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Women participation in computer science and related areas in Brazil is fewer than men, considering quantitative researches on both labor market and academic space. Brazilian Society of Computing supports an initiative to discuss the disparities in this issue in Brazil: Women in Information Technology - WIT. We analyze 81 short papers published on 10th, 11th, and 12tth editions of the event to highlight information on interests, practices, and origins of these papers. We base our analysis on Science, Technology, and Society (STS) and Feminist studies and we point out to plural and inclusive computing that open participation of all people in all spheres of society considering the social, cultural and historical aspects of society in the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2005 is a banner year for global partnerships and transnational feminist dialogues. It is the ten-year anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and also the fifth anniversary of the United Nations’ ongoing Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), regarded by international leaders as a unifying framework which sustains the Beijing and other social agendas. The MDGs, what the UN calls a “measure of political will,” may be perceived as a switch from traditionally patriarchal or Orientalist approaches which construct culturally victimized “other” women requiring “help” as opposed to people being actively engaged in decision-making. Instead, MDG principles require participatory dialogue among countries so that results address needs. Using feminist framings, this study examines news agency reporting of more than 2,000 reports that specifically mention "Millennium Development Goals" from five international news agencies. Two are western agencies -- the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse. Two are based in developing regions -- the PanAfrican News Agency and China's Xinhua agency. The fifth is Inter Press Service, an independent NGO that specializes in news relevant to developing regions. The reports cover a 19-month period from the World Social Forum in January, 2004, to the end of the UN Summit in September, 2005. The analysis includes news geography, topics, and actors; for instance, we determined the amount of attention to feminist issues accorded by each agency. While this study explores links between women, social issues, and the media, it also directs attention to new identities and agendas emerging from MDG coverage. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerns about definitional processes and the power of language figure prominently in ontological and epistemological debates over method in feminist and queer studies. Yet, there remains seemingly little, generalized reflection about ethical dimensions or implications for praxis. If rhetoric and discourse define and constitute our realities, as post-structuralism proposes, then one must wonder whether and how to "do things with words" in strategic service to and/or without unintentionally confounding the goals of social and political equality to which we strive.To begin addressing this concern, I analyze the rhetorical strategies of two, national organizations, each of which consistently and expressly addresses itself to the concerns of gay and lesbian Christians of African descent. Although they serve a similar constituency, Operation: Rebirth and Unity Fellowship Church offer alternative visions of community membership. Whereas the rhetorical strategies in the former case display the dangers of an inherent essentialism within (neo)liberal, identity politics, the strategies observed in the latter case recommend a strong promise for an inclusive definition of community that properly understands a subject within the complex of relations that constitute her identity and influence her material and psychic existence. Progressive political organizations would do well to model their discourse on the Unity Fellowship example. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper "Female Action Heroes: Different but Equal or Equal and the Same," I consider the relatively recent ascension of women to the cinematic ranks of tough defending (mythic) characters. While presenting woman as shapely and tough could serve to challenge stereotypes of female meekness and vulnerability, we should not delude ourselves into thinking that this represents a post-feminist impulse. In many ways, the action genre is a hegemonic project of self-validation, providing a set of prescriptions for action, presumed to be correct, that both men and women are free to adapt. It seems that what these films (and games) are tapping into is part of a wider phenomenon, where women are granted equality with men, but only if both sexes can act in certain preferred ways. There is to some extent, then, a panacea for effective change or meaningful inclusion here, a limitation in the alternatives the 'feminine' (or maternal) could take: A type of cultural assimilation that reduces some functional differences, while maintaining essentialized forms of others, particularly in body appearances and adapted styles of living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examine the cultural elements that make the video series "Girls Gone Wild" such an appealing venture for both the viewers that make the series popular, and for the young women who seek out the cameras. It was said that although Joe Francis, maker of the video series, seems to be continually in legal trouble for allegedly engaging deceptive business practices, it seems likely that with brand expansion, the video will continue to go further into the mainstream.

This article discusses a study about how advertisements in global magazines for women in China use racial stereotypes. Content analysis was used in this study to compare the visual content of advertisements that appeared in the mainland Chinese versions of these global magazines for women. The findings from this study suggest that when advertisers in global magazines for women want to use sex as the advertising strategy to attract the viewer or when they want to call attention to the body of a woman, they use Caucasian models. In global magazines in China, western women are being depicted in global media in sexier poses than Chinese models.