at the universitys hostel,
experienced daily sexual harassment within the campus as well as on
busses and streets (The Lawyers Collective, 2001, cited in Haspels et
al., 2001). Almost 14 percent of female students were harassed by their
male peers in libraries and the canteen, and 5 percent were harassed
by university staff (Gender Study Group, 1996, cited in Mirsky, 2003).
Verbal harassment in Indian higher educational institutions is known
as eve-teasing, and is considered a less offensive form of harassment by
women students at Delhi University (Anagol-McGinn, 1994, cited in
Mirsky, 2003). Their male peers viewed eve-teasing as light in nature,
attering, and fun (Anagol-McGinn, 1994, cited in Mirsky, 2003, p. 18).
Forty-ve percent of the female students acknowledged that they shun
the library and specic classes to avoid sexual harassment.
Numerous universities in India have undertaken the task of reducing sexual harassment and assault on their university campuses, and
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211
2003: World Bank, n.d.) The results of six studies demonstrated that
between 16 percent and 47 percent of girls in primary and secondary
schools report experiencing sexual violence (World Bank, n.d.). Conict, poverty and war were contributing factors to the sexual exploitation of girls walking to and from school and while at school
(ActionAid International, n.d.).
212
Older boys and male teachers were the most likely perpetrators of
the girls (Leach, 2006; Mirsky, 2003; Education For All Monitoring
Report Team, 2008). Sexual violence included the following behaviors:
invading the girls space in an intimidating manner, badgering them in
the hallways and on school grounds, entering their classrooms uninvited, touching their breasts and buttocks often leading to sexual
assault, and verbally abusing demeaning the female gender by shouting obscenities and calling them whores and prostitutes. The boys sent
love letters as a way to propose, but if the girls refused the boys proposals, they were met with verbal insults, name calling, or physical
assault.
Male teachers abused their power to tantalize both younger and
older girls into a sexual liaison, often using money and gifts like the
sugar daddies in the public arena (Leach, 2006; Mirsky, 2003). This was
standard accepted behavior and often perpetrated on a girl during
class in front of other students. Teachers were not punished which
increased the likelihood of the tantalizing becoming sexual abuse.
Shumba (2001) discovered that 65.6 percent of sexual abuse by teachers
included sexual intercourse, and 2 percent experienced rape or
attempted rape. Because teachers behaved so openly and egregiously
in front of their male students with no negative consequences to their
behavior, they became role models for the same behavior for the young
men in the classroom.
Even the girls that attended the all-girls school did not escape sexual
harassment (Mirsky, 2003; Leach, 2006). Like the coeducational girls,
they were harassed on their way to and from school by sugar daddies.
Once in the school, some male teachers were inappropriate towards
them as well. Because the legal ban on corporal punishment was
strictly enforced, unlike the coeducational schools, verbal abuse by both
female and male teachers was rampant.
The study demonstrated that differentiating between abuse and consent was sometimes a difcult distinction (Dunne et al., 2006). There
were some girls that accepted money and gifts from the older boys or
the sugar daddies, which from the males viewpoint meant a sexual
relationship. That said, because of the power differential, whether consensual or not, it was abuse and harassment.
The lack of school or government leadership in condemning and
punishing the boys or male teachers for the sexual harassment, sexual
abuse, and nonsexual abuse in the form of corporal punishment, gave
tacit approval for the behavior to continue thereby creating an environment of gender-based violence towards girls (Dunne et al., 2006; Leach,
2006; Mirsky, 2003). As could be expected, sometimes the girls became
pregnant by a teacher. If the teacher was reported, little consequence
was observed. Sometimes the girls parents ignored the pregnancy if
the teacher agreed to marry the pregnant teen and provide a home for
213
her. The girls were assigned blame for their pregnancy by parents,
their peers, and they blamed themselves as well. Female teachers were
aware of the harassment by both the boys and the male teachers but
ignored it. The message sent to boys and girls that the abuse was normalized and expected.
The girls reported a myriad of responses to the boys harassment
reecting emotional, educational, and behavioral consequences (Dunne
et al., 2003; UN World Report on Violence Against Children, 2006).
Emotionally, they reported feeling anxious, embarrassed, confused,
scared, and irritated. They had difculty concentrating in class and
reported crying. Some were too frightened to leave the classroom,
while others ensured that their trip home was with other girls, and
avoided walking near crowds of boys. If it was a teacher who was the
harasser, the girls reported doing whatever they could to avoid the
teachers attention; they worried if they denied the teachers sexual
approach, they would be retaliated against by lowered grades, forced
to do extra work, or be physically assaulted.
Kenya
Rape in Kenyan schools is commonplace (Ceneda, 2001). In 1991, 71
girls were brutally gang raped by boys from a neighboring school
resulting in the death of 19 girls. The boys were not prosecuted. When
the headmaster for the boys school expelled them, the boys parents
sued forcing the headmaster to readmit them. When a probation ofcer
was interviewed about the incident, he acknowledged that rape was a
normal aspect of the school setting to the point that if the gang rapes
hadnt resulted in deaths, the tragedy would not have made the news.
During this same time, a primary school teacher had raped nine girls;
the teachers employment was not terminated and he continued as a
teacher.
South Africa
The HRW study of sexual violence to girls in South African schools
involved visiting eight predominantly urban public schools from a
broad range of economic strata and interviewing their administrators
and teachers (George & Thonden, 2001). Thirty six girls from different
ethnic backgrounds between the ages of 7 to 17, parents, social workers, teachers, administrators, and government ofcials were also interviewed. Twenty-three incidents of rape at school were also
investigated. Jackrolling dened the snatching and gang rape of girls
and was reported in 25 schools. As in Zimbabwe, South African girls
are regularly sexually harassed, including sexual assault and rape, by
both their male classmates and male teachers. The harassment mirrors
214
the experiences of their Zimbabwean counterpartsthey are threatened, fondled, verbally humiliated, and raped in bathrooms, classrooms (in front of teachers) and hallways.
More often than not, the girls sexual violence is committed by two
or more boys (Mirsky, 2003). The abuse goes unchallenged by schools,
educators, and the government. If girls do report the abuse, they are
often retaliated against by school administrators and their peers. Teachers who are known abusers and were found to commit one third of the
rapes to children (Jewkes, Levin, Mbananga, & Bradshaw, 2002), were
not disciplined but rather were transferred to other schools to continue
their egregious behavior.
While most of the sexual harassment to the girls is perpetrated by
their male classmates, harassment by male teachers is epidemic and
severe. Teachers instigate a quid pro quo by promising the girls better
grades in return for sexual favors or a dating relationship. They taunt
the girls into a form of prostitution by offering money for sex. Conversely, teachers will threaten the girls with physical violence if they
dont comply with the teachers sexual demands. Teachers have raped,
sexually assaulted, and verbally sexually abused the girls with degrading sexual comments. One primary teacher instructed the girls to draw
a penis. A study done in 1998 by the Medical Research Council found
that 37.7 percent of rape victims, who identied their rapist, identied
one of their teachers or their principal as the perpetrator of their violence. Male teachers will ask the girls to run an errand for them to the
male staff lounge, thereby colluding with their male peers who are
waiting in the staff room where the girl would be sexually harassed or
raped (World Bank, n.d.). Understandably, girls were fearful of going
near the male teachers staff room, so they would pair up with one of
their female classmates to run the errand.
Girls were harassed and assaulted on their way to and from school
by taxi drivers (George & Thoonden, 2001). Because poor and black
girls are more likely to have to travel further to get to school, they are
more vulnerable to violence. Little attention has been directed to the
sexualized violence in South African primary schools (Bhana, 2006).
The consequences to the girls are multifaceted. In addition to the
girls dropping out of school and failing their higher education matriculation exams, their involvement in activities outside of school, such as
sports, are diminished (George & Thonden 2001). They have difculty
concentrating causing their grades to drop. Absenteeism is a common
response to the unchallenged harassment thereby disrupting their ability to learn. Sexual assaults lead to unwanted pregnancy and health
risks associated with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV/
AIDS. (George & Thonden, 2001; Leach, 2006).
A study comparing the sexual harassment of students in Johannesburg and Chicago, Illinois in the United States found that the behavior
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216
217
Kenya
According to Ceneda (2001), sexual harassment and exploitation of
female university students is rampant in Kenya, and is identied as
one of the obstacles to womens educational achievement. Women are
pressured for sex, raped, groped, fondled, and subjected to cat calls,
with rare action taken against the perpetrator.
Ghana
Trainee teachers from a university and a college are sexually harassed most frequently during 1) promotional exams, 2) continuous
assessment, 3) admission practices, 4) exam practices by typists, 5) student allowances, 6) domestication of female students, and 7) study
mates (Teni-Atinga, 2006, pp. 199200). The harassment sometimes
includes persistent sexual coercion from lecturers with threats of a lowered grade or not passing the exam to move forward with a students
education. The sexual harassment begins when women are seeking college admission and does not stop until they are through the program.
They experience anger, frustration, helplessness, and a sense of powerlessness because of the inability to bring a complaint to the school for
fear of ridicule and stigma.
Nigeria
The sexual harassment of female students by professors on Nigerias
universities gained the attention of the countrys president, General
Olusegun Obasanjo (Ladebo, 2001, cited in Ladebo, 2003). The president made a mockery out of university teachers for using female students for their own sexual hedonism. Ladebos (2003), study of three
Nigerian universities found that none of the three had any sexual
harassment policies, in all likelihood because the country has no antisexual harassment laws. Sexual harassment by male teachers to female
students had escalated to the point that management went to the leaders of the union to implore the teachers to stop their abuse. One of the
campuses is known to have high incidents of rape and sexual assaults,
and women attending the other universities reported sexual coercion
and transactional sex if they are nancially indigent.
Phallic attack is the term coined by male lecturers at two universities
that refers to the coercion of students for sex in exchange for grades
(Nwadigwe, 2007). The author asserted that the increase in sexual harassment could be partially attributed to the lack of sex education in
African countries. Single women experienced higher rates of sexual
harassment, and were more likely to succumb to their lecturers taunts.
Only 2 percent of the victims reported the menacing lecturer. Students
218
reported that they bought gifts for the lecturer and his family in an
attempt to avoid intercourse with him.
Women students at Lagos State University in Nigeria described their
experiences on campus as a type of rape, including threats, intimidation and force from men that attempt to disguise their relationship as
friendship (Adedokun, 2005). Male teachers are the most likely perpetrators but male students and university staff also sexually harass.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN SCHOOLS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Sexual violence in schools in the Middle East is not likely to be recognized or studied because of war, political unrest, poverty, and
entrenched cultural beliefs about the role of men and women in the
region.
Secondary
Egypt
Egyptian parents are reticent to allow their daughters to attend
school if they have a long distance to walk for fear of their daughters
moral and physical peril (King & Hill, 1993, p. 33). The Egyptian
Center for Womens Rights (ECWR), an NGO, conducted the rst
country study addressing the prevalence of sexual harassment to Egyptian and tourist women on the streets of several cities (Hassan, n.d.).
The organization did not research sexual harassment to girls and
women in education specically, however, their research found 29 percent of harassment occurred in educational facilities and that schoolchildren and university students were the most likely to harass girls
and women on Egypts streets, after taxi drivers. One can speculate,
therefore, that girls and women in Egypts schools are victimized by
sexual harassment. An ECWR seminar encouraged parents to discuss
the sexual harassment in school with their children. Teachers informed
ECWR that they were at a loss as to what to tell students about sexual
harassment or what to do when they are subjected to it. ECWR is
working with the Ministry of Education to design sexual harassment
curriculum for schools to use in teaching students about the construct.
Men blamed sexual harassment on the inuence of the West, the
media, inaction by the female victim, seductive clothing, and a womans presence in specic locations (Hassan, n.d.). They also asserted
that sexual harassment should be expected because of the lust between
men and women. The men reported feeling a level of satisfaction after
harassing a woman: more masculine, and a way to show off.
The ECWR (Egyptian Center for Womens Rights, n.d.) told of a
female student whose father no longer allows her to attend school
219
because of the daily verbal harassment from men and boys as she and
her girlfriends travel to and from school. The girls male classmates
spread sexual rumors; her brother and father heard the rumors and
beat her. Another father sought help from ECWR when his 14-year-old
daughter refused to attend school because of the sexual harassment
she experienced on the bus ride to and from school.
Turkey
The HRW reported that girls who attend government-sponsored
medical high schools, and who are suspected of having sex or being
prostitutes, will be subjected to virginity examinations (HRW, 2001a).
The exams were banned in 1999 and reinstituted in 2001. Girls have
attempted suicide rather than be forced to the invasive and painful
exam.
Israel
A nationwide Israeli study of sexual harassment of over 10,000 public school students in seventh through eleventh grades demonstrated
that Arab boys and eighth-grade students were the most likely to
report sexual harassment (Zeira, Astor, & Benbenishty, 2002). Arab
girls, followed by Jewish girls, reported the least amount of victimizationboth Arab and Jewish boys were the most likely victims of harassment from their male classmates. Eleven percent to 36 percent of
girls reported experiencing a minimum of one act of sexual harassment, with Arab girls least likely to be harassed. Unwanted sexual
remarks and attempts to kiss the girls were the most disturbing experiences. Seven percent of the girls reported being kissed when they
didnt want to, and 11 percent indicated a classmate attempted to
touch them sexually without their consent. Out of the seven survey
items, boys experienced six of the seven considerably more often than
did the girls; the girls reports of a student attempting to take off an
item of their clothing was the only survey item in which they scored
higher. The girls most frequent sexual harassment experiences, at 11
percent, was when another student made unwanted sexual remarks
and tried to touch them sexually.
IMPACT
Hill and Silva (2005) found female students were fearful, angry,
embarrassed, and worried about whether they would have a healthy
relationship. The women reported having difculty concentrating during class and problems sleeping. According to Dziech and Weiner
(1990), denial is one of the effective coping mechanisms sexual
220
221
222
223
Public Health
Public health programs and projects dealing with HIV/AIDS and
other STDs need to be taught to all citizens within the community and
schools. Pregnancy prevention is an essential educational program
along with the use of condoms for the reduction of pregnancy, STDs,
and HIV/AIDs. Public health agencies partnering with schools and the
community would help ensure an integrated approach to dealing with
the consequences of sexual violence in schools and in the community.
Student Participation
Active student participation is essential for student buy-in in designing and implementing any process and program to stop incidents of
sexual harassment at school. Students will have some of the best problem solving capabilities about the issue because they live it on a daily
basis. Educating the boys to understand sexism, gender violence, and
the impact on their female classmates is another effective tactic in
reducing the sexual abuse. Using peer education involving older boys
teaching the younger boys would be benecial for both the boy teacher
and the boy learner. Catalyzing the boys to be advocates for their
female classmates if groups of boys are colonizing against the girls
would demonstrate positive role modeling to their male peers. Providing safe opportunities for girls to teach boys how the boys sexual
abuse impacts them emotionally, educationally, and physically may be
another catalyst in stopping the abuse.
A holistic approach, integrating strategies, agencies, organizations,
governments, and individuals will be required to effectively change a
complex epidemic that has, unfortunately, become the norm in schools
around the world. Fortunately, champions of the needed transformation have begun chipping away at this overwhelming undertaking.
This is a transformation that must be successful for girls and women,
boys and men, and for society.
224
CONCLUSION
The pandemic of sexual violence in schools is not well recognized,
analyzed, or researched (Dunne et al., 2006). School ofcials may deny,
minimize, and hide sexual harassment leading to inaction as their preferential response to sexual violence in schools. In the worst case scenario, teachers, staff, and administrators may be the actual perpetrators
of the abuse. This often is contradictory of national law, school policies,
and international treaties and conventions.
Stopping sexual violence in schools is an overwhelming task that
will require changing long entrenched cultural belief systems about patriarchy, masculine hegemony, and girls and womens value in society.
This paradigm shift will require a long-term commitment from individuals; NGOs; governments; primary, secondary, and postsecondary
schools and teachers; parents; and boys and girls (Plan, 2008).
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Trentham Books.
230
231
Witkowska, E., & Gadin, K. G. (2005). Have you been sexually harassed in
school? What female high school students regard as harassment. International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health, 17, 391406.
Witkowska, E., & Menckel, E. (2005). Perceptions of sexual harassment in
Swedish high schools: Experiences and school-environment problems.
European Journal of Public Health, 15, 7885.
World Bank. (n.d.). Addressing violence against women within the education
sector. Retrieved from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTGENDER/
Resources/Education.pdf.
Xinhua News Agency. (2007, March 9). China teaches juveniles how to fend off
sexual harassment. Retrieved from www.china.org,cn/english/education/
202174.htm.
Young, E. I., Allen, M., & Ashbaker, B. Y. (2004). Responding to sexual harassment in special education settings. Teaching Exceptional Children, 36, 6267.
Zalk, S. R. (1990). Men in the Academy: A psychological prole of harassment.
In M. A. Paludi (Ed.), Ivory power: Sexual harassment on campus
(pp. 141 175). Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Zdravomyslova, O., & Ajaib, A. (2006). The usual evil: Gender violence in
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in and around schools (pp. 7179). Sterling, VA: Trentham Books.
Zeira, A., Astor, R. A., & Benbenishty, R. (2002). Sexual harassment in Jewish
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Zindi, F. (1998). Sexual harassment in Zimbabwes institutions of higher education. Perspectives in Education, 17, 3948.
Additional information regarding womens studies/gender studies programs may be obtained directly from the college or university and from
the Feminist Majority Foundation at http://feminist.org. The Feminist
Majority Foundation identies the degrees offered for each womens studies/gender studies program within the United States. Some programs
offer certicates, majors, and minors in womens studies/gender studies.
STATE
Alabama
Auburn University
University of Alabama
University of North Alabama
Alaska
University of Alaska, Fairbanks
Arizona
Arizona State University
Northern Arizona University
University of Arizona
234
Appendix
Arkansas
University of Arkansas
California
California Institute of Integral Studies
California Lutheran University
California Polytechnic State University
California State University, Chico
California State University, Fresno
California State University, Fullerton
California State University, Long Beach
California State University, Northridge
California State University, Sacramento
California State University, San Bernadino
California State University, San Marcos
California State University, Stanislaus
Cerritos College
Claremont Colleges
Claremont Graduate University
Foothill College
Mills College
Montclair State University
Moorpark College
New College of California
Ohlone College
Pomona College
Saddleback College
San Diego State University
San Francisco State University
Santa Clara University
Santa Monica College
Scripps College
Sonoma State University
Stanford University
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Riverside
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Cruz
Appendix
University
University
University
University
University
of
of
of
of
of
California,
California,
California,
California,
San Diego
Los Angeles
Davis
Irvine
San Diego
Colorado
Colorado College
Fort Lewis College
Metropolitan State College of Denver
University of Colorado, Boulder
University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
University of Colorado, Denver
University of Denver
University of Northern Colorado
Connecticut
Connecticut College
Faireld University
Hartford College for Women
Southern Connecticut State University
Trinity College
Delaware
University of Delaware
District of Columbia
American University
George Washington University
Georgetown University
Trinity College
Florida
Eckerd College
Florida Atlantic University
Florida International University
235
236
Appendix
Appendix
237
238
Appendix
Kentucky
Berea College
Brescia University
Eastern Kentucky University
Lexington Community College
Northern Kentucky University
University of Kentucky
University of Louisville
Louisiana
Louisiana State University
McNeese State University
Newcomb College
University of New Orleans
Maine
Bates College
Bowdoin College
Colby College
University of Maine, Farmington
University of Maine, Orono
University of Southern Maine
Maryland
Frostburg State University
Montgomery College
St. Marys College of Maryland
The Johns Hopkins University
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
University of Maryland, College Park
Massachusetts
Amherst College
Boston College
Boston University
Brandeis University
Appendix
Michigan
Albion College
Alma College
Central Michigan University
Eastern Michigan University
Grand Valley State University
Greeneld Community College
Hope College
Kalamazoo College
Michigan State University
University of Detroit
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
University of Michigan, Dearborn
Minnesota
Carleton College
Century College
239
240
Appendix
Appendix
241
242
Appendix
Appendix
Guilford College
North Carolina State University
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina, Charlotte
University of North Carolina, Greensboro
University of North Carolina, Wilmington
North Dakota
North Dakota State University
University of North Dakota
Ohio
Antioch College
Bowling Green State University
Case Western Reserve University
College of Mount St. Joseph
College of Wooster
Denison University
Kent State University
Kenyon College
Marietta College
Miami University
Notre Dame College of Ohio
Oberlin College
Ohio State University
Ohio University
Ohio Wesleyan University
University of Akron
University of Cincinnati
University of Dayton
University of Toledo
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State University
University of Central Oklahoma
University of Oklahoma
243
244
Appendix
Oregon
Lewis & Clark College
Oregon State University
Portland State University
Southern Oregon University
University of Oregon
Pennsylvania
Allegheny College
Bryn Mawr College
Bucknell University
California University of Pennsylvania
Chatham College
Clarion University of Pennsylvania
Dickinson College
Franklin and Marshall College
Gettysburg College
Haverford College
Lafayette College
LaSalle University
Lehigh University
Lock Haven University
Lycoming College
Manseld University
Millersville University
Pennsylvania State University
Rosemont College
Shippensburg University
Slippery Rock University
Rhode Island
Brown University
University of Rhode Island
South Carolina
Clemson University
College of Charleston
Appendix
245
246
Appendix
Virginia
College of William and Mary
George Mason University
Hollins University
James Madison University
Old Dominion University
Radford University
Randolph Macon Womens College
University of Richmond
University of Virginia
Washington
Clark College
Eastern Washington University
Edmonds Community College
Evergreen State College
Gonzaga University
Pacic Lutheran University
University of Puget Sound
University of Redlands
University of Washington
West Virginia
Marshall University
Mary Baldwin College
West Virginia University
Wisconsin
Beloit College
Lawrence University
Marquette University
University of Wisconsin,
University of Wisconsin,
University of Wisconsin,
University of Wisconsin,
University of Wisconsin,
Eau Claire
Green Bay
La Crosse
Madison
Milwaukee
Appendix
University
University
University
University
University
University
University
University
of
of
of
of
of
of
of
of
Wisconsin,
Wisconsin,
Wisconsin,
Wisconsin,
Wisconsin,
Wisconsin,
Wisconsin,
Wisconsin,
Oshkosh
Parkside
Platteville
River Falls
Stevens Point
Stout
Superior
Whitewater
247
EDITOR
Michele A. Paludi, PhD, is the series editor for Womens Psychology for
Praeger Publishers, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC. She is the author/editor of 33 college textbooks and more than 160 scholarly articles and
conference presentations on sexual harassment, campus violence, psychology of women, gender, and sexual harassment and victimization.
Her book, Ivory Power: Sexual Harassment on Campus (1990), received the
1992 Myers Center Award for Outstanding Book on Human Rights in the
United States). Dr. Paludi served as Chair of the U.S. Department of Educations Subpanel on the Prevention of Violence, Sexual Harassment, and
Alcohol and Other Drug Problems in Higher Education. She was one of
six scholars in the United States to be selected for this Subpanel. She also
was a consultant to and a member of former New York State Governor
Mario Cuomos Task Force on Sexual Harassment. Dr. Paludi serves as an
expert witness for court proceedings and administrative hearings on sexual harassment. She has had extensive experience in conducting training
programs and investigations of sexual harassment and other EEO issues
for businesses and educational institutions. In addition, Dr. Paludi has
held faculty positions at Franklin & Marshall College, Kent State University, Hunter College, Union College, and Union Graduate College, where
she directs the human resource management certicate program. She
teaches in the School of Management.
CONTRIBUTORS
Kristin Anderson, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the
University of HoustonDowntown where she teaches social psychology,
psychology of prejudice, psychology of women, and psychology and the
250
law. Her research interests are in the areas of prejudice, stereotyping, and
discrimination.
Martha E. Banks, PhD, is a research neuropsychologist in the Research &
Development Division of ABackans DCP, Inc., in Akron, Ohio and a former professor of Black Studies at The College of Wooster. She has been
instrumental in the development and revision of the Ackerman-Banks Neuropsychological Rehabilitation Battery; a test that is distinguished by its
inclusion of ethnic content and Women with Disabilities in the normative
sample. Dr. Banks is president of the Society for the Psychology of
Women. She is a fellow of American Psychological Association Divisions
35 (Society for the Psychology of Women), 22 (Rehabilitation Psychology),
and 56 (Trauma Psychology) and has served on the APA Council of Representatives and Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public
Interest. In 2008, she received a Presidential Citation from the American
Psychological Association for her expertise and service. Dr. Banks has
served on national advisory boards, including the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Human Developments Expert Panel on Caregiving for People
with Disabilities, and the National Advisory Board on Medical Rehabilitation Research. Dr. Banks is widely published; her articles include and
emphasize issues, particularly seldom addressed issues, affecting women
with disabilities and members of ethnic minority groups.
Susan Basow, PhD, is Charles A. Dana Professor of Psychology at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, where she helped found the womens studies program and chaired the psychology department for six
years. Dr. Basow has taught courses on the psychology of gender since
1974 and is the author of the textbook, Gender: Stereotypes and Roles. A licensed psychologist, she also has published the results of many of her
studies of gender issues in course evaluations and of women and their
bodies. She has been a member of the executive committee of the Society
for the Psychology of Women since 2000.
Kristin P. Beals, PhD, earned her BA from Auburn University in 1995.
She earned her doctorate degree in social psychology from UCLA in 2003.
She has been an assistant professor at California State University, Fullerton for the past 4 years. Her research has focused on understanding how
stigma impacts the well-being of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals.
Breena E. Coates, PhD, is Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Management, College of Business and Public Administration at
California State University, San Bernadino. She has been a professor of
management for the department of command, leadership, and management at the United States Army War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. She
has a BA in English from Calcutta University and an MPA and Ph.D. in
251
252
253
Index
256
Index
Index
curriculum, 4748, gender
stereotyping, 4647, gendered roles
and expectations, 4546, peer
inuence, 4849, teacher behaviors,
4951; educational attainment,
4445; effects of differential school
experiences, 5153; gender bias in
evaluating women professors,
5657; women as students, 4344;
women as teachers and professors,
53, gendered teaching styles,
5455, representation, 5354
Education Amendments of 1972, 47
Egypt, sexual harassment in schools,
21819
Egyptian Center for Womens Rights
(ECWR), 21819
England, sexual harassment in
schools, 200201
Equal Employment Opportunity
(EEO), 67, 7071, 79
Equal Opportunity for Women in the
Workplace Agency (EOWA), 68, 71
Eve-teasing, 209
Failing at Fairness: How Americas
Schools Cheat Girls, 19
Farrell, Warren, 19
Fear of extinction, 131
Feminine political persona, 97, 107;
Bachelet, Michelle, 97, 1046;
Johnson Sirleaf, Ellen, 97, 1034;
leadership styles, transformational
style, 9899, transactional style, 98,
99; Queen Victoria, 9798, 99103
Feminism, 2; attitude towards men, 5;
attitude towards women, 5;
denition, 4; Smith, Samantha
views on, 6364
Feminist Majority Foundation, 39
Feminist movement, 63
Feminist theory of body
dissatisfaction, 16667
Finland, sexual harassment in
schools, 202
Fourth World Conference on Women,
53
France, sexual harassment in schools,
202
257
258
Index
Index
11718, privacy infringement
hypothesis, 119, psychological
thesis, 118, sexual abuse and
gender harassment theories,
11819; USWAC women in
combat survey research, 11920
Minority stress theory, 131
Montraynaud, Florence, 66
Morocco, sexual harassment in
schools, 216
Mugabe, Robert Gabriel, 129
The Myth of Male Power, 19
Napolitano, Janet, 118
National Advisory Council on
Womens Educational Programs,
19091
National Assessment of Educational
Progress, 20
National Collective of the Rights of
Women, 66
National College Women Sexual
Victimization (NCWSV), 19798
National Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA), 36
National Institute on Disability and
Rehabilitation Research, 150
National Womens Law Center, 36
Nepal, sexual harassment in schools,
207
Netherland: colleges, sexual
harassment in, 204; schools,
sexual harassment in, 201
Nigeria, sexual harassment in
colleges, 21718
Nixon, Christine, 69
Non-feminists, attitudes toward
women, 6
OBeirne, Kate, 19
Pakistan, sexual harassment in
schools, 2056
Persian Gulf War, 117, 119
Phallic attack, 217
Pink jobs, 68
Prejudice, 127
Presidential Commission on the
Assignment of Women in the
259
260
Index
Index
The War Against Boys: How Misguided
Feminism is Harming our Young
Men, 19, 34
West Africa, sexual harassment in
schools, 215
westernization, as stigma against
same-sex sexual behavior, 12930
Williams Institute, 134
The Woman Haters, 12
Women: attitude towards men, 10;
barriers to ascendance of women
in workplaces, 7376; as
consumers, 70; discrimination
against women on pregnancy, 77;
in education. See education,
women in; EEO law and, 7073;
glass ceiling phenomenon and,
7376; in leadership, 15. See also
feminine political persona;
maternal wall phenomenon and,
7779; in military. See military
services, women in; penalties for
nontraditional, 1416; with power,
6970; sexual harassment impact
on, 21921; sticky oor
phenomenon, 7677; treating
women badly, 75; views on
benevolent sexism, 12; work/
family conict and, 7981;
workforce participation and
earning parity, 6768; in
workplace, 2829
261
Recent Titles in
Womens Psychology
Intimate Violence against Women: When Spouses, Partners, or Lovers Attack
Paula K. Lundberg-Love and Shelly L. Marmion, editors
Daughters of Madness: Growing Up and Older with a Mentally Ill Mother
Susan Nathiel
Psychology of Women: Handbook of Issues and Theories, Second Edition
Florence L. Denmark and Michele Paludi, editors
WomanSoul: The Inner Life of Womens Spirituality
Carole A. Rayburn and Lillian Comas-Diaz, editors
The Psychology of Women at Work: Challenges and Solutions for Our Female
Workforce
Michele A. Paludi, editor
PRAEGER
An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC
11 10
2 3 4 5
Contents
Series Introduction
ix
Acknowledgments
xi
Introduction
Michele A. Paludi
xiii
25
41
65
viii
Contents
155
195
209
211
231
235
Appendix.
253
263
Index
271
Series Introduction
Series Introduction
It is my hope that readers of the books in this series will also reect
on the topics and look at themselves, their own lives, and what they
see for the future. This three-volume book set on Feminism and Womens Rights Worldwide provides readers with the opportunity to accomplish this goal and offers suggestions for all of us working for
gender justice within our friendships and romantic relationships, in
guiding institutional and social policy change in workplace and educational institutions, and in lobbying state and federal legislators on
issues related to reproductive rights, pay equity, education, sexual violence, and childcare.
Michele A. Paludi
Series Editor
REFERENCE
Paludi, M. (2002). The psychology of women. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Acknowledgments
Teaching and writing are separate, but serve/feed one another in so many
ways. Writing travels the road inward, teaching, the road outhelping
OTHERS move inwardit is an honor to be with others in the spirit of
writing and encouragement.
Naomi Shihab Nye
Nyes sentiment is echoed throughout this three-volume set on feminism and womens rights. Most of the contributors have taught courses
in womens studies and feminism as well as conducted research and
written about feminist issues. Many contributors have been advocates
on behalf of feminist principles through working with local, state and
federal agencies, legislators, and the United Nations. And many of us
have collaborated with students in our classes in writing chapters for
this book set. These students have made us believe that all of them, in
their individual ways, will continue to do what this book set intends:
value feminism and work toward equality. It has been exhilarating for
me to see a new generation of feminists collaborating with mentors
and colleagues on the chapters for this book set.
I have been honored to have collaborated with the contributors to
these volumes. Several friendships with contributors have been
rekindled and strengthened, and I have met many new colleagues from
around the world who taught me about their disciplines through their
writing. You have all shown me the great accomplishments of feminists
as well as the work we have yet to do. Thank you.
I wish to thank my sisters, Rosalie Paludi and Lucille Paludi, for
their support during the preparation of this book set. I also thank Carmen Paludi, Jr. for his guidance and encouragement. Our discussions
about feminism brought back wonderful memories of my mother,
xii
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Michele A. Paludi
And how do you look backward? By looking forward. And what do you see?
As they look forward, they see what they had to do before they could look
backward. And there we have it all.
Gertrude Stein
xiv
Introduction
toys considered sex inappropriate for them; being tracked into different high school and college programs because of being women or men;
women being told by family and friends to hide their achievements
from potential dates and mates. I was unable to relate to these experiences and realized for the rst time that my parents were feminists, a
term to which I was introduced formally in this class and then subsequently as a graduate student when I took courses with Dee Graham
and Edna Rawlings. I also learned that I had been exposed to nonstereotyped role models, and because there were all girls in our family, we
were not raised to conform to stereotyped behavior.
It was in graduate school that I decided to pursue research in feminist psychology, especially in womens career development. I was fortunate to have a mentor, William Dember, who encouraged me to
pursue this research, even though it was not in his area of specialization (i.e., visual perception). Bill encouraged me to take courses with
faculty in departments in addition to psychology: educational leadership and family development. He told me this would help put pieces
together in understanding the research I was conducting. I thank Kathy
Borman and Judy Frankel for their roles in my feminist identity development.
A few years later when my father died, Charlie, who attended my
fathers wake, came to my mother, my sisters, and me and told us how
my father had impacted his life. Charlie, an African American man,
told us my father was the only coworker (both were skilled workers at
General Electric) who treated him fairly, didnt talk with him in a derogatory manner, and stopped others from making racial slurs and epithets. I learned for another time what it meant to be a feminist.
I dedicated the three-volume set on the Psychology of Women at Work
to my parents: For Antoinette and Michael Paludi, who encouraged
me to dene what womens work is for myself. They wanted all their
daughters to be independent thinkers and doers and to help others.
They gave us no templates to follow but encouraged us to navigate our
own paths. And, especially in my case, encouraged me to leave home
to attend graduate school in a city that seemed, to my parents, to be
very far awaybut they never said no.
My parents thus taught me that not only did they believe in the economic, educational, social, and political equality of women and men, but
they favored the social and legal changes necessary to achieve equality
between the sexes and among races, and they were committed to implementing these principles. Perhaps they could not effect change at the
national level, but they did do so in personal relationships with their
family and friends and on the local level. This is the legacy they left my
sisters and me. This book set is a tribute to Antoinette and Michael.
I have been reminded of Antoinette and Michael throughout the
writing and editing of these volumes on feminism and womens rights.
Introduction
xv
xvi
Introduction
pattern. But we have not stopped questioning the process of quilting
itself.
In Volume 2, Mental and Physical Health, contributors deal with violence and discrimination against girls and women and the resulting
impact on womens emotional and physical well being, interpersonal
relationships, career development, and self-concept. Types of discrimination and victimization addressed are sexual harassment, sexual violence, harassment of sexual minorities, and rape and violence in the
context of womens HIV risk. Contributors have addressed these issues
globally. Bethany Waits and Paula Lundberg-Love offer new cutting
edge evidence on neurological responses in women victims of sexual
violence. Therapeutic support for women victims of violence is also
addressed in this volume, including feminist therapy and ethnocultural
psychotherapy.
All contributors note that sexual victimization is prevalent in the
United States and globally, as is sexual harassment and sexual orientation discrimination. As Waits and Lundberg-Love note:
Female survivors of sexual violence are everywhere. They are in universities, religious institutions, court rooms, hospitals, and the military. They
are daughters, mothers, spouses, sisters, friends, next-door neighbors,
and co-workers. Many differ in age, education, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. . . . However, their lives are connected by the violence that
they have experienced.
Introduction
xvii
The international focus on feminism and womens rights is continued in Volume 3, Feminism as Human Rights. In this volume, contributors address laws on sexual harassment, pay equity, and rape.
Furthermore, contributors speak to the injustices to women with disabilities. Human rights issues such as arranged and forced marriage
for women, pornography, and the globalization of western appearance
ideals are also presented in this volume. All contributors to this volume call for further advocacy on behalf of women. As Noorfarah Merali stated:
It is only if arranged marriages are understood in light of their intentions, diverse forms, actual outcomes, and local or international contexts
that laws, policies, and human rights advocacy can be appropriately
channeled to protect and preserve womens well-being.
xviii
Introduction
Chapter 1
International Perspectives on
Women and Mental Health
Joy Rice
Nancy Felipe Russo
Women have the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. The enjoyment of this right is vital to
their life and well-being and their ability to participate in all areas of
public and private life. Health is a state of complete physical, mental and
social well-being and . . . is determined by the social, political and economic context of [womens] lives, as well as by biology. (Platform for
action: Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing China, Chapter IV.
C.89, United Nations)
Homen, 1997; Silverman & Carter, 2006). Symptoms of anxiety disorders are correlated with other disorders, complicating diagnosis. In
particular, research is needed that claries the origins and relationships
among symptoms of anxiety and depressive disorders, which constitute
the largest contributor to the gender gap in internalizing disorders.
Countrywide studies may mask within-country variations in rates of
mental disorder. Women are more likely to be poor, and surveys in
Brazil, Chile, India, and Zimbabwe have found that rates of common
mental disorders (anxiety and depression) are higher among the poor
(Patel, Araya, Ludermir, & Todd, 1999). Furthermore, in poorer areas,
treatment may be more likely to be inadequate or nonexistent. In the
United States, rates and predictors of mental disorder vary substantially within subpopulations. For example, a national survey of Latinos
and Asian Americans (Alegria et al., 2007), revealed that among the
four Latina subethnic groups studied, Mexican heritage women were
less likely than Puerto Rican women to have a depressive disorder,
and Puerto Rican women had the highest overall lifetime and past-year
prevalence rates compared to other women.
It is important to go beyond a focus on rates and learn more about
how elements of gender affect the development, course, and context of
mental disorders among women internationally. In particular, more
needs to be known about how gender affects comobidity of mental disorder over the life cycle. For example, depression and anxiety are more
likely to be found together for women, whereas depression and substance abuse are more likely to be paired for men. The extent to which
this difference reects a gender difference in pathways to depression
versus diagnostic bias requires investigation.
Research on the patterns of being depressed found in womens daily
experiences suggests that women may be more likely to experience
short-term depressive episodes than men, possibly reecting their dayto-day experience with life stressors (Kessler, 2006).
WOMEN AND DEPRESSION: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
Depression is identied in the WHO report as the leading global
cause of years of health lost to disease for both men and women, with
unipolar depression as the eighth leading cause of loss of health in
low-income countries and the primary cause of loss of health in middleand high-income countries. Depression affects around 120 million
people worldwide, and the number is projected to increase. Fewer
than 25 percent of those affected have access to adequate treatment
and health care.
For purposes of this discussion, the outstanding fact is that compared with men, the worldwide rate of depression in women globally
is 50 percent higher, and gender is perceived to be the critical
Paltiel concludes that the key depression risk factors for women
globally are simply that everywhere women are overworked, overlooked and undervalued, and that poverty, discrimination, violence
and powerlessness are pervasive features of womens lives (p. 197). In
many developed countries, women are often poorly paid for dangerous, labor-intensive jobs, and are undernourished as well (Lopez &
Guarnaccia, 2005). The so-called feminization of poverty is also a
worldwide phenomenon as our family structures and models change,
with an increasingly preponderance of single-parent mother families
worldwide (Rice, 2001). Clearly, it is essential to recognize how genetic,
biological, social, and psychological factors all contribute to the high
incidence of depression women worldwide, and guidelines for treatment need to be based on a biopsychosocial model of assessment,
research, practice, and policy.
Screening and access to treatment for depression is also a very signicant concern. Even in a developed, wealthy country like the United
States, only 24 percent of women who suffer from depression receive
treatment, with even lower rates for African American women (16 percent) and Hispanic women (20 percent) (U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, 2000). Health care providers in developing countries identify less than one-half of women with depression in those
countries (WHO, 2002). A number of overwhelming challenges occur
in countries with low-resource settings including the lack of facilities,
trained mental health personnel, effective population-based screening,
and the prevalence of high cultural stigma (Worley, 2006). Communication between health workers and women patients can be extremely
authoritarian in many countries where women are still primarily
viewed as inferior with low social and economic status and often stigmatized for showing negative or depressed emotion. Furthermore,
when women dare to reveal mental health concerns, health workers
may reect these stereotyped gender biases, which leads them to either
overtreat or undertreat women (WHO, 1996).
10
11
12
13
Guideline 3: Psychologists strive to understand the impact of bias and discrimination upon the physical and mental health of those with whom they
work.
Professional Responsibility
Guideline 4: Psychologists strive to use gender and culturally sensitive,
afrming practices in providing services to girls and women.
Guideline 5: Psychologists are encouraged to recognize how their socialization, attitudes, and knowledge about gender may affect their practice with
girls and women.
Practice Applications
Guideline 6: Psychologists are encouraged to employ interventions and
approaches that have been found to be effective in the treatment of issues
of concern to girls and women.
Guideline 7: Psychologists strive to foster therapeutic relationships and
practices that promote initiative, empowerment, and expanded alternatives
and choices for girls and women.
Guideline 8: Psychologists strive to provide appropriate, unbiased assessments and diagnoses in their work with women and girls
Guideline 9: Psychologists strive to consider the problems of girls and
women in their sociopolitical context.
Guideline 10: Psychologists strive to acquaint themselves with and utilize relevant mental health, education, and community resources for girls and women.
Guideline 11: Psychologists are encouraged to understand and work to
change institutional and systemic bias that may impact girls and women.
Almost concurrently, in 2007, the CPA passed Guidelines for Ethical Psychological Practice with Women that articulates four guiding
principles:
1. Respect for the dignity of persons. This principle urges that psychologist
ensure that they do not engage in or support any gender-based discrimination and/or oppression, recognizing that there may be situations
where women clients face multiple discriminations and oppressions.
2. Responsible caring. The main point of this principle is that psychologists
strive to understand how womens lives are shaped by the interaction of
gender with other modalities like culture, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, and that is important for the practitioner to understand how the
multiple social contexts of their own life might inuence or interfere with
their attempts to help and not harm women clients.
3. Integrity in relationships. Psychologists are open, honest, and accurate in
their communications and recognize, monitor, and manage potential
biases, multiples relationships, or other conicts of interest that could
14
The underlying concepts and principles in the APA and CPA guidelines are similar, but the CPA principles are more general in their articulation and do not, for example, discuss specic practices of promoting
empowerment and expanded alternatives for women; using unbiased
assessments, diagnoses, and materials; and employing specic interventions that have been found to be helpful and effective with women
clients. Their thrust is closer to the underlying ethical principles for the
APA Resolution on Gender and Cultural Awareness in International
Psychology. The CPA guidelines, unlike those of the APA, do not provide a developmental perspective applying to younger girls.
15
Three important themes can be seen to have emerged from the work
of this beginning task force. The rst concerns our concepts of empowerment and the language of empowerment. Such concepts are often
framed in individualist terms from a Western point of view. By way of
contrast, for example, many Japanese women, both feminist and nonfeminists, dene meaningful constructs of interdependence and fulllment that are consistent with the values of a more collective society. It is
suggested that terms such as resourcefulness are likely to be less ethnocentric and more useful and meaningful in the treatment of mental
health problems for women in other cross-national contexts (Enns, 2008).
Second, the goals and strategies of psychotherapy for women need
to be framed in culturally sensitive terms. For example, although we as
Western therapists and feminists tend to see and promote gender role
differentiation as negative and as a barrier to achieving equity and a
positive sense of self, many Muslim and Asian women have worked
toward preserving and honoring difference, especially in the realm of
family and personal relations (Enns, 2008; Pharaon, 2001).
Another guiding theme identied in modifying the Western guidelines for psychological practice for women and girls was the consideration that Western society is extremely goal directed. This is also
reected in the way in which we practice psychotherapy with the goal
of being assertive or achieving a certain job or status. For women from
other cultures, the goal orientation of such a therapeutic approach may
not resonate; for example, a Japanese woman whose personality values
a role-oriented approach to life and who experiences a sense of satisfaction from fullling and honoring that lifetime role, such as nurturing family and children to the subordination of self (Enns, 2003). Thus,
the alleviation of depression associated with that role may be not to
attempt to separate the women from the role or to divorce or to separate, but to help her feel and integrate the honor her culture assigns to
that role.
Several of the Western guidelines are broad enough to apply to
many various contexts and to diverse mental health problems of
women across the world, but they would need culture-specic language, applications, interventions, and examples. In terms of language
and translation of the guidelines, the particular meanings of words and
connotations of concepts embedded in individualistic perspectives may
vary from country to country and culture to culture, necessitating consideration of cultural relevance (Enns, 2008). Every therapeutic encounter is embedded in a multi-lingual context, and both therapist and
client must be aware of the many leveled effects. There are many
opportunities for misunderstandings, as well as for mutual shared
learning (Espin, 2001).
Nonetheless, the overall relevance and importance of concepts like
empowerment, awareness of difference, sensitivity to and avoidance of
16
17
face (Hinkelman, 2001). Mexican women often suffer stresses that are
due to inadequate food and shelter, domestic violence, unemployment,
and oppressive political policies and structures. Religion plays a large
part in their family life, and some life events are attributed to luck,
supernatural forces, or acts of God, a fatalism that has been linked to a
high prevalence of depression and other clinical issues such as anxiety
and psychosomatic symptoms. Furthermore, Mexican women, especially in rural areas, tend to have limited information and access to
medical and mental health care resources and institutions and centers
specializing in assisting victims of violence and abuse (Pick, Contreras,
& Barker-Aguilar, 2006). All these considerations of the social context
of the depressed Mexican woman need to be considered in evaluation
of the intrapsychic and external sources of her distress and the appropriate interventions.
Finally, APA Guideline 11 and CPA Principle 4 speak to the need for
psychologists everywhere to help better their societies by engaging and
advocating for positive social change that alleviates institutional and systemic injustice and discrimination. The question that is relevant here is
whether or not there can be healing without justice. The abuse of
women worldwide and their resulting trauma makes explicit the link
between treatment and advocacy and calls forth a model of global practice for women and girls that incorporates advocacy. If justice is indeed
therapeutic, then psychologists are urged to go beyond their relatively
comfortable roles and ofce work to publicly work for their women clients in nontherapeutic settings and venues. From this perspective, we
help to forge a world in which women can live, work, and be healed
from the pernicious effects of discrimination, abuse, and violence and
the multiple mental health consequences of those conditions.
BEYOND CURRENT MODELS OF RESEARCH AND PRACTICE
As Aida Hurtado (2009) has articulated, feminist theorists have challenged traditional forms of knowledge production, staked out claims in
knowledge production, and emphasized the roots of multicultural feminist theory in the every day experiences of human beings who love,
live, laugh, cry, and think. Part of that challenge has been the development of new methodologies, qualitative and quantitative, to produce
new knowledge about womens lives and circumstances. In particular,
the development of participatory and action research techniques hold
promise for the development of an action-reection dialectic or praxis
to create an activist scholarship in international psychology (Earth,
1998; Khanna, 1996; Lykes, 1994, 2001; Lykes, Coquillon, & Rabenstein,
in press).
Stigma, cultural beliefs, and cultural norms with regard to expressing
psychological distress and help-seeking, diagnostic practices, treatment
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19
recognize that people seek help from diverse sources and there is little
to gain by challenging beliefs in evil spirits and witchcraft is likely to
meet with substantial resistance from a Western biomedical perspective. However, the point is made that counseling approaches based
on Western psychological theories may indeed be applicable across
culturesbut to be effective, a counselor must nd what will be acceptable. A similar bottoms up effort, informed by feminist principles and guidelines for therapy with women, would provide an
interesting approach for giving multicultural feminist psychology
away to community workers and service providers who seek alternatives to traditional approaches in the United States.
CONCLUSION
International perspectives on mental health offer a holistic vision of
health that is congruent with the biopsychosocial perspective advocated by feminist psychologists. This perspective views understanding
the relation of womens social roles and circumstances to mental health
in its social/political and cultural context as necessary for the development of effective treatment and prevention. That gender has a profound impact on the development of and response to mental distress
and disorder is indisputable. The goal now is to understand the factors
and mechanisms that produce that impact, including the power
inequalities, stigma, and devaluation associated with womens social
roles and circumstances. New theories and methods, informed by multicultural and international feminist perspectives, as reected in the
guidelines for psychological practice with women and girls, hold
promise as tools for achieving that goal. However, doing so will
require viewing gender as a multidimensional cultural construct with
elements that may interact with elements of the cultural context at multiple levelsbiological, psychological, social, environmental, cultural,
and contextualand developing policies and programs aimed at eliminating the power inequities, stigma, discrimination, and gender-based
violence that continue to undermine the mental health and well being
of women over their life cycle.
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Chapter 2
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Ethnocultural Psychotherapy
27
EMPOWERMENT
Ethnocultural psychotherapists aim to increase women of colors
sense of agency. In other words, ethnocultural psychotherapy empowers
women to increase their access to resources, examine options, enhance
their ability to make choices, improve self- and collective esteem, learn
culturally relevant assertiveness, rescue ethnogender strengths, overcome internalized oppression, and engage in transformative actions.
Ethnocultural psychotherapy promotes critical consciousness. Coined by
Paulo Freire (1970), critical consciousness refers to the process of
engaging in a dialectical dialogue with ones world, becoming aware of
ones circumstances, and initiating transformative actions. The critical
consciousness dialogue involves asking questions such as What?
Why? How? For whom? Against whom? By whom? In favor of whom?
In favor of what? To what end? (Freire & Macedo, 2000). Exploring
these critical questions raises consciousness and helps to examine
existential issues. In particular, a critical dialogue facilitates womens
examination of what matters regarding power differentials.
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Ethnocultural Psychotherapy
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30
The next assessment stage, niche, refers to the outcome of the post
transition analysis. Niche is based on the clients intellectual and emotional perception of her familys ethnocultural identity in the host society since the translocation. Succinctly put, niche is the place carved by
the family after the transition. During this stage, therapists assess what
happened to the family after the translocation. Moreover, therapists
examine womens cognitive and emotional perception of their family
ethnocultural saga. They review womens interactions with members of
their own ethnocultural group. In particular, therapists explore the
family status before and after the translocation. Womens internalization of their family saga provides a blueprint of their entry into the
world. Exploring this stage facilitates the development of a contextual
framework within which to place womens subjective experiences.
Therapists ask the following questions when examining womens
niche: Have family members stayed together? Is there a sense of family unity? What is the relationship of family with the original ethnocultural group? How have they fared nancially, emotionally?
The self-adjustment stage relates to womens own perceived adaptation to the host culture (or situation) as individuals distinct from their
family. Self-adjustment explores the contrasts between the womans
ethnocultural identity and that of her family, work, and social environment. This stage involves an analysis of womens coping skills. Here,
therapists help women to analyze the functionality of their behaviors
within diverse contexts. Womens strengths are examined, paying
attention to cultural resilience. For example, among many women of
color, personal survival is connected to their collective survival.
Fostering cultural resilience, ethnocultural psychotherapy helps
women to reconnect with their ethnic beliefs. Cultural resilience is a
host of strengths, values and practices that promote coping mechanisms and adaptive reactions to traumatic oppression (Elsass, 1992).
Cultural resilience promotes resourceful responses to oppression and
adversity. Therefore, it fosters creativity, reconstruction, and evolution.
The last ethnocultural assessment stage examines womens relations.
Therapists examine womens self and other relationship. Besides examining womens signicant connections, clinicians focus on the therapeutic relationship, including transference and countertransference. They
explore their own ethnocultural background to determine specic areas
of real or potential overlap with their clients. In other words, therapists complete their own ethnocultural assessment to determine areas
of similarity and difference with their clients. Above and beyond
obtaining a wealth of information crucial for therapeutic interventions,
performance of an ethnocultural assessment frequently opens new
channels for the recognition of self in the culturally different other.
A crucial component of the ethnocultural assessment is the inclusion
of gender specic issues in all stages of the evaluation. For example,
Ethnocultural Psychotherapy
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Ethnocultural Psychotherapy
33
the ethnic similarity); (2) traitor (client exhibits resentment and envy at
therapists successesequated with betrayal and the selling out of his/
her culture and race); (3) auto-racist (client does not want to work with
a therapist of her own ethnicity, due to projection of the strong negative feelings about herself onto the therapist); and (4) ambivalent
(women may feel comfortable with their shared ethnocultural background, but at the same time, they may fear too much psychological
closeness).
Some countertransferential reactions within the inter-ethnic dyad
include the following: (1) denial of cultural differences; (2) the clinical
anthropologists syndrome (excessive curiosity about women of colors
ethnocultural backgrounds at the expense of their emotional needs);
(3) guilt (emerges when societal and political realities dictate a lower
status for women of color); (4) pity (a derivative of guilt or an expression of political impotence within the therapeutic hour) (5) aggression;
and (6) ambivalence (it may originate from ambivalence toward therapists own ethnoculture).
Within the intra-ethnic dyad some of the countertransferential reactions are the following: (1) overidentication; (2) us and them mentality
(shared victimization due to gendered ethnocultural discrimination
may contribute to therapists ascribing the womans problems as being
solely due to being a person of color); (3) distancing; (4) survivors
guilt (therapists of color may have the personal experience of escaping
the harsh socioeconomic circumstances of low income ethnic minorities, leaving family and friends in the process, and generating conict
and guilt); (5) cultural myopia (inability to see clearly due to ethnocultural factors that obscure therapy); (6) ambivalence (working through
the therapists own ethnic ambivalence); and (7) anger (being too ethnoculturally close to a woman of color may uncover painful, unresolved emotional issues).
The examination of ethnocultural transference and countertransference advances the psychotherapeutic process.
PHASES IN THE PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC PROCESS
The ethnocultural psychotherapeutic process unfolds the phases of
intuition, affect, cognition, and coalescence. Although these stages seem
to follow a developmental path, in reality, they are uid and permeable.
During the intuitive stage, women of color are reading the therapists
nonverbal communication. In other words, they are literally checking
the therapist out. Thus, nonverbal communication such as body language, hunches, and vibes acquires central importance. Although both
therapist and client follow their gut feelings, women of color tend to rely
more on their intuition, while therapists are cognitively engaged in
collecting data, making a diagnosis, and developing a treatment plan.
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Ethnocultural Psychotherapy
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Chapter 3
Female survivors of sexual violence are everywhere. They are in universities, religious institutions, court rooms, hospitals, and the military.
They are daughters, mothers, spouses, sisters, friends, next-door neighbors, and coworkers. Many differ in age, education, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (Klump, 2006; Koss, Bailey, & Yuan, 2003). However,
their lives are connected by the violence that they have experienced.
Sexual violence is a pervasive social problem, and as Koss et al. (1994)
aptly noted, there is no safe haven for women from victimization.
National epidemiological data indicates that between 17 and 25 percent
of women in the United States report some form of sexual assault in
their lifetime (Campbell, 2008). Results of a national telephone survey
conducted in 2001 to 2003 found that approximately 2.7 million women
experienced sexual violence during the last 12 months prior to the survey. The same study also reported that approximately 11.7 million
women had been victimized at some point during their lives (Basile,
Chen, Black, & Saltzman, 2007). Globally, at least one woman in three
is beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused at some point in her
life (Koss et al., 2003).
Sexual violence is a comprehensive term that describes all acts of
unwanted sexual activity including rape, sexual assault, and intimate
partner violence (IPV). According to Hedtke et al. (2008), rape typically
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44
sexual violence are at an elevated risk for suicidal ideation when compared with nonvictims. Within the rst month, suicidal ideation was
reported by 33 to 50 percent of survivors, and in one study 22 percent
of sexually abused women reported suicidal ideation in the previous
12-month period as compared to 7 percent of nonabused women (Koss
et al., 1994). Since the frequency of suicidal thoughts is elevated, it
should not be surprising that approximately 19 percent of victims
report at least one suicide attempt at some point in their lifetime (Koss
et al., 2003).
Victims of sexual violence are considered the largest single group
that suffers from PTSD (Koss & Kilpatrick, 2001). According to Bohn
and Holz (1996), a wide range of symptoms such as ashbacks, intrusive recollections about the abuse, repetitive dreams and nightmares,
psychological numbing, anxiety, irritability, insomnia, hypersensitivity,
and hypervigilance are frequently reported. Approximately one-third
of female survivors are diagnosed with PTSD immediately following
the attack (Ullman, Filipas, Townsend, & Starzynski, 2007). After three
weeks, 79 percent of victims met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual,
fourth edition (DSM-IV) criteria for PTSD (Gilboa-Schechtman & Foa,
2001). In addition, prospective studies have demonstrated that within
two weeks of the assault, 90 percent of victims met symptom criteria
for PTSD while 50 percent continued to meet the criteria three months
later (Koss et al., 2003). Research from community-based samples
found that between 44 and 49 percent of women who experienced sexual violence were diagnosed with PTSD (Littleton & Breitkopf, 2006).
According to Resnick, Acierno, Holmes, Dammeyer, and Kilpatrick
(2000), the lifetime prevalence of PTSD among survivors is approximately 30 percent; however, estimates as high as 50 percent also have
been reported. Finally, another study found that individuals who experienced sexual violence were 6.2 times more likely to suffer from PTSD
than women who had never been victimized (Koss et al., 2003).
Typically, survivors reported feeling dirty and unclean following sexual victimization. While many of these feelings are related to
visible dirt and contamination from the attack, they also may result
from a sense of internal, non-visible contamination. Researchers dene
this phenomenon as mental pollution, and for many, mental pollution continues despite being visibly clean (Fairbrother & Rachman,
2004). As a result, survivors may engage in excessive washing behaviors in an attempt to remove the unclean feelings sustained from the
assault. One study conducted by Fairbrother and Rachman (2004)
assessed mental pollution among a sample of sexual assault survivors
and found that 70 percent of participants reported an urge to wash or
clean themselves subsequent to the attack. Furthermore, 49 percent of
the sample reported washing more than one time and 24 percent continued washing for several weeks. More than 25 percent of women in
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46
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48
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PHYSICAL RESPONSES
The tendency to report physical health symptoms following victimization has led to an increased rate of medical service seeking among
those who experience sexual violence (Ullman & Brecklin, 2003). Koss
and Kilpatrick (2001) reported that medical utilization among victims
increased by 31 to 56 percent approximately ve years after the attack,
compared to a 2 percent increase among nonvictims during the corresponding time period. Furthermore, among all female primary care
patients, 25 to 28 percent have a history of sexual violence, suggesting
that poor physical health is common among these individuals (Koss
et al., 1994). On standardized self-report measures of health perception
and functioning, victims report signicantly poorer health habits and
increased symptoms in all body systems except for the skin and eyes
(Resnick et al., 1997). Indeed, a number of complaints are diagnosed
disproportionately among survivors including physical injuries, gynecological disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, and chronic pain (Koss
& Kilpatrick, 2001).
Approximately 40 percent of victims receive nongenital, physical
injuries following an incident of victimization, and among those who
are injured, 54 percent seek medical treatment (Koss et al., 1994). The
most common injuries consist of abrasions to the head, neck, face,
thorax, breasts, and abdomen (Campbell, 2002; Goodman et al., 1993).
Other injuries such as bruising, contusions, bone fractures, and lacerations also have been reported (Cook, Dickens, & Thapa, 2005; Resnick
et al., 1997). Data from the National Womens Study documented that
only 4 percent of victims sustained serious injuries, suggesting that the
majority of injuries may be minor (Resnick et al., 1997). At least 50 percent of all victims treated in emergency departments report vaginal
and perineal trauma (Groer, Thomas, Evans, Helton, & Weldon, 2006).
According to Resnick et al. (2000), approximately 15 percent of women
who have been sexually victimized have signicant vaginal tears, with
1 percent requiring surgery to repair the damage.
The incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among victims
of sexual violence is between 3.6 and 30 percent (Koss & Kilpatrick,
2001). The most prevalent STDs include gonorrhea, chlamydia, trichomonal infections, and syphilis. However, research also indicates that
victims may have an increased risk for hepatitis B and human immunodeciency virus (HIV) (Resnick et al., 2000). Although the rate of
HIV transmission due to rape is unknown, it is a great concern for a
majority of victims (Koss & Kilpatrick, 2001). One study found that 89
percent of women interviewed one month after their assaults mentioned fear of contracting HIV (Resnick et al., 2000). When assessed
several months following the attack, between 26 and 40 percent of victims spontaneously mentioned AIDS and HIV as a concern, and for
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more than half of these individuals, it was their primary concern (Koss
et al., 1994). Finally, studies have consistently documented that approximately 5 percent of sexual assault cases result in pregnancy (Koss &
Kilpatrick, 2001; Resnick et al., 2000).
Gynecological disorders are the most frequently reported physical
health problem among victims of sexual violence. At one-year postassault, women continue to experience severe gynecological dysfunction (Campbell, Lichty, Sturza, & Raja, 2006). For instance, approximately 26 to 82 percent of victims report chronic pelvic pain
subsequent to the attack (Golding, 1999). In a study by Koss et al.
(1994), women who had undergone laparoscopy for chronic pelvic pain
were more likely to be victims of sexual assault than women who had
the procedure for other reasons. Chronic pelvic pain results in approximately 10 to 19 percent of all hysterectomies performed in the United
States, which could suggest that survivors may be more likely to have
this procedure than nonvictimized women (Koss et al., 1994). While
chronic pelvic pain is frequently reported among victims, other gynecological disorders and symptoms also have been mentioned. These
include dysmenorrhea, menorrhagia, dyspareunia, vaginal pain, premenstrual syndrome, urinary tract infections, vaginal bleeding, excessive vaginal discharge, painful intercourse, rectal bleeding, broids,
and multiple yeast infections (Bohn & Holz, 1996; Campbell, 2002;
Campbell et al., 2006; Chrisler & Ferguson, 2006; Koss et al., 1994).
While physical injuries, STDs, and gynecological disorders are commonly reported, other physical health disturbances also have been
documented. For instance, in eight studies, including one general population survey, the incidence of gastrointestinal disorders among victims ranged from 30 to 64 percent (Golding, 1999). Another study
found that approximately 44 percent of women evaluated at a gastroenterology clinic reported some type of sexual victimization in adulthood (Koss et al., 1994). Research suggests that nausea, vomiting,
diarrhea, constipation, spastic colon, irritable bowl syndrome, abdominal pain, and indigestion are among the most common gastrointestinal
problems reported by victims (Campbell 2002; Chrisler & Ferguson,
2006; Goodman et al., 1993). In addition, chronic pain disorders including headaches, back pain, facial pain, neck pain, temporal mandibular
joint discomfort, and bruxism are associated with sexual violence
(Campbell, 2002; Koss et al., 1994). Among women referred to a multidisciplinary pain center, 53 percent had a history of sexual abuse (Koss
et al., 1994). Golding (1999) reported that approximately 45 percent of
patients with chronic headaches, 69 percent of patients with facial pain,
and 46 percent of patients with chronic back pain had been sexually
victimized at some point in their lives. It is estimated that between 50
to 67 percent of women with bromyalgia and other musculoskeletal
disorders have a history of sexual assault (Golding, 1999). Sleep
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disturbances such as nightmares and insomnia, as well as cardiovascular disorders including hypertension, rapid heart rate, and chest pain
are also prevalent among victims (Chrisler & Ferguson, 2006). Finally,
additional research suggests that victims may be at an elevated risk for
infections including inuenza and colds (Campbell, 2002).
Since many of the physical symptoms associated with sexual violence have been established, researchers are now attempting to identify
factors that may explain this relationship.
Classical conditioning, assault characteristics, and psychological distress all have been proposed as causal links between abuse and negative health outcomes (Bohn & Holz, 1996; Resnick et al., 1997). When
an extremely distressing event (i.e., victimization) occurs, it becomes an
unconditioned stimulus that elicits an unconditioned, or automatic,
response (Resnick et al., 1997). This automatic response is characterized
by cognitive (e.g., perception that ones life is threatened or that ones
body is deled), behavioral (e.g., screaming, kicking, running, ghting,
or freezing), and physiological (e.g., alterations in respiration, heart
rate, gastrointestinal functioning, digestion, and muscle tension) components. Unfortunately, a powerful form of conditioned responding
occurs when automatic responses are paired with other cues associated
with the attack, such as the time of day the victimization occurred, the
sounds and smells present during the attack, the physical appearance
of the perpetrator, and dark shadows if the assault occurred at night
(Resnick et al., 1997). When this takes place, environmental cues
become learned or conditioned stimuli that have the capacity to elicit
the cognitive, behavioral, and physiological responses that automatically occurred during the initial trauma. Thus, physical reactions to
sexual assault such as abdominal distress, pain, nausea, increased heart
rate, shortness of breath, and shaking may become learned conditioned
responses to environmental fear triggers (i.e., dark shadows) and cause
victims to experience an increase in problematic symptoms (Resnick
et al., 1997). According to Resnick and colleagues (1997), as victims
continue to experience these health problems, they may be more likely
to develop chronic disorders such as bromyalgia and irritable bowel
syndrome.
A dose-response relationship may exist between sexual violence and
chronic health problems whereby numerous assault experiences result
in exacerbated symptoms (Ullman & Brecklin 2003). In one study conducted by Ullman and Brecklin (2003), correlates of past-year chronic
medical conditions were examined among women with different sexual
victimization histories identied from the National Comorbidity Survey. Findings suggested that for adult victims, more lifetime traumatic
sexual encounters were related to increased chronic medical conditions
compared to those who experienced a single act of sexual violence
(2003). Another study conducted by Campbell et al. (2006) reported
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that the number of vaginal assaults alone was signicantly and positively associated with a higher frequency of pelvic pain, vaginal bleeding, discharge, painful intercourse, and painful urination. Those who
experienced multiple oral or anal assaults were more likely to report
chronic pain and gynecological disorders than those who did not
repeatedly experience these types of trauma (2006). Furthermore,
research has documented that victims who believed that their lives
were in danger during the assault were more likely to experience
severe health problems when compared to others devoid of such a history (Ullman & Brecklin, 2003).
Recent evidence suggests that psychological distress and mental
health sequelae may mediate the physical health conditions associated
with sexual violence. Among women recruited from a primary care
clinic, sexual assault victims had higher rates of medical complaints
only if they also reported psychological distress (Ullman & Brecklin,
2003). Specically, research suggests that PTSD symptoms are positively correlated with more severe physical symptoms following victimization (Groer et al., 2006). A study conducted by Zoellner,
Goodwin, and Foa (2000) assessed survivors with chronic PTSD in
order to determine if PTSD symptoms were related to negative health
outcomes. Results indicated that negative life events, anger, depression,
and PTSD severity all were related to an increase in self-reported
health symptoms. However, PTSD symptom severity predicted physical symptoms to a greater degree than the other variables. Thus,
although research has repeatedly demonstrated impairment of physical
health after sexual assault, it may not be the assault per se, but rather
the associated psychological sequelae, such as PTSD, that are responsible for the decline in victims well-being (Zoellner et al., 2000). Other
studies also have reported a relationship between PTSD severity and
physical health symptomatology (Campbell et al., 2008). For instance,
Rebecca Campbell et al. (2008) found that PTSD symptom severity was
more likely to be associated with persistent health conditions, especially those related to chronic pain, as compared to other factors. As
studies continue to document the role of PTSD as a mediator of physical health outcomes, the need for effective treatments and interventions
for PTSD becomes more apparent (Campbell et al., 2008).
NEUROLOGICAL RESPONSES
Initially, literature concerning the neurological sequelae associated
with sexual violence was limited to psychogenic seizures, fainting, and
convulsions (Campbell, 2002; Koss et al., 1994). In the last twenty years
however, research has documented that cognitive functioning, brain
structures, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity, cortisol
levels, and recovery from traumatic brain injury (TBI) are different
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disorders are reported as common sequelae among victims, dysfunction of the HPA axis and lowered cortisol levels may be another mediator between violence and health-related outcomes (Campbell et al.,
2008).
Finally, research suggests that there may be an association between
sexual victimization and recovery following traumatic brain injury
(TBI). According to Reeves, Beltzman, and Killu (2000), patients with a
history of sexual violence who have subsequently sustained a TBI frequently report reemergence of sequelae related to the abuse. These typically include intense ashbacks, behavioral disturbances, nightmares,
and hypervigilance. Indeed, such individuals who have not reported
PTSD symptomatology for many years may spontaneously re-experience
vivid, intrusive, and disruptive episodes of past sexual trauma following TBI. Even more disturbing, evidence suggests that victims who
have made the most adaptive recoveries from the violence, experience
the most disruptive PTSD-symptoms after TBI occurs (Reeves et al.,
2000). One possible explanation for this effect is that traumatized individuals develop a hyperaroused limbic system that over time may be
inhibited by prefrontal neural structures, especially those in the right
prefrontal area. However, in many cases of TBI, particularly those
involving a motor vehicle accident, bony protrusions on the interior of
the skull result in neurological insult to prefrontal brain tissue. Consequently, when the prefrontal area is damaged, it is unable to govern
the effects of hyperarousal in the limbic system, resulting in the reoccurrence of PTSD symptomatology. Since recovery is typically
prolonged in these individuals, future research is needed to better
understand the relationship of victimization on subsequent TBI (Reeves
et al., 2000).
BEHAVIORAL RESPONSES
The literature reviewed thus far provides ample evidence that sexual
violence against women results in long-lasting and pervasive psychological, physical, and neurological sequelae. In addition to these negative effects, research also suggests that victims experience behavioral
disturbances following victimization (Koss & Kilpatrick, 2001). For
example, survivors are more likely to smoke cigarettes, engage in risky
sexual activities, abuse substances, and exhibit negative social behaviors than other women (Resnick et al., 1997). Victims are even less
likely to wear seat belts while driving than those without a history of
sexual assault (Koss & Kilpatrick, 2001). According to Resnick et al.
(1997), the most signicant change in behavior subsequent to victimization is cigarette smoking. One study found that nearly 40 percent of
women with a history of sexual violence were current smokers, compared to 25 percent of nonvictimized women. Even when controlling
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CONCLUSIONS
Sexual violence is prevalent in the United States, with 25 percent of
women reporting assault at some point in their lives (Campbell, 2008).
Research has consistently documented that victims experience intense
psychological distress immediately following the attack (Neville &
Heppner, 1999). The most common immediate reactions include fear
and anxiety. However, depression, PTSD, mental pollution, and sexual
dysfunction are also frequently reported among survivors (Bohn & Holz,
1996; Fairbrother & Rachman, 2004; Koss & Kilpatrick, 2001). Moderators
and mediators that explain the relationship between sexual violence and
psychological sequelae have also been documented in the literature.
These include previous trauma history, coping strategies, negative social
reactions, and characteristics associated with the assault, as well as social
cognitions involving self-blame and perceived control (Koss et al., 2003).
Furthermore, a number of physical health complaints are diagnosed disproportionately among survivors of sexual violence such as physical
injuries, gynecological disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, and chronic
pain (Koss & Kilpatrick, 2001). Several researchers suggest that classical
conditioning, assault characteristics, and psychological distress might
act as causal links between abuse and negative health outcomes; however, further research is needed to fully understand this relationship
(Bohn & Holz, 1996; Resnick et al., 1997).
A growing body of research has reported that sexual violence has
harmful effects on neurological functioning. Studies indicate that cognitive functioning, brain structures, HPA axis activity, cortisol levels, and
recovery from TBI are different among victims of sexual violence when
compared to nonvictims (Campbell, 2002; Fennema-Notestine et al.,
2002; Jenkins et al., 2000; Wignall et al., 2004). In addition, survivors of
sexual assault experience behavioral disturbances following victimization (Koss & Kilpatrick, 2001). These individuals are more likely to
smoke cigarettes, engage in risky sexual activities, abuse substances,
and exhibit negative social behaviors than other women (Resnick et al.,
1997). Research had documented that victims are even less likely to
wear seat belts while driving than those without a history of sexual
assault (Koss & Kilpatrick, 2001). The organizational impact of violence
has typically focused on the legal, medical, and mental health systems
reactions to survivors. Several studies have reported that negative
experiences with legal personnel and medical professionals exacerbated
PTSD severity. Victims who obtained mental health services subsequent to the attack had signicantly decreased PTSD symptoms compared to those who did not receive these services (Campbell, 2008).
Clearly, the evidence presented demonstrates that women who are sexually victimized experience a wide range of deleterious effects after the
initial violence perpetrated against them.
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Chapter 4
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and also not appropriate. Although these views of adult IPV can be informative and helpful in understanding some dynamics of teen dating
violence, they cannot be relied on to answer all questions. Therefore,
there is a need to better understand how teen dating relationships differ
from adult romantic relationships.
THEORETICAL MODEL OF DATING VIOLENCE
Riggs and OLeary (1989) proposed a model of dating violence. This
model offered a comprehensive background situational perspective that
drew on social learning theory. The model stipulated that behaviors
are learned by watching and imitating others, and then are maintained
through various forms of reinforcement. The following situational
variables were examined in this model: alcohol or drug use, use of
aggression by the partner, skills in resolving conict, and length of
relationship. This model also included the following contextual factors:
presence of aggression in dating relationship, exposure to aggression
by parent, view of aggression as an appropriate response to problems,
and prior aggression. Therefore the effect of situational and contextual
factors on teenage relationships was examined.
Luthra and Gidycz (2006) evaluated the Riggs and OLeary model of
dating violence using a number of surveys and measures. Their results
indicated that specic constructs can be useful in prediction of future
dating violence. However, they also found the model to be more predictive of females (83 percent) rather than males (30 percent). It should
be noted that the most signicant predictor of female violence was
presence of aggression by a male partner. These women were 108 times
more likely to act out violently against their partner, compared to those
women who were not physically assaulted. For men, however, the
most signicant predictor of perpetration of violence found was
the length of relationship. For every six months that the man was in
the relationship, his likelihood of aggression doubled.
FACTORS AFFECTING DATING VIOLENCE
Gender Power Differential
One striking difference between teen and adult romantic relationships
is the power differential between the man and the woman. Teen relationships tend to lack the elements traditionally associated with greater
male power in adult relationships (Wekerle & Wolfe, 1999). This lack of
power is a result of several factors. One factor is that unless there are
extenuating circumstances, teenage girls are not nancially dependent
on romantic partners. Unless there are children involved, and there is a
need to provide and protect, adolescent girls tend to be more dependent
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partner at least once. Few other gender differences were noted; however,
women did report engaging in more frequent psychological aggression
than men. The authors attributed the ndings to high rates of domestic
violence in Poland, suggesting that violence is a learned behavior. In
addition, recent and rapid changes in womens role in the home and in
the workplace are believed to have contributed to these rates.
Wang and Petula (2007) conducted interviews and focus groups to
explore mens and womens views of physical aggression by women in
dating relationships. The sample was limited to 20 participants (13
women and 7 men) and offered insight into womens identication
with an aggressive female character in a popular Asian movie Sassy
Girl. Female participants identied with the aggressive character, and
to some extent were reported to appreciate the aggression perpetrated
by this character, often justifying and defending her behavior. Men on
the other hand, in an attempt to maintain levels of masculinity,
reported the womans aggression to be playful and not hostile. Furthermore, the men surveyed reported that men cannot be hurt by such
physical contact and cannot be defeated by such challenges (p. 628).
In another cross-cultural study, Sherer (2009) focused on dating violence in Jewish and Arab male and female teens in Israel. The study
examined the effect of sociodemographic variables on male and female
behavior. The sample consisted of 1,357 Arab and Jewish youths who
were surveyed on measures of threatening, relational, physical, sexual
and verbal abuse. Dating violence was found to be high among teens
in Israel, with the highest rates found among Arab youths. Although
girls were involved in every type of dating violence, boys exhibited
higher scores. The author explained that such prevalence can be understood in terms of cultural norms and expectations of roles of men and
women in society.
VIOLENCE IN ENGAGED COUPLES
Halford, Sanders, and Behrens (2004) studied the relationship
between physical aggression in engaged couples and the presence of
violence in the family of origin in Australia. The researchers surveyed
71 engaged couples. Men exposed to parental violence experienced more
negative emotions and thoughts, and found it difcult to participate in
subsequent focus group discussions. Couples in which only the woman
was exposed to parental violence did not appear to have concerns
regarding negative affect or conict between the two engaged people.
Haj-Yahia (2006) also examined violence perpetrated against Arab
women in Israel who were engaged. Of 1,111 engaged Arab women in
the sample, between 1 and 11 percent of the women reported experiencing physical aggression, and between 8 and 48 percent reported experiencing psychological aggression. When conicts with their partner were
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not discussed or worked through, these women were more likely to suffer from low self-esteem, depression, stress and anxiety.
Haj-Yahia and Edleson (1994), in an earlier related study, surveyed
Arab-Palestinian men living in Israel as to their means of working
through conict with their ancees. The research focused on the following three frameworks: male dominance, intergenerational learning,
and interpersonal skills decits to determine the role played by these
factors in mens relationships. Haj-Yahia and Edleson found that men
who did not come from violent homes were more likely to engage in
discussion and reasoning as a means of resolving conict, and were
more open to an egalitarian household. On the other hand, men who
grew up in violent homes were more likely to be verbally and physically abusive toward their ancees, were less likely to see what was
wrong with their actions, and were more likely to hold patriarchal
views.
OUTCOMES
Effects on Mental Health
Chan, Straus, Brownridge, Tiwari, and Leung (2008) evaluated the
prevalence of dating violence and suicidal ideation among male and
female university students. Information also was obtained from the
International Dating Violence Study, with a focus on the prevalence of
physical assault, sexual coercion, and suicidal ideation among these
students. The authors sampled 16,000 students from 22 universities in
21 countries. The results showed that although there were large differences among countries, even the lowest rates of dating violence were
quite high. Male and female students had similar rates regarding the
proportion of having physically assaulted a partner, and having been a
victim of sexual coercion. An increased rate of suicidal ideation was
found among both perpetrators and victims of physical assault. This
nding was linked to the occurrence of depression. This study highlighted a need for universal screening and targeted services for violence, depression and suicide prevention.
Effects of Abusive and Neglectful Childhood
Straus and Savage (2005) investigated the relationship between
neglectful parents and the child becoming involved in a violent dating
relationship. The study was conducted with university students from
17 countries, and the data was once again collected through the International Dating Violence Study. Students in Pusan, Korea, reported
experiencing the highest level of childhood neglect (34.4 percent) followed by 28.6 percent of students in Hong Kong. The lowest reported
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Patriarchal Culture
As Haj Yahia (2002) describes in his article, the patriarch, or male
head of the family, has complete control over the family including
making all the decisions for the family. In particular, since patriarchal
societies often view men as sexual predators (although without the
condemnation that this behavior would produce in other types of cultures), their women must be protected at all times. Therefore, they cannot go food shopping without a male relative or even seek medical
help unless their husband allows them to do so. In fact, after the birth
of a child, many women lose their lives because of their inability to
access emergency medical help.
Culture of Honor
This type of culture is an extreme version of a patriarchal society.
As described by Vandello and Cohen (2003), in these cultures, the
honor of the male head of the family is directly related to the purity
or chastity of the women in his family. If a woman strays, either by
committing adultery, being raped, or being seen in the company of
men who are not relatives, the patriarch is required to punish her,
often violently. The patriarch must wash the honor with blood to
restore his honor and that of his family (p. 999). In many culture of
honor societies, the women in the family are under the control of their
fathers until they are married, under the control of their husbands
when they are wives, and under the control of their sons when they
are widows. In extreme forms, the punishment may take the form of
an honor killing. As a result of increased punishment for honor killings in some countries (for example, Jordan), some young women in
rural areas have been locked in a room with a gun until they kill themselves, an act which is now termed honor suicides.
There have been many egregious examples of violence against
women in honor cultures, but we will just mention a few to illustrate
our description of these models.
A few years ago, in Saudi Arabia, a girl was in a car with her boyfriend when she was raped by a number of men. She was sentenced to
160 lashings and possibly a jail term, but after the case attracted media
attention worldwide, the King pardoned her. More recently, in 2009, a
woman in her seventies in Saudi Arabia walked outside her house with
two workmen and also was sentenced to several lashings. Media attention so far has not been successful in this case.
Another example was in the fall of 2008 in Pakistan. Three girls
refused to marry older men chosen for them by their fathers (they were
teenagers and the men were in their 40s and 50s), because they wanted
to choose their own husbands. These young girls, and two older
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women who supported them, were all buried alive. Finally, in the
spring of 2009, a 17-year-old girl was repeatedly lashed by several men
in a rural area of Pakistan for an unknown crime which many suggested was fraudulent. However, after cell phone photographs were
sent all over Pakistan, the incident caused a tremendous outcry, both
in Pakistan and throughout the world. The Pakistan chief judge was
not satised with the legal response to this outrageous violent behavior
and sent a government ofcial to the area to report on what actually
occurred.
INTERNATIONAL STUDIES ON IPV
In this section, we will review a selective number of cross-cultural
research investigations on the prevalence of IPV and attitudes toward
IPV. We will relate these studies to models and explanations described
in an earlier section. Clearly, all cross-cultural researchers agree that
estimates of IPV most likely represent underreporting worldwide. In
addition, comparison of prevalence gures is extremely difcult and
any conclusions must be made with caution, due to the variability of
the methods used in these estimates.
In some of the studies that we will review, the focus has been on
attitudes toward IPV rather than on the prevalence of IPV. However,
IPV prevalence estimates tend to be highly correlated with attitudes
condoning or even supporting IPV. If attitudes are positive toward
violence against women, it is likely that women in these cultures will
experience IPV to a higher degree than women in cultures that disapprove of and punish perpetrators of IPV.
One of the most signicant investigations of IPV cross-culturally
was sponsored by the WHO in 2005. This study encompassed
data from women residing in several countries, and in 15 locations
within these countries. Interviewers obtained data from countries representing a widely diverse sampling including 24,000 respondents from
Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Japan, Namibia, Peru, Samoa, Serbia and
Montenegro, Thailand, and the United Republic of Tanzania. Lifetime
prevalence of IPV ranged from 15 percent (Japan) to just over 70 percent. Prevalence in the year before the study again revealed large variability among samples. The lowest IPV rate was in Japan, with just
under 5 percent, and the highest was in Ethiopia, which had a rate of
almost 55 percent.
There were many advantages of this worldwide study of IPV including the sponsorship of this major international health organization,
WHO, the collaboration of a wide variety of experts and womens
organizations, the very large sample size, the variety of countries
involved in the project, and the use of standardized measures and intensive training of female interviewers because of the sensitivity of the
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topic. However, there were several criteria that were used to determine
which countries would be included in the study that may limit the
generalization of the results. Prior to sampling women in a particular
country, the researchers determined if there was a positive political
atmosphere in the country which would suggest that the government
would respond positively to the survey, there had to be a lack of information on the amount of IPV in the country, and womens groups had
to be active in the country in order to turn the data-collecting phase
into the stage of implementation of the recommendations stemming
from the report. Although these criteria were reasonable, the question
of whether the results may generalize to other countries which may
not exhibit these same characteristics is at issue. A further question
related to the methods of the study, is that the emphasis was placed
on physical and sexual IPV, despite the suggestion in the report that
emotional or psychological abuse often is associated with physical
abuse, and can have long-lasting negative consequences. However,
despite these considerations, the study is one of the best in terms of
careful planning, training and collection of data in so many countries
using standardized measures.
ASIAN STUDIES
Hong Kong and Mainland China
Prevalence of gures from Hong Kong and mainland China vary.
Xu et al. (2005) sampled about 600 women (with close to a 90 percent
acceptance and return rate) at a clinic in Fuzhou, China. Face-to-face
measures modied from the WHO multi-country study were administered to determine the percentage of IPV in the sample. Results indicated that 43 percent of women from a sample in mainland China
reported having experienced IPV in the lifetime of their marriage, and
26 percent had been abused in the last year. Marital conict and nancial control by husbands were two of the factors associated with IPV.
Attitudes were supportive of wife beating: 36 percent of the women
surveyed believed that wife-beating was appropriate and approved of
if the wife had committed adultery. Although the large sample supports the validity of the conclusions, limitations of the study include
the self-report nature of the methodology and the lack of participation
of men. One other interesting conclusion stemmed from the research.
Xu et al. suggested that although the Chinese society supposedly now
supports more economic equality between men and women (women
should hold up half of the sky, p. 84), their respondents did not
appear to have internalized or accepted this concept.
Another recent investigation by Chan, Brownridge, Tiwari, Fong,
and Leung (2008) concluded that IPV still is a signicant problem in
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83
Although this study is quite recent, and the sampling procedure and
return rate were excellent, as the authors pointed out, the examination
of the role of in-law conict was based on one question which could be
interpreted in different ways. As in all these cross-cultural studies, selfreport measures were used, and only women were sampled.
Japan
Weingourt, Maryama, Sawada, and Yoshino (2001) conducted a selfreport survey in Japan, which was completed by approximately 180
women with a relatively low response rate (close to 25 percent). As an
explanation of this low response rate, the authors pointed out that to
avoid offending respondents by pressuring them to participate in a
study on such a sensitive issue, the researchers avoided contacting
individuals who did not send back the survey. The results of the survey indicated that in this middle-class sample in Sapporo in the north
of Japan, close to 60 percent were psychologically abused by their partners, around 30 percent were physically battered, and about 25 percent
were sexually abused. Very few of these women told anyone about
their experienced abuse. The authors explained this lack of disclosure
by theorizing that IPV is viewed as the fault of the woman who thinks
she has been a bad wife, and therefore she is fearful about disclosing
the abuse to anyone. In addition, the wife is considered a property
of the husband and thus he is permitted to do anything to punish her
if she has not been a good wife. This explanation ts within the framework of the patriarchal society discussed earlier.
In addition to the lack of follow-up mailings which contributed to
the relatively low response rate in the Weingourt et al. survey study,
the authors indicated that the survey which was developed for use in a
study in Tokyo, has not been tested for reliability and validity. Therefore, it is unclear how valid these results would be in comparison to
studies that utilize standardized measures such as the CTS.
India
Wilson-Williams, Stephenson, Juvekar, and Andes (2008) investigated 64 womens attitudes toward domestic violence through focus
groups in Gangadhar, which is a small community south of Mumbai.
The community was described as patriarchal in nature, and the women
strongly supported the traditional gender roles associated with the
patriarchal culture. Women in this sample were basically from poor
households and many were illiterate. Respondents indicated that they
viewed physical and psychological abuse as normal within the culture,
and suggested that a man has the right to beat a wife in order for
her to learn the correct behavior. At times, it was suggested that
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85
wife? (p. 633) and have you ever yelled, shouted or used abusive
language to your wife? (p. 633). A relatively lower rate of physical
abuse (29 percent) than in previous regional Turkish studies was determined from respondents self-report, and close to 60 percent acknowledged that they had verbally abused their spouses. Risk factors
included the wifes lack of education or poor educational background,
the husbands alcohol problems, and if the husband had been physically abused as a child. Economic issues played a role in marital conict as well. In addition, close to 20 percent of the men surveyed
believed that men had the right to engage in IPV.
This study was a signicant contribution to the literature because it
is important to ascertain what men believe is appropriate and acceptable to be able to attempt to eliminate IPV in Turkey. Many studies only
sample womens attitudes and experiences, but including men in these
studies will be useful in determining the extent of the problem. In
addition, the nding that childhood physical abuse was related to
whether or not men engaged in IPV suggested to the authors that men
began to see IPV as a normal part of family life. However, although
the sample was large and the response rate was over 80 percent in this
large Turkish city, only self-report data was obtained, and two of the
signicant measures consisted of one question each concerning physical and verbal IPV. These factors, in addition to the issue of only sampling men, possibly could have led to a considerable underreporting of
IPV. In fact, the authors reported several regional studies based on
womens self-reports, which estimated very much higher levels of IPV.
Despite the patriarchal structure of the Turkish society, men may have
been reluctant to report engaging in IPV.
AFRICA
Nigeria
Antai and Antai (2008) examined rural womens attitudes toward
domestic violence in Nigeria. The authors indicated that rural Nigerian
communities embody the ideals of the patriarchal culture. Men hold all
the power and women accept their subordinate position in the family
and the community. Once again, in accord with our contention, Antai
and Antai suggest that it is important to determine womens attitudes
toward IPV because if the victim perceives IPV to be an integral part
of male supremacy (p. 2), and that the culture supports and condones
violence against marital partners, she is unlikely to report this behavior
and will see it as a normal part of the marriage. In support of this contention, at a UN symposium in 2007 a woman from Africa asked how
she could report her husbands violence against her when her marriage
vows ordered her to obey him?
86
In a manner similar to several other national studies, the authors utilized data from the 2003 Demographic and Health Survey conducted in
Nigeria. An unusually high response rate of more than 90 percent
enabled the researchers to investigate attitudes toward IPV among
more than 3900 rural women. Data were collected in face-to-face interviews. More than 40 percent of the rural sample suggested that IPV
was acceptable under certain conditions, including arguing with the
husband, and not agreeing to sex. Interestingly, there were several variations in condoning IPV related to the specic communities in various
geographical locations in the country. Similar to other studies, women
with poorer educational backgrounds, Muslim women, and women living in economic hardship, were more likely to justify IPV. However,
the authors also found other risk factors. Of particular interest to this
chapter, women with little say in the family and those without the ability to read about the news or to be exposed to other media tended to
approve of IPV. Antai and Antai suggested that empowerment consists
of three components; autonomy in domestic decisions, access to
media, and literacy level (p. 4).
This study was important for a number of reasons. First, the methodology employed a standardized national face-to-face interview process which had a very high response rate. Second, the authors focused
on rural women, an often-overlooked type of sample. Third, the questions included signicant categories including specication of empowerment, a concept very much associated with prevention and reduction
of IPV. Fourth, the authors identied variations among women
respondents that can lead to more complex and possibly more valid
interpretations of data. Finally, the interpretations were related to the
concept of a patriarchal society, which is support for one of the most
common explanations of IPV worldwide. Of course, Antai and Antais
study is subject to the limitations of self-report measures as well as the
focus only on womens attitudes toward IPV.
Kenya and Zambia
A study similar to the Antai and Antai study described above was
conducted by Lawoko (2008) in Kenya and Zambia. Lawoko suggested
that there might be varied interpretations of a mans positive attitude
toward IPV depending on conditions in the country. In general, he
indicated that Kenya has a more favorable economic and social climate
than Zambia. However, both countries embody the traditional gender
role approach suggesting that deviations from the female gender role
may have adverse consequences for the wife.
Prevalence of IPV in Kenya and Zambia appear to be comparable to
other African countries, and are somewhere between 20 and 30 percent.
Lawoko indicated that there are no comparative studies of attitudes
87
toward IPV among men in these two countries. In both countries, interview data were obtained through a national Demographic and Health
Survey (DHS) of men in many households. High response rates (close
to 90 percent in each country) increased the validity of the studys ndings. Scenarios were constructed to measure mens attitudes toward
IPV following hypothetical transgressions by women. For example, if
the woman neglects her household duties or refuses to have sex with
her husband, men were asked if she deserved to be punished.
In general, men from both countries demonstrated a high and similar rate of acceptance of wife beating ranging from 65 to 71 percent.
Most of the justications for the IPV revolved around the wifes deviating from normative gender-role expectations, but the correlations and
interpretations differed for the two countries. In Kenya, younger marriage partners and living outside of cities predicted higher support for
wife beating, but that was not the case in Zambia. Conversely, lower
educational levels were associated with higher tolerance of IPV in
Kenya but not in Zambia. It was suggested by Lawoko that the educational material in each country might differ. Perhaps part of the educational information in Kenya might lead to a change in patriarchal
ideals but not in Zambia. Similarly, access to the media was associated
with a lower justication of IPV in Zambia but not in Kenya. Perhaps,
as Lawoko indicated, the media in Zambia may support empowering
women. Along the same lines of reasoning but in the opposite direction, Lawoko found that mens positive attitudes toward sharing in
decision-making in the home predicted a lower acceptance of IPV in
Kenya but not in Zambia.
Once again, this comparative study of mens attitudes toward IPV in
two African countries was illuminating and important in identifying
certain possible causes of IPV. In addition, by showing that predisposing factors may work differently in various countries, Lawoko made
the case for developing culture and country-specic interventions.
However attitudes relating to IPV were examined only for men, and
both these countries were described as relatively peaceful. Therefore,
the results cannot be generalized to African countries experiencing a
great deal of conict. Lawoko described other limitations of his study
including the questionable validity of the DHS measures, the plausibility of extensive underreporting because of the face-to-face interviews,
and the lack of consideration of alternative factors affecting mens attitudes toward IPV in addition to issues related to patriarchy.
MIDDLE EAST
Haj-Yahia (2002) conducted a study in Jordan investigating attitudes
of approximately 350 married Jordanian women toward IPV. This convenience sample of women (with a response rate of more than 80
88
LATIN AMERICA
Peru
Flakes study (2005) of IPV in Peru surveyed more than 15,000
women and revealed that about 40 percent had experienced physical
abuse. Several factors were related to the abuse, including poor educational background for the woman, forced early marriages, and alcoholic
excesses of the husband. Once again, effects of the womans status
were unpredictable. Under certain circumstances higher status protected the woman from IPV, but if her status was superior to her partner, it exposed her to more IPV. Flakes interpretation of these results
revolved around the concept of the frequency of patriarchal family
relationships in Peru. If a man feels threatened by a womans status or
achievements, he may use violence to emphasize his control over his
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90
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TYPES OF PERPETRATORS
Recently, some attempts have been made to classify IPV perpetrators. One of the most popular categorizations was developed by Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart (1994). The different types of possible
perpetrators included:
1. Family-only batterers who have poor social and conict resolution
skills, may belong to a peer group which is supportive of IPV, and tend
to be violent only toward their spouses;
2. Dysphoric-borderline batterers have severe psychological problems,
may exhibit borderline characteristics, may abuse substances and may be
violent toward people outside their family;
3. Violent antisocial batterers are violent in every setting, may be criminals and are characterized by antisocial personality disorder diagnoses.
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93
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and putting a black eye on as well since she had seen her mother in
that condition so many times. In addition, ads stated that the shame
is not yours while showing an abused women. Other interventions,
including training individuals to engage couples in improving their
conict resolution and communication skills, as well as instituting hotlines in the Istanbul area, were designed to attack the problem. Therefore, the media can be used as a positive force to combat this
worldwide problem. What also should be included in any of these programs is an evaluation component. The WHO report stated that there
should be additional cross-cultural research on the causes of violence
and programs to prevent or eliminate violence against women.
The WHO report also emphasized the importance of involving men
and boys in the effort to eliminate violence against women. Until men
who do not engage in violence against women and oppose it speak out
and intervene when they see violence occurring, perpetrators will continue to engage in this behavior. Once again the media can act as a
forum for nonviolent men to speak out, and these men may become
good role models for spousal interactions.
Flood (2001) discussed three different ways in which men can
become involved in the efforts to stop violence against women.
1. Men can join groups which emphasize that men must take responsibility for stopping mens violence, (p. 3) possibly though public action
such as protests. Flood describes the White Ribbon campaign in which
men wear white ribbons to show the world that not only will they avoid
violence but they will speak out and intervene if they observe violence.
Flood emphasized the importance of reaching out to boys and young
males to try and change fundamental attitudes which condone and support violence against women. These men also can act as proactive role
models to teach young men how to interact with women in a positive
way. However, Flood contends that mens groups must work in cooperation with womens groups in the same effort.
2. Men can become involved in educational media campaigns based on the
same concept espoused by Ban Ki Moon: Real men dont bash or rape
women. Flood described some programs in Australia which serve this
educational function. Sports gures were recruited for advertisements in
one of the Australian programs to target men who identify with athletes.
Once the athletes dene violence against women as wrong, it is hoped
that men identifying with these athletes will internalize their new views.
However, it is difcult for these programs to succeed because of the
violence-supportive culture of many types of sports. Another type of
Australian program which targeted violent males found that one of the
most effective approaches was to connect mens violence against women
to the negative effects on the children in their family.
3. Men can become directly involved in programs treating violent men, or
even men incarcerated for violence against women. However, Flood
95
argues that many of these programs have not been rigorously evaluated.
In addition, even if these programs were effective, unless the culture and
attitudes of members of society are changed to oppose violence against
women, single programs will not eradicate the problem.
96
97
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Chapter 5
Barbara Cavalier had been married to her husband, Chris Cavalier, for
seven years. During the course of their marriage, Chris had been abusive
toward Barbara. When he put a gun to her head, she decided to leave
him. For six months her living arrangements were kept secret. One day
Chris walked into the Elmwood siding supply business and saw Barbara
where she was working as a data-entry clerk. Subsequently, Chris
walked into the store, armed with two guns, a .45 caliber automatic pistol
and a .357 caliber Magnum revolver. Chris killed Barbara and her coworker, Stephanie Revolta, who had tried to defuse the situation. Stephanie
had placed a 911 call, but by the time assistance arrived, Barbara and
Stephanie were dead. Chris also took his own life. Barbaras coworkers
reported that Chris had been harassing Barbara all day, calling her at
work, and stealing her truck. Authorities had found a note in Chriss
house in which he assigned power of attorney and listed valuables that
he wanted to give away. This behavior led police to believe that Chris
had planned the murders that day (cited in Paludi, Nydegger, & Paludi,
2006).
Ellen works for a small shipping company in the western Canada city
of Vancouver. She has been unhappily married to Paul for more than
104
20 years, and she and her two daughters bear the brunt of Pauls verbal
taunts and controlling behavior. Though he has never physically abused
the children, he often beats Ellen so severely that vicious bruises cover
her arms and legs, and she regularly lies to her coworkers about their
origin, claiming clumsiness, embarrassed by their true cause. At least
once a month Ellen is so badly hurt that she must call out of work. In
the past two years alone, she has lost 22 days of work, and thousands of
dollars in wages.
One night, Paul angrily smacks Ellens younger daughter, and she
falls down the stairs, cutting open her knee. After years of abuse, Ellen
has nally had enough, and leaves. She moves in with a friend, and
changes her phone number and personal email address. For a while
things are ne. But soon Ellen begins receiving threatening prank phone
calls at the ofce, and nasty emails to her work email account. She thinks
it might be Paul, and her suspicions are conrmed when one evening
she discovers him waiting for her in the ofce parking lot. In a dark and
menacing tone Paul threatens to kill herand their childrenunless she
returns to him.
She doesnt know who to turn to or where to go. For years she has
been hiding her abuse from her friends, family, coworkers and employers, and the threats continue to escalate . . . (cited in Soroptimist International of the Americas, 2007).
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striking a partner with an object, restraint of normal activities and freedoms, and denial of access to resources (Butts Stahly, 1999; McHugh,
Livingston, & Frieze, 2008; Ryan et al., 1999). Straus et al. (1980) concluded: The American family and American home are perhaps as or
more violent than any other American institution or setting (with the
exception of the military, and only then in time of war (p. 4).
The Fourth United Nations (UN) International Conference on
Women concluded that in all societies . . . women and girls are subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse that cuts across lines
of income, class and culture (Walker, 1999, p. 21). Tran and Des
Jardins (2000) reported that the incidence of intimate partner violence
experienced by Vietnamese and Korean communities is similar to U.S.
incidence rates. Horne (1999) noted that intimate partner violence rates
in Russia exceed United States rates by four to ve times.
Intimate partner violence is prevalent in all races and ethnic groups
and among women in urban, rural, and suburban areas and in lesbian,
gay, and heterosexual relationships (Coleman, 1991; McHugh & Frieze,
2006; Paludi, Nydegger & Paludi, 2006; Potocziak, Murot, CrosbieBurnett, & Potoczni, 2003). In addition, while women are more likely
to be victims of intimate partner violence, men may be battered (Heise,
1998; McHugh & Frieze, 2006). Men batter because they want control
in the relationship. Women, however, batter in self-defense because of
fear of being murdered. Heise (1998) found that more women are seriously injured and killed by male partners each year than men are by
female partners. Tjaden and Thoennes (2000) reported that over a lifetime, the prevalence of intimate partner violence for women is triple
the prevalence for men. In addition, research suggested that the
incidence of same-sex intimate partner violence is similar to that of heterosexual intimate partner violence (McHugh & Frieze, 2006; Potocziak
et al., 2003).
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c. Financial dependence
d. Feeling of responsibility for keeping the relationship together
e. Love for the batterer
f. The batterer is not always violent
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The American Institute on Domestic Violence (2009) reports that victims of intimate partner violence lose approximately 8 million days of
paid workdays each year. The average absenteeism rate of victims of
intimate partner violence is approximately 30 percent higher than the
average employee absenteeism rate (Urban, 2000). In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2009) measured expected
value of lost earnings that victims of intimate partner violence who
were murdered would have contributed to society if they had lived out
their full life expectancies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated this gure to be $892.7 million, approximately $713,000
per woman.
Willmans (2007) review of Fortune 1000 companies indicated that
49 percent of corporate leaders indicated intimate partner violence had
harmful effects on the organizations productivity. In addition, 47 percent indicated the violence had a harmful impact on attendance. Fortyfour percent said the violence was harmful to their health care costs
and therefore, intimate partner violence impacts their bottom lines.
ORGANIZATIONS USE OF REASONABLE CARE
IN DEALING WITH INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE AS A
WORKPLACE ISSUE
Reasonable care, adapted from rulings in Burlington Industries, Inc.
v. Ellerth (1998) and Faragher v. City of Boca Raton (1998) includes the
following at a minimum:
1. Establish and enforce an effective policy.
2. Establish and enforce effective investigative procedures.
3. Facilitate training in intimate partner violence as a workplace issue in
general and in the organizations policy and procedures specically.
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A sample policy statement and personalized safety plan are presented in Appendix 1 and Appendix 2. Additional suggestions for
safety plans may be found in Lundberg-Love and Marmion (2006).
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TRAINING PROGRAMS
For Managers
Paludi and Paludi recommended that human resource specialists
facilitate training programs for managers in two sections: (a) to
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provide information on intimate partner violence awareness, e.g. denitions, incidence, impact on victims and the workplace and (b) the
organizations policy and procedures so that managers know their
rights and responsibilities with respect to assisting employees who
are victims of intimate partner violence. Lee (cited in Gurchiek, 2005)
noted that employers should provide an atmosphere for disclosure
since victims feel ashamed, embarrassed, and are fearful of losing
their job.
Results from research by Swanberg et al. (2006) indicated that
women who chose not to disclose the intimate partner violence to their
employer did so because of stigma associated with the violence (e.g.,
embarrassed, ashamed, fear of being judged), safety related (e.g.,
threatened by the abuser not to tell anyone about the violence, didnt
want coworkers to become involved) and work-environment-related
(e.g., didnt know anyone to tell about the violence, couldnt trust coworkers and supervisors with the disclosure, and the abuser also
worked for the same organization). We recommend these ndings be
made part of the training for managers so they can understand reasons
for silence and reasons why the employer must be supportive to victims of intimate partner violence.
We also believe it is important to train managers about why victims
of intimate partner violence do disclose the abuse at work. Women in
Swanberg et al. (2006)s research who did report the intimate partner
violence at work indicated doing so because they needed to talk about
the abuse and because their coworker in whom they conded was also
a friend. Women who disclosed at work also did so as a way to explain
absences and tardiness, to request time off from work to attend court
proceedings or to answer a supervisor or coworker who inquired about
any potential abuse. Furthermore, some women disclosed at work
because they feared for their lives and wanted a coworker or supervisor to know about the abuse in case of their death. These ndings
can assist managers in setting up a welcoming and safe environment
for all employees so they feel encouraged to report abuse.
Swanberg et al. (2006) noted that women victims of intimate partner
violence who disclosed the abuse at work fared better in terms of having longer job tenure, low job-quitting rates, and higher wages. Thus, it
is important to inform managers (and employee victims) that disclosing
the intimate partner violence at work does not translate into employees
losing their jobs.
Paludi, Nydegger, and Paludi (2006) identied the following components of effective training program for managers:
a. Ways to encourage employees to report problems.
b. Skills in behaving compassionately and supportively to employees who
disclose intimate partner violence.
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For Employees
Paludi and Paludi recommend the same components of the training
program for managers be provided to employees as well. In addition,
employee training should include a discussion about the personalized
safety plans and the role of the EAP in assisting victims of intimate
partner violence. Emphasis should be placed on ensuring the employer
will take each victim seriously and will provide assistance to the victimized employee.
We also recommend including in the training program for employees a discussion on ways they can assist coworkers who are victims of
intimate partner violence, including being alerted to changes in the
individuals behavior. In addition, training in how to respond to a coworker who condes in employees should be provided, including
listening without judging, recognizing the difculty it took for an individual to discuss the topic of intimate partner violence, and being an
advocate for the employee by referring them to human resources, a
manager, or the EAP. We also advise that intimate partner violence be
part of all new employee orientations. As Swanberg et al. (2006) noted:
Educating employees about partner violence could help to demystify the
disgrace associated with this social problem and consequently help reduce
or eliminate the risk of partner violence entering into the workplace. (p. 574)
PEDAGOGICAL TECHNIQUES
The pedagogical techniques that have been recommended in the literature (e.g., Paludi & Paludi, 2000) for training programs are ones
that:
1. Empower employees.
2. Encourage employees to think strategically.
3. Assist employees in communicating effectively with employees.
4. Manage conict in the workplace.
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The major objective of the training modules and pedagogical techniques is to facilitate transference to the workplace. We recommend
accomplishing this goal by:
a. Association: having participants associate the new information with
something with which they are already knowledgeable.
b. Similarity: presenting information that is similar to material that
participants already know; i.e., it revisits a logical framework or
pattern.
c. Degree of original learning: the degree of original learning for the participants was high.
d. Critical attribute element: the information learned by the participants
contains elements that are extremely benecial and/or critical on the
job.
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NEEDS ASSESSMENTS
In keeping with the literature in human resource management (e.g.,
Barbazette, 2006; DeCenzo & Robbins, 2007) we recommend conducting a
needs assessment with employees to identify additional issues they expect
to be covered in a training session. Brown (2002) identied four reasons
why needs assessments must be conducted prior to facilitating training
programs: (1) identify problem areas in the company, (2) obtain management support, (3) develop data for measuring the effectiveness of the
training program, and (4) determine the costs and benets of the training
program. Needs assessments may be conducted through anonymous surveys and/or focus groups (Lucier, 2008; Tyler, 2002). We recommend the
following process (also see Levy & Paludi, 2002):
1. Ask individuals to provide answers to questions regarding discrimination in the workplace via an anonymous mail survey.
2. Facilitate 2-hour focus groups with self-identied employees (no more
than 15-20 per session) to elicit in-depth responses. Structured interview
questions for individuals who participate in the focus groups center
around employees goals for training, including their needs with regard
to better understanding intimate partner violence and individuals with
viewpoints different from their own.
3. Analyze responses from the previous steps using qualitative and quantitative analyses.
4. Prepare a written report that summarizes the needs assessment, including suggestions for the following:
.
Alternatives to stereotyping
The main goal of the needs assessment therefore is to obtain information concerning the manner in which intimate partner violence is
addressed in the organizational climate of the company, including topics
such as empowerment, the establishment of mutual trust and respect,
methods of inclusion or exclusion, and verbal and nonverbal communication. The process of the assessment will be consistent with the goal of the
training programs in which the employees will subsequently participate.
POSTTRAINING EVALUATIONS
In further keeping with the human resource management literature,
we highlight the necessity of conducting posttraining evaluations.
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THE EAP
EAPs can offer the following services in primary prevention of intimate partner violence as well as workplace violence in general (see
Paludi, Nydegger, & Paludi, 2006):
a. Providing short term counseling to managers and employees.
b. Providing referrals for counseling outside of the workplace.
c. Consulting with and training Threat Assessment Team.
d. Training managers to deal with employee victims without diagnosing
the employee.
e. Providing referrals for legal counseling.
f. Providing referrals for nancial counseling.
g. Determining whether the employee has sought and/or obtained a protective order against the abusive partner.
h. Working closely with human resources to monitor the employee victim
in order to protect their safety.
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tension builds too high to be controlled by these efforts and the batterer responds with an acute battering incident in the second phase of
the cycle. In the nal phase, the tension from the rst two phases has
ceased and the batterer becomes apologetic and charming toward the
victim. The level of violence increases both in frequency and severity
as the relationship continues.
CONCLUSION
Sexual, racial, gender violence and other forms of discrimination and violence in a culture cannot be eliminated without changing culture.
Charlotte Bunch
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commitment, the prevention strategies will not be effectively implemented, contributing to employees believing the organization is not
seriously committed to the issue of intimate partner violence and thus
being silenced about their experiences with this abuse. Furthermore, as
we have suggested in this chapter, dealing with intimate partner violence as a workplace issue must be based on a multidisciplinary team
approach, including human resources, EAP, security, managers, law
enforcement, attorneys, and employees themselves. Unions may also
assist by supporting the companys intimate partner violence policy,
facilitating training on intimate partner violence for new stewards/delegates, and ensuring all employees have received the companys policy
and have been trained on intimate partner violence.
We also recommend organizations conducting a safety audit to
determine whether the prevention strategies are working effectively
(Smith & Mazin, 2004), including conducting anonymous organization
climate surveys to inquire about employees perceptions of the companys commitment to dealing with intimate partner violence. A safety
audit would include:
a. Building security (e.g., automatic locked doors? Security guards on duty
for all shifts?)
b. Visitors (e.g., sign in guests with guard?)
c. Health services (e.g., EAP, wellness center?)
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Myth: Individuals who batter abuse their partners because they are
under a great deal of stress, including being unemployed.
Reality: Stress does not cause individuals to batter their partners. Society condones partner abuse. In addition, individuals who batter learn
they can achieve their goals through the use of force without facing
consequences.
Myth: Children are not affected by watching their parents in a battering relationship.
Reality: Children are often in the middle of domestic violence. They
may be abused by the violent parent. Children may also grow up to
repeat the same behavior patterns they witnessed in their parents.
Myth: There are no long-term consequences of battering.
Reality: There are signicant long-term consequences of battering,
including depression, anger, fear, anxiety, irritability, loss of self-esteem,
feelings of humiliation and alienation, and a sense of vulnerability.
Myth: Intimate partner violence only occurs in poor and minority
families.
Reality: Intimate partner violence occurs among all socioeconomic
classes and all racial and ethnic groups.
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Discussion of case
General discussion
APPENDIX 4: RESOURCES ON INTIMATE PARTNER
VIOLENCE AS A WORKPLACE ISSUE
Abusive Men Exploring New Directions
www.amendinc.org
American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence
www.abanet.org/domviol/home.html
American Domestic Violence Crisis Line
www.awoscentral.com
American Psychological Association
www.apa.org
Asian and Pacic Islander Institute on Domestic Violence
www.apiahf.org/apidvinstitute
Battered Womens Justice Project
www.bwjp.org
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Chapter 6
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For example, Pitman et al. reported that while survivors treated with
ooding showed considerable decrease in anxiety, their feelings of
shame and blame did not respond to further exposure to the narrative.
A similar account is provided in Meadows and Foas case study of a
survivor whose anxiety symptoms responded well to prolonged exposure, while her tendency to berate herself for having been at the bar
where she was assaulted actually increased. They report that these feelings of guilt and shame were not alleviated by further exposure to the
assault narrative. The integration of feminist principles, with their contextual and egalitarian emphases, into the therapeutic process offers us
the chance to provide our clients with the ultimate empowerment
needed for recovery. These principles are outlined next.
FEMINIST PSYCHOTHERAPY
Feminist therapy is a philosophy of psychotherapy rather than a distinct orientation (Hill & Ballou, 1998; Moradi, Fischer, Hill, Jome, &
Blum, 2000; Rader & Gilbert, 2005). Being woman-centered, it underscores the social context of womens distress, maintaining that
womens pain cannot be fully understood outside of social context.
Social norms, values, and attitudes are seen as greatly contributing
to the creation and maintenance of many of the problems and issues
that are brought into therapy (Feminist Therapy Institute, 1990; Hill &
Ballou, 1998; Kaschak, 1992; Worell & Remer, 1992; Worell & Johnson,
2001). Each individuals personal experiences and situations are viewed
as reective of and inuenced by societys attitudes and values. Therefore, one of the goals of therapy is to afford the clients an awareness of
these inuences so as to bring about change in perspective and an
understanding of the interactions between the various social factors
and the clients internal experiences (Brown & Brodsky, 1992; Hill &
Ballou, 1998; Rader & Gilbert, 2005). Although feminist therapists are
trained in a variety of disciplines and theoretical orientations, they are
united amid this diversity by their feminist analyses and perspectives
regarding the interactive effects of the clients internal and external
worlds.
Another central tenet of feminist therapy stemming from feminist
philosophy is a commitment to the empowerment of women and the
validation and valuing of their experience and viewpoint. Caring, compassion and respect are, accordingly, the foundation of this approach
to treatment (Brown & Brodsky; 1992; Moradi et al., 2000; Rader &
Gilbert, 2005; Worell & Remer, 1992). It is a relationship in which clients are empowered to nd their strengths and strivings, a practice in
which growth-promoting reframing of social realities allows for new
ways of thinking and being. It is a process of connectedness in which
each client is made to feel worthy of respect, affection, tenderness, and
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times of their own prejudices regarding rape and rape survivors, some
clinicians may be inclined to view survivors as contributing in some
way to the occurrence of the rape. Consequently, they may engage
fairly regularly in the interpretation of survivors motives and behaviors in matters related to the assault. For example, analyzing a survivors motives for accompanying a romantic partner to his place, where
she was then raped, is a case in point. This multitude of adverse social
factors can inict serious psychological harm on survivors.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SEQUELAE OF THE SOCIAL
CONTEXT OF RAPE
The socially contextual elements of rape and other forms of sexual
violence seriously complicate the post-assault clinical presentation of
many survivors. This appears to hold true across varied cultural and
ethnic backgrounds. Not only must survivors deal with the aftereffects
of the humiliating violation that is rape, but also with the devastation
of the collective victim-blaming and its internalization. Together, these
factors inict severe agony and pain upon survivors, causing them
unbearable levels of self-blame and shame (Koss & Harvey, 1991;
Moor, 2007; Ullman, 1996).
The all too common accusation that the rape victim precipitated the
assault can exacerbate her self-accusation and contempt, heightening her
already strong tendency to berate herself for her carelessness (e.g.,
How could I have been so stupid . . . putting myself in such a situation
and allowing this to happen). The belief that she is to blame for being
attacked can make the survivor doubt her own perceptions, invalidating
her lived experience. While hurting to the core, she may nonetheless
consequently feel that she got exactly what she deserved (e.g., I
decided to hitchhike home so I deserve what I got. . . . there can be no
sympathy towards me). The pain and despair that result are massive.
The charge that the rape occurred because of the type of woman she is
coupled with the widespread notion that rape is dishonoring, routinely
leads to extreme shame and self-disdain (e.g., I am so ashamed; no one
can ever know of this). The dehumanizing nature of rape, intended to
denigrate and demean, typically creates a sense of humiliation, desecration, and helplessness, all of which tend to lead to intolerable shame,
disgrace, and self-disgust (e.g., I am utterly disgusting).
While the brunt of the post-assault self-blame is socially driven, it is important to keep in mind that blaming the self also has a function in dealing
with trauma (Koss & Harvey, 1991). It provides survivors with some
(albeit illusionary) sense of control over the traumatic events designed to
counteract the experience of helplessness. If a rape survivor believes that
her behavior contributed to the assault in some way, she can believe that
changing this particular behavior in the future will prevent a reoccurrence
146
of the event. It is important to be aware of this protective function of selfblame and guilt when treating this population.
Encountering victim-blaming often discourages survivors from disclosing the incident, thereby reducing their likelihood of obtaining social
support that could facilitate their recovery (Botta & Pingree, 1997). For
example, some stereotypes may cause survivors to doubt that their experience qualies as real rape, which may keep them, in turn, from seeking help. This problem appears to be especially, although not uniquely,
common among survivors of date rape (Alvidrez, 1999; Ullman &
Brecklin, 2002).
Similarly, accusatory and demeaning social attitudes may drive a
sizeable proportion of survivors to isolate themselves from loved ones,
friends, and family for on many occasions rape myths are actually
accepted and believed by survivors close social and familial environment (Sheldon & Parent, 2002; Ullman, 1999). It is not uncommon to
encounter victim-blaming on the part of those closest to the victim, in
the form of dismay that she behaved in a certain way or failed to do
one thing or another. Shame among family members is also common.
It may take the form of urging the survivor to keep quiet about the
assault and pretend it never happened or of outright disgracing her for
having been violated. This can be devastating.
Survivors may be further harmed if upon turning to the system for
help they meet with second victimization and rape myth endorsement
by members of the helping professions. This can increase their feelings
of culpability and shame, as well as cause them to feel completely
invalidated, misunderstood, and judged. Moreover, survivors are likely
to become distrustful of others, making them reluctant to seek further
help (Campbell & Raja, 1999; Ullman & Filipas, 2001). In fact, a majority of the therapists surveyed in Campbell & Rajas (1999) study voiced
a concern that interaction with community professionals can actually,
at times, worsen the state of survivors mental health. In comparison,
less than half (48 percent) of the clinicians surveyed believed that contacting community professionals had positive outcomes for rape victims. For this reason, 85 percent of therapists expressed a belief that
clinicians must be made more aware of the risks of secondary victimization and its repercussions for the effectiveness of treatment, to avoid
inicting further harm on survivors and to fully maximize the efcacy
of therapy. Feminist therapy incorporates such awareness, and in view
of that can offer specic treatment principles for working with rape
survivors as delineated next.
TREATMENT PRINCIPLES
In light of the socially contextual aspects of much of the pain experienced by survivors of rape and other sexual assaults, there can be little
147
doubt that their treatment must be rooted in a feminist conceptualization and analysis if the correction of the effects of the social factors is
to take place. In the absence of a thorough comprehension of the combined impact of rape and related victim-blaming rape myths on survivors wellbeing, therapy stands the risk of lacking in effectiveness.
Even the direct reprocessing of the traumatic events will be augmented
by approaching it from a socially contextual viewpoint. In this process,
each tenet of feminist therapy has a particularly healing function as
delineated next.
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process, the survivor begins to regain a sense of control that she was
robbed of during the assault.
By viewing the survivor as an equal, we approach therapy with the
idea that we are on this journey together, jointly aiming for her full
recovery. Our true and genuine presence gives her a sense that she matters, that she is not alone. It counteracts social isolation and loss of trust,
as it restores her self-dignity and worth. We give her strength to withstand the devastation, as we believe in her innate coping skills. We also
commit to standing by her every step of the way. A survivor expressed
the feelings that arise, Even though the pain is unbearable almost all of
the time, knowing that you are truly with me, I dont feel so alone and
actually am starting to believe that I might actually make it.
We believe in her strengths and her ability to help herself. As she
feels powerless, helpless, and despondent, we offer her hope by reframing her position as survivor rather than victim. She may nd this view
hard to accept at rst, and so we stand by her with full respect, hoping
that as we gently point to those aspects of her experience that make her
a survivor in our mind, she joins us in this view before long.
The egalitarian position translates into genuine solidarity with the
survivors that we treat. While assisting them to process the traumatic
events, we share in their pain and permit ourselves to be touched by
it, without being overwhelmed or derailed from our therapeutic stance.
Recognizing how devastating the experience of sexual violence can be,
we validate all aspects of the emotional reality that ensues. We believe
in each survivors inner wisdom, and we let her know it. We guide her
to that place of authentic knowledge, so that she may come to believe
in herself and in her own perceptions and thoughts. Where she doubts
her own experience, we stand by her conveying our belief in her ability
to nd all the answers within herself. We never doubt her account of
the assault, thus helping her to not question it herself. Nor do we
impose our conceptualization or formulation on her, but rather attune
ourselves most empathically to hers.
From our respectful view of survivors as blame-free in every way,
we never pass judgment on their conduct and do our utmost to help
ease their sense of blameworthiness and shame, so often contextually
heightened. In communicating nonjudgmental acceptance and respect,
we aim to counteract the widespread social judgment and reproach
(e.g., It is so heartbreaking to hear you berating and devaluing yourself so). This mirrors a different perspective on the selfthat of the
one who has been wronged, not the one to be blamedwhile conveying supportive caring at the same time. Self-empathy and compassion
are expected to follow, and to give way, in turn, to afrming views of
self in place of the existing self-loathing and guilt.
As survivors deal with their sense of self-disgust and delement,
desecration and shame, our genuine belief that they have not been
149
damaged in any way, can help survivors attend to and verbalize their
internal experience regarding the sense of self as deled and shameful.
Empathetic mirroring of their feelings of violation and humiliation can
help contain these emotions. Insisting that they are shame-free (e.g., It
sounds like your self-disgust is so impossible to bear . . . we will not
rest until we nd a way to completely free you of it) can help alleviate her shame and foster the emergence of a valued and worthy sense
of self.
Treating the survivor as an equal and endowing her with the right
to determine the pace and direction of the therapy, can also play a
major role in enabling the reprocessing of the traumatic memories.
While attuning to the survivors levels of arousal, voicing our genuine
condence in her ability to sustain the process can afford her a sense
of safety, emotional modulation, reassurance, and support, all needed
to withstand the painful process of remembering and reliving the traumatic events (Moor, 2007; Paivio & Laurent, 2001). Moreover, experiencing our true caring for her through our soothing and containing
responses can help nurture the development of self-soothing capacities
and true hope.
As the process progresses, the therapists belief in the clients
strengths is steadily internalized. We enthusiastically share her cautious
optimism, while validating and strengthening her new perceptions of
self (e.g., Sounds like youre not blaming yourself anymore . . . how
exciting). Feedback from many survivors allows us to view the egalitarian stance as instrumental in consolidating a new outlook of the self and
the future.
EMPOWERMENT
The experience of rape and other forms of sexual violence can be
utterly disempowering to most victims, shattering their sense of selfworth, control, and dignity (Herman, 1992; Koss & Harvey, 1991; Moor,
2007). It is the role of therapy to counter this devastating experience by
helping survivors to regain a sense of personal power and control. A
central goal of feminist therapy, empowerment of the client and advocacy for women (Brown & Brodsky; 1992; Feminist Therapy Institute,
1990; Hill & Ballou, 1998; Moradi et al, 2000; Rader & Gilbert, 2005;
Worell & Remer, 1992), thus has a major role to play.
Beyond the empowerment inherent in the egalitarian nature of feminist therapy, contextual reframing of various aspects of the ordeal and
reconstruction of self-devaluing cognitions based on the analysis of
their social roots are employed to bring about a corrective perceptual
shift. Feminist therapy aims to provide clients with novel ways of seeing, along with helpful information that can facilitate this shift (Rader
& Gilbert, 2005). Realizing the degree to which survivors self-loathing
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stupid behavior, which caused the rape until she could feel that
she would be able to keep herself safe in the future. Interventions such
as while you now realize that hitchhiking isnt safe for you, the fact
that you hitchhiked in the past in no way makes you guilty of precipitating the rape eventually enabled her to replace the self-accusation
with a more realistic appraisal of her ability to recognize and to minimize danger in the future, while not having to hold herself responsible
for being raped.
Cognitive restructuring can also be used to target the shame and the
beliefs, common to many survivors, which they are disgraceful, disgusting, and deled for having been raped. These beliefs appear to
show up in one of two ways; a direct expression of shame in oneself
(i.e., I am so disgusting and damaged) or an indirect, masked manifestation (i.e., No one must ever know that I have been raped). Interventions aimed at this aspect of the injured self can gently encourage
survivors to examine the rationality of their shame (e.g., Did you hurt
anyone or were you the one being hurt . . . Who should be ashamed,
then?), which should help them to realize that in reality, they have
nothing to be ashamed of, and that, in fact, it is the assailant, as well
as society and its prejudiced attitudes that are shameful. A positive
sense of self is the expected outcome.
Finally, much of the empowerment afforded to survivors stems simply from raising their awareness of the social roots of their distress.
The notion of the personal being political underlies all interventions
aimed at freeing the survivor from internalized victim-blaming and
shame. It also provides answers to the questions regarding the reasons
for the assault that trouble them so. Why did it happen? Why to
me? If I am not to blame then how can I explain what happened?
Helping a survivor to realize that rape generally does not occur
because of any individual womans behavior, but rather is systematically embedded in patriarchal culture, offers her an alternative explanation for her plight. Redening male abusive behavior as
conformation to societys promotion of male violence can help her
make further sense of the events. Along the way, the changed perspective of each individual survivor is quite likely to reverberate beyond
the therapeutic process, contributing in some way to social change in
line with this particular tenet of feminist therapy.
In essence, by presenting survivors with a social analysis of male
violence against women, by shifting much of what they endured from
the personal domain into the shared collective one, by reframing their
experience in growth-promoting terms, all coupled with trauma
reprocessing and cognitive restructuring, feminist therapy stands a
rather good chance of freeing rape victims from the agonizing sequelae of rape and sexual assault and turning them into empowered
survivors.
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Chapter 7
For the past 40 years, psychologists, educators, and other social scientists have advocated for an increase in multicultural knowledge and
awareness in training, practice, and research. For example, the American Psychological Association (APA) has published the Guidelines on
multicultural education, training, research, practice, and organizational
change for psychologists (2003), which focus primarily on ways of
being culturally competent toward oppressed racial and ethnic minority groups, with minimal focus on other multicultural subgroups (e.g.,
gender, sexual orientation, etc.). So while such guidelines recognize the
intersections of other identities with race/ethnicity (e.g., the impacts of
gender on race and racial identity), the emphasis is primarily on race
and ethnicity. And while there is a denite need for the advocacy of
racial and ethnic minority issues, several other culturally oppressed
groups are often viewed as afterthoughts when discussing multiculturalism. Some of these groups include women, lesbian/gay/bisexual/
transgender (LGBT) persons, disabled persons, elderly, and religious
minority groups.
Research studies on multicultural competence models in psychology
tend to follow this pattern of emphasizing race and/or ethnicity exclusively. Writings involving culturally competent counseling methods,
counselor biases, identity development, and other multicultural issues
are predisposed to concentrate primarily on race (and sometimes ethnicity). This can be exemplied by the newest line of multicultural research
involving racial microaggressions, which are dened as brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether
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stop complaining about racial stressors (Sue, Bucceri et al., 2007). In this
case, the perpetrator may not realize the impact that such a statement may
have on the recipient; the individual may believe that she/he is simply stating ones opinion and assumes that the recipient should be able to agree
with her or his statement. However, the recipient may instead feel misunderstood because the perpetrator is not accounting for her/his experiences with race, leading to potential distress at the clash of their racial
realities and feelings of belittling, frustration, or sadness.
Given these three categories of racial microaggressions, it is likely
that similar experiences can occur across different social identities. For
example, a sexual orientation microassault may include a heterosexual
person calling a gay man a faggot or calling a lesbian a dyke. An
ability microinsult might include an able-bodied person speaking to a
disabled person slowly and condescendingly, assuming that she/he
would not be able to understand the person. A religious microinvalidation might include a Christian telling a Jewish person that You complain about the Holocaust too much (Nadal, 2008). All of these types
of statements or behaviors convey a negative and derogatory message
toward the member of the oppressed group. And again, the cumulative
nature of these statements and behaviors may have lasting impacts on
the member(s) of the oppressed group.
Given the denitions of racial microaggressions and the ability to
apply the experiences of microaggressions to interactions between different social groups, it is now possible to dene microaggressions that
may occur as a result of gender. Gender microaggressions are brief and
commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities
(whether intentional or unintentional) that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative sexist slights and insults toward women. These
microaggressions are often unconscious in that the perpetrator of the
microaggressions may not realize that he is being hurtful in his statements or behaviors. Gender microaggressions are different from other
forms of sexism in that they may manifest in various forms: microassaults, microinvalidations, and microinsults; they may be subtle and
covert, in that the recipient may often question whether the microaggression would even have a lasting impact on her psychological well
being. However, similar to racial microaggressions, the cumulative
nature of these gender microaggressions may lead to mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, trauma, or issues with self-esteem.
GENDER MICROAGGRESSIONS
Sexism in Everyday Life
Little research has been written on the term gender microaggressions in psychology, education, and social sciences, but rather describes
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meet the legal requirements for sexual harassment, yet send insulting
and invalidating messages to the women that receive them.
OBJECTIFICATION THEORY
The literature on objectication theory is also important to review in
order to further understand illustrations of gender microaggressions
and negative psychological effects. Objectication theory can be
dened as a framework for understanding the experiential consequences of being female in a culture that sexually objecties the female
body (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997, p. 173). It further explains that
sexual objectication can occur through an array of interpersonal interactions including romantic partners, family members, friends, acquaintances, strangers, and even media outlets that depict interpersonal and
social interactions. Accordingly, women and girls in an objectifying
society may experience various mental health risks, including depression, sexual dysfunction, eating disorders, and body image issues.
Through examining current measures of objectication, it can be
benecial to understand how specic experiences of being objectied
are interrelated with gender microaggressions. The Interpersonal Sexual Objectication Scale (ISOS) was created to understand how sexual
objectication occurred interpersonally and how it related to psychological distress (Kozee, Tylka, Augustus-Horvath, & Denchik, 2007). Exploratory and conrmatory factor analyses revealed two factors: body
evaluation and unwanted explicit sexual advances. Examples of body
evaluation include: How often have you been whistled at while walking down a street? or How often have you noticed someone staring
at your breasts when you are talking to them? Examples of unwanted
explicit sexual advances include How often have you been touched or
fondled against your will? or How often has someone grabbed or
pinched one of your private body areas against your will? Scores on
the ISOS were strongly related to sexist degradation and slightly to
moderately related to other sexist events, self-objectication (e.g., internalization of the thin-ideal) and body shame. These ndings support
that the experiences of being interpersonally sexualized and/or feeling
judged about ones body can lead to psychological distress, including a
lower self-esteem and an impaired body image. Similarly to previous
research on microaggressions, the cumulative nature of these events
increases psychological distress over time.
HOSTILE AND BENEVOLENT SEXISM
There has been some research that has conceptualized two additional forms of sexism: benevolent sexism and hostile sexism. Benevolent sexism is dened as a subjectively favorable, chivalrous ideology
163
that offers protection and affection to women who embrace conventional roles (Glick & Fiske, 2001, p. 109) while hostile sexism is
dened as antipathy toward women who are viewed as usurping
mens power (Glick & Fiske, 2001, p. 109). With benevolent sexism,
men may believe that they are nonsexist and that they believe in gender equality. However, in reality these men may endorse traditional
gender roles that actually promote female inferiority. For example, men
may believe that it is their responsibility to protect and provide for
women, which may seem favorable and innocuous, but demonstrates
the belief that women need to be taken care of. On the other hand,
men may exhibit hostile sexism and feel threatened by women who are
empowered, independent, and/or assertive. These men may be averse
to feminists or female authority gures and may express this discomfort or disgust in blatant and subtle ways. For example, a man may
belittle a female supervisor by referring to her with sexist labels when
talking to his male coworkers.
Benevolent and hostile sexism are unique to other forms of sexism
in that they are personal ideologies that promote male dominance and
female inferiority. At the same time, they are related to gender microaggressions because they may be unconscious and may manifest in an
array of hurtful behaviors or statements. For example, when a man
desires for a woman to uphold traditional gender roles, his behaviors
may include asking a woman to cook or clean for him, or treating a
woman as if she was not intelligent. He may or may not be consciously
aware of the sexist message he is portraying, and he may not recognize
the impact such behaviors/statements may have on the recipient.
Depending on the consciousness and intent of his actions, these may
be considered microassaults or microinsults. Similarly hostile sexism
may also take microassaultive, microinsulting, or microinvalidating
forms. For example, a man calling a woman in power a bitch or
aggressive may be considered a microassault. A man who unconsciously ignores a womans ideas (because he feels threatened by
her power or intelligence) may be an example of a microinsult, and a
man who tells a woman (particularly an outspoken or assertive
woman) to stop playing the gender card would be an example of a
microinvalidation.
GENDER MICROAGGRESSIONS
Sue and Capodilupo discuss microaggressions that are related to
race, gender, and sexual orientation. Several categories of gender
microaggressions are introduced, citing the behaviors/statements and
the messages that are being communicated to the recipient. In the
theme of sexual objectication, men may conduct behaviors that
send the message that a womans body is a sexual object. Examples
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Table 7.1
Examples of Gender Microaggressions in Everyday Life
Example
Message
166
Theme
167
168
169
170
Table 7.2
Examples of Gender Microaggressions in Clinical Practice and Other Settings
Theme
Example
Message
171
Women should know their primary purpose in life is to be a wife and mother.
Environmental Invalidations:
Macro-level aggressions that occur on
a systemic and environmental level.
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Chapter 8
This chapter focuses on a neglected populationsexual minorities (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning [LGBTQ] individuals)
in Brazil, a developing country, which is relevant to U.S. researchers,
clinicians, and policy makers interested in sexual minorities of color
who often face similar challenges. We begin by dening some basic
concepts concerning gender, sexual orientation, and transsexualism.
Next, we briey discuss prejudice and discrimination, including subtle
discrimination toward LGBT individuals. We also discuss pertinent
material published in English or Portuguese concerning prejudice, discrimination, and violence toward sexual minorities in Brazil. Moreover,
we give a voice to such population by inserting excerpts from interviews that we conducted during 2009 with Brazilian LGBTQ individuals from Porto Alegre (southern Brazil), S~
ao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro (both
in southeastern Brazil), and Aracaju (northeastern Brazil).
Brazil is the largest Latin American country and is ranked eighth in
the world economy. It is slightly smaller than the United States, with a
population of about 200 million (54 percent white; Central Intelligence
Agency, 2009). Brazilian society differs greatly from region to region,
from rural to urban life, with industrialization and urbanization widespread in some regions (e.g., south and southeast) and not as much in
others (e.g., north and the interior). Moreover, sexuality and gender
178
179
180
order for the contact hypothesis to work, others must know about ones
sexual orientation.
Unlike women and ethnic/racial minorities who have visible phenotypic
characteristics, homosexuality is often invisible, dependent on revelation to
become known to others (Sedgwick, 1990); thus, Fassinger (1991) refers to
their status as an invisible minority in society. Sexual prejudice (i.e., antipathy toward LGBTQ individuals) may lead to discrimination, which is an
act, either physical or verbal, as well as avoidance or social exclusion (i.e.,
not associating with LGBTQ individuals; Crocker, Major, & Steele, 1998).
DeSouza and Showalter (in press) recently examined microaggressions (e.g., social exclusion and spreading malicious rumors)
directed at sexual minorities that are subtle, yet detrimental. DeSouza
and Showalter sampled 133 LGBTQ college students in the United
States. After controlling for negative affectivity, they found that LGBTQ
students who experienced at least one act of subtle sexual orientation
harassment during the past year were signicantly more likely to state
intention to leave their institution and have a lower GPA than nonharassed students. In addition, DeSouza and Showalter found that
LGBTQ students who were open about their sexual orientation
reported higher levels of self-esteem and life satisfaction and lower levels of anxiety and depression than those less committed to their sexual
identity, suggesting signicant benets for coming out to others.
HOMOSEXUALITY IN BRAZIL
In the Brazilian sexual script, there is a hegemonic distinction
between masculine atividade (activity) and feminine passividade (passivity), in which sexuality is subjected to male desire, reecting widespread machismo (Parker, 1993). According to Parker, such a
distinction is reected in the daily language Brazilians use to describe
sexual relations, in which the role of the macho is to comer (literally to
eat, but loosely translated as to fuck) and the role assigned to women,
effeminate gay men, and transvestites is to dar (to give). In the Brazilian sexual universe, comer is synonymous with vencer (to win, to conquer) and possuir (to own, to possess). Such a vocabulary of sexual
meanings suggests that women, effeminate gay men, and transvestites
are socialized to be passive, receptive sexual partners, while macho
men are socialized to pursue, to penetrate, and to dominate. Thus, in
Brazil, a macho man continues to exercise the power of his virility with
any feminine individual, including a bicha or effeminate male homosexual (Mendes-Leite, 1993). In other words, as long as the macho maintains his atividade (i.e., be the active person or penetrator, not the
penetrated), he is typically not viewed as a homosexual by society.
There is also an internalization of such sexual script by some gay men,
181
creating a sexual hierarchy in Brazil, with macho men at the top and
feminine individuals (i.e., heterosexual women, effeminate gay men,
and transgendered individuals) on the bottom.
Here I have to be macho. It does not matter what one does within four
walls; it is our secret. As long as you act like a macho in public, everything
is ne. Even among other gay men, the idea of being macho [active or penetrator] is strong. If a gay man wants to offend another, just call him a passive [or penetrated] queer.
thirty-six-year-old gay man from Aracaju
People talk bad about transvestites . . . they say we are the scummiest subgroup of all homosexuals, but nobody questions macho homosexual men who
go out with us and pay to have sex with us. They continue to be honorable
gentlemen in the eyes of society, because they live an anonymous life and often pass as heterosexual. They think they are the most macho men in the
world. They are macho because they eat [have sex with] anyone!
twenty-four-year-old transvestite from Aracaju
182
A national poll revealed a similar ambivalence toward homosexuality among a cross-section of Brazilian men and women. Fifty percent of
those surveyed indicated daily contact with homosexuals at work or in
the neighborhood; however, 56 percent said they would change their
behavior toward a colleague if they discovered he or she was a homosexual, with 20 percent avoiding contact with such colleague and 36
percent indicating they would not hire a homosexual, even if he or she
were the best-qualied candidate for the position; 58 percent reported
being opposed to homosexual couples adopting a child even if they
had lived in a committed relationship for a long time; and 79 percent
said they would be disappointed if they had a homosexual child
(O mundo gay rasga as fantasias, 1993).
A survey study conducted in the city of S~
ao Paulo (Instituto de Pesquisa
e Cultura GLS, 2000) revealed that 67 percent of the LGBT sample
reported being discriminated against due to their sexual orientation by
family members, friends, and neighbors, as well as in work, school, public, and health services settings. In addition, victims of such discrimination were re-victimized when ling complaints in police stations.
183
184
185
186
187
188
extended to all sexual minorities worldwide. Fourth, LGBTQ individuals have the right to live in a society free of violence; when crime based
on sexual orientation occurs, punishment needs to be swift and just.
SEXISM
The Brazilian Health Ministry (Conselho Nacional de Combate a
Discriminac~ao, 2004) also suggested that prejudice based on sexual orientation must be reduced alongside other types of prejudice, such as
sexism. Research has shown that sexism is related to negative attitudes
toward sexual minorities. Glick and Fiske (1996) differentiated between
two types of sexist ideologies. The rst is a subjectively positive, but
patronizing, orientation of protection, idealization, and affection toward
women (benevolent sexism), whereas the second reects mens violence
against women and exploitation of women as sex objects (hostile sexism). These two types of sexism are complementary. They reinforce
and justify patriarchy, including heterosexuals hostility toward women
who deviate from traditional gender roles (e.g., lesbians; Glick & Fiske,
1997). Research across six U.S. samples showed that men consistently
scored signicantly higher than did women on both hostile and benevolent sexism; however, the gender gap was greater for hostile sexism
than for benevolent sexism (Glick & Fiske, 1996).
Moreover, benevolent and hostile sexism have been found to be
widespread across 19 nations, including Brazil, reecting and maintaining the oppression of women (Glick et al., 2000), including lesbians.
For instance, in a study across three British samples of high school students, college students, and full-time employees, Masser and Abrams
(1999) found that benevolent sexism, hostile sexism, and neosexism
were negatively related to support for lesbians and gay mens rights.
In addition, in a study of college students at a medium-sized Midwestern U.S. public university, Whitley (2001) found that the best predictors
of attitudes toward homosexuality were gender, benevolent sexism,
endorsement of the traditional masculine role, and attitudes toward
women.
DeSouza, Solberg, and Elder (2007) examined the inuence of ones
attitudes toward women in general and lesbians in particular on perceptions of woman-to-woman sexual harassment among 952 U.S. and
Brazilian college students. The authors found signicant relationships
between negative attitudes toward lesbians with both benevolent and
hostile sexism. Thus, sexist individuals also have anti-lesbian attitudes.
The authors also found some support for the contact hypothesis, as
there was a signicant relationship between associating with homosexuals and having positive attitudes toward lesbians. There were interesting cross-cultural differences. Overall, college students in Brazil viewed
hypothetical cases involving woman-to-woman sexual harassment as
189
CONCLUSION
The picture of Brazil portrayed by the media is of Carnival, where
nudity is the norm, but most Brazilians remain conservative underneath the mask of a sensual and seductive society, where there is no
sin below the equator or within four walls everything is permitted
(Parker, 1991, 1993, 1999). In fact, machismo is alive and well. However, like its views toward women, Brazilian society has been changing
its views toward LGBTQ individuals, with a signicant shift toward
acceptance of sexual minorities.
There are many lenses to understand Brazil. On the one hand, sexual minorities in Brazil experience dehumanization in the form of public stigma, stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, and violence. On the
other hand, Brazilians are discussing homosexuality more openly,
which is changing morality from a rigid hegemonic heterosexual viewpoint toward a more accepting view of differences and diversity as desirable. According to Prado and Machado (2008), homosexuality in
Brazil has been through a political transformation: from criminalizing
and pathologizing homosexuality toward ghting for human rights
and dignity of LGBTQ individuals.
Increasing numbers of sexual minority individuals in Brazil are coming out of the closet and slowly are being accepted by family members,
friends, neighbors, and co-workers. For instance, on June 14, 2009, the
city of S~ao Paulo held its 13th Gay Pride parade, the largest in the
world with an estimated 3.5 million people in attendance (Parada Gay,
2009). The process is not uniform though. Acceptance is more common
in large urban centers, such as S~
ao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, than in
rural areas or in the northeast of Brazil. In addition, sexual minority
individuals who publicly conform to traditional gender role expectations are more easily accepted than their less gender-typical counterparts, especially transgendered individuals who totally break away
from traditional gender expressions and are the most marginalized and
the most victimized sexual minority subgroup in Brazil.
190
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193
Chapter 9
196
197
when a teacher fails a student because he or she is not willing to participate in sexual behaviors.
The other type of sexual harassment is hostile environment, which is
dened as an environment being so hostile that it interferes with an
individuals ability to perform her or his tasks, such as attending
classes (Sandler & Shoop, 1997). Examples of behaviors that fall under
this category include, but are not limited to, sexual innuendos, sexual
bantering, unwanted touching, grabbing and pinching, sexual obscenities, computer harassment, exposure to pornographic materials, and
being asked out on a date repeatedly after having said no.
Often in situations of hostile environment, the harasser and the target are in an equal organizational position, such as both being
students. This form of hostile environment is called peer sexual harassment. However, only a few studies focused directly on peer sexual
harassment in educational settings (e.g., DeSouza & Ribeiro, 2005;
DeSouza, Schneider, & Hubbard, 2005; Goldstein, Malanchuk, DavisKean, & Eccles, 2007).
One of the reasons for the lack of attention on peer sexual harassment in educational settings is that many sexual behaviors that match
the peer sexual harassment denition have become normalized in society due to the cultures perception of gender roles. According to
Woods (2007), one aspect for men to be masculine in the United States
is to be sexual; in other words, men should be interested in sex all the
time. For example, it is common to nd a group of men judging womens appearance and body parts when women simply pass by, and it
would be naturally argued that judging women is a way of men
being men.
Peer sexual harassment occurs due to societal status bestowed upon
men (Fitzgerald & Ormerod, 1993). Thus, it is a form of gender-based
dominance and control (Fineran, Bennett, & Sacco, 2001), in which
young men show their masculinity by sexually coming on to women
(Woods, 2007). Fineran and Bennett (1999) reported that in the United
States, high school boys sexually harassed their peers more often than
high school girls did, and adolescents beliefs that men should be dominant were correlated with engaging in sexually harassing behaviors
toward peers.
Although Hill and Silvas study as well as other studies that use
their own behavioral checklists (e.g., American Association of University Women, 1993, 2001; Fineran & Bennet, 1999; Ivy & Hamlet, 1996)
are informative, these studies are largely atheoretical. They generally
use various denitions of sexual harassment and psychometric instruments, making generalizations problematic (Raver & Gelfand, 2005).
In the late 1980s, Fitzgerald et al. created a behavioral measure of
sexual harassment called the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ),
which has become the most widely used and rigorous assessment of
198
199
200
citizenship have less power in the host society. In addition, they are
fearful to report their experiences to authorities because they might
lose their legal right to stay in the host country.
According to Sandler, female international college students are more
likely to be harassed than college students born in the United States,
because the former are objectied as exotic and/or passive and, as
suggested above, they have less power in society due to their gender
and citizenship status. Unfortunately, none of the previous studies on
peer sexual harassment or any other form of sexual harassment have
investigated the experiences of international students enrolled in U.S.
colleges and universities. This is troublesome because 623,805 international students studied in the United States during the 2007/2008
academic year, accounting for 3.5 percent of the student body (Institute of International Education, n.d.). Thus, it is important to investigate the experiences of international students with peer sexual
harassment.
Moreover, targets of peer sexual harassment may end up in selfdoubt, affecting their entire education experience and future career, as
they may become afraid of attending classes or joining social events in
order to avoid the harasser and may end up transferring to another
institution or dropping out of college altogether (Sandler, 1997). Furthermore, sexual harassment is a stressor that can have negative psychological outcomes on the targets (e.g., DeSouza & Cerqueira, in
press; Willness, Steel, & Lee, 2007). In addition, even relatively mild
experiences with sexual harassment may lead to negative consequences
in ones physical and psychological health (e.g., DeSouza & Cerqueira,
in press; DeSouza & Fansler, 2003; Goldstein et al., 2007).
201
202
203
204
CONCLUSION
The current study advances our understanding of sexual harassment
by comparing its incidence and psychological consequences between
U.S.-born students and international student. Female international students experienced the most peer sexual harassment and were the ones
most bothered by these experiences, which seem to add to their acculturation stress in a new culture (Wadsworth, Hecht, & Jung, 2008).
Harassed international college students, regardless of gender, may
even blame themselves for their victimization. Thus, their lower selfesteem, compared to harassed U.S.-born college students, evidenced in
our study is easy to understand, because being sexually harassed
implies low status, as noncitizens, and a sense of powerlessness, as
they may fear losing their student visa if they complain to university
ofcials and returning home in shame.
The above ndings have important implications for university ofcials who are in a position to prevent sexual harassment in all its
forms. According to Hill and Silva, [t]he ramications of sexual harassment can be serious. Sexual harassment can damage the emotional
and academic well-being of students, provoke and exacerbate conict
among students, and contribute to a hostile learning environment . . .
society as a whole is affected as graduating students bring their attitudes about sexual harassment into the workplace and beyond (p. 4).
University ofcials have a duty to protect international students
from sexual harassment. International students may need extra help
understanding how sexual harassment is dened in the United States
and what can be done to redress the situation. Residence hall assistants
(RAs) are often the rst resource for international students residing on
campus. Thus, RAs may need additional training about how international students may have a different conceptualization of sexual harassment. For example, Brazilian laws dene sexual harassment only as
sexual coercion by superiors, that is, quid pro quo sexual harassment
(C
odigo Penal Brasileiro, 2001).
205
contextualize the sexual harassment experiences of international students. Researchers (e.g., Lim & Cortina, 2005) suggest that sexual harassment does not happen in isolation, but rather in an environment
permeated by generalized hostility. Hence, other types of mistreatment
(e.g., bullying and incivility) should be simultaneously investigated in
future studies.
NOTE
1. Preliminary ndings were presented at 2008 meeting of the International
Coalition Against Sexual Harassment and at the Association for Psychological
Science.
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Chapter 10
In Womens Voices
Janet Boyce
When I began writing this, I had to take a step back and think about
what feminism really means to me. I then began to ask female friends
and family members what feminism means to them. Surprisingly, I
dont think that any two women had the same response. However,
there was one predominant underlying factor, and that was the right
to be given equal treatment. Women just want to be treated as equal to
their male counterparts. Although women have made great strides over
the last 50 years, there is still a ways to go before women are viewed
as equals to men.
Traditionally, women were expected to get married, have a family,
and stay home to take care of them. This changed, in a sense, when
women went to work outside of the home during wartime and began
to experience the freedom associated with earning a paycheck. Many
of these women were then replaced by men returning from war. It was
at this time that women noticed the inequalities in the workplace both
from an economic and social standpoint.
As the baby boomers came of age in the 1960s, many with college
educations did not accept the economic and social inequalities being
imposed on them. These are the women that paved the way for the
generations to come. These women mirrored the way activists were
able to lobby for equality with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 legally prohibiting race discrimination and gender discrimination. This was later
amended by Title IX, which prohibited discrimination in education and
athletics. Although legislation made it illegal to discriminate against a
person based on their gender, the traditional biases were still there in
the workplace and in education.
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Chapter 11
Interpersonal violence, whether dened as sexual harassment or bullying, frequently occurs in schools and is both experienced and observed
by students and school personnel alike (Stein, 1999). Sexual harassment
is dened as discrimination and is illegal, while bullying, although
abhorrent, is not considered discriminatory. However, because sexual
harassment and bullying have emerged from two different paradigms
(employment law and criminal law), exploration of their impact on students has been very different.
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213
humiliate and control others (primarily other boys) misses the point
about the power of culturally-based stereotypes (AAUW, 2001; McGuffey & Rich, 1999; Kimmel & Mahler, 2003). Two recent studies by Jessie
Klein (2006a, 2006b) have highlighted the role that gender and sexual
stereotyping played in school shootingsa fact that has escaped public
scrutiny because of a focus on bullying: Most of the school shooters
targeted girls primarily; and the shooters, who fell well outside the
range of acceptable masculine body types, had weathered attacks on
their masculinity, including homophobic taunts, for monthsand in
some cases, years.
PREVALENCE OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND
BULLYING IN U.S. SCHOOLS
Four national studies of student victimizationtwo on sexual harassment and two on bullyingprovide the broadest statistics regarding
these behaviors in U.S. schools in the last two decades. The earliest
study on bullying in the United States, conducted in 1998 by the
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (Nansel
et al., 2001) that used Olweuss theoretical construction found that onethird of early adolescent children were directly involved in bullying,
with 10 percent as bullies, 13 percent as victims, and 6 percent as
bully-victims. The U.S. Department of Education School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey (2003) reported that
in 2001, 8 percent of middle and high school students were bullied
(9 percent males, 7 percent females). The American Association of University Women (AAUW) conducted both national studies on sexual
harassment, the rst in 1993 and the second in 2001. The two studies
showed similar results: 81 percent of students experienced some form
of sexual harassment during their school years. Fifty-nine percent of
students were harassed occasionally and 27 percent were targeted often
(AAUW, 2001). In addition, 54 percent of students said they sexually
harassed someone during their school years. One interesting contrast
with bullying outcomes, which tend to decrease with age and grade
level was that sexual harassment frequency increases with grade level:
55 percent of eighth and ninth graders and 61 percent of tenth and
eleventh graders reported that they had been physically sexually harassed at school (Hand & Sanchez, 2000).
When these four national studies are compared, it appears that sexual harassment is a national disaster that affects nearly all school children. The statistical contrast is stark: Over 80 percent of students said
they had experienced sexual harassment, while fewer than one of six
reported being bullied. Even more interesting, more than half of students said they perpetrated sexual harassment, while only 10 percent
reported bullying others; and students who reported being both
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215
216
217
218
girls (AAUW, 1993, 2001; Fineran & Bennett, 1999; Hand & Sanchez,
2000; Lee, Croninger, Linn, & Chen, 1996; McMaster, Connolly,
Pepler, & Craig, 2002; PCSW, 1995; Stratton & Backes, 1997; Trigg &
Wittenstrom, 1996).
With regard to bullying, Nansel et al., (2001) found that males both
bullied others and were bullied signicantly more often than females.
Results also showed that males reported being bullied by being hit,
slapped, or pushed, while females were bullied more frequently
through the use of rumors and sexual comments. A meta-analysis of
studies examining peer victimization that occurred over the past
twenty years, showed that bullied boys are four times, and girls eight
times, more likely to be suicidal than their non-bullied peers (Hawker
& Boulton, 2000).
PEER SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND BULLYING
VICTIMIZATION: SEXUAL ORIENTATION
An annual school survey, The Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior
Survey (Commonwealth of Massachusetts, April 1998), compared gay,
lesbian, and bisexual students to their peers. Results showed that sexual minority students were four times more likely to have attempted
suicide, and ve times more likely to have missed school because of
feeling unsafe. Fineran (2002a) found that lesbian girls experienced
signicantly more sexual harassment than heterosexual girls. A recent
follow-up to the Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey (Massachusetts Department of Education, 2007) reiterated many of its nds
from their earlier study: Sexual minority students had higher suicide
rates, were more apt to skip school because they felt unsafe, had been
threatened with or injured by a weapon at school, and experienced
more dating violence and non-consensual sex. Fineran (2002a) found in
a study of 712 high school students that sexual minority students were
physically assaulted and sexually harassed more frequently than heterosexual students. She also reported that heterosexual girls were signicantly more upset and threatened by peer sexual harassment than their
heterosexual male peers. According to Williams et al. (2005), gay and
lesbian students also experienced both bullying and sexual harassment
at higher levels than their heterosexual counterparts; and, according to
Poteat and Espelage (2007), being the target of homophobic victimization had signicant psychological and social consequences for students.
A report on Michigan schools by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network [GLSEN], 2005) revealed that two-thirds of students in
their sample were harassed because they were, or appeared to be, gay
or lesbian, and more than 80 percent of these students reported hearing
derogatory homophobic comments. In a recent study (Gruber &
Fineran, 2008a), sexual minority adolescents not only had signicantly
219
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221
condent (35 percent) compared to black girls ( 25 percent and 17 percent, respectively). The fact that peer sexual harassment victimization
may have less impact for blacks than whites may be due to the fact
that racism and racial discrimination play signicant roles in the health
and well-being of African Americans. This point is made well by African American focus group members in Welsh and her colleagues
(2006) study of workplace harassment who said that sexual harassment
was easier to deal with and less pressing than racial harassment
(p. 98). In particular, they found that sexual harassment from black
males was not dened as such while similar treatment from whites
was (p. 99). Buchanan and Fitzgerald (in press) found that adverse job
and health outcomes for African American women that resulted from
workplace sexual harassment were exacerbated by racial harassment.
PEER SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND BULLYING
VICTIMIZATION: HEALTH AND SCHOOL OUTCOMES
There have been a number of studies on bullying and sexual harassment that point to negative outcomes for mental and physical health
and school performance. Nansel et al., 2001 states that research on
bullies and those bullied has consistently found that youth who are
bullied generally show higher levels of insecurity, anxiety, depression,
loneliness, unhappiness, physical and mental symptoms, and low self
esteem (p. 2095). The National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development (Nansel, 2001) also reports that students who were bullied experienced greater difculty making friends, had poorer relationships with classmates, and reported greater loneliness. In additional
studies, Espelage and Holt (2001) investigated depression among children who were bullied and found that 20 percent of middle school victims scored within the clinical range on a standard depression and
anxiety measure, while Boulton and Hawker (2000) found that bullied
kids were ve times more likely to be depressed. Hazler, Hoover, and
Oliver (1992) reported that 90 percent of bullied students experienced a
drop in school grades, while Kochenderfer and Ladd (1996) showed
that bullying victimization was related to school absenteeism or dropping out.
When examining sexual harassment victimization, AAUW studies
(1993, 2001) revealed student reports of negative psychosocial effects
such as depression, loss of appetite, nightmares or disturbed sleep, low
self esteem, and feelings of being sad, afraid, scared, or embarrassed
(Hand & Sanchez, 2000; Lee et al., 1996). Similar to bullying victims,
students also reported loss of interest in regular activities, isolation
from friends and family, and loss of friends. School performance difculties included absenteeism, decreased quality of schoolwork, skipping or dropping classes, poor grades, tardiness, and truancy (AAUW,
222
1993, 2001; Corbett, Gentry, & Pearson, 1993; Hand & Sanchez, 2000;
Lee et al., 1996; Loredo, Reid, & Deaux, 1995; PCSW, 1995; Roscoe,
Strouse, & Goodwin, 1994; Shakeshaft et al., 1995; Stein, Marshall, &
Tropp, 1993; Stratton & Backes, 1997; Trigg & Wittenstrom, 1996). In
addition, students also reported feeling afraid, upset, or threatened by
the sexual harassment (AAUW, 1993, 2001; Fineran & Bennett, 1999;
PCSW, 1995; Stein, Marshall, & Tropp, 1993).
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224
harassment experience revealed that more than half (56 percent) of the
perpetrators were coworkers, while supervisors and vendors/customers
accounted equally for the remainder. A large majority of the perpetrators were older than the girls, with nearly half (46 percent) described
as older than 30.
Another study by the same authors (Fineran & Gruber, 2009) found
that young adolescents (ages 13-15) were impacted signicantly by sexual harassment. In particular, girls healthself esteem, physical and
mental health, and post-traumatic symptomsand work attitudes and
behavior were adversely affected more so than boys.
CONCLUSIONS
Research conducted nationally and internationally on teen sexual
harassment and bullying describes a problem of victimization that persists throughout adolescence and has a number of unhealthy effects.
Despite the varieties of sample sizes, theoretical denitions, measurements, and time frames, several important generalizations can be
gleaned from the research.
It appears at rst glance that sexual harassment occurs at a much
higher rate than bullying does. On closer inspection, it appears that a
signicant amount of this difference may be attributed to the ways in
which these forms of victimization are measured. The only study to
date (Gruber & Fineran, 2008a) that used similar measures and time
frames found that bullying was more prevalent. A clearer understanding of victimization rates across time and spacee.g., comparing victimization in 2009 to 2001, or comparing rates between the United
States and European Union nationswould result from the use of
similarly-constructed measures (e.g., a listing of behaviors found in the
AAUW studies) and similar time frames.
Across the globe, regardless of culture and language it is clear that
victimization and perpetration are not random but are indeed highly
predictable events. Boys are perpetrators and frequently victims; girls
are victims but seldom perpetrators. Also, sexual minority children are
at risk for bullying and sexual harassment victimization. Though there
is less research on them, children with disabilities also seem to be frequent targets of victimization. The research on racial and ethnic differences in bullying and harassment is mixed. Most studies nd few
differences either in the overall incidence of victimization or in the specic types of victimization. Since most perpetration and victimization
is an in-group phenomenon (e.g., blacks bully and harass other blacks),
the dynamics of cross-race experiences remain a research issue for the
future.
Research from across the globe clearly shows that bullying and harassment victimization is not a trivial event in childrens lives. Despite
225
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Chapter 12
If the misery of our poor be caused not by laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.
Charles Darwin
The above quotation by Charles Darwin is still very relevant in contemporary American society. Not only the poor, but also those who experience disenfranchisement in a variety of forms, for example, gender,
race, ethnicity, and so on, are subject to inequity on multiple levels:
personal, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural. These levels of
oppression are interactive, and it is easy to see how the majority
viewpoint can subtly make its way into the cultural framework. For
example, ones personal values, beliefs, and feelings can lead to interpersonal interaction (behavior), which can then lead to the creation of
institutional rules and policies and then nally to cultural views
involving the nature of beauty, truth, and right. It is frightening to
examine our own history and the history of the American public education system in this light, but the same is true for both: personal
values and beliefs were held that excluded and were detrimental to minority viewpoints. These racist and sexist beliefs were used to create a
sociopolitical agenda that separated people into racial categories and
promoted the superiority of the white race. In Inheriting Shame: The
Story of Eugenics and Racism in America (1999), Steven Selden discusses
232
how such personal values and beliefs led to institutional policy in the
American school system, the repercussions of which are still with us.
Although most people associated with American education were not
overtly radical racists, it is frightening when one considers that they
nonetheless attached their names to philosophical ideas that were the
basis for organizations that advocated for the segregation and sterilization of undesirables. For example, G. Stanley Hall, developer of Child
Study, which was highly inuential on curriculum in the twentieth century, was a rm believer in biological determinism. He felt that nature
dened educability. He also advocated for a wide range of curricula
to correspond to the wide range of abilities in individuals, which, not
surprisingly, were more often than not based on racial and gender differences. Leta Hollingworth is still recognized today as a leading
researcher and advocate for gifted and talented education, despite her
alignment with the Eugenics Movement. As Selden states: Educational
policy, in Hollingworths (1924) view, disregarded gifted children due to
a misguided social philosophy that denied innate permanent, hereditary
superiority (p. 101). Dr. Helen Putnams eugenical ideas linked the
National Education Association (NEA) with biological determinism.
Dr. Putnams report at the 1916 NEA conference, entitled The New
Ideal in EducationBetter Parents of Better Children, advocated for the
rationale that there was in fact a superior race: If humanity is to survive, Putnam informed her audience of teachers and administrators,
individualism and nationalism must conform to the laws of racial wellbeing (Putnam, quoted in Selden, p. 57). Putnam also expanded her
platform of eugenical ideas to include programs of teacher education.
Interestingly, knowledge about the existence of the notion of eugenics and the Eugenics Movement in America is not widely known by
most modern educators, or by the general public for that matter.
Unfortunately, not having this knowledge allows similar ideas to reappear in contemporary society in more covert forms, for example, in the
form of tracking students, having differential expectations based on
gender, socioeconomic class, and so on. More shocking is when such
racist notions appear quite overtly in society. For example, the racism
justied by biological determinism emerged again recently with the
publication of The Bell Curve (1994) by Charles Murray and Richard J.
Hernstein. The Bell Curve presents pseudoscientic evidence of the
genetic inferiority of blacks. As Macedo and Bartolome state:
This book has not only activated what had appeared to be a dormancy of
racism in the United States after the enactment of the civil rights laws,
but it also has resurrected an old form of intellectual lynching that,
unfortunately, has been embraced by ever more powerful representatives
of the far right and, with some exception, by liberals through a form of
silence. (1999, p. 85)
233
Despite the fact that knowledge of the Eugenics Movement in America is not well known by most modern educators, it is easy to trace
eugenical ideas in public education through science textbooks used
during the period between 1914 and 1948. There was little scientic
evidence to support eugenics in its infancy, but even when research
suggested that there was absolutely no scientic basis for eugenical
conclusions textbooks continued to promote individual differences
based on hierarchical notions of race and biological determinism. In
essence, textbook authors and publishers, such as George William
Hunter, believed what they wanted to believe, despite evidence to the
contrary. They used their beliefs to promote their own sociopolitical
agendas: agendas of exclusion that promoted the continued privilege
of whites. As Selden states:
Programs of selective breeding were most frequently recommended to
the high school reader: Positive eugenics, which called for the selective
matings of those judged as societys best, was cited in 64.4% of the texts,
and negative eugenics, which demanded the restriction of child-bearing
by those judged socially inferior, appeared in 46.3% of the volumes. In
addition, 19.5% of the texts recommended immigration restriction and
14.6% suggested policies of segregation and sterilization. (p. 68)
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Chapter 13
Women across the world bear the burdens of discrimination, harassment, poverty, and maltreatment (United Nations Population Fund
[UNFPA], 2005). Unequal pay, lower workforce participation, and disparate access to health care place women at a disadvantage relative to
men (Pratt, 1997; UNFPA, 2002), and contribute to women representing
more than 75 percent of the worlds poor (United Nations, 2005). Societys (mis)treatment of women contributes to their higher rates of certain forms of mental illness (e.g., depression, anxiety, and eating
disorders) and their increased incidence of physical disability relative
to men (Landrine & Klonoff, 1997; Nosek, Howland, Rintala, Young, &
Chanpong, 2004).
Womens participation in paid employment determines their ability
to combat both poverty and nancial dependence, both of which put
them at risk of being abused. Yet, for many women, the workplace is
fraught with additional hazards that can place their nancial, physical,
and psychological well-being in peril. Specically, gender discrimination and harassment are reported by approximately half of all working
women in the United States (Ilies, Hauserman, Schwochau, & Stibal,
2003), with damaging effects on their mental and physical health
(Willness, Steel, & Lee, 2007). Given the high toll women pay as a
236
result of work-related gender discrimination and harassment, the specic negative mental and physical health outcomes associated with this
mistreatment should be well understood.
DEFINING GENDER DISCRIMINATION AND HARASSMENT
Title VII of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1991 prohibits employment discrimination based on gender, race, color, religion, and national
origin. Gender discrimination is divided into two forms: disparate
treatment and disparate impact (Cleveland, Vescio, & Barnes-Farrell,
2005). Disparate treatment occurs when individuals are deliberately
treated differently because of their gender. Examples include offering
women lower starting salaries, posing different interview questions to
male and female applicants (e.g., querying their intent to have children), or refusing to hire female applicants. Disparate impact, also
referred to as adverse impact, occurs when ostensibly neutral workplace practices have an unnecessary negative effect on members of a
protected class (e.g., women), thereby limiting the opportunities of that
group. Gender-related examples of disparate impact frequently include
the use of height, weight, or strength requirements for physically
demanding jobs. For example, the Dial Corporation required a preemployment test of physical strength that rendered 60 percent of
female applicants, but only 3 percent of male applicants, ineligible for
employment, including women who had already been successfully
employed in the position. The ruling in EEOC v. The Dial Corporation
asserted that a fair test should not screen out employees who successfully worked in the same position, therefore, the strength test had an
unnecessary adverse effect on women.
Originally, the law protected against gender-based discrimination, but
did not address sexual harassment until 1976 when the ruling in
Williams v. Saxby legally recognized it as a form of sex discrimination
in violation of Title VII (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
[EEOC], 1980). The legal denition of sexual harassment separates it
into two categories: quid pro quo and hostile environment. Quid pro
quo includes any attempt to coerce sexual interactions via job-related
threats or promises of benets based on ones sexual compliance (e.g.,
threatening termination or promising a promotion). A hostile work environment is created when an employee perceives the general workplace
milieu as hostile as a result of unwanted gender-based comments or
behaviors. Similarly, a hostile environment can be created when these
behaviors negatively affect an employees job performance, regardless
of whether or not there are tangible or economic job consequences
(Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [EEOC], 1980). As a
psychological construct, sexual harassment is dened as unwanted
gender-based or sexual comments and behavior that an individual
238
The strength of the relationship between discrimination and psychological well-being is affected by several factors (Fineran & Gruber,
2008) reecting individual (e.g., age, self-esteem, and feminist identity)
and experiential differences (e.g., appraisal, multiple forms of harassment occurring simultaneously). For example, younger working
women appear to be more negatively impacted by harassment than
their older counterparts, perhaps because they do not have the same
job stability, seniority, and security (Chan et al., 2008). Collective selfesteem or perceptions of women in general and personal self-esteem
both appear to moderate the relationship between discrimination, sexual harassment, and psychological distress (Fischer & Holz, 2007). For
example, women with a strong and positive view of themselves may
be better equipped to dismiss discrimination experiences than women
who are unsure of their personal worth (Moradi & Subich, 2004) and
those with more positive views of women in general (higher collective
self-esteem) reported less depression and anxiety following harassment
(Fischer & Holz, 2007).
Feminist consciousness is theorized to provide a framework for
understanding gender discrimination, which can reduce self-blame
associated with these experiences (Landrine & Klonoff, 1997). Feminist
attitudes have been found to be protective against the negative effects
of gender discrimination and harassment (Moradi & Subich, 2002), suggesting that women who endorse a more feminist consciousness may
avoid internalizing blame by recognizing harassment as a manifestation
of larger social injustices. Furthermore, feminist-identied women may
feel more empowered to actively cope with discrimination, making
them less vulnerable to negative outcomes (Sabik & Tylka, 2006). Notably, a feminist identity does not appear to be equally protective for all
women. Whereas a feminist identity may help white women label their
harassment experience as a social injustice instead of internalizing
blame, Rederstorff, Buchanan, and Settles (2007) found that a higher
feminist identity exacerbated the negative effects of harassment for
black women. The authors attributed these ndings to the double consciousness found among many multiply oppressed people where an
increased awareness of oppression based on one salient identity
increases awareness of ones vulnerability based on other salient identities. As a result, black women who endorsed more feminist attitudes
were more likely to report higher levels of posttraumatic stress in the
face of sexual harassment and discrimination. Another study of predominantly white lesbian and bisexual women found that participation
in feminist activities (e.g., membership in feminist organizations, participation in feminist boycotts, marches, or rallies) buffered against psychological distress at low levels of harassment, but more severe sexual
harassment was associated with signicant psychological distress,
regardless of feminist afliation (Szymanski & Owens, 2009).
240
Womens subjective appraisal of the harassment (e.g., how disturbing, embarrassing, threatening, frightening, or offensive they perceived
it to be) and the coping strategies they use to deal with it can buffer or
exacerbate distress. According to cognitive theories of stress, the targets subjective appraisal of a potentially stressful situation impacts the
level of distress they experience following a traumatic event (Lazarus
& Folkman, 1984). Consistent with this theory, appraisal has been
shown to mediate the relationship between sexual harassment and
mental health outcomes (Langhout et al., 2005). Similarly, women who
perceive harassment as pervasive in society or believe it is directed at
them personally experience heightened psychological distress as compared to women who believed harassment was a relatively rare phenomenon and directed at women as a group rather than a personal
attack (Dambrun, 2007; Foster & Dion, 2003; Schmitt, Branscombe, &
Postmes, 2003).
Women are frequently told they should respond directly and assertively in the face of harassment, but such responses may run counter
to their well-being. Women who utilize direct forms of coping, such as
confronting the perpetrator or ling a complaint against the harasser
often nd that the work environment worsens and their social support
from co-workers and peers wanes (Bergman, Langhout, Cortina,
Palmieri, & Fitzgerald, 2002; Cortina & Magley, 2003). For example,
sexual harassed black women in the U.S. Armed Forces who used
contemplative strategies to cope with harassment (e.g., thinking about
the event) reported signicantly higher psychological well-being compared to women who led a formal complaint (Buchanan, Settles, &
Langhout, 2007).
Finally, the race of the target and the perpetrator can signicantly
inuence the harassment experience and the extent to which it harms a
womans well-being. For example, being sexually harassed while separately experiencing racial harassment or experiencing racialized sexual
harassment has been associated with increased psychological distress
(Thomas, Witherspoon, & Speight, 2008). Black women report experiencing sexual racism and racialized sexual harassment (Buchanan,
2005; Texeira, 2002) as attacks that target their race and gender simultaneously (Buchanan & Ormerod, 2002; Mecca & Rubin, 1999; Yoder &
Aniakudo, 1995, 1996, 1997). These behaviors call upon sexualized
stereotypes of the black woman (i.e., being called a black whore)
and physical features thought to vary by race (i.e., commenting on her
large black behind). Harassment that simultaneously attacks ones
gender and race is perceived as more severe by victims (King, 2003)
and may exacerbate harm because it targets two central and salient
identities (Settles, 2006).
The relationship between racialized sexual harassment and psychological well-being is also mediated by avoidant coping, whereby black
women who try to avoid and distract themselves from the negative
harassment experience report worse psychological outcomes (Thomas
et al., 2008). The use of an avoidant coping style is very prevalent
among black women (Utsey, Ponterotto, Reynolds, & Cancelli, 2000),
perhaps because of the pressure to uphold a facade of strength proscripted by gender role norms of black women (e.g., the Strong Black
Woman archetype; Thomas et al., 2008). In addition, the race of the
perpetrator mediates the relationship between sexual harassment and
resulting distress. Among black college and working women, sexual
harassment from an out-group (e.g., non-black) male was associated
with more symptoms of posttraumatic stress than harassment from an
in-group (i.e., black) male, because it was appraised more negatively
by victims (Woods, Buchanan, & Settles, 2009).
DISCRIMINATION, HARASSMENT AND SPECIFIC
FORMS OF MENTAL ILLNESS
Both daily records of sexist experiences and retrospective reports from
harassed women indicate that depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and
substance abuse are common sequelae following gender discrimination
and sexual harassment (see Avina & ODonohue, 2002; DeSouza & Fansler, 2003; Harned, 2000; Richman, Rospenda, Flaherty, Freels, & Zlatoper,
2004; Swim, Hyers, Cohen, & Ferguson, 2001; Zucker & Landry, 2007). In
fact, some researchers suggest that the gender differences in conditions
such as depression (womens rates are twice those of men; Kessler, 2003)
are due in part to womens higher rates of discrimination and harassment
(Klonoff, Landrine, & Campbell, 2000; Swim et al., 2001).
Some have also argued that because gender discrimination and
harassment are often pervasive, chronic stressors, they can be categorized as traumatic events that result in posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms (Avina & ODonohue, 2002; Berg, 2006; Fitzgerald, Buchanan,
Collinsworth, Magley, & Ramos, 1999). Both lifetime accounts and recent
events of sexist discrimination perpetrated at work, school, and by
strangers on the street are associated with posttraumatic stress (Berg,
2006). Researchers have argued that sexual harassment meets the criteria
for a diagnosable trauma as dened by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric
Association, 1994; Avina & ODonohue, 2002; Murdoch, Polusny,
Hodges, & Cowper, 2006). As evidence for this argument, sexual harassment experiences are associated with symptoms of posttraumatic stress
in college women (Rederstorff et al., 2007), women in the U.S. Marines
(Shipherd, Pineles, Gradus, & Resick, 2009), military reservists (Street
et al., 2007), and female veterans of the Gulf War (Vogt, Pless, King, &
King, 2005) and posttraumatic stress symptom severity increases as
sexual harassment severity increases (Murdoch et al., 2006).
242
244
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Appendix
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Appendix
Michele A. Paludi, PhD, is the Series Editor for Womens Psychology for
Praeger Publishers. She is the author/editor of 33 college textbooks and
more than 160 scholarly articles and conference presentations on sexual
harassment, campus violence, psychology of women, gender, and sexual
harassment and victimization. Her book, Ivory Power: Sexual Harassment
on Campus (1990) received the 1992 Myers Center Award for Outstanding
Book on Human Rights in the United States. Dr. Paludi served as Chair of
the U.S. Department of Educations Subpanel on the Prevention of Violence, Sexual Harassment, and Alcohol and Other Drug Problems in
Higher Education. She was one of six scholars in the United States to be
selected for this Subpanel. She also was a consultant to and a member of
former New York State Governor Mario Cuomos Task Force on Sexual
Harassment. Dr. Paludi serves as an expert witness for court proceedings
and administrative hearings on sexual harassment. She has had extensive
experience in conducting training programs and investigations of sexual
harassment and other EEO issues for businesses and educational institutions. In addition, Dr. Paludi has held faculty positions at Franklin & Marshall College, Kent State University, Hunter College, Union College, and
Union Graduate College, where she directs the human resource management certicate program. She teaches in the School of Management.
Janet Boyce graduated from Adirondack Community College in August
2006 with an Associate in Applied Science Degree in Business Administration. In May 2008 she graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Management. She is currently
enrolled in the MBA and Human Resource Management Certicate programs at Union Graduate College, with an anticipated graduation date of
spring 2010.
264
265
266
Susan Fineran, PhD, is an associate professor at the University of Southern Maine School of Social Work and Women and Gender Studies. Her
professional career includes clinical experience in the areas of aging, substance abuse, child and family treatment, sex discrimination, and womens issues. Her research interests include peer sexual harassment and
bullying in schools and the mental health implications for children and
adolescents. Dr. Fineran joined the University of Southern Maine School
of Social Work in 2002 after teaching on the social work faculties of Boston
University and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her education
includes an MSW (1981) from the Catholic University of America, and a
PhD (1996) from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
James Gruber, PhD, has published research on sexual harassment for 25
years. He was among the rst researchers to conduct studies of workplace
sexual harassment in the early 1980s and cross-national studies in the
1990s. His work on the experiences of women in male-dominated occupations resulted in a recent book, In The Company of Men: Male Dominance
and Sexual Harassment (2005), co-edited with Phoebe Morgan. Since 2002,
Drs. Gruber and Susan Fineran have presented conference papers and
published journal articles on bullying and sexual harassment among adolescents in schools. Two recent publications with Dr. Fineran studied that
the effects of bullying and sexual harassment at school: The Impact of
Bullying and Sexual Harassment on Health Outcomes of Middle and
High School Girls, published in Violence Against Women (2007), and
Comparing the Impact of Bullying and Sexual Harassment Victimization
on the Mental and Physical Health of Adolescents (Sex Roles, 2008). He
has also co-authored a publication in Child Abuse & Neglect (in press) that
examines the effects of workplace sexual harassment on adolescent girls.
Paula Lundberg-Love, PhD, is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Tyler (UTT) and the Ben R. Fisch Endowed Professor in
Humanitarian Affairs for 20012004. Her undergraduate degree was in
chemistry, and she worked as a chemist at a pharmaceutical company for
ve years prior to earning her doctorate in physiological psychology with
an emphasis in psychopharmacology. After a three-year postdoctoral fellowship in nutrition and behavior in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, she
assumed her academic position at UTT where she teaches classes in psychopharmacology, behavioral neuroscience, physiological psychology,
sexual victimization, and family violence. Subsequent to her academic
appointment, Dr. Lundberg-Love pursued postgraduate training and is a
licensed professional counselor. She is a member of Tyler Counseling and
Assessment Center, where she provides therapeutic services for victims
of sexual assault, child sexual abuse, and domestic violence. She has
267
268
towards oppressed groups, has been published in the American Psychologist and other journals. He was named one of People Magazines hottest
bachelors in 2006, he was a guest on Fox News Channels The OReilly
Factor, and he has been featured on The Filipino Channel, the History
Channel, Philippine News, and Filipinas Magazine
Dorota Wnuk Novitskie is a third-year doctoral student in the Clinical
PhD program at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Her research interests
include cross-cultural studies, domestic violence/interpersonal violence,
and family violence.
Joy Rice, PhD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Emerita professor of
Educational Policy Studies and Women Studies at the University of WisconsinMadison, received the Woman of the Year Award from the American Psychological Association (APA), Section for the Advancement of
Women in Counseling Psychology at the annual APA meeting in Boston
in August 2008, for signicant contributions and promotion of the status
of women in psychology, leadership and activism on behalf of women,
and research that has signicantly advanced knowledge of womens concerns in counseling psychology. Dr. Rices pioneering work on gender
issues in psychotherapy dates from the early 1970s when she began the
rst womens studies course on women and therapy at the University of
Wisconsin. Her 1973 paper in the American Journal of Psychiatry was one of
the rst articles to address key issues of gender discrimination in psychotherapeutic theory and practice. She was co-chair of the task force that
worked for seven years in developing the APA Guidelines for Psychological
Practice with Girls and Women. It was passed by APA and published in the
American Psychologist in 2007. Dr. Rice also co-chaired the APA Resolution
on Gender and Cultural Awareness in International Psychology passed by
APA in 2004. Active in state, federal, and international advocacy for mental health parity, she currently serves as co-chair of the Wisconsin Lieutenant Governors Task Force on Women and Depression and is the
International Council of Psychologists representative to the World Federation of Mental Health. Her most recent book, Women and Leadership:
Transforming Visions and Diverse Voices (John Wiley, 2007), explores feminist models of leadership that embrace collaboration, inclusion, and social
action. Dr. Rice is a recipient of the Educational Press Association Distinguished Achievement Award and an APA Fellow of four divisions.
Janet Sigal, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology at Fairleigh Dickinson
University. She received her PhD in Social Psychology from Northwestern University. She has more than 100 presentations, and several articles
and chapters primarily in the area of womens issues, including intimate
partner violence and sexual harassment. She is currently conducting a
269
270
Harassment and Teens: A Program for Positive Change. Susan has been featured on The Donahue Show, CBS Evening News, and other television and
radio programs as well as interviewed for newspaper and journal articles
such as the Times of London, Lawyers Weekly, and Harvard Education Newsletter. Susan has presented at international conferences in Botswana,
Egypt, Thailand, Israel, and the United States, and conducted sex discrimination research in Poland. She has consulted with professionals from
other countries such as England, Australia, Canada, and St. Maarten.
Bethany Waits is a graduate student in clinical psychology at the University of Texas at Tyler. She anticipates graduation in May of 2010 and plans
to pursue the Licensed Professional Counselor designation upon completion of her degree. Ultimately, she would like to work as a therapist for a
nonprot community organization, such as a crisis center. In May 2007,
she obtained her BA in psychology from UT-Tyler, graduating Summa
Cum Laude. She was accepted as a lifetime member of Psi Chi, the
national honor society in psychology, and Alpha Chi, a national college
honor society. While an undergraduate, she participated in a student
panel addressing issues related to sexual assault on campus. In addition,
she has worked with several professors on various research projects.
Jessica Wilmot earned her BS in Business Administration from Le Moyne
College in Syracuse, New York, in 2007. Afterward she took some time
away from school and traveled to Europe to spend a few months volunteering in England at a Surrey Womens Aid, a not-for-prot womens
shelter. She then returned home to continue her education and is currently a MBA student at Union Graduate College in Schenectady, New
York. As well as her MBA, she is working on her HR Certicate with Dr.
Paludi and will be graduating June 2010. Currently Jessica is an intern at
General Electric on the Pension Team and has enjoyed learning about corporate America.
Krystle C. Woodss research examines the inuence of perpetrator race
on sexual harassment outcomes, racialized sexual harassment, and
depression in African American women. Ms. Woods is a clinical doctoral
candidate in the Department of Psychology at Michigan State University.
She was the 2005 recipient of the Michigan State University Enrichment
Fellowship recognizing academic achievement, research goals, contribution to a diverse educational community and a record of overcoming
obstacles.
Index
Abusive behavior, 67
Acquaintance rape, 144
Act scales, 68
Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI),
78
American Association of University
Women (AAUW), 19596, 213, 217,
220
American Bar Association
Commission on Domestic
Violence, 124
American Institute on Domestic
Violence, 111
American Psychological Association
(APA), 2, 155, 186; guidelines for
psychological practice with
women, 1213, diversity, social
context and power, 1213, practice
applications, 13, professional
responsibility, 13
American public education system,
231; compensatory education in,
233; inuence of the Eugenics
Movement, 23233
APA Resolution on Cultural and
Gender Awareness in International
Psychology, 1012, 14; awareness
and analysis of power, 11; critical
analysis of western perspective,
1112; experience of individuals
in diverse cultures, 11;
interdisciplinary socialcultural
perspective, 12; respect for
pluralism based on differences, 11
Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent
Medicine, 67
Assessment, ethnocultural, 31;
heritage stage, 29; niche stage, 30;
saga stage, 29; self-adjustment
stage, 30; womens relations
and, 30
Association for Women in
Psychology, 2
Atividade (activity), 180, 181
Baby boomers, 209
Ban Ki Moon, 65, 6667, 94
Beijing Conference, 2
Behavioral responses of sexual
violence, 5557
The Bell Curve, 232
Benevolent sexism, 16263, 188
Bicha, 180
Bofe, 181
Boyce, Janet views on feminism,
20910
Brazil, 177; homosexuality in, 178,
18083; laws and resolution
against sexual harassment in, 18688;
sexism in, 18889; sexual
harassment in, 199; sexual script in,
180; stereotypes about transsexuals,
272
Index
Index
and, 1234; recommendations for,
109
Empowerment and ethnocultural
psychotherapy, 278
Engaged couples, violence in, 7374
Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC), 111, 161, 222, 223
Ethnocultural consciousness, 3637
Ethnocultural occupational inventory,
3536
Ethnocultural psychotherapy, 25, 38;
applications, 289; assessment,
2931; case studies, 256; concepts,
267; empowerment as aim of,
278; ethnogender consciousness
and, 3637; identity reformulation
and, 28; phases in process of,
3334; therapeutic relationship and,
3132; tools, 3436; transference
and countertransference, 3233
Ethnocultural transference, 32
Eugenics Movement, 232, 233
Everyday sexism, 159
Family Crisis Services, 107
Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 111
Feminist consciousness, 239
Feminist movement, 2
Feminist psychotherapy, 1417; APA
guidelines and, 1617; CPA
principle and, 1617; empowerment
and language of empowerment, 15;
goals of psychotherapy for women,
15; principles of feminist therapy,
14142; psychological practice for
women, 15
Feminist therapy, 3, 140; denition,
141; tenets of, 14142; for treating
survivors of rape and sexual
assault, 14344
Feminization of poverty, 9
Filipina domestic female worker,
sexual harassment and, 199
Floare de Colt, 95
Frutinha, 181
Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education
Network (GLSEN), 218
273
274
Index
Index
National Co-morbidity Survey, 6, 51
National Crime Survey of the
Department of Justice, 109
National Crime Victimization Survey,
213, 214
National Education Association
(NEA), 232
National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development, 213, 221
Nationality/citizenship as cause for
sexual harassment, 199200
National Women Study, 49, 56
Neurological responses of sexual
violence, 5255
The New Ideal in EducationBetter
Parents of Better Children, 232
Nigeria, IPV in, 8586
Objectication theory, 162
Obsessive compulsive disorder
(OCD), 45
Occupational Safety and Health
Association (OSHA), 113, 11617
Olweus, Dan, 211
Oorganizational responses of sexual
violence, 58, 61; legal system,
5859; medical services, 5960;
mental health services, 60
Overt sexism, 159
Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task
(PASAT), 53
Partnership for Prevention, 125
Passividade (passivity), 180, 181
Peer sexual harassment, 217; bullying
victimization and: children with
disabilities, 21920, gender,
21718, health and school
outcomes, 2212, race and
ethnicity, 2201, sexual orientation,
21819; denition, 197; in
international students and
U.S.-born students, study on,
200201; conclusion from the study,
204; hostile sexual harassment, 202;
limitations and future directions,
2045; psychological well-being of
students, 2012; results and
discussion, 203
275
276
Index
Index
Vencer, 180
Victim precipitation as rape myth, 144
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III
(WAIS-III), 53
Where there is no psychiatrist: A mental
health care manual, 18
White Ribbon Campaign, 94
Williams v. Saxby, 236
Women: depression and, 79; mental
disorder and, 57; psychological
practice guidelines for, 914;
psychological risk factors for, 8, 9;
277
Recent Titles in
Womens Psychology
Intimate Violence against Women: When Spouses, Partners, or Lovers Attack
Paula K. Lundberg-Love and Shelly L. Marmion, editors
Daughters of Madness: Growing Up and Older with a Mentally Ill Mother
Susan Nathiel
Psychology of Women: Handbook of Issues and Theories, Second Edition
Florence L. Denmark and Michele Paludi, editors
WomanSoul: The Inner Life of Womens Spirituality
Carole A. Rayburn and Lillian Comas-Diaz, editors
The Psychology of Women at Work: Challenges and Solutions for Our Female
Workforce
Michele A. Paludi, editor
PRAEGER
An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC
11 10
2 3 4 5
Contents
Series Introduction
ix
Acknowledgments
xi
Introduction
Michele A. Paludi
Chapter 1:
Chapter 2:
Global Feminism
Anne Sisson Runyan
Womens Human Rights and Empowerment in a
Transnational, Globalized Context: Whats
Psychology Got To Do with It?
Shelly Grabe
xiii
1
17
47
81
101
129
147
viii
Chapter 8:
Chapter 9:
Contents
177
209
239
251
253
Index
259
Series Introduction
Series Introduction
It is my hope that readers of the books in this series will also reect
on the topics and look at themselves, their own lives, and what they
see for the future. This three-volume book set on Feminism and Womens Rights Worldwide provides readers with the opportunity to accomplish this goal and offers suggestions for all of us working for
gender justice within our friendships and romantic relationships, in
guiding institutional and social policy change in workplace and educational institutions, and in lobbying state and federal legislators on
issues related to reproductive rights, pay equity, education, sexual violence, and childcare.
Michele A. Paludi
Series Editor
REFERENCE
Paludi, M. (2002). The psychology of women. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Acknowledgments
Teaching and writing are separate, but serve/feed one another in so many
ways. Writing travels the road inward, teaching, the road outhelping
OTHERS move inwardit is an honor to be with others in the spirit of
writing and encouragement.
Naomi Shihab Nye
Nyes sentiment is echoed throughout this three-volume set on feminism and womens rights. Most of the contributors have taught courses
in womens studies and feminism as well as conducted research and
written about feminist issues. Many contributors have been advocates
on behalf of feminist principles through working with local, state and
federal agencies, legislators, and the United Nations. And many of us
have collaborated with students in our classes in writing chapters for
this book set. These students have made us believe that all of them, in
their individual ways, will continue to do what this book set intends:
value feminism and work toward equality. It has been exhilarating for
me to see a new generation of feminists collaborating with mentors
and colleagues on the chapters for this book set.
I have been honored to have collaborated with the contributors to
these volumes. Several friendships with contributors have been
rekindled and strengthened, and I have met many new colleagues from
around the world who taught me about their disciplines through their
writing. You have all shown me the great accomplishments of feminists
as well as the work we have yet to do. Thank you.
I wish to thank my sisters, Rosalie Paludi and Lucille Paludi, for
their support during the preparation of this book set. I also thank Carmen Paludi, Jr. for his guidance and encouragement. Our discussions
about feminism brought back wonderful memories of my mother,
xii
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Michele A. Paludi
And how do you look backward? By looking forward. And what do you see?
As they look forward, they see what they had to do before they could look
backward. And there we have it all.
Gertrude Stein
xiv
Introduction
toys considered sex inappropriate for them; being tracked into different high school and college programs because of being women or men;
women being told by family and friends to hide their achievements
from potential dates and mates. I was unable to relate to these experiences and realized for the rst time that my parents were feminists, a
term to which I was introduced formally in this class and then subsequently as a graduate student when I took courses with Dee Graham
and Edna Rawlings. I also learned that I had been exposed to nonstereotyped role models, and because there were all girls in our family, we
were not raised to conform to stereotyped behavior.
It was in graduate school that I decided to pursue research in feminist psychology, especially in womens career development. I was fortunate to have a mentor, William Dember, who encouraged me to
pursue this research, even though it was not in his area of specialization (i.e., visual perception). Bill encouraged me to take courses with
faculty in departments in addition to psychology: educational leadership and family development. He told me this would help put pieces
together in understanding the research I was conducting. I thank Kathy
Borman and Judy Frankel for their roles in my feminist identity development.
A few years later when my father died, Charlie, who attended my
fathers wake, came to my mother, my sisters, and me and told us how
my father had impacted his life. Charlie, an African American man,
told us my father was the only coworker (both were skilled workers at
General Electric) who treated him fairly, didnt talk with him in a derogatory manner, and stopped others from making racial slurs and epithets. I learned for another time what it meant to be a feminist.
I dedicated the three-volume set on the Psychology of Women at Work
to my parents: For Antoinette and Michael Paludi, who encouraged
me to dene what womens work is for myself. They wanted all their
daughters to be independent thinkers and doers and to help others.
They gave us no templates to follow but encouraged us to navigate our
own paths. And, especially in my case, encouraged me to leave home
to attend graduate school in a city that seemed, to my parents, to be
very far awaybut they never said no.
My parents thus taught me that not only did they believe in the economic, educational, social, and political equality of women and men, but
they favored the social and legal changes necessary to achieve equality
between the sexes and among races, and they were committed to implementing these principles. Perhaps they could not effect change at the
national level, but they did do so in personal relationships with their
family and friends and on the local level. This is the legacy they left my
sisters and me. This book set is a tribute to Antoinette and Michael.
I have been reminded of Antoinette and Michael throughout the
writing and editing of these volumes on feminism and womens rights.
Introduction
xv
xvi
Introduction
pattern. But we have not stopped questioning the process of quilting
itself.
In Volume 2, Mental and Physical Health, contributors deal with violence and discrimination against girls and women and the resulting
impact on womens emotional and physical well being, interpersonal
relationships, career development, and self-concept. Types of discrimination and victimization addressed are sexual harassment, sexual violence, harassment of sexual minorities, and rape and violence in the
context of womens HIV risk. Contributors have addressed these issues
globally. Bethany Waits and Paula Lundberg-Love offer new cutting
edge evidence on neurological responses in women victims of sexual
violence. Therapeutic support for women victims of violence is also
addressed in this volume, including feminist therapy and ethnocultural
psychotherapy.
All contributors note that sexual victimization is prevalent in the
United States and globally, as is sexual harassment and sexual orientation discrimination. As Waits and Lundberg-Love note:
Female survivors of sexual violence are everywhere. They are in universities, religious institutions, court rooms, hospitals, and the military. They
are daughters, mothers, spouses, sisters, friends, next-door neighbors,
and co-workers. Many differ in age, education, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. . . . However, their lives are connected by the violence that
they have experienced.
Introduction
xvii
The international focus on feminism and womens rights is continued in Volume 3, Feminism as Human Rights. In this volume, contributors address laws on sexual harassment, pay equity, and rape.
Furthermore, contributors speak to the injustices to women with disabilities. Human rights issues such as arranged and forced marriage
for women, pornography, and the globalization of western appearance
ideals are also presented in this volume. All contributors to this volume call for further advocacy on behalf of women. As Noorfarah Merali stated:
It is only if arranged marriages are understood in light of their intentions, diverse forms, actual outcomes, and local or international contexts
that laws, policies, and human rights advocacy can be appropriately
channeled to protect and preserve womens well-being.
xviii
Introduction
Chapter 1
Global Feminism
Anne Sisson Runyan
Global Feminism
(Dahlerup, 2006). Almost all of these had legal or party gender quota
systems in combination with proportional representation systems.
Although quota systems vary in form and efcacy, they were specically promoted in the BPA, which was unanimously supported by
the worlds governments, as the fast-track way to increase womens political representation. Following that conference, in Latin America
alone, 11 out of 19 governments had adopted either constitutional or
legal gender quotas by 2000 (Ara
ujo and Garcia, 2006). According to
UNIFEMs Progress of the Worlds Women Report 2008/2009, the
proportion of women in national assemblies has accelerated over the
past decade from 11.6 percent in 1995 to 18.4 percent as of May 2008,
compared with only a one percentage point gain between 1975 and
1995 (2008, p. 21). UNIFEM accounts for this relatively dramatic rise by
pointing primarily to the increased use of legally required or voluntary
quota systems and proportional representation electoral systems, practices which in some cases were stimulated by gender equality advocates working at international and national levels who have used the
BPA for leverage and by the adoption in 2000 of the UN Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), which include Goal 3 that promotes
gender equality and womens empowerment (UNIFEM, 2008).
There are many reasons for this recent contagion of gender quotas, but among them is a growing international consensus or norm,
advocated by womens movements worldwide and supported by
feminist scholarship, that gender equality in the form of womens
greater political representation, ideally to the point of parity with
men, is necessary for policies claiming or aspiring to be modern and
democratic.
Gender mainstreaming also gained momentum and increasing acceptance during the same period that gender quotas were advancing.
Although denitions vary somewhat, gender mainstreaming refers generally to integrating the principle of gender equality into any (inter)
governmental policy (not just those associated with so-called womens
issues, such as family and violence against women) to ensure that in
practice it does not, wittingly or unwittingly, increase or sustain
inequalities between women and men (Squires, 2007). It was rst advocated in the context of economic development policies where it was
found by feminist research from the 1970s onward that approaches
taken by bodies like the World Bank, such as the promotion of capitalintensive agriculture for export, tended to privilege men who had or
were given more access to capital, agricultural inputs and machinery,
and land ownership. Women, although heavily involved in subsistence
agriculture that is the main source of family food consumption, were
not seen as farmers or landowners and, thus, did not benet from this
kind of World Bank funding. This disparity not only increased mens
power over women in agricultural work and families, but also
Global Feminism
contributed to producing more hunger and malnutrition when womens work of subsistence farming was increasingly so devalued and
unsupported. The World Bank and a number of other supranational
institutions, ranging from the UN and the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) to the European Union (EU), as
well as many development agencies within states in the North, have
been convinced by such ndings to adopt gender mainstreaming, also
called for in the BPA, to try to avoid such outcomes (Squires, 2007).
There have been numerous downsides to this approach, but its institutionalization represents a sea change in its recognition that gender is
infused in all (world) political issues and legitimizes the need for gender experts in global governance and in national governments, often
taking the form of femocrats who have headed up womens policy
agencies that sprang up during the UN Decade for Women in many
countries and who are often charged with implementing gender mainstreaming at national and international levels.
No less than the UN Security Council has also been pressured by
global feminists to give some attention to gender. For example, Security
Council Resolution 1325, passed in 2000, calls for women to be present
at peace negotiating tables, a goal long advocated by womens peace
movements that have claimed women have greater interests and different stakes in ending war. It is not that women are inherently more
peaceful, but rather their predominantly civilian status means that they
are increasingly bearing the high structural costs of modern warfare.
With the rise of total wars in the twentieth century, wherein there is
little separation between the battlefront and the home front, civilians
are an increasing proportion of those left homeless, diseased, and
hungry, turned into refugees, and made victims of sexual and domestic
assault (by enemy and friendly combatants). Although combatants
still die in greater numbers from direct violence, civilian deaths
from direct violence and more often indirect violence continue to rise
(Goldstein, 2001). The majority of civilians are women and children
(both female and male), despite some increases in women in state and
non-state militaries and in child soldiers (both male and female)
pressed into combat. Women, as can be seen in the case of post-genocide Rwanda, also are critical to the mending of post-conict societies,
as they tend to be the backbone of civil society, most centrally recreating households and communities.
Although part of a longer and wider struggle for womens security
from militarized violence, an NGO Working Group on Women and
International Peace and Security, consisting of the century-old Womens International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the Womens Caucus for Gender Justice, Amnesty International, International
Alert, the Womens Commission for Refugee Women and Children,
and the Hague Appeal for Peace in collaboration with UNIFEM, is
credited with the nal push to have the UN Security Council pass
Resolution 1325 in 2000 (Cohn, 2008). Although nonbinding, 1325
calls on the UN and member countries to do the following: protect
women from gender-based violence in war zones and include women
(and gender perspectives) in peace negotiations, support their peacemaking initiatives in addition to providing gender-sensitive training to
peacekeepers, and engage in gender mainstreaming through UN monitoring of and reporting on the gender dimensions of conict and conict resolution, including the impact of armed conict on women and
girls and the roles of women in peacemaking.
Although 1325 was hailed as a breakthrough document, its effects
were muted at best. Widespread rapes, such as in the Democratic
Republic of Congo conict as well as in the Darfur genocide in Sudan,
and increased reports of rape by peacekeeping forces were featured in
subsequent UN secretary-general studies and reports on women, peace,
and security that were mandated by 1325. This acknowledgment of
worsening gender violence in war led to the passage of UN Security
Council Resolution 1820 in 2008. Although also nonbinding, the text of
1820 reafrms the principles of 1325, but stresses sexual violence as
a war crime, demands its cessation and no amnesty for its perpetrators, requests a policy of zero tolerance for sexual violence by UN
peacekeepers and in UN refugee camps, and requests consultation
with women and womens organizations to nd solutions to sexual violence.
Predating these Security Council resolutions was a signicant recognition and prosecution of rape as a war crime and crime against
humanity, now codied in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, following the highly visible use of systematic rape in the
early 1990s in the wars in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda. Systematic wartime rape not only neutralizes women as threats, but also
seeks to weaken mens resolve to ght by soiling their women while
also trying to wipe out an enemy culture or ethnicity by impregnating
women with alien seed or keeping them from reproducing altogether. The assumption that rape was merely a natural spoil of war
(for men) had kept it from being fully recognized as an international
war crime until feminist activists and events in Bosnia and Rwanda
made it clear that rape was a direct violation of womens human
rights, rising to the level of torture as an instrument of warfare.
The ideas that women have human rights and that womens human
rights expand traditional denitions of human rights were signicantly
advanced by the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), initially adopted in 1979 following the UN Decade for Women and going into force in 1981. By
2000, only 25 countries (including most glaringly the United States, as
well as a smattering of Muslim and least-developed countries) had
Global Feminism
They further use the term, transnational, to signal that there has
been a shift from international relations between states and between
social movements when national boundaries were assumed to be less
permeable to an environment in which transnational capital and institutions and their global hegemonies are ascendant. In this sense, they
argue, transnational feminism is different from earlier forms of international feminism as relations among national feminisms in that it
seeks to counter these global hegemonies while at the same time seeking not to reproduce exclusivist national or other identities in resistance to them.
While they and others (see, for example, Hesford and Kozol, 2005)
recognize that the moniker transnational also carries baggage to the
degree that it, too, is associated with transnational corporations and
capital, they and others have also distinguished transnational feminism
from global feminism. A ashpoint that particularly set up a debate
structured as transnational feminism versus global feminism was the
Womens Rights are Human Rights campaign. As Hesford and Kozol
(2005, p. 19) frame the debate, it is between the political efcacy of
claiming, codifying, and enforcing the observance of the universality of
womens human rights as advocated by global feminists and the political costs of feeding into imperial moves and re-colonizing processes
under the banner of womens human rights as argued by transnational
feminists.
Originally promulgated, primarily by feminists in the West, as a
concept and strategy to create a more inclusive notion of rights that
would particularly take into account both public and private forms of
violence against women engaged in not just by the state, but actors
below and above the state, womens human rights was assumed to be
a mechanism that had leverage in international law and could have
universal appeal to women, cutting across their differing social locations and priorities through an ever-expanding list of rights. However, the most common critiques of womens human rights practices
and discourses (and global feminisms more generally) focus on the following: the eliteness of globe-trotting NGO actors in both the North
and South who can attend a bevy of international conferences and
forums and lobby IGOs, thereby separating them from more grassroots, local actors; the dependence on IGO, and particularly Western,
funding that makes NGOs more beholden to funders than to social
movements, thereby de-radicalizing their demands; the Western liberal-inscribed notion of rights that privileges individualism and
civil and political rights over social and economic rights; the appropriation by the West of the universal that is set up against the particular
outside the West; and the tendency to single out a reductive notion of
Third World cultural oppression of women as the target for womens human rights enforcement, re-instating discourses of rescue and
Global Feminism
deecting attention away from the ongoing violence of neoliberal capitalism and militarism purveyed by the West.
Nevertheless, critiques of womens human rights have been taken
further by arguing that human rights generally, far from being antistatist, actually are used to enhance the disciplinary power of neocolonial and postcolonial states who claim they are friendly to them by
providing the cover of progressivism and modernity to engage in
selective punitive action at home and abroad against proscribed enemies of the state in the name of protecting (womens) human rights
(Grewal, 2005). While critics and proponents of realpolitik in international relations have long observed that human rights have always
been used selectively for the deployment of state power, womens
human rights has particularly constituted an instrument of U.S. foreign
policy in the post-9/11 period, making it particularly contested territory among feminists. One reading of this is the cooptation of womens
human rights discourse by U.S. neoconservatives and their front
women ranging from Laura Bush and Karen Hughes to Condoleezza
Rice. Feminist political theorist Zillah Eisenstein (2007) referred to
women as the seemingly diverse sexual decoys of the Bush
Administration who embrace militarism and its masculinist constructions while supposedly constructing a compassionate female face for
their conservativism to camouage war (p. 98). Another even more
critical reading of this is that not just far-from-feminist right wing
women, but the womens human rights regime itself, particularly as
embodied by the U.S. Feminist Majoritys campaign to free women
from the Taliban itself goaded Gulf War II, constitute imperial feminism. As Amy Farrell and Patrice MacDermott (2005) argue, the mainstream U.S. womens movements turn to international activism
served a strategic function, namely to mobilize their constituencies,
attract new and younger members, gain resources, and, perhaps most
importantly, legitimate their existence in the United States in a postfeminist era marked by anti-feminist conservative backlashes and rise
of commercial feminism, or the claiming of feminism by corporations and ad agencies that overpowered the work of feminists
engaged in prison reform, economic justice, and anti-racist activism
(pp. 4647). In this climate, the activism and emphasis on the victim
status of Third World women were not only key to keeping the U.S.
movement alive, but also central to the very construction of American feminism in the late twentieth century (Farrell & MacDermott,
2005, p. 47).
While postcolonial feminists would argue that this has always been
central to the construction of mainstream Western, white feminism,
Farrell and MacDermott also point out that the Feminist Majority was
further motivated by a desire to be recognized as a player in foreign
policy (2005, p. 47), an arena in which feminists, and women more
10
Global Feminism
11
a neoliberal faith in the market with the view that the only role for the
state is a coercive one: rst, to control other states through strong
national defense and offense (which is part and parcel of a militarist
ideology), and second, to control populations through the imposition
of laws that limit civil liberties and human rights, insisting that people
conform to a particular set of behaviors deemed moral.
Long before the current economic crisis, evidence had been piling
up that most women were bearing the brunt of the new global economy (Marchand & Runyan, 2000). For example, as reproductive workers in the voluntaristic economy, or household members given by
gender ideology the most responsibility for the creation and care of
family and community members on an unpaid basis, womenwho are
also the largest consumers and providers of social services because of
their reproductive roleshave lost the most with the reduction or privatization of social services. The retreat of the welfare state has meant
that women have had to take on additional roles in the private or
domestic sphere that used to be public services for which women
also used to be paid or paid better. As productive workers in the
cash economy, women, who have been rendered as cheap labor by
gender ideology, became the preferred labor force in low-wage service and light-industrial assembly work created by offshore production.
Some women have beneted to a degree from this newfound employment, but their working conditionsincluding low wages, lack of
union protections, poor health and safety regulations, sexual harassment, and polluted and dangerous workplaces and living spaces
have kept them in subordinate and precarious positions. Subordinate
men, such as those in the working classes, have suffered as well, having their skills, wages, and jobs feminized (devalued or eliminated).
But this effect, too, boomerangs on women in such forms as enduring
higher incidences of domestic violence, taking full responsibility for
both wage and reproductive work, and/or being left behind to sustain the household alone when men migrate for jobs elsewhere or
having to migrate themselves to nd work, thus leaving their families
behind.
The generalized response by IGOs to these gendered downsides of
neoliberal globalization that feminist academics and NGOs have documented can be characterized as neoliberal governmentality, in which
global feminist NGOs have also been implicated. Postmodern theorist
Michel Foucault (1991) coined the term governmentality to refer to
how individuals and populations could now be controlled, administrated, empowered, or disciplined through certain governmental techniques (Woehl, 2008, p. 69). Governmentality pertains not only to
state and suprastate bureaucratic apparatuses and policies but also to
civil society institutions (including NGOs) that enable governing on the
basis of rational, scientic, and statistical calculations and produce
12
Global Feminism
13
the case of maternal health) and promotes gender equality even though
all the other goals relate to the multiple conditions that (dis)empower
women.
On the face of it, the MDGs do represent a seeming shift in global
priorities. The dominant approach to development since World War II
and through most of the twentieth century was one focused on economic development to the exclusion of social or human development.
Large scale, capital-intensive, and high-technology projects that privileged male actors, from decision-makers to workers, were systematically promoted and funded by the World Bank to modernize (read,
Westernize) the infrastructure and economies of the so-called developing countries. Gross Domestic Product (GDP)a measurement of the
output of domestic goods and services by a nationdoes not measure
human well-being and in fact externalizes (or does not take into
account) the costs of human misery and environmental destruction, yet
it became the central indicator of growth and economic growth was
to be pursued at any human and environmental cost. The shift to development initiatives with a more human, and even female, face, however, is accomplished through neoliberal problem-solving techniques
that frame human immiseration and gender inequality not as products
of unjust global capitalism, but rather as drags on it that must be
addressed to enhance market efciency through the production of
more market ready actors. Moreover, aside from the weaknesses of
Goal 3 in terms of its singular target to end educational disparities
between males and females at all levels of education by 2015 (which is
far from being reached in the case of higher education), it shares with
all the other goals the technique of using bureaucratic methods and
quantitative indicators as reductionist tools to manage populations in
order to depoliticize social justice issues and demobilize social movements critical of neoliberal globalization.
Thus, the traction that gender equality has gained in the context of
global governance can be read more critically and most cynically as
just another neoliberal strategy, with global feminist NGOs and femocrats being turned into agents of neoliberal governmentality. Indeed,
the very proliferation of global feminist NGOs can be seen as a feature
of neoliberal governmentality, taking on roles of states to manage
(depoliticize) populations and their problems and even providing services, albeit in far more under-resourced ways, that states used to provide. This has implications as well for women gaining public ofce in
states, for if the reigning ideology is that states are to withhold public
service in favor of privatization that makes individuals solely responsible for their own welfare, then it is difcult to mount more expansive
public commitments and garner more public resources for changing
negative conditions for women (as well as children, nonelite men, and
even the planet).
14
Global Feminism
15
militarism, and all inequalities and call for state provisioning, democratic participation, and an end to discriminations, exploitations, and
violence (p. 71).
To better actualize these oppositional politics, however, Aili Tripp
(2006) insists that global feminists, particularly from privileged spaces
in the North (and South), must engage far better in the following transnational feminist practices: rst, paying attention to what has already
been done by local actors and taking cues from them is a necessity
for devising any global solidarity campaign; second, global campaigns
should reect local priorities and not expropriate the issues of
women in particular parts of the world to aggrandize and sensationalize the campaigns of global or other national NGOs; third, Northern
feminist NGOs should use their greater inuence to pressure their own
most powerful governments and the IGOs those governments control
to redirect policies away from militarism and neoliberal globalization;
and fourth, Northern feminists should engage in global feminist actions
not just to help change the conditions of women elsewhere, but to
change their own oppressive conditions by both learning from activists
elsewhere and making use of the global gender instruments that they
have worked to institute. Only through such noncolonizing practices
can global feminism not be haunted itself by imperialist forces and
motivations.
REFERENCES
Ara
ujo, C., & Garcia, A. I. (2006). The experience and the impact of quotas in
Latin America. In D. Dahlerup (Ed.), Women, quotas, and politics (pp. 83111).
New York: Routledge.
Cohn, C. (2008). Mainstreaming gender in UN security policy: A path to political transformation? In S. Rai & G. Waylen (Eds.), Global governance: Feminist perspectives (pp. 185206). New York: Palgrave McMillan.
Dahlerup, D. (2006). Women, quotas, and politics. New York: Routledge.
Eisenstein, Z. (2007). Sexual decoys: Gender, race, and war in imperial democracy.
New York: Palgrave.
Faludi, S. (2007). The terror dream: Fear and fantasy in post-9/11 America. New
York: Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Co.
Farrell, A., & McDermott, P. (2005). Claiming Afghan women: The challenge of
human rights discourse for transnational feminism. In W.S. Hesford &
W. Kozol (Eds.), Just advocacy? Womens human rights, transnational feminisms, and the politics of representation (pp. 3355). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
University Press.
Ferree, M. M. (2006). Globalization and feminism: Opportunities and obstacles
for activism in the global arena. In M. M. Ferree & A. M. Tripp (Eds.),
Global feminism: Transnational womens activism, organizing, and human rights
(pp. 323). New York: New York University Press.
16
Chapter 2
As the eld of transnational feminism grows in response to globalization, the discussion of womens human rights becomes ever more
relevant. However, the very premise of transnational feminism that
distinguishes it from international feminism or global sisterhoodthat
is, favoring a diversity of womens agency rather than universalized
notions of Western feminism (Naples & Desai, 2002)makes it seemingly impossible to advocate for universal recommendations regarding
womens human rights that can cross borders in the same manner that
the resources and labor that dene the modern globalized economy
cross borders. Nevertheless, the development eld has begun a concerted effort to broadly address womens human rights and empowerment with organizations ranging from the World Bank, to grassroots
nongovernmental organizations, to the United Nations (UN), all advocating for womens human rights and empowerment in an effort to
address UN Millennium Development Goal 3to promote gender
equality and empower women (UN, 2000). This chapter will discuss
why womens human rights warrant increased focus in the context of
globalization and how psychology can provide the currently missing,
but necessary, links between transnational feminism, the discourse on
womens human rights and globalization, and the international attention given to womens empowerment, to effectively ll in gaps in our
18
19
Indeed, the 1990s was a period of monumental political transformation that witnessed a growing international womens movement linked
through subregional, regional, and international networks to collaborate
on efforts calling attention to unequal rights and mechanisms through
which female subordination is sustained and reproduced (Kabeer, 1994;
Razavi, 2003). Therefore, not surprisingly, in the midst of international
attention to womens rights from advocacy groups and the United
Nations alike, there has been growing awareness and interest in the
empowerment of women among development programs and policies
(Narayan, 2005). Yet, what remains unclear in this growing global
awareness is whether or not a universal set of human rights exists and,
if they do, how empowerment is related to them. Furthermore, what does
the development communityand the economists who have staked a
claim in this area of researchmean by womens empowerment? Stronger conceptualization and assessment of empowerment, which I will
demonstrate is an inarguably psychological process, as well as how it
relates to human rights, can greatly contribute to and fuel efforts aimed
at enhancing womens well-being. This chapter aims to establish that if
we are to have a better understanding of womens psychological
empowerment, contributions from psychology are necessary to integrate feminist scholarship, debates regarding human rights, and the
increasing attention given by the development community to womens
rights.
20
21
22
to a proliferation of programs aimed at womens empowerment. However, the inclusion of women in development programs has largely
come through the focus of income-generating programsmost notably
microcredit loaning (Goetz & Sen Gupta, 1996). However, while income
generation that stems from microcredit loans may improve a households economic status, womens receipt of the loan, or the labor associated with the loan, does not contest gender relations in the same
manner that structural or institutional interventions might. Although
research suggests that loans may increase womens economic activity,
they do little to diversify womens labor, resulting in an adherence to
a traditional occupational structure that sustains male dominance
(Kabeer, 2001). For example, it is not uncommon that a womans labor
does not belong to the woman, but falls under the control of her male
partner (Bartky, 1990). Thus, male control of the economic or material
output that may stem from womens microcredit borrowing may maintain and support the domination and control of women and their work.
Indeed, in a review of credit programs in Bangladesh, 63 percent of
female loan holders reported having only partial, very limited, or no
control over the loans they had procured (Goetz & Sen Gupta, 1996). In
support of the argument that economic activity does not increase womens power and control, Panda and Agarwal (2005) found that levels of
employment status (unemployed, seasonally employed, and regularly
employed) did not affect womens receipt of physical violence, whereas
land ownership did, suggesting that economic activity did little to alter
the gender dynamics that predict patterns of violence against women.
Effectively targeting poverty may ensure that short-term, material
needs are met but may not alter womens status or effectively give
them voice in their relationships or their community. In sum, although
there has been a proliferation of gender-focused programs among development organizations, there is limited investigation into the role of
structural interventions in addressing womens rights, capabilities, or
empowerment.
The inuence of the capabilities approach on the development community is also witnessed through assessments such as the Human Development Reports of the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP), which now includes quality of life in assessments for governments and international agencies in addition to the previously narrow
focus on gross domestic product. Moreover, two gender measures were
introduced in the 1990s to assess the status of women in human development (UNDP, 1995). However, neither assesses empowerment in
ways that will be conceptualized in this chapter. Specically, the
Gender Related Development Index was created to assess inequalities
between women and men on factors such as life expectancy, educational attainment, and income. The Gender Empowerment Measure
(GEM) was introduced to address the noted gap in assessment
23
24
or what has been termed power within (Deere & Leon, 2001; Kabeer,
1994). Kabeer (1994) argues that while agency has been operationalized
in the social science literature as decision making or negotiation, it is a
broader construct reecting ones ability to dene goals and act upon
them. She denes empowerment as a process related to resources,
agency, and achievement (Kabeer, 2005). In this way, agency is central
to empowerment because through agency choices are made and put
into effect. Sen (1985, 1999) similarly denes agency as freedom to
achieve whatever goals or values a person regards as important.
He argues that traditional gender roles curtail womens agency by
assuming their interests lie within the home and not within their person (Sen, 1995). As related to empowerment, agency includes not only
exercising choice, but doing so in a way that challenges existing power
relations. Importantly, it also has been highlighted that issues of
empowerment are distinct from psychological well-being but that each
are important when assessing change (Sen, 1985). While collectively
there appears to emerge a working understanding of empowerment,
there are notable limitations present in this literature. First, the authors
addressing womens empowerment in the context of development are
largely economists and, while they have pioneered this eld and great
strides have been made with tremendous attention being paid to womens rights, because empowerment is an inherently psychological process, understanding in this area can only be advanced by the conceptual
and methodological tools offered from within the discipline of psychology. Second, despite increasing attention to issues of empowerment and
capabilities in the development literature, current evaluative assessments
do not adequately reect the processes surrounding womens empowerment (Hill, 2003). Finally, limitations posed by multiple nonoverlapping
disciplines have not adequately connected human rights or capabilities
to empowerment. Thus, as it stands, there is a divide between the theoretical or philosophical approaches to human rights and capabilities and
the interventions evaluated by development practitioners and scholars.
The discipline of psychology is well positioned to address these gaps
with both theoretical and methodological contributions.
Psychologists dene empowerment as a process by which people
gain control and mastery over issues of concern to them (Rappaport,
1987; Zimmerman, 1995). Within psychology, empowerment theory
links subjective (personal) well-being with larger social and political
contexts (Perkins & Zimmerman, 1995; Zimmerman, 1995). Importantly, empowerment research focuses on identifying capabilities and
exploring environmental inuences on social problems such that
empowerment-oriented interventions enhance well-being, while they
also aim to ameliorate problems (Perkins & Zimmerman, 1995). In fact,
within psychology, empowerment has been described as a process
through which people lacking an equal share of valued resources gain
25
greater access to and control over those resources (Cornell Empowerment Group, 1989). Psychological empowerment, in particular, refers to
empowerment at the individual level of analysis and integrates perceptions of personal control, a proactive approach to life, and a critical
understanding of the sociopolitical environment. Although the study of
empowerment among psychologists has focused on U.S. community
groups, organizations, and neighborhood associations (e.g., Perkins,
1995; Zimmerman, 1990), and there has been very little attention internationally despite that empowerment has become the premier paradigm for development programs and policies, there are some obvious
and important applications for the understanding and study of womens international rights and well-being. First, the overlap between
Nussbuams denition of capabilities (i.e., having control over ones
environment) and psychologys denition of empowerment (i.e.,
a process by which people gain mastery over issues that concern them)
is striking. Both articulate that a sense of personal control and freedom
for self-chosen activity is fundamentally linked to well-being, and that
individuals capabilities can be supported by access to and control over
resources. With these clear and overlapping denitions, we can begin
to more adequately conceptualize empowerment in the context of
human rights.
Given the complexity involved in empowerment processes, accurate
conceptualization cannot be captured by a single operationalization or
measurement, nor divorced from context (Zimmerman, 1995). For
example, because powerlessness is embedded in cultural practices and
unequal institutional relations, adequate conceptualization and assessment involves investigation of the formal and informal institutional
barriers that prevent women from taking effective action to improve
their well-being within the household and society at large. Similarly,
notions of self-efcacy, competency, and control are key to measuring
empowerment, as are processes by which people engage in democratic
participation and shared leadership within communities (Perkins &
Zimmerman, 1995). Furthermore, because conceptualizations may differ
across levels of analysis, measurement of empowerment must assess
when individuals believe they have the capability to inuence a given
context (e.g., perceived agency), have perceived control in various situations (e.g., marital power/control, individual mastery over environment), have an understanding of their sociopolitical environment (e.g.,
gender ideology), interact with others to successfully master social or
political systems (e.g., marital control or power), and engage in actions
to directly inuence outcomes (e.g., participation in decision making).
A thorough assessment would therefore require an interdisciplinary,
culturally relevant approach that incorporates individual, relational,
and societal aspects of empowerment that are sensitive to sociopolitical
contexts.
26
While there is a great deal of attention given to empowerment in development policies and interventions, there is little to no empirical
investigation into these processes (Perkins, 1995). In fact, despite the
complexity involved in empowerment processes, the majority of
investigations into womens empowerment conducted among scholars
employ a rather narrow conceptualization by routinely assessing
household decision making as the primary indicator of womens
empowerment (Hill, 2003; Holvoet, 2005; Kabeer, 1999). A more thorough and accurate conceptualization and assessment of empowerment
would include not only intra-household decision making, but also indicators of status and traditional gender ideology; womens power and
control within the marital relationship; womens levels of agency,
autonomy, and mastery; psychological well-being; and outcomes that
may reect empowerment such as freedom from domestic violence or
agency in reproductive health choices. What follows is a focused discussion of structural factors (i.e., the formal and informal institutional
barriers), specic to the context of globalization, that contribute to gendered power imbalances and womens subordination.
GENDERED POWER, NATURAL RESOURCES, AND
DEVELOPMENT
The disruptive consequences of the new economic policies of the
1980s and 90s introduced or exacerbated several structural factors that
have contributed to rising levels of gender inequity and marginalization. This has been particularly visible within the area of natural
resources (Razavi, 2003; Rocheleau & Edmunds, 1997). In fact, pervasive gender inequities in access to resources, land in particular, has
been recognized by a large body of international work (e.g., Food Agriculture Organization [FAO], UN Convention of the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women [CEDAW]) and postulated as a necessary
human right (Ikdahl, 2008). Thus, not surprisingly, feminist scholars in
the area of globalization and development argue that womens empowerment and well-being can be enhanced by expanding womens management of resources (Deere & Leon, 2001; Razavi, 1999). This is
consistent with the tenants of empowerment theory, which argued that
control over resources was central to empowerment. However, that
lack of secure access to and control over natural resources contributes
to a system in which female subordination is sustained and reproduced, prohibiting women from exercising control over their environmentor, in other words, limiting human capability or empowerment.
Many scholars argue that most development interventions have been
formulated from the ideological and economic interests of the industrialized countries that are promoting projects to modernize the Third
World (e.g., Acosta-Belen & Bose, 1990). Among those interventions
27
has been the tendency to shift from customary tenure systems, or cooperative arrangements in which natural resources such as water, forestry, and land that were traditionally viewed as community resources
have become privatized systems of individual ownership (Agarwal,
2001; Lastarria-Cornheil, 1997; Zwarteveen, 1997). Therefore, the structural adjustments of privatization have created a context whereby natural resources have become commodities, and markets have developed
for rights or titles to these resources (Zwarteveen, 1997). Moreover, in
many countries, this is occurring at the same time that population pressures have begun to affect availability of natural resources, resulting in
scarcity, even in remote areas where resources were once considered
part of the commons (e.g., Lastarria-Cornheil, 1997; Shiva, 2002). As
a result, natural resources such as water, rewood, and land for
grazingwhich are all vital resources necessary to sustain livelihood
in rural areasare being bought up and controlled in private, for-prot
scenarios. This has obvious and dangerous implications for poor people worldwide, but it has specic implications for gendered imbalances
in power and therefore womens capabilities and empowerment.
As argued earlier, the international focus on interventions such as
microcredit lending, which t perfectly into the globalized, neoliberal
market-driven economy, do not adequately address the structural
obstacles that determine womens status and, ultimately, their wellbeing. In the context of addressing violations of womens rights, it is
imperative to distinguish between those programs that seek to reduce
poverty or enhance productivity from those that seek to empower
women. Although gender scholars have been making a case for using a
gender analysis of natural resource management in the context of
global changes for nearly a decade (e.g., Rocheleau & Edmunds, 1997),
the literature on natural resource control and gender remains scarce.
The Theory of Gender and Power (Connell, 1987) postulates that
gender-based inequalities are pervasive societal characteristics, which
result in mens disproportionate power in society and control over a
number of areas, including women and their bodies. Wingood and
DiClemente (2000) extended this theory to the areas of public health
and psychology. They argued that unequal control over resources leads
to power imbalances and gender-based norms that create risk environments that adversely inuence womens health and safety. There are
clear structural components that contribute to the construction of
dominance and thereby legitimize and perpetuate womens subordinate status. Although limited, the following review will demonstrate
that in the context of globalization, the unequal gendered distribution
of control over natural resources, in particular water, trees, and land, is
one structural component that contributes to dominance and therefore
places women in a subordinate position within both the household and
the larger society. Because violations of womens human rights often
28
29
30
greater difculty meeting the familys subsistence needs, and an exclusion from decision making. Moreover, this new labor economy has led
to a higher desirability for wives unpaid labor, and therefore, has
altered the politics of bride prices in the Anatolia region, leaving young
women dreading the heavy work burdens that come with their inevitable marriage. Finally, the changing conditions of market consumption,
driven by the introduction of irrigated export crops, have also meant
that men now travel to the market (for purchase and sale of food commodities their wives once produced) and develop social networks,
whereas, in contrast, women remain largely prohibited from traveling
to urban areas. This further exacerbates the social differences between
women and men by increasing both womens isolation and mens
socializing. The example of water use and management and gender
offered by Harris demonstrates that new water-management institutions in line with globalization serve to solidify, cement, and rigidify
social-power differentials (2006, p. 194). A stronger security of womens water tenure could signicantly alter womens participation in the
new economy and serve to empower rather than disempower them in
the context of the increasingly limited availability of water.
FORESTRY
Similarly to the development practices in water resource management, several countries (e.g., Mexico, Nepal) have privatized forests or,
more recently, organized Community Forestry Groups (CFGs) to manage forest resources in response to diminishing availability of fallen
timber for rewood collection due, in part, to conversion of forestland
for agricultural purposes (Taylor & Zabin, 2000; Varughese & Ostrom,
2001). Interestingly, the formation of CFGs was a focused attempt to
move toward establishing greater local participation and community
control among citizens in the promotion of sustainable forests (McCarthy,
2001). However, similar to water management, while major donor
agencies give token gestures to participation, a large focus remains on
economic aspects of resource management that include rigid exclusion
of nonmembers from resource use (e.g., Magrath, Grandalski, Stuckey,
Vikanes, & Wilkinson, 2007).
Although gender is typically excluded from community forestry discussions, based on extensive eldwork among CFGs in India and Nepal, Agarwal (2001) documents how gender constrains participation in
CFGs and how participatory exclusion over control of timber products
has implications for gender inequity. First, not unlike water committees, both formal and informal rules for CFGs membership exclude
women. Specically, only one member per household, the head of
household (i.e., typically the male), is allowed membership. Moreover,
long-standing conventions in South Asia exclude women from public
31
decision making forums and, thereby, deny women access to CFGs, despite that women are predominately responsible for gathering their
households rewood. Among the additional obstacles for womens
participation in the CFGs is included the fact that womens responsibility for housework restricts them from attending meetings held at
inconvenient times, aggressive male behavior prohibits women who
can and do attend from speaking at meetings, and social hierarchies
position women on the oor at meetings where men are seated in
chairs. As such, womens voices were not considered in the decision
making regarding the use of forest products or the discussions surrounding the use of the community funds raised from the management
of the forest. Moreover, because many CFGs invest access rights to
single owners, womens access to rewood timber, a once communal
resource, is severely restricted. Therefore, the customary exclusion of
women from village decision making bodies regarding the management
of forestry perpetuates or exacerbates gendered imbalances in power.
In the same study conducted in South Asia, Agarwal (2001) also
demonstrated how these imbalances in power are evidenced in
increased gendered divisions in labor. First, simply restricting/privatizing forestry areas means that women, who could previously meet some
of their timber collection needs in that area, are now forced to travel to
neighboring sites adding sometimes between several hours or as much
as a days time to the chore. In some areas, womens collection time
and distances traveled for a headload of rewood increased sevenfold
(from 0.5 hours to 34 hours in Vena; from 0.5 km to 89 km in
Karapara; Agarwal, 2001). In addition, women substitute fuel sources
and burn twigs or agricultural waste with detrimental consequences.
For example, the fumes from inferior fuels have negative health affects
and the additional time it takes to keep them lit prevents women from
doing simultaneous work. In sum, limiting womens access to and control over forest resources has resulted in a substantial increase in womens workload. By excluding women from control and decision making
regarding timber, the community forestry efforts are perpetuating status differences and further marginalizing women and thereby prohibiting womens capabilities and empowerment.
LAND
Issues of agrarian change and land tenure systems also have been
impacted by the imposition of a neoliberal agenda and donor agencies
that have inuenced developing countries to move from customary (often communal) systems toward private land ownership (LastarriaCornheil, 1997; Razavi, 2003). In many countries, structural adjustment
came with land reform guided by policies that favored large-scale
export agriculture, and male control over land became the dominant
32
33
34
35
that property ownership extended womens negotiating power within the marital relationships and their ability to confront subordination,
thereby decreasing levels of domestic violence. However, a major limitation of these investigations in South Asia is that they were in communities where bilateral property ownership was the norm. Female
ownership of land did not necessarily challenge existing gender attitudes and roles. Nevertheless, these studies put forth a framework for
investigating the links between land ownership, womens empowerment, and violence.
Despite these groundbreaking ndings, this line of inquiry remains
underexplored. Moreover, there has been no investigation into this
topic in other developing regions, such as Latin America or East Africa
where land reform has received a great deal of attention. Furthermore,
virtually no attention has been given to these processes by psychologists. However, empirical examination of land ownership among
women may contribute to the discussion of womens empowerment in
the context of development, in general, and, in particular, to discussions surrounding property ownership and control. What follows sets
the context for replicating the Panda and Agarwal ndings and
expanding this investigation and examining these processes in another
region.
NICARAGUA
Of the Latin American countries that have implemented genderprogressive agrarian reform policies, Nicaragua stands out in terms of
female participation (Deere, 1985). For example, the Agrarian Reform
Laws of the 1980s and 90s that recognized equal rights for both sexes
were acknowledged as one of the most forward-looking reforms in
Latin America because, in theory, it made it possible for women to
become direct beneciaries of land allocation. Indeed, the womenspecic measures adopted in Nicaragua have beneted a greater proportion of the female population than in countries where the titling
programs are gender neutral (Deere, 1985). Although data from the rural titling ofce indicate that between 1979 and 1989, women accounted
for 8 to 10 percent of beneciaries under the agrarian reform, these low
numbers reect that land was still being allocated primarily to male
heads of household, whereas titled women were likely widowed or
unmarried women living alone.
In 1995, a major legislative leap was taken by the Nicaraguan Womens Institute by introducing provisions in agrarian legislation that
encouraged joint titling of land to couples, thereby recognizing married
womens rights to land (Act 209/95, Article 32). Subsequently, joint
titling became compulsory for married couples and for those living
in stable relationships (Act 278/97). However, as evidence of the
36
customary or cultural norms, the term joint in the Joint Titling Act
was interpreted literally as two persons within the family unit.
Hence, this act did more to promote joint titling for men (fathers and
sons) than for women. Thus, despite considerable legislation that positions Nicaragua as cutting-edge in mainstreaming gender in agricultural policy, the relatively low percentage of women landowners
reects the reality that womens access remains restricted by cultural
practices that prevent the recognition of their role in property ownership and control. Nevertheless, in contrast to many other countries,
Nicaragua has the political framework for implementing development
interventions aimed at land resource distribution. However, to date,
there has been shockingly little data collected to examine the effects of
womens land ownership among women who have beneted from
some level of reform or intervention. The following study is aimed at
providing the empirical support necessary for state and development
interventions to implement more equitable policies aimed at land
ownership.
THE STUDY1
A two-group study was designed to examine whether owning land
was related to womens status and power within the marital relationship and to their overall empowerment and psychological well-being,
each of which was hypothesized to explain how and why owning land
contributed to lower levels of domestic violence. As such, a household
survey was administered to two different groups of womenone predominantly landowners and the other predominantly non-landowners.
The two groups were chosen from the same geographical location
within Nicaragua in order to most closely match them on a number of
variables. Because customary practices still largely prohibit women
from owning land, our research team collaborated with a womens organization that had a program specically aimed at facilitating womens ownership of and titling to land (intervention group). The
second group of women was selected from neighboring communities
in the same municipality and was not actively involved in the organization with which we collaborated (control group). As such, the primary difference between the two groups of women is that the majority
of women in the rst group own land, whereas the majority in the second group do not. This design allows for direct comparison of women
involved in land resource allocation aimed at empowerment and
women who were not.
Data were collected from 314 women following the guidelines on
ethics and safety developed by the World Health Organization for the
Multi-Country Study on Womens Health and Domestic Violence
Against Women that were adapted for this study (WHO, 2005). The
37
household surveys included the following: (1) demographic characteristics; (2) questions assessing land acquisition and land ownership
adapted from assessments used by the ICRW; (3) gender ideology as
measured by the Attitudes toward Women Scale (Spence, Helmreich, &
Stapp, 1973); (4) power in the marital relationship from the Relationship Control Subscale of the Sexual Relationship Power Scale (Pulerwitz, Gortmaker, & DeJong, 2000); (5) partner control indexed by
asking women whether their partners generally prohibited or controlled their possibilities to carry out everyday activities, or exhibited
controlling behavior or jealousy using items from the WHO (2005);
(6) empowerment as indexed by mastery over ones environment and
individual autonomy from two of the six subscales from Ryffs Scales
of Psychological Well-Being (Ryff, 1989); (7) psychological well-being
as assessed by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Ba~
nos & Guillen, 2000)
and the Center for Epidemiologic StudiesDepression Scale (Grzywacz,
Hovey, Seligman, Arcury, & Quandt, 2006); and (8) intrahousehold decision making from two subscales that were designed by ICRW (2004)
to measure decision making within the marital relationship. Finally, to
assess womens control over their bodiesan outcome of empowermenthistory of womens violent experiences were measured with the
Conict Tactics Scale (Straus et al., 1996).
The average age of the respondents was in the early- to mid-forties
(M 45.33 intervention group, M 42.13 control group), although the
majority of the women fell between 25 and 34 years old. Approximately three-quarters of the sample were in partnered relationships
between six and ten years in duration. Most of the women respondents
were literate, although approximately a quarter of the sample never
received formal schooling.
MAIN FINDINGS2
Before proceeding to test the potential links between land ownership, womens empowerment, and receipt of violence, a series of oneway analyses of variance tests (ANOVAs) were conducted to examine
differences in levels of empowerment and violence between the two
groups. The intervention and control groups differed on several
markers of empowerment in the expected directions, suggesting that
women in the intervention group reported higher levels of empowerment and well-being than their counterparts. Specically, ANOVAs
revealed that the two groups were signicantly or marginally different
on several markers of womens empowerment: gender ideology
F (1, 308) 69.60, p < 0.00; relationship power F (1, 308) 14.72, p <
0.00; partner control/mobility F (1, 308) 2.76, p < 0.10; household decision making F (1, 308) 5.99, p < 0.02; nancial decision making
F (1, 308) 2.79, p < 0.10; autonomy F (1, 308) 3.62, p < 0.06; and
38
39
Table 2.1
Correlations between empowerment, psychological well-being, and decision making variables
Gender Relationship
Partner
Ideology
Power
Control/Mobility Autonomy
Gender Ideology
Relationship
Power
Partner Control/
Mobility
Autonomy
Mastery
Self-esteem
Depression
Household
Decisions
Financial
Decisions
0.24***
Mastery
Self-esteem Depression
Household Financial
Decisions Decisions
0.12*
0.64***
0.29***
0.34***
0.09
0.32***
0.21***
0.37***
0.10t
0.38***
0.23***
0.12*
0.00
0.18**
0.23***
0.29***
0.35***
0.41***
0.04
0.09
0.51***
0.35***
0.39***
0.41***
0.49***
0.55***
0.04
0.04
0.06
0.02
0.16**
0.22**
0.05
0.16**
0.17**
41
42
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Chapter 3
Child abduction and missing children are problems that affect families
around the world. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (2009) reported that each day, an average of 2,185 children are
missing. This means during the course of writing this chapter, more
than 131,100 children were reported missing. Child Find of America
(2009) and Boudreaux, Lord, and Etter (2000) reported that approximately 203,900 children each year are abducted by a parent or family
member in violation of a court decree, custody order, or other custodial
rights. Thus, during the course of co-editing and publishing this threevolume book set, more than 407,800 children were abducted by a noncustodial parent, and 1,595,050 children were missing in general.
Furthermore, the incidence of international child abduction increases
each year as a consequence of the ease of international travel and
increase in bicultural relationships (Moskowitz, 2005). The Report on
Compliance with the Hague Convention (2008) indicated that in the
2007 scal year, the U.S. Central Authority assisted left-behind
parents in the United States in responding to 575 cases of international
parental child abductions involving 821 children. In addition, the
Department of State assisted in the return to the United States in 2007
of 341 children abducted to or wrongfully retained in other countries.
Of these 341 children, 217 returned from countries that are Hague
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49
review the psychological research on perpetrators of abductors, including repeat offenses; the impact of power, not sex, on their modus operandi; and their manipulation process. We review the legislation
concerning missing children and child abductions. We offer recommendations for future research and responsibilities of educators, including
curriculum integration projects for children and adolescents. Finally,
we discuss a feminist restructuring of the legislation for international
abductions.
John Walsh, whose son, Adam, was abducted and murdered, once
stated that he wished that he and his wife spent more time encouraging Adam to respect his safety rather than respecting adults authority:
If I had taught him to scream, he might be alive now (quoted in Gelman, 1984, p. 86).
Personal statements help break the silence surrounding child abductions and missing children. As Tedisco and Paludi (1996) noted,
silence enhances our illusion of the invulnerability for non victims. It
is because none of our children and adolescents are safe that the
silence must be broken (p. 20).
Tedisco and Paludi used the just world hypothesis (Lerner, 1980)
to help explain why individuals are reluctant to accept the reality of
child abductions. Individuals believe that bad things occur only to
those people who bring on or deserve the consequences of their
actions. We tend to nd a personal reason to explain the abduction:
something the child said, did, wore, and so on. This is a coping mechanism for them since the alternative realization is frightening: It could
happen to me or to someone I love. It is our goal is to have this chapter contribute to break the silence surrounding child abductions, especially those abductions occurring within the context of intimate partner
violence.
50
1995; Finkelhor et al., 2002). Findings from the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Thrownaway Children (NISMAET) (Sedlak, Finkelhor, Hammer, & Schultz, 2002) estimated that
stranger abductions account for approximately 2 percent of all abductions. The following categories of stranger abductors have been identied in the literature (Tedisco & Paludi, 1996): pedophiles, serial killers,
proteers, and childless psychotics. Each of these categories are summarized below.
Pedophiles
Pedophilia is dened by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association (2000) as:
recurrent, intense, sexual urges and sexually arousing fantasies, of at
least six months duration, involving sexual activity with a prepubescent
child. The age of the child is generally 13 or younger. The age of the person is arbitrarily set at age 16 years or older and at least ve years older
than the child.
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Burgess and Holmstrom (1974) identied two kinds of modus operandi that apply to child abductors: blitz attack and condence
assault. In the blitz attack, a stranger appears suddenly, for example,
jumps out of a car in front of a child walking on a street. Children are
in shock at this occurrence and this shock interferes with any defensive action they may take. In addition, the shock of this individuals
behavior precludes the child from seeing or remembering facts about
the individuals appearance, comments, and so forth at a later time.
The condence assault is an elaborate scheme set up by the abductor. Lanning (1994) refers to this condence assault as a psychological
assault rather than a physical one. There are stages to the condence
assault. It rst starts with gaining the condence or trust of the targeted victim. This trust is then used to manipulate the child into physical and psychological vulnerability. By the time the child realizes the
individual is violent, the childs options for escape are limited by the
abductor. The abductor continues the condence assault by convincing
the child that he or she is a participant in the crime or caused the
crime (Quina & Carlson, 1989).
LURES USED BY STRANGER ABDUCTORS
Research has outlined several lures used by stranger abductors
(Boudreaux et al., 2000; Burgess & Holmstrom, 1974; Tedisco & Paludi,
1996): asking children for directions, asking children to help locate a
53
missing pet, informing the child that their parent has been injured in
an accident and is hurt, ringing the doorbell when the child is home
alone to gain entry into the house, and offering to give children a ride
home.
In addition, these lures are used with vulnerable children, such as
children who are quiet, who appear to have an intense need for adult
affection and approval, are withdrawn, have poor social skills with
children their own age, or are from divorced homes. Other examples of
vulnerability were outlined by Huttinger (1984), including children
who walk alone to or from school, wait for a school bus by themselves,
ride a bicycle alone or at night, wait for rides in parking lots after dark,
or are wearing articles of clothing that prominently display their names
(permits abductors to portray familiarity). Boudreaux et al. (2000)
reported that abductors select victims from areas where they feel safe
and where their risks in abducting children are minimized.
ABDUCTION HOMICIDE
According to the Ofce of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (Boudreaux, Lord, & Jarvis, 2001), one in four abducted children is
murdered by their abductor. Hanand et al. (1997) reported that
abductors who murder children are more likely to conceal the body
than murderers in general. The murder of children by abductors is
caused by one of three factors (Lanning, 1994): (1) inadvertent, where
the abductor may not have intended to murder the child; (2) indiscriminate, where the abductor may or may not have chosen the victim;
and (3) most commonly, murder to avoid detection. Most victims of
stranger abductions are likely to be murdered immediately or within
24 hours (Boudreaux et al., 1999; Brown & Keppel, 2006; Hanand
et al., 1997). Sex-related murders of abducted children are common
(Heide, Beauregard, & Myers, 2009). Finkelhor et al. (2002) reported
that in 40 percent of stranger kidnappings, the child is murdered. Children younger than four years and adolescents between 13 and 17 years
are at highest risk for murder (Dalley, 2000).
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away are between 15 and 17 years old, with the gender ratio equal.
Reasons for children and adolescents running away include family
problems, physical abuse, peer pressure, alcohol and other drug abuse,
and sexual abuse. (Child Find of America, 2009; Khong, 2008; Peled &
Muzicant, 2008; Thompson & Pillai, 2006). Youth who run away
because of sexually abusive homes are referred to as terried runners (Finkelhor & Dziuba-Leatherman, 1974; Greene & Esselstyn,
1972; Quina & Carlson, 1989).
Palenski and Launer (1987) identied a process of running away that
involves the following stages: family disengagement, effects of friends
as role models, recognizing the right situation, shrinking alternatives,
and managing the residuals. Runaway youth report their involvement
with their families was at a minimum (family disengagement). As their
involvement with their family becomes less frequent, peers become
more attractive. They witness friends running away from their family
to deal with the disengagement. Palenski and Launer (1987) noted in
their research that youth did not perceive running away as a feasible
solution until they saw peers with similar family problems leave home.
Palenski and Launer (1987) also found that youth decide to run
away when they are in a state of extreme turmoil or in one of extreme
passivity (recognizing the right situation). Furthermore, youth who run
away do so when other alternatives to dealing with family problems
no longer seem viable (shrinking alternatives). If the difculties the
youth was facing did not necessitate bringing in authorities, for example, law enforcement, then an alternative to running away was seen as
likely. However, once a third party becomes involved, youth believe
that running away is the best way to protect themselves (Tedisco &
Paludi, 1996).
Palenski and Launer (1987) also found that youth had misgivings
about running away (managing the residuals). Youth have to consider
the realities of street life, including food, shelter, and school. There are
some runaway programs that can assist youth with these realities
(Franks & Goswami, 2009; Thompson & Pillai, 2006). However, most
youth receive assistance from abductors and abusers they encounter on
the street. Runaway youth are the people most vulnerable to further
abuse (Gullotta, 2005; Molino, 2007; Terrell, 1997).
Huttinger (1984), for example, noted that local and national call
services and buy-a-kid rings sell runaway children for a night or permanently (p. 112). Furthermore, abductors use runaways as accomplices to their own crimes (Tedisco & Paludi, 1996). In addition, runaway
youth do not have health insurance nor access to medical care. Consequently, they are prone to diseases (Millstein, 1989). Runaway youth
are considered to be in the highest groups for human immunodeciency virus (HIV) infection (Millstein, 1989); many engage in prostitution to obtain money for their food, shelter, and drugs (Flowers, 2001).
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57
58
59
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Tedisco and Paludi (1996) noted that these myths contribute to keeping the issue of child abductions hidden. Curriculum training programs disclose the hidden issue and create an empowering learning
environment for children and adolescents. Training programs in general include three major components: (1) needs assessment, (2) facilitating the training programs, and (3) posttraining evaluations (Badhesha,
Schmidtke, Cummings, & Moore, 2008). Poorly conceptualized and
poorly facilitated training programs on child abductions and missing
children cause more harm than good (Bromberg, 1997; Johnson et al.,
2006). Despite the fact that children and adolescents may like learning
about safety education, the impact of such training may not translate
into sustained, positive results that are transferred out of the training
program. We hope that the approach identied in this next section will
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62
TRAINING PROGRAM
Training Goals
Goals for training programs that have been identied in the child
abduction literature (Bromberg, 1997; Newman, 1985; Tedisco & Paludi,
1996) include:
1. Dene missing, including nonparental abductions, runaways, throwaways and stranger abductions.
2. Educate students about the legal denitions and behavioral examples of
abductions.
3. Dene stranger for children and adolescents to include family
acquaintances, neighbors, and individuals with whom families have
brief contact, e.g., letter carriers, television repairperson.
4. Discuss unsafe places.
5. Discuss the impact of being abducted on childrens and adolescents
emotional and physical well being.
6. Discuss the effects of abductions on parents, siblings, friends, and
school mates.
7. Tell children and adolescents what their rights and responsibilities are
with respect to abductions.
8. Empower children and adolescents to take control of their bodies.
9. Discuss childrens and adolescents fears and anxieties about abductions.
10. Discuss common lures of abductors.
11. Assist in making the child and adolescent knowledgeable about safety
strategies to make the abductors job of luring them more difcult.
12. To create an environment that is free of the fear of retaliation for speaking out about child abductions.
Once the goals have been established, the schools policies and procedures regarding reporting potential child abductions must be revised,
taking into account new case law and research from the behavioral sciences (see Tedisco & Paludi, 1996). Because the policy statements and
63
procedures are part of the training session content, they must be completed prior to the training.
Training programs on child abduction awareness involve more than
a recitation of individuals rights and responsibilities and what the
law and school policy requires. Training also requires dealing with
childrens and adolescents assumptions and misconceptions, as well
as the anxieties about the training itself. Thus, training sessions must
devote ample time to dealing with the childrens and adolescents
feelings, misconceptions, and questions. Children and adolescents may
want to discuss topics related to abductions and abuse following the
training program with the trainer without hearing any comments from
peers. Because child abduction and abuse are intimate for children
and adolescents, they are unlikely to ask questions in public.
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65
66
Pre-post training evaluations can assist with this concern (Sadri &
Snyder, 1995). The trainer administers a test or quiz prior to the beginning of the training program. Such a quiz may ask questions regarding
the types of abductions, how to tell school ofcials, and so on. Following the training program, the trainer readministers the quiz and then
determines whether scores on the post-test quiz are higher than those
on the pretest version. This method can provide more reliable information about whether the training program contributed to increased
scores on the posttest quizzes, which is what one would expect if the
training program was effective.
To further answer the question regarding training effectiveness, a
pre-post training with a control group can be used. In this method,
two groups of children or adolescents are established and evaluated on
their knowledge, attitudes, behavior, and so on. The control group,
however, is given no training. The other group does receive training.
Both groups are given a posttest. This method corrects for factors other
than training that inuenced students performance. The group that
received training should have higher posttest scores that those in the
control group.
Sample curricula are presented in Tedisco and Paludi (1996). Legislation must be made part of the training, including training programs
for educators, school personnel, and parents.
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68
The Hague Convention applies only between countries that are both
parties to the Convention (Report on Compliance with the Hague Convention, 2008). In the United States, the implementing legislation
enacted in 1988 is the International Child Abduction Remedies Act.
Convention parties are listed in Appendix 1.
STATE CLEARINGHOUSES
A clearinghouse is a central point for law enforcement personnel,
education programs, prevention programs, and legislators to coordinate
their efforts in locating abducted and missing children. Clearinghouses
exist in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S.
Virgin Islands, Canada, and the Netherlands. The National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children (2009) recommends the following functions of clearinghouses:
1. Collecting and maintaining computerized data and investigative information on missing persons in the states.
2. Compiling statistics on the missing childrens cases handled and the
number resolved by the clearinghouse each year.
3. Assisting in the training of law enforcement and other professionals on
issues relating to missing and unidentied persons.
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70
found that each year, at least 3.3 million children in the United States
between the ages of three and seventeen years are at risk of exposure
to their mothers being battered by their fathers. Children may be
abused by the violent parent. Homicide is currently one of the ve
leading causes of child mortality in the United States. In addition, children may grow up to repeat the same behavior patterns they witnessed
in their parents (Fantuzzo & Mohr, 1999; McGuigan & Pratt, 2001).
Weiner (2003) noted that seven of nine Hague Convention cases that
reached an appeals court in late 2000 involved a mother who abducted
her child to escape a battering mate. As Shetty and Edelson (2005) noted:
Approximately one third of all published and unpublished Convention
cases we have identied using online legal databases include a reference
to some type of family violence, and 70% of these include details of adult
domestic violence. (p. 120)
Thus, habitual residence for children in all countries must be redened to include a residence in which the childs well being is
secured and not violence-prone. In addition, domestic and international
laws must not work against the psychology of the victimization process
of intimate partner violence. As Riane Eisler is quoted as saying:
71
And, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated in 1999 at the formation of the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children:
. . . ultimately these matters are not just about individual children and
the pain of victim parents, but they really are a question of human rights
and whether or not we will enforce our laws evenly and fairly to anyone
who comes within our jurisdictions.
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253261.
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Rafferty, Y. (2007). Children for sale: Child trafcking in Southeast Asia. Child
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France
Germany
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malta
Mauritius
Mexico
Monaco
Montenegro
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Saint Kitts and Nevis
San Marino
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom (Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands,
Isle of Man, Montserrat)
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Uruguay
Venezuela
Zimbabwe
APPENDIX 2: RESOURCES ON CHILD ABDUCTIONS
AND MISSING CHILDREN
AMBER Alert
http://www.amberalert.gov
American Bar Association
http://www.abanet.org
Committee for Missing Children, Inc.
http://www.ndthekids.org
Child Abduction Resource Center
http://www.globalmissing.com
Child Find of America
http://www.childndofamerica.org
Child Focus (Belgium)
http://www.childfocus.org
Childnd Canada (Canada)
http://www.childnd.ca/
Find the Children
http://www.ndthechildren.com
Hague Conference Permanent BureauChild Abduction Section
Hcch.e-vision.nl/index_en.php?
Inter-American Bar Association
http://www.iaba.org
Lost Childrens Network
http://www.lostchildren.org
Missing Children Society of Canada
http://www.mcsc.ca
National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth
http://www.naehcy.org
National Center for Missing Adults
http://www.missingadults.org
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
http://www.missingkids.com
National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse
http://www.ndaa-apri.org
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Chapter 4
82
diversity of societies in the world, the differences as well as commonalities in womens sexual lives across the above themes in womens
sexuality.
DEFINITION OF WOMENS SEXUALITY
While no universal denition of sexuality exists, and how sexuality
is constructed, managed, and acted out by women varies historically
and cross-culturally, an important premise in any understanding of
womens sexuality is that it is very much embedded within and grows
out of political struggles, gender relations, cultural meanings surrounding femininity, and legal and social denitions of human rights. Sexuality is a personal psychological, emotional, and physical experience, but
how women learn about, understand, and approach their sexuality cannot be separated from the larger sociocultural context of their lives.
This contextualized approach to the study of womens sexuality has
not always existed and only relatively recently (the last 15 to 20 years)
has a fuller understanding of the social and cultural embeddedness of
sexuality been articulated (for examples see Blackwood & Wieringa,
1999a; Correa & Parker, 2004; Parker et al., 2004). Sexuality has been
primarily viewed as a natural and immutable aspect of life, and the
biomedical model, along with studies of specic sexual behaviors, has
been the prevailing framework governing the study of womens sexuality (see Amaro, Navarro, Conron, & Raj, 2002 for a discussion). On the
other hand, globalization, whether through economic, technological, or
cultural processes, has led to exposure to and engagement with a much
wider array of cultural constructions surrounding sexual and relational
intimacy, thus highlighting the limitations of the standard sexuality
frameworks (Obermeyer, 2000; Padilla, Hirsch, Mu~
noz-Laboy, Sember,
& Parker, 2007; Parker et al., 2004). Out of these larger globalization
processes, the denitions of sexuality have expanded to include not
only behavioral and biological aspects, but also recognition of the multiplicity of factors that may inuence sexuality (Promotion of Sexual
Health: Recommendations for Action, 2000). This change can be seen in
the working denition of sexuality developed by the Pan American
Health Organization, World Health Organization, and World Association of Sexology that is useful to present here:
Sexuality is a central aspect of being human throughout life and encompasses sex, gender identities and roles, sexual orientation, eroticism,
pleasure, intimacy and reproduction. Sexuality is experienced and
expressed in thoughts, fantasies, desires, beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviours, practices, roles and relationships. While sexuality can include all of
these dimensions, not all of them are always experienced or expressed.
Sexuality is inuenced by the interaction of biological, psychological,
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84
substituted for it. Sexual health for women refers not just to the absence of sexual dysfunction and sexual diseases, such as HIV/AIDS or
other sexually transmitted diseases, nor does it refer narrowly to positive reproductive health such as healthy pregnancy, childbirth, and
contraceptive use. It includes these dimensions, but it also incorporates
the notion of an overarching well being experienced when a person
has the ability to freely, responsibly, and safely express their sexual
desires without the fear of coercion, discrimination, or violence (Promotion of Sexual Health: Recommendations for Action, 2000; Sexual
HealthA New Focus for WHO, 2004). The sexual health concept is
situated within the larger domain of public health and, as such, a consequence and necessary component of the notion of sexual health is
education services about sexuality, reproductive biology, how to control fertility, and protection against sexually transmitted diseases.
Because of the growing understanding among social scientists, program planners, and international health advocates that gender inequality is at the heart of womens vulnerability to sexual health problems
(Raimondo, 2005), such as their risk for HIV/AIDS and sexual victimization, these services must be provided in a manner that increases
womens autonomy and freedom of choice, and supports and empowers them to confront hostile, oppressive, or demeaning gender arrangements and ideologies in their social and personal environments
(Ruklos Hampton, McWatters, Jeffery, & Smith, 2006; Undie, Crichton,
& Zulu, 2007).
SEXUAL RIGHTS AS HUMAN RIGHTS
For women to participate in a sexual life of their own choice and to
achieve and maintain sexual health, their sexual rights, as a component
of basic human rights, must be recognized (Promotion of Sexual
Health: Recommendations for Action, 2000). As Palesa Beverley Ditsie
eloquently stated in 1995 at the UNs Fourth World Conference
on Women, . . . no woman can determine the direction of her own
life without the ability to determine her sexuality . . . (as cited in
Wieringa & Blackwood, 1999b, p. 26). Addressing sexuality within the
context of human rights means addressing complex issues for women,
such as the integrity of the body, the role and value of sexual pleasure
and nonprocreative sex, sexual choice and sexual agency, sexual
diversity that includes same-gender sexual relationships, and nally,
determining how do these relate to the rights of the individual and
her humanity (Weeks, 2007). Thus, in examining womens sexuality
internationally, the connection of sexuality to broader issues of
human rights is a theme that emerges prominently.
The awareness of the connection between sexual rights and human
rights has grown in the last 20 or so years and is due to the
85
86
87
orientation are presented. For instance, bisexual women report an average of 13 male, and three female sexual partners, homosexual women
report an average of 11 female partners, and heterosexual women
reporting an average of seven male sexual partners. Austrian women
report the highest average number of sexual partners, 29, while Chinese women report the lowest average number of sexual partners, at
only two. The number of sexual partners was higher for men in every
country except New Zealand, where women reported an average of 20
sexual partners, while men reported an average of 17 sexual partners.
With regard to sexual behaviors, bisexual women show the highest
rate of vaginal sex (94 percent), followed by heterosexual women
(84 percent), and homosexual women (77 percent). Regarding anal sex,
again bisexual women are most likely to give (23 percent) and receive
(39 percent) anal sex, compared to 18 percent of heterosexual and
15 percent of homosexual women receiving anal sex, and 8 percent of
heterosexual and 10 percent of homosexual women giving anal sex.
Use of sexual devices by women giving anal sex was not claried. Both
bisexual and homosexual women report higher rates of giving oral
sex, 71 and 77 percent respectively, than heterosexual women, 56 percent. Bisexual and homosexual women also report higher rates of
receiving oral sex, 75 and 74 percent, respectively, than heterosexual
women, 55 percent. Finally, for more unusual sexual activities, such as
bondage/S&M and telephone sex, bisexual and homosexual women
report higher rates than heterosexual women. Twenty-three percent
of bisexual women and 28 percent of homosexual women report
bondage/S&M activities, compared to only 5 percent of heterosexual
women; 24 percent of bisexual women and 48 percent of homosexual
women report telephone sex, while only 9 percent of heterosexual women
report engaging in telephone sex. Finally, 22 percent of women report
masturbation once a week, compared to 43 percent of men.
Other results in the Durex survey show that the weekly rate of sexual activity and satisfaction with that activity varies considerably
worldwide. Respondents in Japan reported the lowest weekly rate of
sexual activity, 34 percent, and they also reported the lowest satisfaction with that activity, 15 percent. Greece had the highest percentage of
respondents who reported having sex weekly, 87 percent, but only
51 percent reported being satised with that activity; on the other
hand, in Nigeria, while 53 percent of respondents reported having sex
weekly, 67 percent of them were satised with this activity.
Not enough information about the conduct of the Durex survey is
available to determine the validity of these results for women. Nevertheless, where results are presented by gender, they provide an intriguing picture of womens sexual behavior worldwide. First, bisexual
women, and to a lesser extent homosexual women, appear to engage
in a wider range of sexual activities than heterosexual women and to
88
do so with both women and men. They also report more sexual partners than heterosexual women. These results are consistent with other
research that shows that women who have sex with both women and
men tend to engage in a wider range of sexual behaviors and to
have more sexual partners than women who have sex with men only
(Casta~
neda & G
omez Bastidas, 2005; Lemp et al., 1995; Reinisch,
Sanders, & Ziemba-Davis, 1995; Richters, Bergin, Lubowitz, & Prestage,
2002). They also demonstrate that sexual identity labels (bisexual,
homosexual, heterosexual) do not necessarily indicate the gender of
ones sexual partners or the behaviors in which one is most likely to
engage. They are also similar to research that shows that women
engage in masturbation to a lesser extent than men (Oliver & Shibley
Hyde, 1993) and that persons from certain Asian countries, such as
Japan, report less satisfaction with sex (Laumann et al., 2006).
In addition to simply understanding what sexual behaviors women
engage in with their partners, investigating womens sexual behavior
cross-culturally highlights several related issues important to mention.
First, labels for sexual acts cannot be applied uncritically across cultures and sexual acts have meanings that vary depending on the society one is examining. The relatively few cross-national studies of
sexual behavior tend to have a predetermined set of sexual behaviors
to be investigated, such as heterosexual intercourse, oral sex, and so on
(e.g., Durex Sexual Well-being Survey, 2007; Nicolosi et al., 2004), but
this should not preclude the possibility of other sexual behaviors that
may be more common among women. Sexual behavior is not nite or
standardized, and how it is carried out can be variable and highly dependent on the situational and relational context. That being said, however, sexual acts, in whatever context they occur, have a materiality
and physicality that cannot be overlooked by researchers and theoreticians, just as the women involved do not overlook them. These behaviors exist in time and space, they involve the body, as well as
emotional and cognitive processes.
Second, anthropological work demonstrates that the connection
between sexual behavior and sexual identity is conceived differently in
different cultures. In the West, sexual identity is much more strongly
categorical and compartmentalized, and it is also more highly linked to
sexual acts and to the gender of ones sexual partner. But in other cultures conceptualizations of sexual identity are more uid, and the
notion of sexual behavior as a signier of a static and categorical sexual
identity may not be applicable. For instance, among Creole women in
Suriname, South America, mati work, or erotic attachments among
women, is common. But mati women do not identify themselves as lesbian and they continue to have relationships with men through marriage, concubinage, or visiting relationships. In this case, sex with both
women and men is part of womens sexuality. Mati work reects an
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90
& McBride, 2004; Laan & Both, 2008); despite low sexual desire being
one of the most commonly reported sexual problems among women,
only a small percentage of these women report being unhappy with their
sexual experiences; and unlike men, where a strong correlation exists
between genital vasocongestion and subjective report of sexual arousal,
studies of womens response to erotic stimuli, usually in the form of videos, show that while they may show signs of physiological sexual
arousal, such as vasocongestion, they do not necessarily report subjective
sexual arousal (Laan, Everaerd, van Bellen, & Hanewald, 1994; Laan &
Janssen, 2007).
As a concept sexual desire is sometimes confused with the need for
intimacy or to be loved, sexual arousal, sex drive, and overt sexual
behavior (Wood, Barthalow Koch, & Kernoff Manseld, 2006). However, when heterosexual women and men are asked to dene sexual
desire, they tend to come up with a similar denitionthat it is primarily a psychological experience characterized by a sense of longing,
urge, yearning, need, want, and so forth, but they differ in what
they consider to be the goals and objects of sexual desire (Regan &
Berscheid, 1996). Women emphasize love, emotional intimacy, and
commitment as the goals of sexual desire more than men, while men
are more likely than women to specify a physically and/or sexually
attractive other as the object of sexual desire.
Most of the above research has been done with samples from the
West and how women from around the world conceive, dene, and act
upon sexual desire has not received as much research attention. Nevertheless, discourses on womens sexual desire outside Western or
European context do exist. For example, Bennett (2005), in her work on
single Muslim women in contemporary Indonesia, shows that these
young women are very aware of their embodied sexual desireeven
young women who do not have a sexual relationship are able to speak
about their sexual desires. Despite living in a social context where
openly sexually active women are stigmatized and where young single
women must carefully navigate their sexual desires, the needs of their
male partners, and social obligations, they can readily articulate their
sexual desires and they courageously and actively seek out their own
sexual autonomy.
The practice of female genital cutting (FGC), which can range from a
slight cutting of the clitoral hood to removal of the clitoris, the labia
major and minora, and in its most extreme version includes inbulation, the sewing together of the two sides of the remaining tissue with
only a small opening left for urination and menstruation, is common in
some parts of Africa, particularly, although not exclusively, among
Muslim cultures in Africa. Much international controversy surrounds
the practice of FGC due to its perceived negative health effects on
women and that it is often performed on girls before they reach
91
menarche. Among feminists in the West, FGC has been considered one
of the most dramatic and harmful symbols of womens subordination
(see Hernlund & Shell-Duncan, 2007, for a discussion), although over
time a more complex approach to this topic has evolved that takes into
consideration voices, experiences, and agency of African women themselves. One of the reoccurring questions with regard to FGC is whether
the various forms of FGC inuence sexual functioning or even sexual
desire. Although FGC is presumed to negatively affect womens ability
to experience sexual pleasure, available evidence demonstrates that
sexual desire, sexual pleasure, erotic feelings, and orgasm are experienced even among women with the most extreme forms of FGC
(Ahmadu, 2007; Dopico, 2007). In fact, qualitative interviews with
women who have experienced FGC demonstrate that many have satisfactory and pleasurable sexual relationships with men and they afrm
that sexual pleasure is equally important for women as for men.
When they note problems, they attribute them to the quality of their
relationships with partners, presence of children, stress from work, and
difcult economic circumstancesfactors that inuence the sexual
enjoyment of women who have not experienced FGC. Furthermore, as
Ahmadu (2007) notes, while chastity and modesty are typically part of
the cultural underpinnings for FGC, these do not condition women to
repress their sexuality in Islamic or African traditional societies
(pp. 294295). She contends that sexual passivity and repression for
women in the West stem from psychoanalytic models that are then
applied to understanding African womens sexual relationships (also
see Obermeyer, 2000, for a discussion). The uncritical application of
Western constructions of womens sexuality and sexual desire to
African women, particularly those who have experienced FGC, negates
the possibility of emergence of counter narratives surrounding sexuality
and they may also make difcult the work to address the sexual and
health problems such women may actually experience. Unequivocal
application of understandings, values, and priorities surrounding
womens sexual desire from Western centres to non-Western margins
(Phillips, 2007, p. 148) can, as in the case of sexuality among women
who experience FGC, obscure sexual meanings rather than clarify them.
Clearly, despite societal restrictions and cultural control, women across
the world can and do practice a sexual agency and it is not simply a
form of resistance, but also an assertion of their own erotic desires
(Blackwood & Wieringa, 1999b).
Another example of how cultural constructions of womens sexual
desire differ and how these constructions may organize and dene
womens own behavior and understanding of their sexual selves, is
that in many cultures where FGC occurs, womens sexual desire is
seen as stronger than that of men (Obermeyer, 2000). FGC, along with
other cultural controls on womens autonomy, such as veiling and
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93
94
to the extensive existence and valuing of both passionate and companionate love in many societies around the world, even in those societies
where womens choice of marriage partner is made for them by
the family (see Inhorn, 2007, for a discussion; Jankowiak & Fischer,
1992). As globalization processes further expand the discourse on
womens sexuality and relationship options, hopefully, we will see in
the upcoming decade the emergence of more empirical studies demonstrating the strengths of the New View perspective at an international
level which may help to expand our knowledge of and treatment for
womens sexual problems everywhere.
CONCLUSION
At the beginning of this new millennium, sexuality is undergoing a
revolution, one that is maybe less apparent, but no less real, than those
that occurred in the 1920s and 1960s. While the changes in sexual
behavior and attitudes seen in those previous periods were geographically focused on the United States and Western Europe, the current
sexual revolution is seen across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and
Latin America (Francoeur & Noonan, 2004; Mahdavi, 2007; Reinfelder,
1996b), as well as in North America and Europe. The changes may be
small in any given community, uneven across different worldwide
societies and cultures, but they are most clearly seen in the slow but
incremental changes in sexual behavior and attitudes among women
and men. As Weeks (2007) states we are living in a time of transition,
in the midst of a long, convoluted, messy, unnished but profound
revolution that has transformed the possibilities of living our sexual diversity and creating intimate lives (p. 3).
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Chapter 5
The family is the cornerstone of society, making marriage a highly valued social institution in every part of the world. Marriage is a legally
and socially recognized union that entails sexual, economic, and social
rights and obligations for the partners, with the expectation of a lifelong relationship (Bachrach, Hindin, & Thompson, 2000). The United
Nations branding of 1994 as the International Year of the Family led to
the explication of the basic human rights of individuals within marital
relationships, and to increased attention being paid to their protection
and preservation (Levesque, 2001). Sexual rights in marital relationships involve individuals having autonomous input in sexual and
reproductive decision making (Levesque, 2001). Economic rights
comprise a broad category that asserts each individuals entitlement
to material sustenance in terms of food, shelter, health care, and any
other requirements to satisfy ones basic needs (Hellsten, 2005;
Levesque, 2001; Texier, 2005). This category of rights also emphasizes
each family members access to and decision-making power over personally acquired resources (Gilbert, 2005a), such as employment income.
The right to education, employment, and access to community resources
and opportunities for ones betterment is also an economic right, as well
as a developmental right accorded to youth (United Nations, 1990;
Wilson, 2005). Social rights address both family relations and interactions within the surrounding cultural milieu. This category of rights
emphasizes freedom of association (Eide, 2005; McBride, 2005), and freedom in forming and exiting marital and family relationships (Probert,
2005). Cultural social rights include each persons right to cultural preservation, cultural participation, and some level of cultural self-determination
(Gilbert, 2005b; Levesque, 2001).
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The protection of all of these basic human rights in marital relationships is predicated on accepting the equality in status and worth of
marital partners and on upholding each persons overarching right to
personal security in family life (Levesque, 2001; MacPherson, 2004).
Levesque postulates that women are often reliant upon their families to
protect their rights and well-being. Therefore, the above rights intersect
with womens rights to gender equality and freedom from domestic violence (Cook & Cusack, 2005; Guichon, 2005).
While Western societies have emphasized personal initiation of
the mate selection and marriage process, many other societies around
the world have historically practiced arranged marriages. These
include China (Xiaohe & Whyte, 1990; Zang, 2008), Japan (Blood, 1967;
Langen, Streltzer, & Kai, 1997), Vietnam (Wisensale, 1999), Israel
(Rockman, 1994), Romania (Oprea, 2005), Nepal (Ghimire, Axinn,
Yabiku, & Thornton, 2006), Pakistan (Zaidi & Shuraydi, 2002), Kenya
(Cattell, 1992), India (Madathil & Benshoff, 2008), Bangladesh and Sri
Lanka (Kurian, 1991), and various societies in the Middle East (Bhopal,
1999). These societies vary in the ethnic, cultural, and religious composition of their resident populations, attesting to the widespread practice
of arranged marriages across diverse groups. For the purpose of this
chapter, an arranged marriage is dened as a marriage that is formed
through third-party intervention. Arranged marriages usually involve
parents or relatives identifying potential mates for their sons or daughters and planning the marriage ceremony. However, some arranged
marriages involve religious gures or matchmakers that families enlist
to facilitate the joining of two parties who have compatible spiritual,
astrological, or cultural proles. The use of religious or cultural mediators by families arranging the marriages of their sons or daughters
has occurred across various groups, such as some Orthodox Jews
(Rockman, 1994) and families of Japanese descent (Blood, 1967).
Marriages that are arranged by parents tend to have the goal of uniting two families to fulll various obligations to each other rather than
to bond two autonomous individuals. They are based on cultural values that emphasize collectivism or family and group-centered living,
rather than the rugged individualism of Western society. Familyarranged marriages tend to be perceived as sacramental unions that
are based on perceived compatibility between the couple in family
background, education, culture, and religious beliefs and values
(Bhopal, 1999). The assumption that often lies behind family-arranged
marriages is that love is not sufcient to sustain a lifelong relationship;
it may actually lead individuals to make erroneous decisions in the
mate selection process due to idealization of their desired mate (Xiaohe
& Whyte, 1990). In contrast, similarity in background and fundamental
values is viewed to facilitate a secure bond that can endure the challenges of childrearing, aging, and the passage of time. It is also
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time at the marriage ceremony. Alternatively, she may have one or two
face-to-face meetings with him, and the meetings may be supervised
by family members (Qureshi, 1991; Stopes-Roe & Cochrane, 1990).
The second subtype of arranged marriage is the modied traditional
or delegation pattern. In this form of arranged marriage, the daughter
has some input in the type of mate she is seeking, and parents take
into account this input in identifying a suitable mate for her. Upon the
identication of a potential husband, the woman is then given the opportunity to say yes or no. If she declines the identied candidate, the
parents continue their search for another suitable person for her consideration.
The last subtype of arranged marriage is the cooperative or jointventure pattern. Both parents and their daughter may be involved in
the identication, screening, and marriage planning process, but parental consent is an essential prerequisite for the marriage. Some dating
and courtship may occur prior to the marriage, and this may be supervised or unsupervised (Qureshi, 1991; Stopes-Roe & Cochrane, 1990).
CONSENT AND COERCION
It is important to note that although all three subtypes of arranged
marriage emphasize parental choice and consent for the daughters
marriage, the daughters level of choice and consent may vary across
the subtypes. A forced marriage occurs when parties are coerced into
marriage against their will with both physical and emotional pressure
that results in signicant duress (Dostrovsky, Cook, & Gagnon, 2007).
Forced marriages violate both the basic human right to freedom of
association in entering marital relationships and the right to personal
security in the application of physical consequences for declining the
proposed union.
A daughter who sincerely believes that her parents are acting on her
best interests and will identify the best marriage partner for her may
voluntarily submit to a blind marriage. This willingness to participate
in such an arrangement would make it consensual, and there would be
no violation of the womans human rights. In contrast, a daughter who
has a desire to have personal input into the process may perceive the
traditional or planned pattern of arranged marriage as coercive if she
has voiced this desire and her desire has been disregarded. Similarly, it
is possible that a daughter whose family is practicing the modied traditional pattern, where the parents are presenting potential mates for
her to consider, may still feel coerced into the process out of obligation
to her parents. This is particularly likely if she wishes to independently
seek and join with her potential husband (Zaidi & Shuraydi, 2002). If a
daughter desires a mate that her parents are not likely to approve
(for example, a male from outside of her cultural group), even the
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cooperative or joint venture arranged marriage pattern may be experienced as a forced marriage process. Therefore, any of the three subtypes of arranged marriage may occur without any coercion or with
the application of varying levels of emotional or physical pressure.
Because arranged marriages occur at various stages in the lifespan
across different cultural groups and world societies, the level of choice
and consent that a person has in the process may vary with the individuals age and developmental stage at the time of the marriage. The
power to exercise personal decision-making may further be affected by
a womans economic and social resources. In many parts of the world,
parents have arranged the marriages of young girls to adolescent or
adult males (Cattell, 1992; Levesque, 2001; Oprea, 2005; Tariq & Tariq,
1993). This practice is referred to as child marriage. It represents a violation of childrens rights to experiences and opportunities to facilitate
their optimal cognitive, emotional, educational, and social development
as stipulated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the
Child (United Nations, 1990). These rights of children and youth parallel adult economic and social rights. Child marriage may also violate
childrens right to personal security, as they most often occur through
the application of force and can represent cases of sexual assault of
minors (Cattell, 1992; Levesque, 2001; Tariq & Tariq, 1993).
The most common form of arranged marriage occurs among young
adult daughters and sons. Although there may still be application of
some coercion in these cases, adults may have some options for resisting the marriage attempt. Nevertheless, they may face serious consequences for their resistance, such as a loss of family honor, being
socially ostracized by the cultural community, abuse, and in the worst
case scenario, honor killings (Werbner, 2007; Wilson, 2007).
In some cultures, such as some African subcultures, the marriages of
widows are also arranged (Potash, 1986). These second marriages may
occur in childhood among girls who have had child marriages, during
middle adulthood, or in later life. Cultural practices surrounding the
arranged marriage of widows initially stemmed from the benevolent
intent to ensure that women and their children were taken care of and
provided material sustenance after the death of their husbands. To
ensure adequate caretaking, widow marriages were most often
arranged to other immediate family members, such as the deceased
husbands brother or cousin (Cattell, 1992). However, such marriages
do not take into account widows desires or intentions and tend to be
forced by family members. Many women do not consent to unite with
their husbands kin and instead want to pursue an independent existence (Cattell, 1992). Some actively protest or resist consummating a
marriage with their husbands relatives, but limitations in their economic and social resources may make them vulnerable to coercion
(Potash, 1986). In some of the African cultures practicing arrangement
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the arbitrary and feudal marriage system . . . which ignores the childrens
interests and proclaiming that marriage shall be based upon the complete
willingness of the two parties. Neither party shall use compulsion, and no
third party shall be allowed to interfere (Yang, 1959, p. 221, as cited in
Xiaohe & Whyte, 1990).
The new Marriage Law withdrew legal recognition for any type of
arranged marriage, in attempt to abolish forced marriage. This major
legislative change dramatically reduced the frequency of the practice of
arranged marriage in Chinese society. In a multiple cohort study of
marriages that took place in China from the 1930s to the 1980s, Xiaohe
and Whyte (1990) found a consistent decline in arranged marriages
over each decade. Close to 70 percent of marriages that took place in
the 1930s were arranged or forced, whereas only 10 percent of marriages that occurred in the 1980s were arranged or forced according to
the reports of married Chinese women.
Zang (2008) obtained similar ndings of increased personal choice
and initiative in mate selection and marriage across recent decades in
another multiple cohort study of a large-scale sample in China. Zangs
(2008) study is particularly important because it included not only
Chinese participants, but also Turkish Muslim immigrants residing in
China over the same decades. Therefore, the ndings of the study
attested to the effectiveness of laws in reducing marriage arrangement
across a multi-ethnic sample. In response to the inux of immigrants
and refugees who practice arranged marriage with varying levels of
force into many world societies, a number of countries have also
introduced laws that criminalize forced marriage. These countries
include Britain, Norway, Belgium, Australia, Denmark, and Germany
(Dostrovsky et al., 2007). However, these pluralistic societies have not
criminalized third-party intervention in family formation, as marriage
arrangement can also occur without emotional or physical pressure
and distress. Allowing for noncoercive third-party intervention in family formation would serve to protect and uphold basic human rights
related to cultural preservation and cultural self-determination.
Political changes in Vietnamese society over time also led to the
introduction of new laws related to marriage and family life
(Wisensale, 1999). In addition to banning arranged and forced marriages, these laws increased the minimum age of marriage to prevent
child and adolescent marriages. This step would serve to protect and
promote youths rights to educational and social opportunities and
experiences critical for their optimal development in accordance with
the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child (United
Nations, 1990). Acknowledging womens assistance in defeating French
colonists in Vietnam during the mid-1950s, the Marriage and Family
Law, which took effect in 1960, set a number of parameters to protect
and promote womens rights, as well as the rights of men and children.
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provide youth with some independence from their families, which may
have been reinforced by their exposure to Western media.
Zang (2008) was interested in examining whether relationships
between increased education, employment status, and power in marital
decision making hold across both genders. The author hypothesized
that these relationships will not be evidenced among females from cultural groups that consider women as the main bearers and protectors
of family honor, emphasizing their purity and chastity. Zang (2008)
examined differences in arranged marriage rates between Han Chinese
and Turkish Uyghur Muslims residing in China after the changes to
marriage and family laws were instituted. Zang (2008) found that
arranged marriage rates declined steadily among both cultural groups
in each decade cohort. Education and employment status were clear
predictors of personal involvement in mate selection rather than family-arranged marriages; when these variables were controlled, there
was no difference between Han Chinese males and Turkish Uyghur
Muslim males in the rate of arranged marriages. However, even when
female educational level and occupational status was controlled, the
Uyghur Muslim women experienced higher levels of arranged marriages than the Han Chinese women. They also experienced higher levels of arranged marriage than the males from both cultural groups. The
ndings supported the researchers hypothesis: Cultural beliefs related
to female honor may lead women to be more frequently subject to parental intervention in mate selection and marriage than their male
counterparts, even if they are educated and employed.
A nal important individual-level variable affecting arranged marriage practices is acculturation. Berry (2006) describes acculturation as
a process of sociocultural transition resulting from intercultural contact
that produces attitudinal or behavioral change. In pluralistic societies,
immigrants from countries and cultures that have historically practiced
specic forms of arranged marriage may be exposed to different ways
of engaging in mate selection. They may also be exposed to cultural
ideals related to love and romance. This cross-cultural exposure
may change their expectations about the marriage process and their
preferences for how traditional practices should be adapted in their
new societies of residence. Zaidi and Shuraydis (2002) research serves
as a case example. These researchers investigated the marital attitudes
of second-generation young adult Pakistani Muslim females residing in
Canada and the United States. The females were part of a culture that
has a long history of practicing arranged marriages of the traditional
or planned subtype. Due to their experiences growing up in North
American society, the majority of their study participants expressed the
desire for shifting to the modied traditional pattern of arranged marriage where they have some choice in mate selection. Alternatively,
some expressed the desire to be free to self-initiate a love marriage.
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well as to rate their satisfaction with each marital issue. The 18 items
on the scale assess three core characteristics of marriage. The rst is
loving, which involves open communication, demonstration of affection, mutual respect, forgiveness, and interpersonal sensitivity. The
second is loyalty, which involves strong commitment to the marriage,
a high degree of sexual activity, and strong moral values in the
marital relationship. The nal characteristic is shared values,
which emphasizes high priorities placed on religiosity and childrearing, traditional gender roles, and management of conicts (RosenGrandon, 1998).
The Asian Indian couples in Madathil and Benshoffs study scored
signicantly higher than their American counterparts in relation to the
perceived importance of all three core marital characteristics across
both genders. More specically, the Asian Indian couples residing in
the United States most rmly endorsed all three dimensions as
extremely important to them. The most pronounced difference among
these core marital characteristics among the three groups was in
relation to shared values. American couples in marriages of their own
initiation rated shared values as substantially less important to them
than they were for Asian Indians in arranged marriages.
A comparison of total levels of marital satisfaction and satisfaction
in relation to each of the three core marital characteristics across
the three groups using factorial analysis of variance revealed some
very interesting results. First, there was no signicant difference in the
overall level of marital satisfaction between Asian Indians in arranged
marriages who were residing in India and Americans in self-initiated
marital relationships. An earlier study that also used the CHARISMA
scale, comparing marital satisfaction between Asian Indians in arranged
marriages living in India and Americans in self-initiated marriages,
obtained similar results (Myers, Madathil, & Tingle, 2005). Second, there
were no signicant gender differences in marital satisfaction. Third,
Asian Indians in arranged marriages who were living in the United
States had a signicantly higher level of overall marital satisfaction than
the other two groups. This nding occurred across almost every one of
the three core characteristics of marriage, which they had endorsed most
highly. The researchers concluded that the match between expectations
of marriage and the reality of arranged marriages can likely account for
the high satisfaction rates among this group. They specically emphasized how U.S. living may allow Asian Indian couples some independence from their families and freedom to acculturate, enabling them to
mold their arranged marriages in a way that meets their ideals
and maximizes personal satisfaction (Madathil & Benshoff, 2008).
Madathil and Benshoff emphasized that their results support the idea
that arranged marriages are a viable form of establishing a satisfying
family life.
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Spousal Abuse
Besides examining possible variance in positive outcomes of married
life in the form of marital satisfaction across arranged and self-initiated
marriages, researchers have investigated negative interpersonal outcomes, specically spousal maltreatment. In their extensive review of
existing research, Raj and Silverman (2002) report that there is no difference in domestic violence rates across arranged and self-initiated
marriages that occur in the same locality. However, international
arranged marriages have been found to increase womens risk for various forms of spousal abuse, including physical battering, sexual abuse,
and emotional abuse. Unique forms of immigration abuse have also
been reported among women who have had international arranged
marriages, such as threats of deportation and husbands imposing barriers to womens English language learning and cultural integration
(Bui & Morash, 1999; Chin, 1994; Cote, Kerisit, & Cote, 2001; Dasgupta,
2000; Raj & Silverman, 2002; Shirwadkar, 2004).
International arranged marriages most often occur when families
who have immigrated to Western countries collaborate with relatives
from abroad to identify wives for their sons from their home countries.
The desire of many immigrants to retain their cultural heritage
and ensure a traditional family life leads to the application of arranged
marriages across national borders. Women of the same cultural heritage who are already living in Western nations may be seen as acculturated rather than traditional (Raj and Silverman, 2002). In international
arranged marriages, the marriage usually takes place in the familys
country of origin. Subsequently, the male returns to his country of
current permanent residence or citizenship and les a sponsorship
application on behalf of his new bride to facilitate her immigration
(Merali, 2008).
The escalation in womens risk of being subjected to spousal abuse
in international arranged marriages is attributed to shortcomings
in family immigration policies in Western nations (Dasgupta, 2000;
Merali, 2008; Raj & Silverman, 2002). Since most female marriage
migrants are sponsored by husbands living in North America, the
spousal immigration policies of Canada and the United States will
be presented here as case examples. To be eligible to sponsor a wife,
the Canadian or American spouse must provide documentation supporting his citizenship or status as a permanent resident. He must also
provide nancial statements, such as copies of bank account balances
and paychecks, to demonstrate his ability to nancially support his
wife for a period of three years after her arrival. Financial capability to
sponsor is based on having an income and savings level that would
enable the couple to live signicantly above the national poverty line.
The husband signs a contract with the national government taking full
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may still experience nancial hardship. This may lead them to perceive
their responsibility for the wife as an added nancial burden (Raj &
Silverman, 2002). For example, some sponsored women in Meralis
(2009) study reported that their husbands were providing them with
only a single meal a day or only buying them spring coats despite
extreme winter weather.
The fact that many brides entering North America through international arranged marriages are not procient in English exacerbates their
vulnerability to spousal maltreatment. The nature of their immigration
status is often communicated to them only through their husbands or
in-laws, leaving room for miscommunication of their status in the host
society. For example, women who do not know English are often not
aware that Canadian immigration policy grants them permanent resident status upon their own initiation of the application process. Existing studies have uncovered their tendency to helplessly resign to
threats of deportation made by their husbands (Cote et al., 2001;
Merali, 2009; Shirwadkar, 2004).
Given the aforementioned shortcomings of family immigration policies in North America, some women who immigrate for international
arranged marriages have become subject to violations of four basic
human rights categories, as discussed by Merali (2009). Womens right
to personal security may be compromised through physical battering.
Womens economic right to material subsistence may be violated by
sponsors failure to provide adequate food and clothing, in direct
breach of the sponsorship agreement with the government of Canada
or United States. Violation of womens right to cultural participation
may occur as a result of sponsor-imposed barriers to learning English
as a second language. Finally, a violation of womens right to freedom
of association may occur when sponsors prohibit their interaction with
other members of the host society (Merali, 2009). One or more of these
violations have been reported across a number of studies of international marriages (Bui & Morash, 1999; Chin, 1994; Cote et al., 2001;
Dasgupta, 2000; Raj & Silverman, 2002; Shirwadkar, 2004).
PERSONAL OUTCOMES
Well-being
Similar to research on interpersonal outcomes of arranged marriages,
studies on personal outcomes have addressed both positive and negative consequences. Myers et al. (2005) are the only researchers to examine positive outcomes to date, and are also the only researchers to have
conducted a study on personal outcomes of arranged marriages that
has included a control group. In their study of couples in arranged
marriages living in India and American couples in self-initiated
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hospital emergency and treatment records of 16 Japanese patients diagnosed with psychosis while on their honeymoons. They also interviewed the psychiatrists who had worked with these patients. The
study was conducted over a two-year period, and the hospital record
data was obtained after the patients treatment and discharge from the
Honolulu hospital.
The majority of the Japanese honeymooner patients had arranged
marriages and had little or no premarital relationship experience. Their
case records and psychiatrist interviews attested to them being overwhelmed with the marriage process and with their rst sexual experiences. The sample included both men and women, with the mean age
of men being 30 and the mean age of women being 27. The most important fact to note about this study is that 10 of the 16 patients had
some level of pre-existing mental health problems, such as depression
or anxiety, although many had concealed them from their spouse and/
or family. Therefore, it appears that rather than being precipitated by
arranged marriages per se, honeymoon psychosis may simply be an
extreme reaction to the stressful life event of marriage among individuals with pre-existing emotional vulnerabilities (Langen et al., 1997).
Self-harm is a common outcome of the occurrence of severe emotional distress. Two studies have identied arranged marriages as a
contributing factor in attempts to harm oneself and completed suicides.
Konradsen, van der Hock, and Peiris (2006) studied the reasons for
self-inicted pesticide poisoning among 159 male and female patients
who were hospitalized for these self-harm attempts in Sri Lanka within
a single year. Konradsen et al. noted that the most common form of
suicide attempts in Sri Lanka is through ingestion of pesticides, since
the agricultural economy of the country has led to pesticides being
readily available in local corner stores. The researchers interviewed the
patients directly after their discharge from the hospital and/or interviewed family members through home visits. Their results indicated
that 22 percent of the self-inicted poisonings could be attributed to
marital problems, with forced marriages being one of the major marital
problems identied. Their study therefore links coercion in marriage
arrangement to an adverse personal outcome, rather than arranged
marriage without coercion.
Vijayakumar and Thilothammal (1993) analyzed police records of
suicide pacts that were part of investigations related to the self-harm
attempts and completed deaths of 324 males and females in India during the ve-year period from 1982 to 1987. Marriage related issues,
including arranged marriages and dowry problems and demands, were
among the most frequently occurring reasons for suicide attempts
stated in the suicide pacts. The previously discussed statistics on homicides of new brides in arranged marriages involving dowries in India
suggested that the pairing of arranged marriages with a bride price
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Chapter 6
One woman somewhere in the world dies every minute of every day
from pregnancy- and childbirth-related complications. The United
Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) has estimated that
3 million girls worldwide are at risk of female genital cutting annually
(Wakabi, 2007). Each year, tens of thousands of women die, more than
5 million are admitted to a hospital, and a considerable number
become infertile as a result of unsafe abortions; 200 million women still
have an unmet need for family planning and contraceptives of any
kind (Hindin, 2007). Only 16 of 68 countries identied by the United
Nations (UN) are on target to meet the Millennium Development Goals
for reducing rates of maternal and child deaths by 2015 (Countdown
Coverage Writing Group, 2008).
Acceptance of womens reproductive rights as basic human rights
has grown in recent years. In 1994, at the International Conference on
Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, ofcial international recognition of reproductive rights as human rights began as representatives of more than 180 nations agreed on basic protections for womens
ability to control their reproductive lives. The UN and other regional
bodies have urged governments around the world to safeguard reproductive rights for all women (Center for Reproductive Rights, n.d.).
These are promising signs, yet, as evidenced by the facts expressed
above, we have a long way to go to guarantee reproductive justice for
the worlds women, as reproductive rights are not universally maintained around the globe.
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symbolize the sexual and reproductive organs that bring new life) are
given to her in-laws, whereas the rights to her head (which symbolizes her own life) are retained by her birth community (Izugbara &
Undie, 2008). Interventions built upon this belief will be less effective in
cultures where the body is not believed to be owned by the individual.
Chinas one child per family policy has its cultural roots in collectivism. The value of the nation at large is considered to be more important than the choices of individual citizens (Greenhalgh, 2001). This
policy, an effort to reverse Chinas population boom, has relaxed somewhat since its initial implementation. There are currently exceptions
where two children may be approved by the state. In addition, pilot
projects are underway to increase birth control options for women.
Women typically use an IUD after their rst child and are sterilized after their second (if they are approved for a second) (Hardee, Xie, &
Gu, 2004).
Some groups within society are marginalized, and their reproductive
rights limited, because of cultural beliefs. Examples of these groups
include single women, lesbians, disabled and chronically ill women,
poor women, and those who wish to exercise reproductive choice at an
age considered inappropriate by cultural norms. Members of marginalized groups who pursue reproductive options may face additional barriers as individuals.
In Australia, as of 2007, 70 percent of same-sex couples had conceived via informal self-insemination methods (Burstin, 2007).
Although the Australian government has lessened restrictions on fertility treatments to include single women and same-sex couples, public
funding for such expensive treatment is not allowed because it is
argued that such persons are not medically infertile (Nader, 2007). In
the United Kingdom, as of April 2009, support for reproductive freedom is better; lesbians and single heterosexual women can now name
almost any adult as a second parent, which effectively removed some
of the barriers to fertility treatment (Jones, 2009).
Older women may also face cultural backlash if they seek motherhood, as societies struggle with the question of individual womens
freedom versus the best interest of the child. Quotes from medical personnel capture these sentiments: Nature sends out a good message
that we reach a certain age when we are too old to have children
(Sawer, 2008, p. 6); Just because we can do something doesnt mean
we should (Schafer, 2009, p. A13). Medical ethics and cultural beliefs
tend to change slowly, and they have not caught up to the rapid pace
of the development of reproductive technologies. In Western countries,
postmenopausal women have successfully carried pregnancies to term
with the assistance of donor eggs and IVF procedures.
Persons with disabilities may face a host of limitations on their
reproductive rights due to cultural denial that these individuals have
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it allows them to recover fully from the previous pregnancy and birth
before becoming pregnant again. Large numbers of children, and children born close together in time, are hard on womens bodies, and can
result in medical problems, chronic strain, and fatigue (Hawkins,
Matteson, & Tabeek, 1995). Millions of women die each year from
pregnancy- and birth-related complications and from unsafe abortions
(UN, 2008; Wakabi, 2007). The UN estimates that a womans risk of
dying from preventable or treatable pregnancy- and birth-related complications is 1 in 22 in underdeveloped nations (sub-Saharan African
countries have the highest maternal mortality rates); in developed
nations that risk is 1 in 7,300. Skilled medical personnel, sanitary
equipment, and the ability to transport patients to hospitals and clinics
with proper facilities should emergencies arise are critical to reducing
maternal mortality (UN, 2008). Accessible contraception, liberalization
of abortion laws (at a minimum, abortion should be safe and available
to preserve womens physical and mental health), and proper training
and certication of abortion providers would save the lives of many
women. Female genital cutting has no health benets and many health
hazards for women who undergo it. The procedures are often carried
out in unsafe circumstances, which can lead to hemorrhaging and infections; the procedures are also associated with urinary tract ailments, dysmenorrhea, and childbirth complications (World Health Organization,
2008). Rape can result in physical injuries, potential unwanted pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases. Women who have been raped
have been shown to increase their health care visits by as much as 56
percent in the year following the assault (Koss, 1994), and untreated
STDs can results in cervical cancer, urinary tract infections, pelvic
inammatory disease, infertility, and even death (Chrisler, 2001). Laws
against rape (including marital and acquaintance rape) and genital mutilation should be enforced to protect womens health. Any sexual activity
or body-altering procedure must require free consent.
Reproductive justice is important for womens mental health. The
ability of individuals to exercise control over their bodies and their circumstances is important to mental health (Chrisler, 2008). Mentally
healthy people not only have a greater sense of personal control than
mentally ill people do, but they often overestimate the amount of control they have over events in their lives, which leads them to maintain
a sense of optimism for the future (Taylor & Brown, 1988; Weinstein,
1984). Rape, unwanted pregnancy, and unwanted genital cutting are
extreme examples of loss of control, and they often result in shame,
depression, anxiety, and trauma (Chrisler & Ferguson, 2006). In countries where womens bodies are considered to belong to the family or
to the community, shame associated with rape is likely to be especially
acute. Women who have been raped also complain of low self-esteem,
body image concerns, self-perceived poor health, fear of intimacy, and
140
141
142
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Gelb, J., & Shogan, C. (2005). Community activism in the USA: Catholic hospital mergers and reproductive access. Social Movement Studies, 4, 209229.
Goldberg, M. (2009). The means of reproduction: Sex, power, and the future of the
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Greenhalgh, S. (2001). Fresh winds in Beijing: Chinese feminists speak out on
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Gribble, J. N., Sharma, S., & Menotti, E. P. (2007). Family planning policies and
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Hawkins, J., Matteson, P. S., & Tabeek, E. S. (1995). Fertility control. In
C. I. Fogel & N. F. Woods (Eds.), Womens health care: A comprehensive
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Hindin, M. J. (2007). Contraception, safe abortion, and maternal morbidity.
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Chapter 7
Women should have equal pay for equal work and they should be considered
equally eligible to the ofces of principal and superintendent, professor and
president. So you must insist that qualications, not sex, shall govern
appointments and salaries.
Susan B. Anthony
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149
The struggle for equal pay for equal work has a long history in the
United States. A chronology of pay equity legislation in the United
States is summarized below (also see Barbezat, 2002). We address equal
pay legislation in the European Union in the subsequent section.
FEDERAL ECONOMIC ACT
The Federal Economic Act was passed in 1932 to prohibit wives of
federal employee from working in government positions. This act also
declared that women with husbands also employed shall be the rst
on the list for ring.
NATIONAL RECOVERY ACT
The National Recovery Act of 1935 demanded that women who
worked in government jobs receive 25 percent less pay than men in the
identical job. In 1942, the War Labor Board ruled women must be paid
the identical job rate as men (who were serving in the War) were paid.
However, the war ended before this rule could be enforced. In fact,
women had to leave the workplaces so returning veterans could resume work.
EQUAL PAY LEGISLATION: 1950s
Legislation requiring equal pay for women was introduced in the
1950s by Senator Wayne Morse (D-OR) and Rep. Edith Green (D-OR).
Versions of this legislation by Republican members Katherine St.
150
George and Jessica Weis (both of New York) also were introduced. The
legislation was not passed.
In addition, prior to the 1960s in the United States, separate job listings were published for each sex, for example, Help Wanted Female
and Help Wanted Male. Occasionally, the identical job advertisements were listed under both categories with one difference: the pay
scales were not identical (Brunner, 2009).
EQUAL PAY ACT OF 1963
However, in 1961 when labor activist Esther Peterson directed the
Womens Bureau, the Equal Pay Bill was introduced. With President
Kennedys initiative and support, the Equal Pay Act was passed in
1963 (effective June 11, 1964), giving women equal pay for equal work.
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 requires that women and men doing essentially identical work requiring substantially equal skill, responsibility,
and effort must initially be paid the same wage. Differences in wages
later on may be due to performance, merit systems, seniority, and so
on. Thus, the focus of equal work is on the duties performed. Job
descriptions, job classications, and job titles are not all that should be
considered in assigning wages.
According to the Equal Pay Act, equal skill, responsibility, and effort
are dened as follows (EEOC, 2009):
. SkillMeasured by factors such as the experience, ability, education, and
training required to perform the job. The key issue is what skills are
required for the job, not what skills the individual employees may have.
. EffortThe amount of physical or mental exertion needed to perform the job.
. ResponsibilityThe degree of accountability required in performing the job.
The Equal Pay Act applies to all employers covered by the Fair
Labor Standards Act of 1938. Employers must prove they are using
valid, not discriminatory criteria, in paying wages.
In addition, the Equal Pay Act bans employers from reducing the
wages of men or women in order to comply with this legislation. This
legislation also covers professional employees and includes professionals and teachers in elementary and secondary schools. This legislation
was the rst federal law to ban discrimination by private employers on
the basis of sex.
TITLE VII OF THE 1964 CIVIL RIGHTS ACT
In 1964, the Civil Rights Act passed Congress. Title VII of this legislation also bans employment discrimination against women and men.
According to Title VII:
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The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 was designed to overrule a
2007 United States Supreme Court decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire
and Rubber Company (550 U.S. 618), which removed individuals rights
to use the protections of civil rights laws to remedy pay discrimination.
This Fair Pay Act passed the United States Senate on January 22 by a
vote of 61 to 36. The United States House of Representatives passed
the Fair Pay Act by a vote of 225 to 199. Senator Barbara Mikulski
(D-MD), Dean of the Senate Women, stated the following at the passage of this legislation:
We say to women today who earn only 77 cents for every dollar her
male counterpart makes, its time for a new day. We say to women of
color who make even less its time for a new law. And we say to all who
have suffered wage discrimination, its truly time for a change.
President Obama signed this bill on January 29, 2009. The Supreme
Court ruled in 2007 that Ledbetter should have led her claim within
180 days after the discriminatory decision was made, which in her case
was 20 years previous. The new legislation will allow employees 180
days to sue every time they are paid.
COMPARABLE WORTH
As we subsequently discuss in more detail, social science research
has suggested for some time that individuals view occupations as
being female-oriented or male-oriented (Mednick & Thomas, 1993,
2008; Steinberg, True, & Russo, 2008). For example, occupations that
are helping-oriented, for example, secretary, teacher, nurse, social
worker, and librarian are typically associated with women, whereas
occupations such as police ofcer, truck driver, and manager are associated with men (Betz, 1993, 2008). In fact, research has indicated that
an awareness of occupational stereotypes related to gender begins in
the preschool years and is well developed by rst grade (Betz, 2008;
Heyman & Legare, 2004; Liben, Bigler, & Krogh, 2001; Raag & Rackliff,
1998). Childrens ranges of occupations are difcult to change once
they are set (Betz, 2008).
Furthermore, research has found that as the percentage of women
entering a eld becomes larger, fewer men enter this eld four to seven
years later (England et al., 2004). England (1992) has interpreted this
result in the following way: as men perceive an occupation to be feminine they avoid majoring in the eld and applying for positions since
they believe the pay associated with this eld will decline. Glen and
Feldberg (1977) noted that during the nineteenth century, clerical work
was primarily a male-populated occupation that earned men good salaries and high status. However, during the twentieth century, women
154
were dominant as clerical workers, and the status accruing from this
work has dropped signicantly, as have the wages. This research has
supported Bergmanns (1974) theory of overcrowding. In general,
there are more trained women employees than there are jobs available,
especially in segregated occupations. Furthermore, occupations populated by women have lower pay scales than those populated by men.
Thus, traditional female-populated occupations tend to garner significantly less compensation than occupations that are male-populated.
This nding has created concern about comparable worth, that is,
gender-based pay systems. Two occupations may be comparable in
terms of skill needed, stress associated with the job, education required
for the position, and training for the position. However, the jobs are
not paid equally because of the belief that male-populated occupations
should pay more than female-populated occupations, for example, reghter and nurse.
Comparable worth proponents want to take into account certain factors present in each occupation, that is, skills, working conditions,
effort, and responsibilities so that jobs equivalent in these factors are
paid identically (McArthur & Obrant, 2006). As Bernstein and Russo
(2008) conclude:
We have gone beyond the time when gender stereotyping and discrimination were merely lamentable. We have a body of law that makes overt
discrimination, sexual harassment, and hostile working environments
illegal. However, overt discrimination, documentable in courts of law,
has mutated into more subtle forms of discriminationwith their damage just as potent. (p. 24)
155
156
Austria
Belgium
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
United Kingdom
67 percent
79.4 percent
70.1 percent
82 percent
82 percent
75.8 percent
75.8 percent
70.4 percent
80 percent
84.5 percent
81.7 percent
85 percent
77 percent
76.5 percent
76.9 percent
82 percent
80.6 percent
157
158
States, Canada and Ecuador, the Philippines, and New Zealand have
been instrumental in recent years in successfully campaigning for equal
pay for their members.
We discuss additional institutional factors to account for wage disparities in the next section.
Women experience wage discrepancies for several reasons, according to research in management including (1) being viewed by employers as having less leverage, (2) the fact that men are more likely to
change jobs more frequently than women, enabling them to be promoted to higher level jobs over women with more seniority, (3) salary
increases for women in professional positions do not reect their
above-average performance while men with equal performance receive
larger raises, and (4) women in blue-collar jobs are placed in departments with lower-paying jobs (DeCenzo & Robbins, 2007; Mock, 2004;
National Committee on Pay Equity, 2009; Society for Human Resource
Management, 2009; Woo & Khoo, 2006).
However, research has indicated that wage discrepancies between
men and women are not only explained by these factors related to
educational level or job (Acker, 1989; Agars, 2004; Ostroff & Atwater,
2003; National Committee on Pay Equity, 1995; Rynes, Gerhart, &
Parks, 2005). As Fields and Wolff (1993) noted, . . . even after adjusting for productivity related characteristics of workers . . . there still
remains a substantial wage gap at the industry level between genders
(p. 118).
Rather, discrimination in wages can be explained by bias toward
female employees (Rudin & Byrd, 2003). According to Steinberg et al.,
(2008):
Gender stereotyping has long been linked to distinct employment issues
for women, who must deal with evaluation bias, greater pressure on
their performance, exclusion from certain jobs and promotional opportunities, incivility and harassment, unequal employment rewards, and gender segregation between and within occupations. (p. 657)
Soumeli and Nergaard (2002) noted that while many factors have
been offered to explain wage differentials in Member States of the European Union, . . . there is an unexplained difference in wages, which
159
In this section we address several research areas in the social sciences that have helped us to understand the devaluation of womens
work: gender stereotyping, performance evaluation, causal attribution
for success and failure, and job segregation. While we address each of
these issues individually, we note they are interrelated in explaining
womens wage disparity.
GENDER STEREOTYPING
The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins
when the doctor says, Its a girl.
Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm
Gender stereotyping is a psychological process that describes individuals structured set of beliefs about the personal attributes of men
160
and women (e.g., nurturant, aggressive, independent, lacking leadership qualities). Psychologists have identied an emotional component
to stereotypic cognitions: prejudice as well as behavioral component to
individuals cognitions, that is, discrimination. Thus, individuals statements and nonverbal gestures toward women and men provide insight
into their structured set of beliefs and emotions about each sex (Kite,
Deaux, & Haines, 2008; Paludi, 2002; Steinberg et al., 2008).
In the United States, much of the discrimination against women
earning the same as men can be traced to stereotypes about women,
women and work, and the meaning of money for women (Crampton &
Mishra, 1999; Doyle & Paludi, 1998; Konrad, Goldberg, Sullivan, &
Yang, 2005; Martin, 2008). Betz (2008) noted that stereotypes have
existed concerning the reasons why women work outside the home:
. . . it was assumed that when women worked . . . it was because their
labor was needed by the economy, as was the case with Rosie the Riveters of World War II . . . that they were working until they could land
a husband, or that they were the most pitiable of charactersthe spinster. (p. 716)
161
162
163
Blau (1975) and Doyle and Paludi (1998) noted that job segregation
is one of the major causes for womens lower wages. Certain occupations (e.g., elementary school teacher, server, household worker) are
nearly totally female-populated and account for the majority of
employed women in the United States. These occupations represent an
occupational ghetto for women and are referred to as the pink collar
ghetto (Doyle & Paludi, 1998). Three explanations have been offered to
account for job segregation:
(1) the belief that womens biology prevents them from competing in the
work force for higher-paying jobs,
(2) the socialization of young girls to avoid higher status positions, and
(3) the various social or institutional forces that build barriers to prevent
women from entering high-paying and high-status occupations.
We will discuss two of these explanations in more detail: the socialization of women out of the marketplace and social and institutional barriers to women in higher paying occupations.
SOCIALIZATION OF WOMEN TO AVOID HIGH-STATUS
OCCUPATIONS
Kerrs research with gifted girls (e.g., Kerr, Foley-Nicpon, & Zapata,
2005) showed that although the girls career aspirations are as high as
their male peers, gifted girls are pressured to do an about face during adolescence, that is, to shift their goals from academic achievement
to romance. As Betz (2008) stated:
. . . by the sophomore year of college, gifted young women have likely
changed their majors to less challenging areas, by their senior year they
have reduced the level of their career goals, and by college graduation
they have given up their former career dreams altogether, all because of
the pervasive culture of romance. (p. 719)
164
Since the passage of Title IX, the gender gap at all grade levels has
decreased signicantly since 1970 in nationwide assessments of science
and math performance (Feminist Majority Foundation, 2009). In addition, womens share of undergraduate degrees in natural sciences and
engineering has more than doubled. Womens share of doctoral
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166
to them so that they can learn to navigate the hostile waters of organizational culture. (p. 172)
As this review of research from the social sciences suggests, the existence of a wage gap between women and men exists even when controlling for demographics, performance, and other human capital
factors (Ostroff & Atwater, 2003). Empirical support is overwhelming
for gender and occupational stereotypes being expressed in managers
behavior, including beliefs that women should not earn as much as
men because men are the primary breadwinners, that women are not
as committed to their careers as are men and women are less productive than are men. In addition, women are viewed as laissez faire with
respect to negotiating salaries and wages (Holzer & Neumark, 2000).
167
Furthermore, Ostroff and Atwaters (2003) research found that individuals who work with women have lower wages. Thus managers who
supervise more women than men have lower wages than managers
who supervise more men than women. As Kim (2006) questioned:
Title VII has had an enormous impact in providing employment opportunities for women and allowing them to advance. Now, four decades after
Title VII, gender inequality in the U.S. labor market persists across racial
and ethnic groups, raising the question of whether true gender-based
workplace equality is possible. (p. 284)
However, the empirical ndings we discussed highlight the necessity for training programs for administrators and employees regarding
these stereotypes and the realities of women employees careers and
life responsibilities. Such training programs, identied as culture
change strategies (Brewer, 2000) would include several issues related
to exhibiting behaviors toward both sexes and to eradicating stereotypes about women and work.
In addition, administrators must take into consideration the items
discussed here.
PAY INEQUITY AND POVERTY ERADICATION
It is important to train employees and managers in understanding
that pay equity is a family issue. Research indicates that working families lose approximately 200 billion dollars in income each year due to
the wage gap between the sexes. In addition, if married women were
paid identically to men for identical work, they would have a 6 percent
increase in their familys income. Family poverty rates would fall from
2.1 percent to 0.8 percent (American Association of University Women,
2009).
Furthermore, single employed women would gain an increase in
family income; their families would have 17 percent more income
annually. The poverty rate for single employed women would
therefore be cut in half. Thus, pay equity is associated with poverty
eradication.
PAY EQUITY AND ENGAGED WORKFORCE
An engaged employee is an individual who is fully involved in and
enthusiastic about their work (Lockwood, 2007). Engaged employees
care about the growth of the organization and invest in assisting this
growth (Konrad, 2006). Employees who are engaged are those who
believe they have choices, and consequently they will act in a way that
furthers their organizations goals and values. Pay equity helps ensure
168
WORK/LIFE INTEGRATION
Organizations that recognize the need and adapt work to employees
lives will win employees loyalty and thus have a competitive edge
(Eastman, 1998). Organizations with family-friendly policies report less
stress for employees, lower absenteeism, higher morale, positive publicity, improved work satisfaction, lower turnover rate, stafng over a
wide range of hours, child care hours that conform to work hours, and
access to quality infant, child, and elder care (Frone & Yardley, 1996;
Paludi & Neidermeyer, 2006).
Examples of family-friendly policies include extime, job sharing,
part-time work, telecommuting, intranet work, on-site child care, onsite health services, time off/career break, compressed work week, and
eldercare referral services. Examples of such policies are found in
Paludi and Paludi (2006). A relatively new program to assisting
employees with dealing with integrating work and life roles is total life
planning (Lockwood, 2003); that is, to assess their relationships, emotional health, careers, religiosity, nancial situation, and parenting
skills. Both Lockwood (2003) and Martinez (1997) have found that total
life planning is related to increased employee energy, enthusiasm for
work, and increased productivity. Miller (2005) identied that the top
work/life programs utilized by employees in the United States companies include the following: employee assistance programs, leave for
school functions, wellness programs, u shot programs, and tness
facilities. Miller (2005) also noted that the following work/life programs are rated highest by human resource specialists for reducing
unscheduled absences:
Alternative work arrangements
Flu shot programs
Leave for school functions
Telecommuting
Compressed workweek
On-site child care
Emergency child care
Employee assistance programs
169
Wellness programs
On-site health services
Fitness facility
Satellite workplaces
Job sharing
Eldercare services
170
The audit will provide information for administrators on ways discrimination is operating in the organization. The next step is to understand the reason for the discriminatory treatment and to correct the
injustices (Ostroff & Atwater, 2003). In his review of gender and justice
with respect to pay equity, William Gaedert (2004) concluded that
Although continued research on gender, racial and ethnic biases is
warranted, meaningful solutions are most likely to be based on political action (p. 216). And as Mary Anderson once stated: Equal pay
for women is a matter of simple justice.
NOTE
1. The authors would like to acknowledge Eros DeSouza, Michelle Strand,
and Anthony Ferrari, Jr., who provided comments on earlier drafts of this
chapter.
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Chapter 8
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PREVALENCE
Rape prevalence varies among countries and cultures. No communities are completely rape free, but some have signicantly higher rates
than others. Specic types of rape can have higher incidence depending on the cultural ideology, economic disparity, or current political situation. Certain regions may have high rates of rape by strangers due
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to armed conict, while others have higher rates of marital rape due to
cultural structures.
Garcia-Moreno, Jansen, Ellsberg, Heise, and Watts (2005) conducted
a cross-cultural study of 10 countries to determine the prevalence of violence against women. They found a vast difference among the countries based on the percentage of women who had experienced sexual
abuse by an intimate partner: Ethiopia (59 percent), Bangladesh (50 percent), the United Republic of Tanzania (31 percent), Thailand (30 percent), Peru (23 percent), Samoa (20 percent), Namibia (16 percent),
Brazil (14 percent), Serbia and Montenegro (6 percent), and Japan
(6 percent). Sexual violence by nonpartners was reported at a much
lower rate: Peru, Samoa, and the United Republic of Tanzania ranged
from 10 to 12 percent, but levels as low as 1 percent were reported in
Bangladesh and Ethiopia (Garcia et al., 2005). Common nonintimate
perpetrators were male family members, teachers, boyfriends, strangers, and male friends of the family (Garcia et al., 2005).
Ethnographic studies of nonindustrial societies show different prevalence rates depending on how rape is dened, ranging from 42 to 90
percent of cultures (Rozee, 1993; Rozee-Koker, 1987). Rozee (1993)
denes non-normative rape as rape that is illicit, not condoned, against
the will of the woman, and in violation of social norms. Most studies
have used Western common law denitions of rape, which tend to
underestimate rapes that do not t that legal denition. Most studies
do not include normative rape, which are rapes that are not dened as
rape because they are accepted within the normative practices of the
culture.
The rst study to use a broadened denition of rape so as to rate
the behavior independently of social sanctions found a prevalence rate
of 90 percent (Minturn, Grosse, & Haider, 1969). The most comprehensive cross-cultural study to expand previous denitions by including
rapes that occur in the context of ceremonies (such as ritual deoration) and rape of enemy women found rape in 53 percent of the sample societies (Sanday, 1981). Sandays rate was lower partly because
she coded societies where rape was reported as rare, as rape-free
cultures. Rozee studied rape in 35 world cultures and found that rape
occurred in all cultures when normative rape was included in the statistics. She also found that in a majority of cultures normative and nonnormative rape occur concurrently, concluding that rape is therefore
regulated, not prohibited, in most cultures.
One form of normative rape is rape as a form of punishment for
social transgression or as used in a disciplinary manner. Punitive rape
generally occurs as a male response to females who behave in ways
considered solely the prerogative of males, for violations of male
authority, for rejecting a male who has legitimate sexual access to her
(such as a husband), or sometimes as the instrument of punishment for
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2001). However, research has identied several factors that can increase
a womans vulnerability to sexual assault, such as youth, poverty, previous sexual abuse, multiple sexual partners, or alcohol use. Understanding that rape prevalence is higher among certain groups of
women can assist in focusing prevention programs and resistance
training.
Although women can be raped at any age, young women are at a
higher risk of rape in countries around the world (Garcia-Moreno et
al., 2005). Statistics from Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Guinea, Peru,
and the United States show that anywhere from one-third to two-thirds
of sexual assaults are committed against women under 17 years old
(Heise, Pitanguy, & Germain, 1994). In the United States, Pazzani
(2007) found that younger women were more likely to be sexually
assaulted than older women by both strangers and acquaintances.
Although marital rape is a considerable problem, sexual assault survivors in the United States are less likely to be married, which may also
correspond with age (Avakame, 1999; Golding, Wilsnack, & Cooper,
2002). Young women are also at particular risk for certain types of sexual violence, including sex trafcking, female genital mutilation, and
school related sexual assault.
Poverty has been linked to many rape situations. Women with lower
economic status are more likely to be coerced in sex trafcking, victimized in armed conict and refugee camps, and raped by their partners (Krug et al., 2002; U.S. Department of State, 2005). Yodanis (2004)
found that rates of sexual assault were signicantly higher in countries
where women had lower educational and occupational status than in
countries where women had higher status. Byrne, Resnick, Kilpatrick,
Best, and Saunders (1999) reported that American women living at or
below the poverty level were at heightened risk for victimization.
Additionally, they observed that women living above the poverty level
were more likely to drop below the poverty level after revictimization.
Education seems to be a good economic buffer from rape. GarciaMoreno et al. (2005) found that in many countries, women with higher
education confronted less violence, and in certain countries, such as
urban Brazil, Namibia, Peru, Thailand, and the United Republic of
Tanzania, the lowered risk of sexual violence is evident for women
who continue their education beyond secondary school. In the United
States, working women and women with higher income are also less
likely to be sexually assaulted by a stranger or an acquaintance
(Avakame, 1999; Pazzani, 2007).
Survivors of sexual assault are also at a greater risk of revictimization. Studies in the United States reported that childhood physical or
sexual assault could lead to adult sexual assault (Cloitre, Tardiff,
Marzuk, & Leon, 1996; Maker, Kemmelmeier, & Peterson, 2001; Messman-Moore & Long, 2000). Pazzani (2007) found that the relationship
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Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of
organs. (UN, 2000, Annex II, Article 3)
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This type of education is necessary to inform women and their families about sex trafcking. Prevention campaigns need to target the cultural values that reinforce sexual exploitation. The media can play an
important role in graphically depicting the reality of the dream jobs
that women nd and giving access to resources to protect themselves.
MILITARY RAPE
In this section we discuss the rape of women serving in the military,
rape of civilian women in warring countries, the rape of civilian
women to enforce group cohesion, and the use of women to provide
comfort for soldiers. In each case women seem to be the pawns of wars
caused and carried out by men.
Women have served in militaries around the world for centuries.
Their historical roles, which were conned to medical or administrative
support, have extended to active duty in the past 50 years. Even
though most countries have regulations regarding tasks women can
hold, such as not engaging in active combat positions, women are still
alongside men in dangerous combat zones. Women have continually
increased their representation in military forces globally. Within the
military dynamic, rape is commonplace and survivors are pressured to
remain silent, principally to protect group morale and cohesion. Despite this compelling force, women in the military have spoken out
about sexual assault by their fellow soldiers and commanders.
In most countries, rape prevalence rates are difcult to ascertain for
women active in the military. Research is limited, with most available
data coming from the U.S. military. In 2008, the Chair of the Homeland
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Security Intelligence Subcommittee, Jane Harman said, Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier
than killed by enemy re in Iraq (Harman, 2008). In the U.S. military,
rape prevalence is higher than in the general population, yet reporting
and prosecution of perpetrators is lower (Harman, 2008). The West Los
Angeles Veterans Association Health Center informed Harman that 41
percent of women soldiers receiving health care at their facilities were
survivors of sexual assault, and 29 percent were raped during their
military service (Harman, 2008). Study results range from 23 to 30 percent of women in the military reporting rape by other military members, including 5 percent of women experiencing repeated rapes and 5
percent experiencing gang rapes (Hankin et al., 1999; Sadler, Booth, &
Doebbeling, 2005; Sadler, Booth, Nielson, & Doebbeling, 2000; Skinner
et al., 2000). In the U.S. Air Force, military perpetrators accounted for
14 percent of rst-time rapes and 26 percent of most recent rapes
(Bostock & Daley, 2007).
These statistics are higher than the general population, yet the actual
numbers are probably much higher. Underreporting rape is a common
trend in society but is even more likely in the military. Female soldiers
have many concerns that prevent them from reporting, including lack
of trust for the criminal justice system, fear of reprisal from their offender, fear that the chain of command will not believe their complaint
or act upon it, and reports will have a negative impact on their reputation and career advancement (Embrey et al., 2004). Militaries promote
collective attitudes, comradeship, and group cohesion. Ironically,
reporting rape may be viewed as undermining the group morale or
failing the group (Jeffreys, 2007) yet the rape itself is not!
Most of these womens fears represent the reality of military
responses to rape. Reported sexual assaults increased to 2,908 in 2008,
an 8 percent rise from 2007, and almost half of reports that were
referred to commanders to take action on behalf of the survivor
resulted in no responses by the commanders (Department of Defense,
2008, 2009). Only 15 percent of reported rapes were referred to Court
Martial in which a judge or committee would hear survivors cases
and perpetrators could receive adequate punishment. However, instead
of referring rape reports to Court Martial, commanders have the
authority to administer other forms of punishment directly. Of the total
reports of rape, 11 percent resulted in nonjudicial punishment including extra duty, restrictions of freedom, or loss of a portion of their pay,
and 12 percent resulted in administrative action including a letter of
admonition. Half of reported cases were excused because of insufcient
evidence, recanted allegations, or death of the survivor or perpetrator
before investigation commenced (Department of Defense, 2009). When
survivors reports of rape are devalued to the point where rapists punishment involves a small ne or a letter of admonition, the atmosphere
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government makes agreements with foreign countries, such as Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Philippines, and Japan for R&R
services for soldiers (Farr, 2007). These bases draw in thousands of
prostitutes; some women are poverty stricken locals while the majority
of women are specically trafcked into these brothels. With the arrival
of UN peacekeeping forces in Cambodia in 1993, the number of prostitutes increased from an estimated 1,500 to 20,000 (Farr, 2007). Similar
situations have occurred in Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Liberia, Guinea, Sierra
Leone, and East Timor (Farr, 2007). Women from neighboring countries
and locals were reported to be kidnapped or coerced into sexual slavery in the brothels near peacekeeping forces (Farr, 2007). During World
War II, an estimated 200,000 Asian women, so called comfort
women, primarily from Korea, were trafcked into Japan by the Japanese Imperial Army to work as sex slaves in comfort stations set up
for soldiers (Amnesty International, 2004). Holtzman (1994) reports that
Southeast Asian women are often sexually exploited and victimized by
sexual tourism and so-called R&R for male U.S. military personnel
and the female sex slave trade is ourishing in that region. Further violence continues as soldiers who frequent military base brothels demand
that women submit to their desires. Farr (2007) explains how women
who refuse to have anal sex, oral sex, or insert objects into their vagina
are often subject to physical abuse and rape by soldiers.
The UN made rape a war crime by passing The Military Domestic
and Sexual Violence Response Act, including implementation of UN
Security Council 1325 and The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, as well as utilization of the International
Criminal Court. Many countries, including the United States, have not
signed these acts, nor do they participate in the International Criminal
Court. These countries claim that they can better punish the actions of
their soldiers, which as previously stated, amounts to little or no punishment when dealing with rape. Attitudes by the military that promote masculinity and the degradation of women encourage rape of
military women and trafcking of women for soldiers pleasures as
well as the rape of enemy women. Military organizations, starting
from the top authorities, need to deconstruct their demeaning views of
women in order to diminish rape by soldiers.
RAPE DURING ARMED CONFLICT
Rape is used in warfare as the ultimate weapon to destroy cultures.
In fact rape has frequently been called the spoils of war. The systematic sexual violence during armed conict can serve many functions,
such as destabilizing populations, destroying bonds within communities and families, advancing ethnic cleansing, expressing hatred for the
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sexual assault, criminal justice systems will not be able to deter and
punish these crimes.
In countries where laws exist, women still express low levels of satisfaction when dealing with criminal justice systems. Survivors of partner violence reported less satisfaction with police ofcers, prosecutors,
judges, and victim assistance workers than survivors of nonpartner violence (Byrne, Kilpatrick, Howley, & Beatty, 1999). Perpetrators of intimate partner violence were signicantly more likely to be allowed to
plead guilty to a lesser crime (Byrne, Kilpatrick, Howley, & Beatty,
1999). Of these women, only 37 percent of partner violence survivors
and 52 percent of nonpartner violence survivors were satised with the
criminal justice system.
To assure sexual assault survivors the ability to seek legal retribution, criminal justice systems must be set up to hold men accountable
for sexual assault. This includes governmental laws that cover specic
crimes related to various forms of sexual violence, implementation of
those laws by police and judicial authorities, and womens awareness
of their rights.
Some countries have begun special educational campaigns focused
on the beliefs and values of the people. Violence against women is a
serious problem in Nigeria, including many forms of violence such as
female genital mutilation, marital rape, sex trafcking, and stateendorsed rape. To pass their Violence against Women Bill, which aimed
at criminalizing the many condoned practices related to gender violence in Nigeria, a collaborated tribunal was organized in 2001
(Nwankwo, 2008). Thirty-three women and girls spoke about their
experiences with violence, including rape and trafcking, to hundreds
of attendants including government ofcials, police ofcers, religious
leaders, schools, judges, and media personnel (Nwankwo, 2008). This
mock trial broke the silence and shame often associated with sexual
assault and other forms of violence, helping create public awareness of
this major problem (Nwankwo, 2008). The use of public forums such
as those in Nigeria where women, leaders, and citizens can come together to learn about the widespread problems of sexual assault is a
dynamic way to help people form a personal connection and responsibility for the problem, as well as encourage legal and social change.
Implementation of specic laws against all forms of sexual assault is
vital, but they will not be enough to convict perpetrators or prevent
rape. Laws are important to create equality in the framework of
nations. Implementing these laws will be an even larger task. Since
men are in positions of power to apply new laws or maintain old ones,
specic training for personnel working in the criminal justice system
must focus on attitude and awareness training. It is also essential to
inform women of their rights, so they will be able to feel safe in looking to the criminal justice system for help.
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Religion
Religion has been used to justify many actions, including sexual
assault. Many world religions hold beliefs that are misogynistic, therefore holding women at a lesser status than men. They may directly
support violence against women through doctrine that condones it, or
indirectly through the ways in which religious organizations are structured, placing men in power and women in subservient roles. These
patriarchal traditions maintain oppressive control over women and
promote violence against women (Farr, 2005).
In the Koran, rape is condoned in war through the following passage, We have made lawful to you your wives whom you have given
their dowries, and those whom your right hand possesses out of those
whom Allah has given to you as prisoners of war (33:50). The Old
Testament also accepts similar behaviors. After plundering many
towns that disobeyed God, Moses is angry that his ofcers allowed
unrighteous women to live, and said, Kill every woman who has
slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never
slept with a man (Numbers 31:7-18). These statements support the
rape of women during armed conict. With the ever-present use of
rape in war today, this type of ideology appears to remain a part of
our culture.
The Old Testament also explains rules for rape by fellow neighbors.
If there is a young woman, a virgin already engaged to be married, and
a man meets her in the town and lies with her, you shall bring both of
them to the gate of that town and stone them to death, the young woman
because she did not cry for help in the town and the man because he violated his neighbors wife. (Deuteronomy 22:23)
This statement blames women for rape if they do not put up enough
resistance to rape that it could be witnessed by people living nearby.
This corresponds with many rape myths that suggest if a woman cannot prevent rape, then she is to blame. Furthermore, the man is only
punished for violating another mans property and not for the violation
of a woman. It continues,
If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with
her, and they are caught in the act, the man who lay with her shall give
fty shekels of silver to the young womans father, and she shall become
his wife. (Deuteronomy 22:28)
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Chapter 9
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Sections one and two of the denition describe a type of sexual harassment commonly known as quid pro quo. The third describes what is
most often referred to as hostile environment harassment.
The rst federal court decision to recognize the concept of sexual
harassment in the workplace was Williams v. Saxbe (1976). Williams, a
Washington, DC, Circuit case, involved a female employee who alleged
that she was terminated after refusing the sexual advances of her
supervisor. It was followed by Bundy v. Jackson, a 1981 case that held that
an employer could be liable for sexual harassment based on sexual insults
and propositions, even if the employee suffered no tangible loss of a job
benet. Building on Bundy and its acceptance of a hostile environment
theory of recovery, the DC Circuit, in Henson v. City of Dundee (1982),
expanded the concept of hostile environment sex harassment, writing:
Sexual harassment which creates a hostile or offensive environment for
members of one sex is every bit the arbitrary barrier to sexual equality in
the workplace that racial harassment is to racial equality. Surely, a
requirement that a man or a woman run a gauntlet of sexual abuse in
return for the privilege of being allowed to work and make a living can
be as demeaning and disconcerting as the harshest of racial epithets.
(p. 902)
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Such a standard would protect women from the offensive behavior that
results from the divergence of male and female perceptions of appropriate conduct, but it would not penalize defendants whose victims were
unusually sensitive. Courts could further protect sensitive employees by
nding liability whenever a defendant persisted in sexually related conduct after the plaintiff had notied him that she found it offensive. (Note:
Harvard Law Review, 1984, p. 1459)
This standard would ideally accomplish two purposes. First, by allowing jurors to evaluate behavior from a gender-conscious perspective, it
would make it easier for women to prove sexual harassment claims. Second, it would maintain the needed protections afforded to defendants in
cases involving a supersensitive plaintiff by still requiring plaintiffs to
overcome a reasonableness threshold (Solberg, a&b, 1995).
A number of articles have been written in support of the reasonable
victim standard. Kathryn Abrams (1989) citing a study that concluded
that 53 percent of working women believed they had experienced harassing behavior, reasons, (o)ne principal reason for the pervasiveness
of sexual harassment in the workplace is that men regard conduct,
ranging from sexual demands to sexual innuendo, differently than
women do (p. 1202). One well known survey determined that 67 percent of women nd sexual propositions at work to be insulting, while
the same percentage of men receiving similar propositions would be
attered (Gutek, 1985). Elizabeth Glidden, writing in the Iowa Law
Review, also believes that men and women perceive sexual behaviors
differently (Glidden, 1992). She favors the use of the reasonable victim
standard because the gender neutral standard fails to address psychological problems faced by working women and (i)f courts continue to
use the reasonable person standard . . ., sexually harassing environments might not be changed or challenged precisely because men in
male-dominated workplaces nd such environments normal and acceptable (p. 1839). Finally, Patricia J. Almony, in a 1992 Villanova
Law Review article, argues that the reasonable victim standard reects
reality and therefore, can address the problem of sexual harassment
most accurately, writing:
(t)he standard recognizes the different perspectives of men and women
and attempts to reconcile them with legal reality. It also deals fairly with
the complainant and the alleged harasser by ensuring that valid, reasonable claims are redressed. And regardless of whether the standard can be
practically applied, it has the preventive impact of encouraging employers to implement a harassment policy and educate their employees about
what conduct is appropriate in the workplace. (p. 221)
After the Harvard Law Review Note (1984), some courts began to consider using the reasonable victim standard in sex harassment cases. In
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In a reference to Judge Keiths Rabidue dissent, the court acknowledged that men and women are vulnerable in different ways and
offended by different behavior (p. 637).
The Third Circuit followed the Sixth in adopting the reasonable victim standard in Andrews v. City of Philadelphia, decided in 1990. The
plaintiffs in Andrews, Pricilla Kelsey Andrews and Debra Ann Conn,
worked for the Philadelphia Police Department. They claimed that they
were the victims of harassment involving abusive language, property
destruction, and anonymous phone calls. Andrews also claimed that
she was physically harmed. The court focused on the objective element
of proof and determined that to be successful a plaintiff must establish
that the discrimination would detrimentally affect a reasonable person of
the same sex (emphasis added) (pp. 14821483). The court justied its
position by noting that the purpose of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
of 1964 was, at least in part, to permit women to become part of the
workforce more freely. To do this, they must be able to work without
fear of harassment. The court concluded that the reasonable victim
standard was the appropriate method of alleviating those fears.
The Ninth Circuit became the last to adopt the reasonable victim
standard. In Ellison v. Brady (1991), the plaintiff, Kerry Ellison, was
employed by the Internal Revenue Service as a revenue agent. She
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elaborates; stating that under such a standard men would need to rely
on stereotypes of women in trying to think like one. He continues:
(t) he reasonable woman standard . . . falls short because it demands the
impossible: that male triers of fact understand and apply the perspective
of a reasonable woman, even though men are, by denition, presumed
unable to do so because of the allegedly characteristic male view that
sexual harassment is harmless amusement and the supposed male bias
that systematically ignores the experiences of women. (p. 642)
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Justice Rileys opinion also explored the concern that the use of a
gender-conscious standard will lead to a legal slippery slope, with
other groups desiring their own standard (Radtke, 1993). These fears
proved to be warranted. In Harris v. International Paper (1991), a federal
court ruled in a racial harassment case that the proper objective standard was that of a reasonable black person (p. 1516). Also cited by
Justice Riley was Stingley v. State of Arizona (1992), which referred to
Ellison v. Brady (1991) and held that its rationale in favor of the reasonable victim standard could easily be applied to racial harassment cases.
Finally, she noted a 1993 case, Duplessis v. Training Development Corp.,
which involved allegations of discrimination based on national ancestry
made by a man of Franco-Canadian ancestry. In Duplessis, the district
court ruled that the appropriate standard to be applied in determining whether Mr. Duplessis was subjected to hostile environment harassment is that of a reasonable Franco-American (p. 677).
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219
to create an objectively hostile or abusive work environmentan environment that a reasonable person would nd hostile or abusiveis
beyond Title VIIs purview (emphasis added; p. 21). She then added
that the act (c)ertainly . . . bars conduct that would seriously affect a
reasonable persons well-being (emphasis added; p. 22). Justices Scalia
and Ginsburg, in separate concurring opinions, both make reference to
the reasonable person.
At rst blush, it would appear that the references to the reasonable
person by the three justices would decide the issue of which standard
to utilize in sexual harassment cases. And, a short time later, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals did follow the language from Harris
(1993). In Dey v. Colt Construction & Development Company (1994), that
court, in a sex harassment case involving a female victim, quoted the
reasonable person language from Justice OConnors opinion in reaching its decision. A district court case out of New York, however, Currie
v. Kowalewski (1994), illustrates the lack of clarity in Harris (1993). Dorris Curries sexual harassment claim against the defendant alleged that
she was the victim of unwelcomed hugging and sexual talk, along with
improper touching and advances. The court ruled in her favor, but made
note of the uncertainty left in the wake of Harris with respect to which
objective test to follow. Ultimately, the court decided that it was irrelevant
to the case at hand because (a)lthough the Harris case did not explicitly
decide whether a reasonable person or reasonable woman (or victim)
standard applies, certainly any reasonable woman or person would have
found the defendants behavior to be offensive and repulsive (p. 63).
The Supreme Court further added to the confusion in Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., (1998). Oncale dealt with the issue of
whether same-sex harassment was actionable under Title VII. In deciding that question afrmatively the Court used language that once again
left unclear what objective standard should be followed in sex harassment cases. The Court rst quoted the reasonable person language
from Justice OConnors Harris opinion (1993). Shortly thereafter, however, the opinion states the objective severity of harassment should be
judged from the perspective of a reasonable person in the plaintiffs position, considering all of the circumstances (emphasis added; p. 81). The
juxtaposition of the above has some scholars arguing that the Court is
implicitly encouraging the gender/victim conscious standard (Newman, 2007; Hill, 2005). The federal circuits remain divided on the issue.
In conclusion, while there are good arguments on both sides of the
reasonable person/reasonable victim debate, if the goal is to eliminate
sexual harassment in the workplace, courts should adopt the reasonable victim standard. If 85 percent of victims are women (EEOC, 2009),
it makes sense, despite legitimate concerns to the contrary, to use a
standard more likely to curtail the conduct that society wants to
reduce.
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221
action was taken against the employee as a result (Faragher, 1998: Burlington, 1998). Companies had long been subject to strict, or automatic
liability, in quid pro quo cases, those involving some type of sexual activity from the harassee as a condition of employment or workplace
benets (Bennet-Alexander & Hartman, 2009, p. 408). In hostile environment cases, however, along with establishing that the behavior was
unwelcome, based on sex, and created a hostile or abusive work environment (McWilliams, 1996), the plaintiff had to prove that the company knew of the harassment, or at least should have known about it
and failed to take appropriate remedial action (Katz v. Dole, 1983).
Because plaintiffs were more likely to prevail in quid pro quo cases,
courts slowly began to expand the denition to include more and more
cases (Burlington). Part of the Supreme Courts rationale for hearing the
cases was to help dene the relevant standards of employer liability
(Burlington, p. 751).
The Court rst considered the differences between quid pro quo and
hostile environment sexual harassment. It did not nd the distinction
to be signicant except for the different proof required for the respective causes of action. In quid pro quo cases it must be established that a
tangible aspect of the plaintiffs job was affected due to his/her reaction to the harassment (Lindemann & Kadue, 1992). In a hostile environment case, it must only be established that the defendant company
was aware of the conduct or should have been aware and failed to act
appropriately (Katz, 1983). In Burlington, the Court wrote that the
issue of real concern is whether Burlington has vicarious liability for
Slowiks alleged misconduct, rather than liability limited to its own
negligence (p. 753). If liability attached under a negligence theory, it
would be incumbent upon a plaintiff to establish that the defendant
acted unreasonably (Katz, 1983). For vicarious, or strict liability to
attach, it would be enough that the supervisor was acting in his ofcial
capacity (Lindemann & Kadue, 1992).
The Supreme Court looked to its Meritor (1986) opinion when considering the extent to which employers should be held liable in harassment cases involving supervisors. Meritor held that agency principles
should guide courts in determining whether companies should be held
liable for harassment. This made it rather easy for courts to attach
liability in cases involving a tangible job benet loss. In such cases, the
supervisor was acting for the company and liability attached to the
employer (Burlington). The more difcult question, which the Court
addressed in Burlington and Faragher, concerned employer liability
when no tangible benets are involved. This is because supervisors
harassing employees without attempting to attach a benet to it are
most often acting beyond the scope of their employment (Burlington).
This makes it more difcult to attach their behavior to the company for
liability purposes.
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224
The different ways in which women and men react to sexual harassment
are particularly problematic for the legal rights of women because
women are more likely to invoke informal means of trying to resolve
problems of sexual harassment, while judges considering the reasonableness of the victims reaction to harassing conduct place a premium on
formal means of resolving sexual harassment claims. (p. 733)
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behavior, which should be reported right away under most circumstances. Finally, the victim was understandably scared to take action
because of her age and her uncertainty as to whether the comments
made by her supervisor regarding losing her job and his familys relationship to the owner of the company were truly threats. Can the
Supreme Court in Burlington (1998) and Faragher (1998) have possibly
intended this personal and judicial uncertainty? It appears that the
appellate court could have decided this case either way with respect to
the afrmative defense. Would the result have been different, for example, if the plaintiff had been twenty-ve rather than seventeen? And, if
so, is that a desirable outcome? (Henkels & Solberg, 2005).
Monteagudo v. Asociacion de Empleados del Estado Libre Asociado de
Puerto Rico (AEELA), decided by the First Circuit Court of Appeals in
2009, provides an interesting fact pattern. Michelle Monteagudo began
working as a substitute secretary in the human resources department
at AEELA in 1999. She was supervised by Juan Francisco Arce-Diaz
(Arce). During her initial term of employment as a substitute at
AEELA, Ms. Monteagudo felt that Arce was looking at her in a way
that made her feel she was being appraised. She did not, however,
view the behavior as overly serious. Monteagudo left the position she
was in for a time when the woman she was substituting for returned
from maternity leave. In October 2000, she returned to the human
resources department as a permanent employee.
Upon beginning her second term at AEELO in the human resources
department, Ms. Monteagudo alleged that Arce started to act inappropriately toward her at work. She claimed that he would stop by her
work station every day and touch her on the shoulder (which she
rebuffed). She also complained that he repeatedly asked her to go out
on double dates with coworkers. On one occasion an AEELA messenger, Jose Francisco Figueroa-Cana, witnessed Arce place his hands on
one of Ms. Monteagudos hips. He said that Arce was always trying to
touch Monteagudo. Monteagudo testied that the behavior continued
up to the time when Arce pulled her toward him and tried to kiss her
during a group outing at a local bar. She pushed him away, but testied that she was treated harshly at work following the incident. She
received an excessive amount of work and was told by the Director of
AEELO0 S Human Resources and Labor Relations Department, that she
would be red if she complained. She quit and led a sexual harassment claim against AEELO.
Monteagudo did not report the conduct while working for AEELO
even though AEELOs sexual harassment policy required her to do so.
Due to this omission, AEELO raised the afrmative defense set out in
Burlington (1998) and Faragher (1998). She testied that her reasons for
not reporting the behavior was because all the parties to whom she
was supposed to report to were friends with each other and Arce. The
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court also noted that witnesses to the harassment did not report it either and that she was 22 at the time of the alleged harassment and
Arce was 45. The court acknowledged that even though she was not a
minor as was the victim in Reed (2003), the age difference had some
relevance with respect to her failure to report. The court concluded that
while her case was not strong, a reasonable jury could conclude that
her failure was based on more than ordinary fear or embarrassment
and was therefore reasonable (p. 172).
Two nal cases illustrate the extreme difculties facing women who
are the victims of possible sexual harassment at work in light of the afrmative defense requirements (Burlington, 1998 & Faragher, 1998).
First, in Conatzer v. Medical Professional Building Services, Inc. (2003) the
plaintiff failed to report a possible incident that occurred on September
28. She did, however, le a report a few days after a subsequent incident that took place on October 11 or 12. Nonetheless, the District
Court ruled in favor of the defendant company, determining that the
plaintiffs 17-day delay in reporting the initial incident was unreasonable. Also surprising was a courts ruling in favor of the defendant in
Philips v. Taco Bell Corp. (2000). In Phillips the plaintiff, Rita Phillips, testied in a deposition that she was sexually harassed by her supervisor,
Duane Sonntag, on ve separate occasions, which the court detailed as
follows:
On March 13, 1995, Sonntag squeezed plaintiffs breasts. On June 12,
Sonntag grabbed the front of plaintiffs pants. On June 13, 1995, Sonntag
grabbed plaintiffs hand and placed it on the front of his pants. On June
17, 1995, Sonntag rubbed his hands across plaintiffs buttocks. On June
18, 1995, Sonntag rubbed his hands across and down plaintiffs back.
(p. 1033)
Ms. Phillips did not report the March 13 incident, though she was
aware of the companys sexual harassment policy. She did le a report
on June 20, 1995, two days after the series of incidents that occurred in
June. The court determined that the March 13 incident was sexually
harassing and ruled that her failure to report until three months later
was unreasonable.
The Phillips case highlights a major problem facing women who are
harassed at work. For example, the behavior in Jones v. Clinton (1998),
which included alleged indecent exposure (discussed subsequently in
more detail) was determined to be insufcient to create a hostile environment. It is likely in Phillips that the March 12, 1995, incident, even
though it involved a sexual touching of Ms. Phillips, standing alone,
did not create a hostile environment either. This would place Ms. Phillips and similarly situated victims of harassment in a situation in
which they would in all likelihood lose a sexual harassment claim if
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they report too soon and also lose if they refrain from ling a report
immediately upon receiving unwelcomed sexual attention at work
(White, 2006).
The impact on women of the afrmative defense created by the
Supreme Court in Burlington (1998) and Faragher (1998) has the potential to be signicant in light of the psychological realities faced by
female victims. It is difcult to argue that the Supreme Courts decisions are totally unreasonable. The goal of decreasing incidents of harassment in the workplace is probably best served when such incidents
are reported sooner rather than later. But several difculties arise in
attempting to reach that goal. First, some behaviors may be inappropriate, yet not rise to the level of sexual harassment. Newer employees
may have special concerns about the impact making a complaint may
have on their careers (Hebert, 2007). Yet to not report them is to invite
the afrmative defense and risk losing a sex harassment claim (Hebert).
Additionally, the decision to report behavior is, as discussed above, as
much a psychological one as a legal one for many victims. The law
requires them to do precisely what they are unlikely to . . . report the
harassment. There may be no perfect way to protect victims of harassment and at the same time treat companies that truly are working to
eliminate harassment fairly, yet the afrmative defense, and court
interpretations of it, certainly works against women choosing to le a
claim.
LEVELS OF BEHAVIOR
In Jones v. Clinton (1998), Paula Jones alleged that then Arkansas
Governor Bill Clinton engaged in inappropriate behavior toward her in
a hotel room in Little Rock. Jones, a state employee, claimed in her
lawsuit against him that he rst made comments about her physical
appearance and put his hand on her leg and started moving it toward
her pelvic area. After she moved away, he approached her, exposed
his penis, and told her to kiss it. The District Court ruled against her,
writing that the plaintiff certainly has not shown under the totality of
circumstances that the alleged incident in the hotel . . . with the Governor were so severe or pervasive that it created an abusive working
environment (p. 675). The court acknowledged that there are situations that might be considered so severe that a single incident could
create a hostile environment, but concluded, while the alleged incident, if true, was certainly boorish and offensive . . . this is not one of
those exceptional cases in which a single incident of sexual harassment,
such as an assault, was deemed sufcient to state a claim of hostile
work environment sexual harassment (p. 675).
Though this result may seem surprising, Courts are often required
to distinguish between inappropriate behavior and behavior that is
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telling her that he left a Christmas party early because he did not want
to lose control because of all the pretty girls there, and once in her
presence looking at his hand in a way that suggested masturbation.
She also claimed that he called her a tilly (p. 430) and that his wife
had told him to clean up his act. At trial, the jury awarded Ms. Baskerville $25,000 in damages. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in an
opinion written by Justice Posner, reversed, writing We do not think
that these incidents, spread over seven months, could reasonably be
thought to add up to sexual harassment (p. 430). In commenting upon
the purpose of sexual harassment law, the Justice wrote The concept
of sexual harassment is designed to protect working women from the
kind of male attention that can make the workplace hellish for women
(p. 430) and that It is not designed to purge the workplace of vulgarity (p. 430). In a statement indicative of what the court might consider
harassing, as opposed to merely inappropriate, Justice Posner wrote in
reference to Michael Halls conduct:
(h)e never touched the plaintiff. He did not invite her explicitly or by
implication to have sex with him, or to go out on a date with him. He
made no threats. He did not expose himself, or show her dirty pictures.
He never said anything to her that could not be repeated on primetime
television. (p. 431)
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case, a good argument may be made that Ms. Harris would prevail in
a federal appellate court (Solberg, 1995).
CONCLUSION
This chapter has attempted to address the potential impact on
women in the workplace as a result of judicial interpretations of Title
VIIs (1964) prohibition against sex discrimination in the workplace. It
has addressed three areas. First, it reviewed the literature and case law
related to whether alleged sexual harassment in the workplace should
be judged from the perspective of a reasonable person or from that of
a reasonable victim/woman. There are strong arguments for both, with
perhaps the better arguments tending to favor the gender-specic
standard. This is due in part because even though more than twentyyears has passed since the Supreme Courts Meritor (1986) decision and
women have made great strides in the workplace, women are still
overwhelmingly the victims of sexual harassment as compared to men
(EEOC, 2009). Because of this fact, it makes sense to adopt a standard
designed in theory to help the majority of victims.
The next topic discussed is the requirement that victims of sexual
harassment committed by a supervisor report the harassment.
Although this has the goal of reducing harassment through early
reporting, it places perhaps an undue burden on victims as the literature discussed indicates that victims, particularly female victims, most
often do not report harassment early on. This puts women in a situation in which they risk losing a claim due to their failure to report,
while essentially having to guess if the behavior was serious enough to
support a claim should they choose to report. It has been suggested by
one researcher that the courts adopt the reasonable women standard to
determine whether the failure to report was unreasonable in light of
the psychological reality related to making the decision whether to
report (Hebert, 2007).
Finally, the chapter detailed a series of cases in an effort to determine how egregious behavior needed to be before it could comfortably
be termed sexual harassment under the law. Though there is no bright
line, certain types of conduct were observed to be more harassing
under the law than others. The difculty with respect to the impact on
women is that many inappropriate behaviors do not quite create the
abusive or hostile environment that the law requires. This is compounded by the requirement discussed above that harassment be
reported. Since this problem will be faced by many more women than
men (EEOC, 2009), once again the major impact is on them and not
male victims.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I would like to thank Tamara Henkels, a former student, for her
help in researching some of the cases referenced in the chapter.
REFERENCES
Abrams, K. (1989). Gender discrimination and the transformation of workplace
norms. Vanderbilt Law Review, 42, 11831248.
Almony, P. J. (1992). Ellison v. Brady: A legal compromise with reality in cases
of sexual harassment. Villanova Law Review, 37, 195211.
Andrews v. City of Philadelphia, 895 F.2d 1469 (3rd Cir. 1990).
Ashraf, S. (1993). The reasonableness of the reasonable woman standard: An
evaluation of its use in hostile environment sexual harassment claims
under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Hofstra Law Review, 21, 483504.
Barrett v. Applied Radiant Technology, 240 F.3d 262 (4th Cir. 2001).
Baskerville v. Culligan International Company, 50 F.3d 428 (7th Cir. 1995).
Bennet-Alexander, D. D., & Hartman, L. P. (2009). Employment law for business,
New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Bundy v. Jackson, 641 F. 2d 934 (D.C. Cir. 1981).
Burlington Industries v. Ellerth, 524 U.S. 775 (1998).
Carr v. Allison Gas Turbine, 32 F.3d 1007 (7th Cir. 1994).
Cahn, N. R. (1992). The looseness of legal language: The reasonable woman
standard in theory and practice. Cornell Law Review, 77, 13981446.
Civil Rights Act. 42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq. (1964).
Code of Federal Regulations. Volume 29, Section 1604.11 (2000).
Conatzer v. Medical Professional Building Services, Inc., 255 F. Supp. 1259 (N.D.
Okla. 2003).
Currie v. Kowalewski, 824 F. Supp. 57 (N.D.N.Y. 1994).
De Souza, E. R., & Solberg, J. J. (2004). Law v. psychology: the need for the victim of sex harassment to report it and the likelihood that it will be
reported. Midwest Law Review, 19, 7585.
Dey v. Colt Construction & Development Company, 28 F.3d 1446 (7th Cir. 1994).
Doe v. R. R. Donnelly and Sons Company, 42 F. 3d 439 (7th Cir. 1994).
Duplessis v. Training Development Corp., 835 F. Supp. 671 (1993).
Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, Section 37, 2101 et seq.
Ellison v. Brady, 924 F.2d 872 (9th Cir. 1991).
Epstein, E. (2004). Employment Law Chapter: federal Sexual Harassment and
the reasonable woman standard. The Georgetown Journal of Gender and the
Law, 5, 377386.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2009, March 11). Sexual Harassment Charges EEOC & FEPAs Combined: FY 1997FY 2008. Washington, DC.
Retrieved March 17, 2009, from http://www.eeoc.gov/stats/harass/html
Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 725 (1998).
Fitzgerald, L. F., Swan, S., & Fischer, K. (1995). Why didnt she just report
him? The psychological and legal implications of womens responses to
sexual harassment. Journal of Social Issues, 51, 117138.
Gawley v. Indiana University, 276 F3d 3001 (7th Cir. 2001).
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Chapter 10
This chapter offers a sociological/feminist perspective regarding programs for preventing sexual harassment (SH) among young children.
SH is one of many forms of abuse among young girls and women. It
also presents an alternative approach for teaching young children
human rights and includes program content and methodology. The
program aims to empower young girls, providing them with practical
tools for understanding their bodies, protecting themselves, setting
boundaries, and raising self-esteem. It outlines what they needs to
know and tells where to turn for help in making their environment
safe and secure.
This program is expected to contribute to the eld of early childhood (EC) education by giving guidance to the staff on how to teach
young children to avoid violence and foster gender equality, challenging the accepted gender power relations in our society.
The chapter is divided into two parts:
1. A theoretical review of the relationship between gender and EC education. The development of gender concepts in EC is followed and their
educational inuence on gender stereotypes and power relationships
among young children evaluated. The feminist viewpoint is described,
emphasizing the importance of educating women along these lines.
The roots of injustice and abuse of girls are traced back to early gender
relations.
2. The Israeli Ministry of Education training programs for teaching young
children equality between the sexes are outlined: Getting Along
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reliable research in this area (Barak, 1995; Welsh, 1999). This is particularly so among young children. In addition, most adults tend to interpret SH as an act of play (Strauss, 1994). Giladis pioneering research
in Israel revealed that young children are aware of their own and the
opposite sex, which helps them maintain gender borders. SH at young
ages apparently does not stem from sexual urges but rather from
desires related to social and cultural gender concepts, primarily the
desire to demonstrate power and gain social capital within their age
group. Considering the links between gender and sexuality is a
dynamic approach to thinking about SH among young children (Giladi,
2004).
Inuenced by post-modernism and -structuralism, including feminist
post-structuralism (i.e., post-structuralist critiques of modernist discourses, inducing pedagogical discourses in academia), there is an
increasing demand for reform in theory and practice in EC education
based on a developmentally appropriate approach (Silin, 1995; Yelland,
1998). Feminist post-structuralist voices are particularly emphatic in
this context. Inspired by the work of Valerie Walkerdine (1989, 1990)
and Bronwyn Davies (1989), these studies highlight the gendered nature of EC traditions and truths and how these affect children and
their developmental possibilities. They claim that childhood innocence
and naturalness is a myth, whereas EC practices in fact naturalize
gendered violence and aggression between boys and girls. Davies
maintains that feminist post-structuralism provides a powerful theoretical basis for understanding how children are gendered, re-evaluating
gender in EC education, and for building improved feminist pedagogies. Nevertheless, gender equity approaches applied to other areas of
education have barely affected, let alone reformed, EC education.
EC education theory considers whether small children should be
exposed to sexuality (Sears & Williams, 1999). As Bickmore (Sears and
Williams, 1999) notes, sexuality features in elementary school childrens
lives. Assumptions about childrens innocence regarding sexuality
are outdated. The (mis)information about gender relations and sexuality that ows freely today in the public-space media, from public gures, in television shows, comic strips, and billboard advertising
presents powerful implicit models of what it means to be a valued
member of society (Epstein & Johnson, 1998). Gender identities, including the discomfort that arises from breaching implicit gender boundaries, are learned early in life. Garvey (1984) observes that the practice
of mislabeling gender to upset another child is common by the age of
three to four years.
As Epstein (1998) observed, considering the continuities in the modern history of ethnic and SH: Children are both threatened and dangerous. They know and probably do too much, too soon, too young.
Sexually, they are not childish enough (p. 36). Epstein uses the terms
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From my experience as a college professor and SH prevention program trainer, the blindness of educational teachers and their assistants
toward gender and gender stereotypes is clear. The goal is to give
them gender lters to make them see their own and their childrens
realities from a different perspective. Most of them think that are practicing equality, but analyzing their actions, they clearly feel that more
than 50 percent of womens tasks correspond with the Ministry of Interior (cooking, cleaning, education, etc.), while their husbands are the
Foreign Ministry (manage the nances and activities outside the
home). They claim they are doing these tasks with love, devoting themselves to their children. In effect, they are transferring societys expectations to their sons or daughters. At this point, the power struggle comes
into play. Our program shows that these stereotypes allow boys and men
to behave unjustly and abusively toward young girls and women. New
concepts to counter these stereotypes should be introduced in EC education in order to reduce sex- and gender-based abuse and injustice.
Researchers probing the meaning of this gender blindness in educational staff claim that women should be aware of gender indoctrination in childrens daily life and routine. Maher, Ryan, Griesshaber,
MacNaughton, and others are critical of child-centered developmental
theories, based on the child getting all the attention needed. However,
the patriarchal structure of society should also be discussed. They
claim that this blindness involves educating women not to be aware of
the gender situation and intervene in extreme cases or power struggles.
In effect, the educational staff designing the next generation should
be provided with the tools for critical thinking and gender pedagogy.
This is easier said than done. Our gender training course leads to critical
thinking among educators, children, and their parents, focusing particularly on SH prevention among the children at early ages. Young children
from age six are trained in this way at school. Several educational programs in Israel are concerned with how to deal with sexual injury.
Psychological teams take care of injustices and abuse among children and adults who have gone through such experiences. In social
behavior terms, raising awareness to prevent violence among children
with a focus on violent sexual behavior, was found to be important.
Our program gives guidance to both educational staff and children.
From a sociological point of view, many SH incidents are associated
with inappropriate behavior norms, whether they involve harassment
or encouraging it, either knowingly or unknowingly. In Israel, which is
not the only country where SH is the norm, those not engaging in it
are considered geeks or outsiders. Our society is sick, because no
distinction is made between right and wrong, and inequality reigns. A
combination of power behavior and gender roles or stereotypes creates
the conditions for injustice and abuse. Our research indicates (Giladi,
2004) that children behave in this way not to gain sexual prot but to
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get power over their friends and improve their position in their peer
group. Teachers should understand the connection between power
behavior and gender. They need to learn to recognize, understand, and
put on special gender lters.
At the start of my career, Dr. Susan Strauss, who was among the
rst to report on SH in young children, offered me moral support and
I followed in her footsteps. My PhD thesis, Perceptions and Observations of Young Childrens Experiences in Kindergarten and Early
Schooling in Israel, (2004), dealt with SH theory and empirical data.
There was clearly also a need to develop SH prevention tools to combat injustice and abusive behavior suffered by girls, who would
become the women of the future.
Four prevention programs have been or are being developed for
young children:
1. Getting Along TogetherPreventing Sexual Harassment in Young Children (for
children aged between four and seven, from kindergarten up to second
grade).
2. Getting Along Together 10Preventing Sexual Harassment in Young Children
(for children aged between 8 and 10).
3. Getting Along Together in Big TimePreventing Sexual Harassment in Young
Children (for children aged between 11 and 13).
4. A program for seventh to ninth grades is now being developed.
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grade, one teacher thanked our team for the . . . special way of teaching the children such a sensitive subject in such a perceptive way,
without getting complaints from the parents. Since the children are
addressed as adults and with respect, this generates a very straightforward, honest, down-to-earth dialogue.
While presenting the teachers and the children with a feminist pedagogy (Maher, 1999, 2001), dynamic and changing power relationships
are discussed. Teachers and children are taught that power is in their
hands and they should use it in a positive way to protect their rights
over their bodies, and, when necessary, to say No, to children and
adults around them.
Such alternative dialogue needs to be adopted throughout the year
and in the entire curriculum. In Bible lessons, the values in the texts
should be used to understand what happened and re-evaluate childrens behavior in violent ghts. These values should serve as a good
basis for preventing violence, particularly SH and sexual abuse, as
forms of gender-power injustice.
As MacNaughton (2000) suggested, the way teachers regard their
students should be changed by using a curriculum suited to their developmental stage, and they should be responsible for satisfying individual childrens needs while, at the same time, acting according to
gender perspectiveswith the help of new gender lters. Therefore,
educators and teachers equipped with the tools for feminist and
human-rights discussions should understand childrens actions in
terms of gender-sex behavior, while teachers without these tools do not
identify gender-power relationships in childrens play and relationships, such as the eld-work example presented below.
The Chinese Jump Rope Game
During a recess when most of the children were playing in their gender
groups, three boys were conspicuously wandering around bored, whispering to one another, and making a noise. After a few minutes, they
approached a girl who was holding a Chinese jump rope between her
legs (over which a group of girls were jumping). The girl noticed the
threatening presence of the boys and warned them that if they did not
go away, she would call the teacher in charge. One of the boys
approached her from behind, drew close to her, and forced a kiss on her
cheek. The girl blushed and stood there in pain and embarrassment. Her
friends, who witnessed the event, stopped their game and went up to
her. The girl, meanwhile, sat down on the ground and clutched her
cheek in her hands. Her friends suggested that she go to the teacher in
charge and complain about the boy, but she did not respond. Two other
girls called out to the teacher, Amir gave Inbar a kiss. The teacher in
charge, who was busy talking to another child, did not hear them. I
looked for Amir and did not nd him in the playground; probably he
had gone into the school.
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After three minutes, the girls decided to move, and took Inbars hand
and went to the new place. I approached this new place to observe
Inbars behavior, and suddenly heard someone shout, Enough, enough
already! and a crying voice reverberated through the playground. It
seemed that Amir had attacked Inbar again. Inbar stopped playing, mustered up courage, went to the teacher in charge, and told her what had
happened. The teacher responded, He denitely wants to be your boyfriend, so maybe give him your telephone number? Inbar, apparently
realizing that the teacher did not understand how she felt, returned to
her friends with a sour expression. The friends were perplexed. They
checked her cheek, and one of them said, You dont have any mark on
your cheek. They stopped playing the Chinese jump rope game. For the
rest of the playtime I did not see Amir and his two friends in the playground. They must have ed into the school.
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who are subject to similar behavior in their homes, the army, and
workplaces.
Teachers awareness of sexual violence is vital for creating an atmosphere of equality between boys and girls. Teachers should learn how
to achieve this in order to promote a new just and non-abusive atmosphere among young children. Equality fostered by this program provides teachers with a new look at gender and power relationships in
childrens games. One way is to nurture children who challenge gender
behavior, typically using values of respect, dignity, and equality.
Because these SH prevention programs try to achieve changes from an
early age, these methods give the children and their teachers the ability
to be critical, think in a sincere way, and have autonomy, without
operating from a gender status in their own peer group. If children
understand gender and its implications, this should lead to less abuse
of women by boys and men and reduce the number of such incidents
among girls and women. They would realize that SH is not something
girls or women should get used to, but should try and prevent such
behavior, and if it happens, there is no need to be silent about it.
This chapter tried to show how links between gender, power relationships, and EC puts the child in the center within the post-structural
feminist dialogue, which sees the social context of the gender power
relations between the children. The teacher directs the children to build
alternative power relationships among themselves and with adults
who threaten their safety by violating their respect, dignity, and right
to equality. An atmosphere of justice with active involvement and
action would be expected to improve young girls faith in society and
reduce SH and sexual abuse particularly at an early age.
This chapter tried to show how schools should prepare students for
real life from an early age, the great importance of providing tools for
understanding, interpreting, and challenging social situations inside
and outside kindergarten and schools. It discusses feminist methodology aimed at empowering young girls and women educators to promote this kind of social change. These changes in EC education are
expected to contribute toward reducing injustice and abuse suffered by
young girls and women.
REFERENCES
Barak, A., Pitterman, Y., & Yitzhaki, R. (1995). An empirical test of the role of
power differential in originating sexual harassment. Basic and Applied Social
Psychology, 17, 497517.
Bastian, L., Lancaster, A., & Reyst, H. (1996). Sexual harassment survey. Arlington, VA: Defense Manpower Data Center, Department of Defense.
Curtis, C., & Rasool, J. A. (1997). Motivating future educators through empowerment: A special case. The Education Forum, 61, 307313.
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Davies, B. (1989). Frogs and snails and feminist tales: Preschool children and gender.
North Sydney, Australia: Allen and Unwin.
Epstein, D., & Johnson, R. (1998). Schooling sexualities. Philadelphia: Open University Press.
Fitzgerald, L., Drasgow, F., Hulin, C., Gelfand, M., & Magley, V. (1997). Antecedents and consequences of sexual harassment in organizations. Journal of
Applied Psychology, 82, 578589.
Fitzgerald, L., Shullman, S., Bailey, N., Richards, M., Swecker, J., Gold, Y., et al.
(1988). The incidence and dimensions of sexual harassment in academia
and workplace. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 32, 152175.
Garvey, C. (1984). Childrens talk. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Giladi, A. (2004). Sexual harassment? Perceptions and observations of young
childrens experiences in kindergarten and early schooling in Israel. APU
University, 2327, 3036, 75100, 162175, 291.
Jackson, S. (1982). Childhood and sexuality. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
MacNaughton, G. (2000). Rethinking gender in early childhood education. London:
Paul Chapman Publishing.
Maher, F. A. (1999). Progressive education and feminist pedagogies: issues in
gender, power and authority, Teachers College Record 101, 1, 3559.
Maher, F. A. (2001). John Dewey, Progressive education and feminist pedagogies: issues in gender and authority. In K. Weiler (Ed.), Feminist engagement
(pp. 1332). New York: Routledge.
Martin, K. A. (1998). Becoming a gender body: Practices of preschools. American Sociological Review, 63, 494511.
McKinney, K. (1994). Sexual harassment and college faculty members. Deviant
Behavior: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 15, 171191.
Rospenda, K. M., Richman, J. A., & Nawyn, S. J. (1998). Doing power: A conuence of gender, race and class in contra-power sexual harassment. Gender and Society, 12, 4060.
Ryan, S., & Griesshaber, S. (2005). Shifting from developmental to postmodern
practices in early childhood teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education,
56, 3435.
Sears, J., & Williams, J. (1999). Queering elementary education. Lanham, MD:
Rowman & Littleeld Publishing Group and National Book Network.
Silin, J. (1995). Sex, death and the education of children: Our passion for ignorance in
the age of Aids. New York: Teachers College Press.
Stein, N. (1999). Classrooms and courtrooms. New York: Teachers College Press.
Strauss, S. (1994). Sexual harassment at an early age. Principal, 74, 2730.
Walkerdine, V. (1989). Counting girls out. London: Virago.
Walkerdine, V. (1990). School-girl ctions. London: Verso.
Welsh, S. (1999). Gender and sexual harassment. Annual Review of Sociology, 25,
169190.
Yelland, N. (Ed.). (1998). Gender in early childhood. New York: Routledge.
Chapter 11
In Womens Voices
Lindsay Baker
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EDITOR
Michele A. Paludi, PhD, is the Series Editor for Womens Psychology for
Praeger Publishers. She is the author/editor of 33 college textbooks, and
more than 160 scholarly articles and conference presentations on sexual
harassment, campus violence, psychology of women, gender, and sexual
harassment and victimization. Her book, Ivory Power: Sexual Harassment
on Campus (1990) received the 1992 Myers Center Award for Outstanding
Book on Human Rights in the United States. Dr. Paludi served as Chair of
the U.S. Department of Educations Subpanel on the Prevention of Violence, Sexual Harassment, and Alcohol and Other Drug Problems in
Higher Education. She was one of six scholars in the United States to be
selected for this Subpanel. She also was a consultant to and a member of
former New York State Governor Mario Cuomos Task Force on Sexual
Harassment. Dr. Paludi serves as an expert witness for court proceedings
and administrative hearings on sexual harassment. She has had extensive
experience in conducting training programs and investigations of sexual
harassment and other EEO issues for businesses and educational institutions. In addition, Dr. Paludi has held faculty positions at Franklin & Marshall College, Kent State University, Hunter College, Union College, and
Union Graduate College, where she directs the human resource management certicate program. She teaches in the School of Management.
CONTRIBUTORS
Lindsay Baker graduated from Southern Vermont College in December
2008 with a BS in Business Administration and Management. She is enrolled in the General MBA Program, as well as the Certicate of Human
Resources Program at Union Graduate College. She plans to graduate in
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June 2010. Lindsay is currently interning at Horizon Bradco of Schenectady, New York, in Human Resources and Accounting.
Sarah Metzgar Boggess has more than 20 years career experience, spanning the functions of communications, marketing, journalism, governmental relations, and resource development. She currently works in the
eld of higher education. She has a bachelors degree in economics and
government from Dartmouth College and a masters degree in business
administration and certicate in Human Resources Management from
Union Graduate College.
Donna Castaneda, PhD, is professor of psychology at San Diego State
UniversityImperial Valley Campus. She received her PhD in social psychology from the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on
gender and ethnicity and their relationship to mental and physical health.
She has investigated the impact of close relationship factors in HIV/AIDS
risk behavior, particularly among Latinos; the HIV/AIDS prevention
needs of women factory workers in Mexico; the close relationship context
and how it affects intimate partner violence; and the relationship between
marital satisfaction and mental health among wives and husbands.
Another area of interest is in the role of structural factors, or aspects of
service delivery systems, in the provision of health and mental health
services to Latinos.
Joan C. Chrisler, PhD, is Class of 1943 Professor of Psychology at Connecticut College, where she teaches courses on the psychology of women
and health psychology. She has published extensively on the psychology
of women and gender and is especially known for her work on womens
health, menstruation, weight, and body image. She edited Sex Roles: A
Journal of Research from 2002 to 2006, and is editor or co-editor of eight
books, including Women over 50: Psychological Perspectives (2007), From
Menarche to Menopause: The Female Body in Feminist Therapy (2004), Lectures
on the Psychology of Women (4th ed., 2008), and the Handbook of Gender
Research in Psychology (forthcoming).
Cynthia Garrett, MA, MSW, is Lecturer in Psychology at Connecticut
College, where she teaches laboratory sections of the Psychology as a Natural Science course. She previously practiced clinical social work at the
Wheeler Clinic and the University of Connecticut Health Center. Her
areas of expertise are trauma, women and addiction, and the clinical use
of dialectical behavior therapy.
Ayelet Giladi, PhD, is a pioneer and recognized expert on the harassment of young children in Israel. Dr. Giladi earned her undergraduate
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Jennifer L. Martin is the department head of English at a public alternative high school for at-risk students in Michigan and a lecturer at Oakland
University, where she teaches graduate research methods in the department of Educational Leadership, Feminist Methods, and Introduction to
WGS in the department of Women and Gender Studies. She is not only a
feminist teacher, but a feminist activist. She has volunteered as an assault
responder and engaged in political action for feminist causes. Currently,
she is the Title IX Education Task Force Chair for the Michigan National
Organization for Women in order to advocate for Title IX compliance in
Michigans schools. She has conducted research and written articles on
the topics of peer sexual harassment, teaching for social justice, service
learning, and the at-risk student.
Michelle McKenzie received her MA in psychology from Pepperdine
University. Her academic interests include violence against women and
sexual assault prevention. She is currently working on her memoir about
date rape. She is also a speaker for the Rape, Abuse and Incest National
Network and a rape crisis counselor.
Noorfarah Merali, PhD, is an Associate Professor and the Coordinator/
Director of the Counselling Psychology Graduate Program at the University of Alberta. She is a specialist in cultural diversity and cross-cultural
adjustment. Dr. Meralis research program examines family adaptation
across cultures and through the cultural transition process instigated by
immigration. Her research addresses two family subsystems: the parentchild subsystem and the husbandwife dyad. With respect to marital relations, Dr. Merali has recently been working collaboratively with cultural
community organizations in Canada to study arranged marriage practices and their application across international borders. Her research in
this area has identied theoretical frameworks for studying marriage
migration, changes to federal government policies to reduce the vulnerability of women in international arranged marriages to intimate partner
violence, and training implications for community workers responding to
marital conict/violence and mental health problems like depression
among individuals in arranged marriage situations. Dr. Merali acts as a
consultant to settlement agencies and cultural community organizations,
taking a leadership role in ethnic community needs assessments, program
design and evaluation, and staff training. She is a Registered Psychologist
with the College of Alberta Psychologists and is a member of the Canadian Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, and
the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (International).
Carmen A. Paludi, Jr. holds advanced degrees in Electrical Engineering
from Clarkson University and Syracuse University, and has conducted
257
258
Index
260
Index
Index
Criminal justice system, 19697;
sexual assault and, 197
Criminality, as outcome of arranged
marriages, 121
Cuba, 186
Cultural relativism: justice and
society, 20
Culture, impact on reproductive
rights, 13334
Declaration on the Elimination of
Violence Against Women. UN, 177
DeLauro, Rosa, 152
Democratic Republic of Congo, 6, 190
Demographic time bomb, 131
Department of Health, 135
Devadasi, 199
Dey v. Colt Construction & Development
Company, 219, 231
Disabled persons, reproductive rights,
13435
Doe v. R. R. Donnelly and Sons
Company, 232
Domestic Violence Act, 133
Duplessis v. Training Development
Corp., 217
Early childhood (EC) education, 239,
241
East Africa, 35
East Asia, 157
East Timor, 191
Economic and Social Council
(ECOSOC), 2
Ecuador, 158
Educational staff, gender blindness,
24243
Egypt, parental care in, 138
Ellison v. Brady, 212, 214, 217
Employment Guidelines of the
European Union (2002), 156
Empowerment: agency and, 24;
capabilities and, 25; conceptualizing, 2326; control and, 25, 26; and
human rights in development,
1923; and land ownership, 3239,
main ndings, 3739, Nicaragua,
3536, study, 3637; meaning of,
2324; psychological, 2425
261
262
Index
Index
Intergovernmental organization
(IGO), 1, 2
International Alert, 5
International Center for Missing and
Exploited Children, 67, 71
International Center for Research on
Women (ICRW), 34
International Conference on
Population and Development
(ICPD), 129
International Criminal Court, Rome
Statute, 6
International nancial institutions
(IFIs), 1
International Institute for Research
and Training of Women
(UN-INSTRAW), 3
International Labor Organization
Equal Remuneration Convention,
154
International Rescue Committee, 194
In vitro fertilization (IVF), 131
Iowa Law Review, 213
Ireland, abortion in, 135
Islam, reproductive rights in, 136
Israel, 186, 199; reproductive health
care, 131; sexual harassment in,
24344
Italy, 186, 187; abortion in, 136
IUD (intra-uterine device), 130, 134
Jackson v. Arkansas, 224
Japan, 157, 179, 186, 191
Jewish congregations, 136
Job segregation, 163
Joint Titling Act, Nicaragua, 36
Jones v. Clinton, 229, 230, 233
Judaism, reproductive rights in, 136
Juju rites, 187
Just world hypothesis, 49
Justice and society, 20
Karzai, President, 133
Katz v. Dole, 221
Keith, D. J., 214
Kenya, 195
Kindergarten children, and gender
differentiation, 242
Kirkpatrick Model, 65
263
264
Index
Index
P3M. See Indonesian Society for
Pesantren and Community
Development (P3M)
Palestinian refugees, reproductive
health service, 131
Paludi, C., Jr., 147
Paludi, M. A., 147
Pan American Health Organization,
82
Partner violence, 197
Paulina Ramirez v. Mexico, 132, 142
Paycheck Fairness Act (2007), 152
Pay equity, 147; Age Discrimination
in Employment Act (ADEA), 151;
Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA) (1990), 152; Civil Rights Act
(1964), 15051; comparable worth,
15354; and engaged workforce,
16768; Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC),
151; Equal Pay Act (1963), 150;
Federal Economic Act (1932), 149;
human resource recommendations,
16970; international comparisons,
15458; legislation in workplace,
enforcing, 16667; Lily Ledbetter
Fair Pay Act (2009), 15253;
National Committee on Pay Equity, 15152; National Recovery
Act (1935), 149; Paycheck Fairness
Act (2007), 152; pay inequity and
poverty eradication, 167; social
and institutional barriers, 16566;
socialization of women, to
avoid high-status occupations,
16365; wage discrimination
explanation, social science
research view, 158, causal
attributions for success and failure,
16263, gender
stereotyping, 15961, job
segregation, 163, performance
evaluation, 16162; work and life
integration, 16869
Pedophilia, 50
Pendleton, C., 159
Peru, 179, 180, 181; family planning
in, 137
Peterson, Esther, 150
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266
Index
Samoa, 179
Saxton v. American Telephone and
Telegraph Company, 232
Scalia, Justice, 218, 219
Schooling, and sexuality, 242
Security Council, UN, 5, 191;
resolutions, 6
Self-efcacy, 25
Self-harm, 120
Self-initiated marriages vs. arranged
marriages: expectations of marriage and relationships, 114; marital characteristics, 115; marital
satisfaction in, 11213; personal
well-being, 11819; spousal abuse,
11618
Self-insemination methods, 134
Serbia and Montenegro, 179
Serial killers, 5051
Sexual assault, 201. See also rape; as
accepted practice, 200; coercive,
190; and criminal justice systems,
197; military rape and, 18990; in
refugee camps, 195; religion and,
198200; survival, 190; survivors
of, 18182
Sexual harassment (SH), 209;
afrmative defense requirement: to
report issue, 22030, reluctance
and delay of victims in reporting,
22330; behavior levels, 23034;
Civil Rights Act and Title VII,
21011; corporate rules on, 22021;
denition of, 210; prevention:
among young children, 239,
distribution, 24041, programs,
24449; reasonable victim standard, 21119; supervisor harassment
and coworker harassment, difference between, 222
Sexual health, 8384
Sexuality: and gender, 241; and
schooling, 242
Sexual rights, 7, 8486
Sexual violence, 6; denition of, 178;
escalation of, 192; by nonpartners,
179; by partners, 179; refugee
camps and, 194
Sharia Law, 133
Shaw v. AutoZone, Inc., 226
Index
Sierra Leone, 190, 191
Singapore, 157, 191
Sleeping Beauty, 242
Smaller families, 140
Sochua, Mu, 187, 188
Solberg, J., 209
Souter, Justice, 222
South Africa, 180, 186; gender
equality and reproductive rights
in, 137
South Asia, reproductive rights in,
136
Spain, 184, 201; abortion in, 135
Speech, L., 147
Spousal abuse: nancial hardships,
118; immigration policies, 11617;
social isolation, 117
Spousal immigration policies, 11617
Stereotypical abduction, 49
Stingley v. State of Arizona, 217
Stranger abductors, 4950;
characteristics: apparent normalcy,
5152, modus operandi, 52; lures
used by, 5253
Structural adjustment: and land
reform, 31; privatization of natural
resources, 27
Sub-Saharan Africa, reproductive
rights in, 136
Sudan, 6, 192, 195
Summers, L., 159
Supervisor harassment, 222, 224
Survival rape, 190
Sweden, 157
Switzerland, 155
Systematic rape, 6
Tanzania, 179, 181, 194, 195, 196
The Terror Dream, 10
Thailand, 157, 179, 181, 186
Third World women, 7, 9
Throwaways, 5456
Total life planning, 168
Transnational feminism, 2; and
critiques of global feminism, 710;
globalization and, 18; practices, 15
Treaty of Amsterdam (1997), 155
Trokosi tradition, 199200
Turkey, 29, 186
Tysiac v. Poland, 132, 142
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268
Index