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Women now constitute a significant portion of the workforce, making the effects of pregnancy on professional image (others' perceptions of competence and character at work) more salient. While opinions regarding how pregnant women should manage others' impressions and the consequences of doing so abound (Noveck, 2012) research to substantiate or disconfirm these opinions has lagged. In this paper, we present three studies that develop and test a model of social identity-based impression management (SIM) techniques used by pregnant workers. In Study 1 (n = 35), we utilized qualitative methods to identify the motives and strategies used by pregnant women to manage their professional images. In the second study, we collected two samples (n = 199 and n = 133) to develop and validate two scales based on the motives and strategies identified in Study 1. In Study 3 (n = 200), we employed a time-lagged design to examine how SIM motives and strategies affect important workplace outcomes: perceived discrimination, burnout, and returning to one's job after maternity leave. Our findings demonstrate both positive and negative outcomes of the motives and strategies women use to manage their images at work when pregnant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the article was to study the women's perceptions of the aesthetic surgeries in Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA). To do so, a quantitative research using a self-administered survey instrument in 570 18-to-35-year-old women was carried out. The data collected were processed using SPSS 20 program. Among the most relevant conclusions, it has been noticed that half of the women agree on the aesthetic surgeries, an opinion influenced by having or not gone through surgeries. However, most of them believe that the ideal of beauty is based on good nurturance and exercise. A large majority believes that aesthetics and a lack of self-esteem lead women to go through surgeries, but only a small percentage would be operated on for exogenous reasons; such as: their couple's suggestion, working performance improvement, spite, and others. The acceptance seems to be the core, specially for women with no surgeries at all. The outcomes which are different from other studies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bangladesh is a culturally conservative nation with limited freedom for women. A number of studies have evaluated intimate partner violence (IPV) and spousal physical violence in Bangladesh; however, the views of women have been rarely discussed in a quantitative manner. Three nationwide surveys in Bangladesh (2007, 2011, and 2014) were analyzed in this study to characterize the most vulnerable households, where women themselves accepted spousal physical violence as a general norm. 31.3%, 31.9% and 28.7% women in the surveys found justification for physical violence in household in 2007, 2011 and 2014 respectively. The binary logistic model showed wealth index, education of both women and their partner, religion, geographical division, decision making freedom and marital age as significant household contributors for women’s perspective in all the three years. Women in rich households and the highly educated were found to be 40% and 50% less likely to accept domestic physical violence compared to the poorest and illiterate women. Similarly, women who got married before 18 years were 20% more likely accept physical violence in the family as a norm. Apart from these particular groups (richest, highly educated and married after 18 years), other groups had around 30% acceptance rate of household violence. For any successful attempt to reduce spousal physical violence in the traditional patriarchal society of Bangladesh, interventions must target the most vulnerable households and the geographical areas where women experience spousal violence. Although this paper focuses on women’s attitudes, it is important that any intervention scheme should be devised to target both men and women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

British diplomatic wives of the early nineteenth century were under increasing pressure to perform their public duties to higher standards of accountability. This article examines the embassies in Paris led by two women --Elizabeth Stuart and Harriet Granville -- to ascertain how they negotiated the expectations of their post with respect to class and gender norms. Their records illustrate how new standards of state service could be set for women and how women's hospitality work in the service of diplomacy could make it a more consultative political domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Beijing Conference of 1995, the United Nations and many national governments' official discourse on women's rights has internalized mainstreaming gender policies as the core of a global strategy for improving the social situation of women. As a consequence, the gender discourse has become usual, changing the public perception of the inequality problem. But at the same time strong fundamentalist currents have arisen that denounce the 'gender ideology' -in the catholic churchor that support in extremist ways keeping women in their traditional subordinate role -in the case of islam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role played by female British activists campaigning on behalf of the Republican government in the Spanish Civil War. Histories of the response of Britons to events in Spain have focused overwhelmingly on men, and when women’s activities have been explored, little consideration has been given to how gender affected their engagement. This article considers the varying ways British women mobilised their gender identities to participate in the war effort, and how becoming involved influenced the perceptions they held of their own female subjectivities. Through analysing contemporary coverage of the war along with personal testimonies, memoirs and oral interviews, it considers how they justified their participation and how they depicted themselves and their Spanish female counterparts. Drawing upon a range of historical and psychoanalytic methodologies to assess the material, this article demonstrates that the women who took part in the conflict held a complex and sometimes paradoxical view of their gendered subjectivities, yet overall their participation contributed to the sense of a gendered and transnational solidarity that was emerging during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a lack of studies on Hispanic midlife women's physical activity, the existing studies have indicated that Hispanics' ethnic-specific attitudes toward physical activity contributed to their lack of physical activity. However, little is still clearly known about Hispanic midlife women's attitudes toward physical activity. The purpose of this study was to explore Hispanic midlife women's attitudes toward physical activity using a feminist perspective. The study was a 6-month qualitative online forum among 23 Hispanic women who were recruited through Internet communities/groups. The data were collected using 17 online forum topics on attitudes toward physical activity and ethnic-specific contexts. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Three major themes emerged from the data analysis process: (a) 'family first, no time for myself,' (b) 'little exercise, but naturally healthy,' and (c) 'dad died of a heart attack.' Although some of the women perceived the importance of physical activity due to their family history of chronic diseases, the study participants thought that physical activity would be a waste of time in their busy daily schedules. These findings provided directions for future health care practice and research to increase physical activity among Hispanic midlife women. KEYWORDS physical activity, attitudes, midlife, women, online forum DOI: 10.1080/03630242.2010.510387

The authors employ data from the Welfare, Children, and Families project, a probability sample of 2,402 low-income women with children living in low-income neighborhoods in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio, to test whether religious attendance is associated with parental satisfaction, perceived parental demands, and parental distress over 2 years. They also consider three potential mediators of the association between religious attendance and attitudes toward parenting: social support, serf-esteem, and psychological distress. Results show that women who frequently attend religious services report greater parental satisfaction, perceive fewer parental demands, and report less parental distress than do women who attend less frequently. The authors also find that the mediators under study help to partially explain the relationship between religious attendance and attitudes toward parenting. Keywords: parenting attitudes; religion; low income; urban families and communities

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ahj.2006.05.013 Byline: Benjamin J. Ansell (a), Gregg C. Fonarow (a), Kevin C. Maki (b), Mary R. Dicklin (b), Margie Bell (b), Michael H. Davidson (b) Abstract: This survey assessed and compared National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Third Adult Treatment Panel lipid treatment goal achievement for men versus women undergoing treatment of dyslipidemia. Author Affiliation: (a) University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA (b) Radiant Development, Chicago, IL Article History: Received 20 December 2005; Accepted 17 May 2006 Article Note: (footnote) Neptune II was supported by funding from AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.

A two-part study investigated the dimensional structure of stereotypes of women. In one sample (n = 258), participants sorted traits according to the likelihood that they would co-occur in the same woman. In a separate sample (n = 102), participants were given the same traits and were asked to judge the traits' desirability and to judge the moral virtue, sexual liberalism/conservatism, warmth, competence, and power of a woman who possessed high levels of each trait. Results from hierarchical cluster analysis indicated that participants perceived women in terms of six subgroups: professional, feminist, homemaker, female athlete, beauty, and temptress. Large differences among these subgroups were identified based on ratings of their moral virtue and sexual conservatism (i.e., virtue) and competence and power (i.e., agency). The implications of a virtue-agency model of female subgroups for gender stereotyping research are discussed.

Pronatalism embodies the belief that a woman's social value is linked to her production of biological children (C. Morell, 2000). Conceiving and bearing children is literally impossible, however, for some of the 5 million women in the United States who struggle with infertility. Women negotiate their experiences with infertility within a pronatalist society, yet their experiences therein have been given little attention. Thus, the purpose of this research was to explore women's lived experiences with infertility in a pronatalist ideology. Active interviews with 32 participants who had experienced infertility revealed that the women were aware of a pronatalist ideology, which was manifested through insensitive comments or questions and unsolicited advice. The women responded by immersing themselves in their work, leisure activities/experiences, or support groups. The findings illustrate how pronatalist ideology is manifest in social interactions, but they also suggest how it may be resisted. KEY WORDS: feminist epistemology; infertility; pronatalism; resistance.

To our knowledge, previous population-based surveys have not assessed misconceptions about antibacterial drug use over time. We documented a 26.3% decline in a key misconception in California women in 2003 [...]

In 2 studies, the authors investigated impression formation as influenced by category-based stereotypes associated with ethnicity and social class. The participants in Study 1 made judgments about 1 target woman, described as interested in running for office in the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) of her children's school. The hypothetical woman was presented to the respondents along with her photograph and information about her ethnic background (Anglo-Saxon, Latina, or Jewish) and occupation (middle class or working class). In Study 2, the authors changed the context and presented a younger target woman (also varied by ethnicity and social class) to the respondents as the new girlfriend of their older brother or cousin. In both studies, judgments were assessed by the participants' responses to 45 bipolar adjectives that, in each case, yielded 8 component factors. In both hypothetical contexts, social class was a powerful trigger for a variety of negative expectations: With respect to ethnicity, t he Latina women were judged to be more unsuitable for the job of PTO vice president than were the Anglo-Saxon or Jewish women. The authors discussed potential psychological and social consequences of such category-based judgments. Key words: Anglo-Saxon women, ethnicity, Jewish women, Latina women, social class, stereotypes, IT IS WIDELY UNDERSTOOD that, in the absence of personal individuating information, impression formation is influenced by category-based stereotypes (Dovidio & Gaertner, 1993; Fiske, 1993; Hamilton & Sherman, 1996). Whether [...]

Women have become one of the fundamental pillars of the construction and progress of society and civilization where they are able to participate in the public opinion in respect to communal issues. Their personality transcends the history, the more they are given attention and care in the community, the more they become innovative and show their effective role in the construction of human civilization, as well as showing their contributions in cultural and literary movement, resulted from their significant role in drawing the life of community and prosperity of civilization. Here the Saudi women poets embodied with talents and creativity leave a clear mark on the literary scene, their self-expression, their community and humanitarian crisis. This article contains some features of literary creativity of the Saudi women poets, and the extent of their impact on the literary scene. This study is made possible through reading and examining the most important works known as "the feminist poem" produced by educated women. The article discusses the poetry of some contemporary women and the environment that make them distinctive social class that influences the course of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study in which subjects reacted to rape scenarios which included victims of differing genders and sexual orientations is presented. Men tended to blame gay male victims to the greatest extent, while women were sympathetic to all victims. This study brings up issues that should be addressed by victim support services, especially when the victims are men.

This article describes how a workshop in group identity disclosed white males' feelings of being attacked by white women and women of color. Included is a poem describing the roots and resolution of this attitude, loosely based on 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Much media interest surrounded a campaign to raise funds to distribute 30,000 Rape-aXe condoms to women during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The barbed device is worn inside the vagina and attaches to a penis upon penetration. This paper presents an analysis of popular attitudes towards women and rape as identified from comments made upon online news websites and popular blogs in response to this technology. Two over-arching representations emerged; first, that the Rape-aXe would be employed as a weapon for vengeance and deceit, and second, that it was a means of helping women negotiate risk. We argue that such paradoxical representations of women as simultaneously vindictive and vulnerable make problematic the utility of such an anti-rape device. We suggest that the cultural entrenchment of stereotypical and negative attitudes towards women needs to be recognized and counter-acted upon before rape intervention measures, like the Rape-aXe, can have any positive effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Evangelical's views on birth control through contraceptives and abortion. It cites the public opinion that family planning is morally laudable in Christian terms, because it can shape women's health, avoid abortion, and preserve the family well-being. The author clarifies that being pro-life, the Evangelicals aim for consistency in connecting contraception and abortion.

The rise in married women's labor force participation and the liberalization of gender attitudes are two developments shaping families around the globe. In light of the primacy in childrearing which cultures assign to mothers, this paper focuses on changes over time in approval of paid work by mothers with very young children. Cross-national data from the 1988 and 2002 modules of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) permit us to analyze the mechanisms accounting for changes in attitudes toward maternal employment in seven industrialized countries--Austria, Germany (West), Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the U.S. We address four questions: 1) Did approval of maternal employment show similar change in all seven countries? 2) What respondent characteristics were associated with support for working mothers? 3) Did the association for any of these characteristics change over time? 4) To what extent did the demographic changes in population composition (e.g., the growth in a highly educated population segment more favorable to maternal employment) account for changes in attitudes? The analysis confirms widespread increases in approval of maternal employment for both men and women. Most relationships between individual characteristics and attitudes remained unchanged over the course of the study. On the whole, compositional changes in the populations contributed modestly to the liberalization of attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the relationship between medical professionals and working-class women in the city of Lwów in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. According to the author, municipal regulations following an outbreak of syphilis that allowed police doctors to examine any working-class woman suspected of being a prostitute reflected changing attitudes about sexuality and poverty. It is suggested that doctors' efforts to segregate the so-called degenerative parts of the population enhanced their professional authority and reflected growing nationalistic sentiments among Polish-speaking peoples.

The article discusses the connections between violence against women and drug-related violence in Mexico. In both cases, according to the author, Mexican authorities have blamed the victims of violence and have implied that it is positive in that it rids society of supposedly undesirable people such as drug dealers and women with loose morals. The author suggests that in reality, femicide and drug violence are a result of state failures to protect the people and to prevent the occurrence of conditions which create violence. Topics discussed include femicide and drug violence in the city of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuaha, Mexico, anti-violence activism, and postcolonial scholar Achille Mbembe's theory of "necropolitics".

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Recent debates about the Bluestockings have focused on the lives, writings and political opinions of the Bluestockings themselves. This article argues that the significance of the Bluestockings, however, lies in the ways in which they were figured in public representations. It examines the tradition of satires of the Bluestockings, showing how this tradition both continued earlier traditions of satire against the learned lady and invented the comic figure of the literary hostess. The satires' crude attacks on intellectual women ultimately raised the profile of the learned lady, a figure whose incipient feminism bore no necessary relation to the historical Bluestockings themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What explains the dynamic movement in the gender gap in public opinion toward government activism over the past 30 years? The thermostatic model of politics suggests that aggregate public opinion adjusts to liberal changes in public policy by preferring less government and to conservative changes in policy by preferring more government. Given the cross-sectional differences in policy preferences between men and women, we argue that the dynamic movement in the gender gap in policy preferences for more or less government spending is a function of asymmetrical responses by men and women to changes in public policy. We find that both men and women respond to changes in public policy by shifting their policy preferences in the same direction. But men appear more responsive to policy changes than do women. It is this asymmetrical response to changes in public policy that is responsible for the dynamics of the gender gap in policy preferences across time. Our results show that the gap increases when policy moves in a liberal direction, as men move in a conservative direction at a faster rate than women. In contrast, when policy moves to the right, the opinions of both men and women will respond by moving to the left, but the greater responsiveness among men will decrease the gap, bringing male preferences closer to the preferences of women. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study focuses on how the social, political, and cultural changes after the fall of the Berlin Wall have affected the presentation and role of female politicians in Bulgaria, and, in general, in Eastern Europe. Textual analysis of Trud, the highest-circulation daily in Bulgaria, was used to examine how female politicians were portrayed during the 2005 parliamentary elections. The analysis unequivocally indicated that press coverage of female politicians was refracted through the prism of gender stereotypes, which, in turn, exemplified the current trend of the post-communist masculinization of democracy. The findings of this study also supported the gendered mediation thesis, which argues that politics is treated by the media as a male-oriented realm, where female politicians are either treated as novelty or framed within typical stereotypes of femininity. The overall conclusion is that gendered media portrayals of female politicians lead to the creation of a social climate tolerant towards sexism, which might translate in other aspects of life as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses various reports published within the issue, including the article by Mary Queen regarding digital transnational feminist activism and another on the circulation and appropriation of representations of women in public policy by Rebecca Dingo.

This paper is a discursive analysis of men's anti-rape organizations that exclude women, either from physically attending meeting or presentations, or representationally, in that women's perspectives about rape and sexual assault are absent from the material. The discursive framings that result from this exclusion often subvert and preclude helpful anti-rape work. Women's points of view are often excluded from the material or entirely misrepresented leading to the communication of dangerously inaccurate information. Positive anti-rape work is often derailed in the literature as the organizations become entangled in unreflexive rhetorical battles. By examining the discourses, as well as what the discourses exclude, we can understand some of the problems that are foundational to these organizations. The stated purpose of these anti-rape groups is to fundamentally change violence against women in this society and therefore they have the potential to profoundly impact men's and women's lives. Due to this possibility, problems within the literature must be taken extremely seriously, analyzed, and, hopefully, reformed. The exclusion of women creates a variety of problems that demonstrate the necessity for a higher standard of accountability and responsibility for men's anti-rape organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many leaders of women's rights movements of the 19th century were lesbians with a taste for cross-dressing. Susan B. Anthony and other leading figures in the suffrage movement were manly women who were tomboys as children and were uncomfortable with women's clothing as adults. They rejected the traditional role of women, and changed the meaning of womankind.

This research builds upon and updates Montoya's 1996 study of the Latina/o gender gap through the use of the 1999 Harvard Kennedy School/Kaiser Family Foundation/Washington Post Latino Survey. Not only do we find a gender gap across six questions related to the use of force, social compassion, and women's social roles, we also find that the size and significance of the gap varies across Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban origin respondents. Our findings challenge past research that found limited evidence Of a gender gap in public opinion among Latinos and Latinas nationally, and suggest that more research is needed in order to understand how gendered experiences help to frame public opinion within different racial/ethnic groups in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports analyses and findings from a public opinion survey designed to explore beliefs about domestic violence (DV)—what it is, when it is against the law, and how prevalent it is. The project interviewed 1,200 residents from six New York communities. The analyses reveal substantial first hand and secondhand experience with DV and strong consensus that acts of physical aggression should be labeled as DV, but substantially less certainty about the illegality of the abusive behaviors. Overall, the respondents were less inclined to define women's aggressive behavior in pejorative or unlawful terms than men's. Respondents believed that DV was common in their communities, and that it affected a significant minority of couples. Multivariate analyses provide little support for conventional wisdom about the impact of socio-economic background on tolerance for or knowledge about DV, although gender, generation, and secondhand familiarity with DV incidents play a role in opinions and beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses a national survey of Latinos, African Americans, and Anglos (non-Hispanic whites) to test multiple hypotheses for public support of military expenditures, enlistment in the military, and overall evaluations of the military. While polls show that the military is the most respected government institution, it is less clear whether particular sectors of the contemporary public are more or less supportive--especially the growing Latino population. This is important because an ethnic gap in public opinion might lead to future difficulties in securing funding as well as volunteers. The article also examines whether factors such as gender and class are related to military support. The results show that Latinos are more likely than Anglos to encourage young people to enlist, but Latinos are less supportive of military spending. Women are also more likely than men to oppose spending, while the African American and socioeconomic status variables are not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Having to act within a traditional patriarchal society has made women's efforts to influence public policy in Palestine especially hard. Palestinian women have had and still have to act against their discrimination as women in Palestinian society and as Palestinians against Israeli occupation. This dual struggle has clashed sometimes and created tensions between women and other social movements, especially the Islamic movement. The lack of attention to women's problems in the regular Palestinian media mirrors women's limited influence on decision making in Palestinian politics. This reality has made the interaction between feminist media discourses very marginal. In this article, feminist media discourse and the predicament of politics in Palestine is examined.