Peripheral perspectives: locating lesbian studies in Australasia

In this paper I identify the key differences and similarities between New Zealand and Australian Lesbian Studies. Until recently, Australian and New Zealand perspectives have been viewed separately. The possible reasons for these differences are discussed and local understandings about diversity that have played a role in the destabilization of Lesbian Studies are considered. I proceed to consider the influence of Queer Theory on teaching and research in Lesbian Studies.

'Russian love,' or, what of lesbian studies in Russia?

This piece discusses the problems attending to the development of Lesbian Studies in Russia.

Sorcery and publicity: the Cadière-Girard scandal of 1730-1731

The Cadière-Girard trial of 1730-1731 is an early example of a sensational, nationally publicized French trial in which the major parties were private individuals. Cadière, a female penitent, accused Girard, her Jesuit confessor, of bewitching and raping her; Girard claimed that Cadière was guilty of slander. It was to be the last witchcraft trial in the francophone world. Another notable feature of the trial was its publicity, in which the contesting parties almost immediately became stand-ins for the Society of Jesus and for its Jansenist adversaries. This paper argues that certain anti-Jesuits, particularly Cadière's defence team and in the Parlement of Aix-en-Provence, acted to prolong the trial with the aim of creating as much bad publicity as possible for the Society of Jesus; it also shows how Jansenist publicists took advantage of the lengthy process, creating literature that "burned Girard in spirit," and with him, the Jesuits as a whole.

Women and HIV/AIDS in the kingdom of Swaziland: culture and risks

In Swaziland, a polygamous society in Southern Africa, the prevalence of the human immune virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is continuing to proliferate at an alarming rate. In 1992 the prevalence rate was 3.9%. However in 12 years, by 2004, the prevalence rate had reached 42.6%. This article explores some of the traditional cultural practices and experiences that increase Swazi women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. The traditional cultural practices fall into four categories: (1) socialization and the roles of women, (2) the minority status of women, (3) the practice of a dowry, and (4) the wife as an inheritance. The women's experiences include the Swazi men's beliefs in the virginity cure myth, the women's extreme poverty, and the Swazi men who are migrant workers in neighboring states. This article concludes with recommendations for public policy and for future research within the context of Swazi culture.

Violence against women in Turkey and the role of women physicians

Violence against women is a serious problem in Turkey. The Women and Ethics Commission of the Turkish Physicians' Association (Ankara Physicians' Chamber) has undertaken significant work to counteract this. This article gives some indications of the sources of violence and discusses its social and health care implications. The Commission is pivotal in the education of women physicians and in heightening awareness of the situation. An outline is given of this work and recommendations are made on how violence against women can be tackled and eliminated.

Market transition, educational disparities, and family strategies in rural China: new evidence on gender stratification and development

Two theoretical perspectives have dominated debates about the impact of development on gender stratification: modernization theory, which argues that gender inequalities decline with economic growth, and the "women in development" perspective, which argues that development may initially widen gender gaps. Analyzing cross-sectional surveys and time-series data from China, this article indicates the relevance of both perspectives: while girls' educational opportunities were clearly more responsive than boys' to better household economic circumstances, the era of market transition in the late 1970s and early 1980s failed to accelerate and, in fact, may have temporarily slowed progress toward gender equity.

Migration and relationship power among Mexican women

Our study drew on original data collected in Durham, NC, and four sending communities in Mexico to examine differences in women's relationship power that are associated with migration and residence in the United States. We analyzed the personal, relationship, and social resources that condition the association between migration and women's power and the usefulness of the Relationship Control Scale (RCS) for capturing these effects. We found support for perspectives that emphasize that migration may simultaneously mitigate and reinforce gender inequities. Relative to their nonmigrant peers, Mexican women in the United States average higher emotional consonance with their partners, but lower relationship control and sexual negotiation power. Methodologically, we found that the RCS is internally valid and useful for measuring the impact of resources on women's power. However, the scale appears to combine diverse dimensions of relationship power that were differentially related to migration in our study.

When push comes to shove: sites of vulnerability, personal transformation, and trafficked women's migration decisions

Discussions of the push and pull factors behind trafficked women's decisions to migrate abroad for tenuous work opportunities in the "entertainment" sector tend to variously privilege poverty, familial obligations, and, more recently, personal opportunism. This reinforces more general observations about motivations for "Third World" women who migrate to more developed regions globally. Although these factors are indeed important, the author's research has revealed the relevance of other explanations for migration decisions, including the prevalence of domestic violence, family dissolution, and escape from personal circumstances, which are themselves products of low self-esteem and sense of self-worth.

Cake And Conversation: the women's jour in Parisian high society, 1880-1914

At the end of the nineteenth century an upper-class Parisian hostess invited guests into her home on a fixed afternoon of her choice each week. Was this tradition, known as the jour, merely an occasion to partake of refreshments and chat? Or did it serve broader purposes for the women of High Society? This article investigates the process of invitation to a jour, the subtle nuances of etiquette at these gatherings, conversation between men and women, and what was consumed in the way of food and drink. By documenting social interaction in the space of the salon, this article analyses the way in which "power" was constituted through bodily practices. It then goes on to show what the exercise of this power reveals about gender roles, and the structure of social relationships among the Parisian upper class, in the decades before the First World War.

Common fate, different experience: gender-specific aspects of the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1917

Violence against women was a central feature of the Armenian Genocide. Even before the mass killings, sexual humiliation was used to intimidate the Armenian community. After the murder of the Armenian leadership and men of military age, Ottoman authorities and Ittihadist supporters deported surviving Armenians from Anatolia into the Syrian desert. During this ethnic cleansing, rape, kidnapping, sex slavery, and forced re-marriage became de facto instruments of genocide. Eyewitness accounts and diplomatic reports shed light on the place of gender during genocidal persecution. Although scholarship has only recently begun to explore the issue, the Armenian Genocide offers opportunities for comparative gender studies.

Teresa Urrea: Mexican mystic, healer, and apocalyptic revolutionary

This article is a study of the mystical and apocalyptic dimensions of Teresa Urrea. As explained in this article, Urrea’s mystical experiences and visions are unique for their connection with a propheticapocalyptic and political worldview. This apocalyptic dimension is more than a communication of a hidden message or spiritual world; it also includes a reading of history that is catastrophic and discontinuous. The crisis and terror of history are given expression in Urrea’s mystical and apocalyptic pronouncements. In particular, the chaotic and oppressive circumstances of Mexican society during the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz was confronted and denounced in Urrea’s mystical and apocalyptic ministry. This apocalyptic healer castigated those culpable or even complicit with the injustices affecting the indigenous communities of Mexico during the late nineteenth century. In the case of Urrea, the transformation and healing of Church and society was an important aspect of her spiritual, healing powers. Because Urrea possessed neither arms nor the weapon of the pen, her sole weapon became her mystical experiences and the insight and healing powers that flowed from them. People of Mexico—especially indigenous groups—began to flock to her hoping that she would bring God’s presence to the troubled and chaotic circumstances of their lives. Her compassion and tenderness for the afflicted as well as the apocalyptic expectations that she stirred up among the indigenous groups of Northern Mexico were enough to get this mystical-political Mexican mestiza exiled from her homeland.

Joan Riviere and the masquerade

Although she published her paper "Womanliness as a masquerade" in 1929, Joan Riviere wrote it in 1928, the year that women in England got the vote. I want to consider the paper, her first original contribution to psychoanalytic thought, in the social and cultural context of the time, and then I shall focus on elements in it that relate to Joan Riviere's personal experiences and family influences that shaped her understanding of women and their sexuality. As well, I shall look at her views in relation to those of Freud, Klein and Jones. There is evidence that Riviere was speaking of herself in her descriptions of the "patient" in her paper, evidence that can be found in her diary and in the diary of her mother; as well as from interviews that I had with her daughter Diana. In addition there is a letter from Freud to Riviere that gives further evidence that she is writing about herself in this paper. The correspondence between Freud and Jones concerning Riviere and her analysis with Freud in 1922 also throws light on her experiences and on her personality that are similar to those of the "patient" she describes in "Womanliness as a masquerade."

"Against all hushing up and stamping down": the Medico-Psychological Clinic of London and the novelist May Sinclair

May Sinclair (1863-1946) was one of the first modern novelists to appropriate psychoanalytic theories in her works. She was an early reader of the new psychoanalytic techniques but, rather than embracing its theories wholeheartedly and unquestioningly, she synthesized those that appealed to her own psychology of womanhood. Moreover, Sinclair's position was a unique one. As well as a highly acclaimed novelist with a respected public voice, she was closely associated with the setting up of one of the first psychotherapeutic centres in Britain, the Medico-Psychological Clinic of London. In this paper, I argue that the eclectic psychoanalytic situations in which Sinclair places her literary heroines mirror the eclectic and potentially feminist endeavours of the medico-Psychological Clinic. I draw upon archival material, hitherto unexamined by literary critics and medical historians, to reflect upon the turbulent lifespan of the Clinic and the attempts to curtail its controversial practices.

A Confucian defense of gender equity

The oppression of Chinese women is typically blamed on Confucianism. We present a version of Confucianism that relies on the metaphysics of the I Ching, one of the "canonical" Confucian texts, and on more characteristic Confucian doctrines. These metaphysical, anthropological, and ethical beliefs would, if fully implemented, replace the early Confucian hierarchy based partly on gender with a hierarchy based on virtue. This would in turn legitimate the full participation of women in society. Through the "canonical" Confucian texts we reconstruct the philosophical grounds for a Confucian vision of gender equity as grounded in a Confucian view of human nature and human excellence.

An Anglican crisis of comparison: intersections of race, gender, and religious authority, with particular reference to the Church of Nigeria

The 1998 Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion brought into striking relief the two major issues dividing this particular global church: homosexuality and the ordination of women. Debates over these questions tend to split the church into its "conservative" southern dioceses and more "liberal" northern dioceses. With bishops from Africa and Southeast Asia now outnumbering their British and American counterparts, however, this rift had a surprising consequence at "Lambeth '98": church leaders of the northern hemisphere found themselves having to accept the postcolonial South's interpretation of the very Scripture, ecclesiastical traditions, and sexual norms the North had imposed on the South in the first place. This article explores the Anglican Church's internal struggle over women's ordination and homosexuality as a site of internalized and redeployed colonial tactics-as a complex of racial, economic, and historical forces that far exceeds the logic of "reverse colonialism."

PROMOTING WOMEN'S HEALTH-SEEKING BEHAVIOR: RESEARCH AND THE EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN

Despite advances in medical knowledge, commentators agree that the greatest gains in health will come through behavioral change. Women must change their health-seeking behavior; worldwide, health advocates find that even though services may be provided for women, it does not guarantee that women use them. The purpose of this article is to help researchers, as women's advocates, understand why. Specifically, we present a tool that helps identify barriers to, as well as facilitators of, women's health seeking. Unlike conventional approaches that focus on psychological or personal facilitators of health seeking, we use a method that locates the individual within her sociocultural context. Such an approach helps us differentiate women's practical needs for health care from their strategic interest in gender equity; in doing so, we advance a distinctly feminist approach to women's health promotion.

Women's perceptions and practices regarding their rights to reproductive health

ABSTRACT At the outpatient clinic of Ain Shams University Maternity Hospital, perceptions and practices of 1000 women regarding their reproductive health rights (reproductive rights) were evaluated. The majority had positive perceptions about their rights to reproductive health; however, 30% disagreed with prohibitions of discrimination against women, particularly prohibitions of female genital mutilation (FGM). A significant association was found between perceptions of sexual rights and demographic characteristics and between education and practices regarding early detection of cancer. No significant association was found between education and concepts of adolescent health education as a reproductive right. Programmes about women's reproductive rights that emphasize the issue of sexual health through religious education are recommended as one of the best strategies for the eradication of FGM.

The impact of urbanization on family structure: the experience of Sarawak, Malaysia

This paper argues that women and men encounter the processes of migration and urbanization in very gendered ways. It examines state development policies and their role in accelerating the pace of urbanization, Using material from a recently concluded study on single mothers in the lower socio-economic strata, this paper explores the impact of these wider processes on the structure of the family and women from this strata specifically.

Good wives, family protectors: writing Jain laywomen's memorials

While Jain religious models of virtue articulate the renouncer as the focus of virtue, Jains likewise participate in the western Indian discourse of women's virtue, which centers around the dedicated wife (pativratā) and the virtuous woman (satī). The parole of virtue in Jain dedicatory memorials can be seen as explicitly gendered; lay Jains are represented as the great patron or the dedicated wife. For Jain laymen who cannot be represented as great patrons, there is no langue to use to represent them. For Jain laywomen, the discourse of satīs is invoked to frame the woman as virtuous and worthy of celebration-even in those memorials where women participate in the great patron model. These memorials are a place to examine how the telling of women's lives serves as a testing ground for competing ideologies and illustrates the patterns of negotiation between ideologies based on religious identity and gender.

A game of three monkeys: Kadazan Dusun villagers and violence against women

Based on detailed and long-term anthropological research among rural Kadazans, the paper sets out the social history of domestic violence in one Sabah village. In more than 30 per cent of the households, there is a woman who has experienced repeated spousal abuse during her life. Adding those men who abused earlier spouses, and adults who lived through the abuse of their mothers in childhood, it is clear that violence is and has long been part of everyday — yet secret — village experience. For various reasons, researchers appear to have colluded in ignoring the issue. To help those women and their children whose lives are blighted by fear and fearful memories, it would be wise to assume domestic violence is as present in rural as in urban settings.

Widows' rights questioned: Indians, the state, and fluctuating gender ideas in central highland Ecuador, 1870-1900

This essay uses court disputes over indigenous widows’ land rights to examine the impact of an expanding national state on indigenous peasant interpersonal relations in late nineteenth-century Ecuador. In doing so, it offers a response to historian Carmen Ramos Escandón's recent call for historical studies of changing family life in order “to know how this domestic web is related to social processes in a broader sense and how the organization of the family contradicts or reflects society's structures.” Specifically, the confrontations under scrutiny reveal the extent to which indigenous peasants’ notions of marriage and widowhood rights adhered to, diverged from, or were influenced by state views of gender relations. Most court cases from the central highland province of Chimborazo in this period uncover parallels between indigenous and state views of marriage and widowhood; yet the three focal cases here, in which widows’ privileges came under question, highlight differences between indigenous and state understandings of gender relations. In the first case, an Indian woman's father-in-law recognized her right as a widow to inherit a portion of her former mother-in-law's lands; court officials, however, decided to uphold patriarchal legal standards when they granted the land in question to the woman's second husband rather than to her. In two other cases, widows’ claims were undermined not by state authorities themselves, but by Indian men in their own communities. Calling upon patriarchal notions that were at the center of the state's marriage laws, these men wrested control of property from women whose customary claims to it were stronger than theirs. Though cases like these rarely appeared in the court data from Chimborazo, they are illuminating because they promote an exploration of the relevance of ethnically distinct gender ideologies.

Women's religious conversions on death row: theorizing religion and state

Most scholars of religion who approach the phenomena associated with religious conversion in order to theorize religion tend to ignore the legal and political implications of the actual context in which conversion occurs for theorizing religion itself. Meanwhile, political and legal theorists who attend to the implications of executing convicted murderers who undergo religious conversion on death row err in a different direction. They virtually ignore the significance of the claims made by the converts and their associates about the conversion themselves for theorizing the state. Scholars across disciplines increasingly address issues of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation in respect to theorizing religion and theorizing the state independently of one another. At the same time, they do not seize the opportunity to incorporate their analyses into a wider study of the sociocultural production of religion and state in relation to each other. I examine the religious conversion of Karla Faye Tucker and Wanda Jean Allen on death row, as well as the scholarship that their convictions, conversions, and executions have generated across academic disciplines and fields. Close examination illustrates well the necessity for theorizing religion and the state in relation to one another in order to understand either adequately.