Lower Benefits to the Refugees in Denmark: Missing Recognition?

This article is a study of the contrast between the Danish law concerning reduced economic benefits for newly arrived refugees and immigrants (known as Start Help or as introductory benefit) and the idea of recognition as the condition for individual self-realization and justice. Our assumption is that Start Help both implies economic discrimination against newly arrived persons in Denmark (especially refugees and their families under family reunification rules) and symbolizes a lack of recognition. We have chosen to adopt the theories of recognition (and redistribution) propounded by Axel Honneth and Nancy Fraser to explore our queries about Start Help and the discriminatory impact on its recipients. Empirically the article is based on in-depth qualitative interviews with six refugees who all receive Start Help.

Deprivation, Violence, and Conflict: An Analysis of “Naxalite” Activity in the Districts of India

This paper asks: is it a fact that there is more violence in districts affected by Naxalite (Maoist) activity compared to those which are free of Naxalite activity? And can the existence of Naxalite activity in some districts of India, but not in others, be explained by differences in economic and social conditions? This study identifies districts in India in which there was significant Naxalite activity and correlating the findings with district-level economic, social, and crime indicators. The econometric results show that, after controlling for other variables, Naxalite activity in a district had, if anything, a dampening effect on its level of violent crime and crimes against women. Furthermore, even after controlling for other variables, the probability of a district being Naxalite-affected rose with an increase in its poverty rate and fell with a rise in its literacy rate. So, one prong in an anti-Naxalite strategy would be to address the twin issues of poverty and illiteracy in India.

Domestic Violence

Since the 1960s, there has been growing awareness regarding the issue of domestic violence as a form of violence against women, which has been largely influenced by the work of feminist activist and scholars in North America and Europe (Dobash and Dobash 1992). Other terms have been used to describe the same phenomenon, including domestic abuse, spousal abuse, wife battering, marital violence, intimate partner violence. Though there is no doubt that this problem has existed for much more than five decades, the tendency to label it as ‘private matters’ or ‘marital disagreements’ has obscured the reality of women living with abuse in their home. At a general level, domestic violence can be defined as the means used by a man in order to assert his control and domination over his intimate partner, whether they are married or not (Mullender 1996). It can involve incidents of physical and sexual violence, as well as verbal, psychological and financial abuse. Though some of its manifestations may be associated with particular cultural or religious groups – e.g. forced marriage and honour killing in South-Asian communities – domestic violence affects women from all classes and backgrounds.

The Think Manager-Think Male Stereotype - Malleable or Stable?

Purpose Stereotypes about leadership still represent a potent barrier to women’s advancement to leadership roles. Successful leaders are perceived to possess predominately agentic traits (e.g., assertive, dominant) that are more similar to those ascribed to men than women. This perceived incongruity of people’s beliefs about leaders and women underlies prejudice against women leaders (Eagly & Karau, 2002). Thus, an important question is whether such stereotypical beliefs about the traits of leaders, men, and women incorporate change or stability over time. Design/Methodology To examine this question, 235 Irish business students (113 men, 122 women) rated a target group’s characteristics (men, women, middle managers) as of a specific time (50 years ago, present, 50 years into the future) on gender‐stereotypical traits. Results Following Schein’s (1973) approach, intraclass correlation coefficients estimated the extent to which the stereotype of managers was similar to that of men or women. The results showed a large, significant correlation between the stereotypes about men and managers within each time condition and overall. In contrast, the women‐manager correlation was negative and nonsignificant overall. However, this negative correlation weakened from the past to the present and became positive and marginally significant for the future. Research/Practical Implications Altogether the results suggest that people perceive stereotypes about leaders to be more similar to men than to women. These perceptions may continue to function as impediments to women leaders’ advancement despite the trend over time toward femalemanager similarity. Originality/Value To our knowledge this is the first study to systematically test perceptions of change in the think manager‐think male stereotype overtime.

Wie fremdenfeindlich ist die Schweiz? Fünf Feldexperimente über prosoziales Verhalten und die Diskriminierung von Ausländern

Umfragen über Vorurteile führen oft zu verzerrten Ergebnissen, da die Befragten häufig „sozial erwünschte“ Antworten geben. In unserer Studie über Vorurteile und Diskriminierung haben wir dagegen vier Feldexperimente in der Stadt Zürich durchgeführt, in denen jeweils von Angehörigen verschiedener Nationalitäten oder religiöser Gruppen eine Hilfeleistung erbeten wurde. Beispielsweise wurden Passanten von einer Person mit Kopftuch um eine Hilfeleistung gebeten; in der Kontrollbedingung dagegen ohne Kopftuch. In einem anderen Experiment wurden Personen in Hochdeutsch angesprochen und in der Kontrollsituation im Schweizer Dialekt. Ein fünftes Experiment bezog sich auf die Reaktionen von Arbeitgebern auf Initiativbewerbungen. Es zeigte sich, dass im Alltagsverhalten keine signifikanten Unterschiede im Ausmaß der Hilfeleistung zwischen den Gruppen nachweisbar waren. Alle vier Experimente zu kleinen Hilfen im Alltag ergaben weder bezüglich Deutschen noch muslimischen Minderheiten Hinweise auf diskriminierendes Verhalten. Deutliche Hinweise gibt es dagegen für die Diskriminierung bestimmter ethnischer Gruppen auf dem Arbeitsmarkt, auch wenn Bewerber die gleiche Qualifikation wie Schweizer und die Schweizer Staatsbürgerschaft besitzen.

Troublesome Issues: Current Debates on Tensions between Gender Equality and Cultural Diversity in Austria

This paper will first deal with the legal and social situation of Islam and Muslims in Austria and then turn to particular “troublesome issues” at the intersection of gender equality and ethnic/religious diversity. The public debate on Muslims particularly focuses on the notion “not willing to integrate” and in the assumption of “parallel societies”. Hierarchical gender relations and “harmful traditions” such as veiling, female genital cutting, forced marriage and honour based violence recently became the centre of attention. We will show that the Austrian debate on these issues is shaped by the idea of “dangerous cultural difference” as something coming from outside and being concentrated in segregated Muslim enclaves. Despite the public authorities’ rejection of the idea that Islam was responsible for “harmful traditions”, legal as well as political measures in Austria not only combat violence against women but also fuel “cultural anxieties” between different ethnic and religious groups.

Peripheral responses to attended and unattended angry prosody: a dichotic listening paradigm.

We investigated the effects of angry prosody, varying focus of attention, and laterality of presentation of angry prosody on peripheral nervous system activity. Participants paid attention to either their left or their right ear while performing a sex discrimination task on dichotically presented pseudo-words. These pseudo-words were characterized by either angry or neutral prosody and presented stereophonically (anger/neutral, neutral/anger, or neutral/neutral, for the left/right ear, respectively). Reaction times and physiological responses (heart period, skin conductance, finger and forehead temperature) in this study were differentially sensitive to the effects of anger versus neutral prosody, varying focus of attention, and laterality of presentation of angry prosody.

Mortgage Lending in Chicago and Los Angeles: A Paired Testing Study of the Pre-Application Process

This paper analyzes data from a recently completed study of discrimination against African-American and Hispanic homebuyers when they visit mortgage lending institutions in two major metropolitan markets to make pre-application inquiries. It represents the first application of paired testing to rigorously measure discrimination in the mortgage lending process. The paired tests isolated significant levels of differential treatment on the basis of race and ethnicity in Chicago with African Americans and Hispanics receiving less information and assistance than comparable whites. Adverse treatment of African-Americans and Hispanics is also observed in Los Angeles for specific treatments, but the overall pattern of treatment observed did not differ statistically from equal treatment. Multivariate analyses for Chicago indicate that large lenders treat minorities more favorably than small lenders and that lenders with substantial numbers of applications from African-Americans treat African Americans more favorably than lenders with predominantly white application pools.

Policy analysis of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and federal funding concerning barrier-free playgrounds

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 was created to prohibit discrimination against disabled persons in our society. The goal of the ADA as a comprehensive civil rights law is to "ensure equal opportunity and complete participation, independent living and economic self-sufficiency" for disabled persons (U.S. Department of Justice, 2008). As part of Title II and III of the ADA, states and local governments are required to provide people with disabilities the same chance to engage in and benefit from all programs and services including recreational facilities and activities as every other citizen. Recreational facilities and related structures must comply with accessibility standards when creating new structures or renovating existing ones. Through a systematic literature review of articles accessed through online databases, articles relating to children with disabilities, their quality of life and their experience gained through play were reviewed, analyzed and synthesized. Additionally, the ADA's Final Rule regarding accessible playgrounds was evaluated through a descriptive analysis which yielded the following five components relating the importance of barrier-free playgrounds to children with disabilities: appropriate dimensions for children, integration of the play area, variety of activity and stimulation, availability of accessible play structures to communities, and financial feasibility. These components were used as evaluation criteria to investigate the degree to which the ADA's Final Rule document met these criteria. An evaluation of two federal funding sources, the Urban Parks and Recreation Renewal Program (UPARR) and the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), was also conducted which revealed three components relating the two programs' ability to support the realization of the ADA's Final Rule which included: current budget for the program, ability of local communities to attain funds, and level of ADA compliance required to receive funding. Majority of the evaluation of the Final Rule concluded it be adequate in development of barrier-free playgrounds although there are some portions of the guidelines that would benefit from further elucidation. Both funding programs were concluded to not adequately support the development of barrier-free playgrounds and therefore it was recommended that their funding be re-instated or increased as necessary. ^

A global perspective on intimate partner violence during pregnancy: An analysis of twelve developing countries

Violence against women has been recognized as a significant worldwide human rights issue and public health problem. Women of reproductive age may be particularly at risk, and pregnancy may trigger or escalate violence. Using data available from Demographic and Health Surveys on 271,103 women of reproductive age (15-49) from Bolivia, Cameroon, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Haiti, India, Kenya, Nicaragua, Peru, South Africa, and Zambia, this study examined the nature of domestic violence during pregnancy in developing countries, including prevalence, demographic and risk factors, maternal and child health outcomes, perpetrators of violence, help-seeking behavior, and social support. In the majority of countries analyzed, violence during pregnancy consistently occurred at approximately one-third the rate at which domestic violence occurred overall. Younger women and women with more children were particularly at risk. Abuse during pregnancy was significantly associated with history of a terminated pregnancy and under-5 child mortality in most countries, and with neonatal and post-neonatal mortality in most Latin American countries. Women who were abused during pregnancy were most often abused by their current or former husband or boyfriend and most never attempted to seek help. In most countries that examined social support, women abused during pregnancy had significantly less contact with family and friends. Implications for practice and research are discussed. ^

El organismo provincial de políticas de género en Mendoza : los condicionantes institucionales, simbólicos y políticos de su trayectoria (1988 a 2004)

Como consecuencia de la III Conferencia Internacional de la Mujer (Nairobi, 1985) los Estados asistentes se comprometieron a crear espacios institucionales encargados de implementar políticas públicas tendientes a la eliminación de la discriminación contra las Mujeres. Mendoza no fue una excepción. En este artículo se realiza un recorrido histórico analizando los avatares del principal organismo provincial encargado de formular e implementar políticas públicas para hacia mujeres, y evidenciar cómo los diferentes condicionantes institucionales, simbólicos y políticos han ido poniendo obstáculos y límites a su desarrollo, dificultando su institucionalización, legitimación y continuidad a través del tiempo.

Al borde de la muerte: violencia contra las mujeres y prohibición del aborto en El Salvador

Cada año, la prohibición total del aborto y su penalización niegan a miles de mujeres y niñas de El Salvador sus derechos y decisiones. Las mujeres y niñas que tienen un embarazo no deseado se enfrentan a dos opciones: cometer un delito abortando o seguir adelante con el embarazo no deseado.

La 'Locura Amorosa' en Hipólito de Eurípides : análisis filosófico de la moría femenina

En el verso 616 de Hipólito, el personaje estalla en una diatriba en contra de las mujeres. La acusación, en este marco, es muy concreta: solamente la mujer de poco entendimiento es capaz de escapar a los efectos de la moría. De manera indirecta, Hipólito está calificando a Fedra. Más adelante, en el verso 966, es Teseo quien afirma que esta moría es ajena a los hombres, pero afecta a las mujeres. Nuevamente, debemos pensar que está refiriéndose de manera indirecta a Fedra. ¿Pero en qué consiste esta realidad aludida por el término? ¿ Se trata de la 'locura amorosa', como parecen preferir los traductores? Un análisis de la historia del término, y del modo en que funciona dentro del contexto de la tragedia, nos permitirá una clave para comprender el modo en que se presenta sobre el escenario ático la situación de la mujer enamorada

La 'Locura Amorosa' en Hipólito de Eurípides : análisis filosófico de la moría femenina

En el verso 616 de Hipólito, el personaje estalla en una diatriba en contra de las mujeres. La acusación, en este marco, es muy concreta: solamente la mujer de poco entendimiento es capaz de escapar a los efectos de la moría. De manera indirecta, Hipólito está calificando a Fedra. Más adelante, en el verso 966, es Teseo quien afirma que esta moría es ajena a los hombres, pero afecta a las mujeres. Nuevamente, debemos pensar que está refiriéndose de manera indirecta a Fedra. ¿Pero en qué consiste esta realidad aludida por el término? ¿ Se trata de la 'locura amorosa', como parecen preferir los traductores? Un análisis de la historia del término, y del modo en que funciona dentro del contexto de la tragedia, nos permitirá una clave para comprender el modo en que se presenta sobre el escenario ático la situación de la mujer enamorada

La 'Locura Amorosa' en Hipólito de Eurípides : análisis filosófico de la moría femenina

En el verso 616 de Hipólito, el personaje estalla en una diatriba en contra de las mujeres. La acusación, en este marco, es muy concreta: solamente la mujer de poco entendimiento es capaz de escapar a los efectos de la moría. De manera indirecta, Hipólito está calificando a Fedra. Más adelante, en el verso 966, es Teseo quien afirma que esta moría es ajena a los hombres, pero afecta a las mujeres. Nuevamente, debemos pensar que está refiriéndose de manera indirecta a Fedra. ¿Pero en qué consiste esta realidad aludida por el término? ¿ Se trata de la 'locura amorosa', como parecen preferir los traductores? Un análisis de la historia del término, y del modo en que funciona dentro del contexto de la tragedia, nos permitirá una clave para comprender el modo en que se presenta sobre el escenario ático la situación de la mujer enamorada