Fighting like a girl … or a boy? An analysis of videos of violence between young girls posted on online fight websites

How young women engage in physical violence with other young women is an issue that raises specific concerns in both criminological literature and theories. Current theoretical explanations construct young women’s violence in one of two ways: young women are not physically violent at all, and adhere to an accepted performance of hegemonic femininity; or young women reject accepted performances of hegemonic femininity in favour of a masculine gendered performance to engage in violence successfully. This article draws on qualitative and quantitative data obtained from a structured observation and thematic analysis of 60 online videos featuring young women’s violent altercations. It argues that, contrary to this dichotomous construction, there appears to be a third way young women are performing violence, underpinned by masculine characteristics of aggression but upholding a hegemonic feminine gender performance. In making this argument, this article demonstrates that a more complex exploration and conceptualisation of young women’s violence, away from gendered constructs, is required for greater understanding of the issue.

Traversing the space between threats and violence: A review of threat assessment guidelines

While the majority of violent threats – defined as an expression of intent to do harm or act out violently against someone or something – do not progress to actual violence, a small proportion of threateners do go on to enact violence. Most researchers argue that violence risk assessments are inadequate for assessing threats of violence, which raises the question: how should a threat assessment (TA) be conducted? To begin to understand available frameworks for assessing threats, a systematic review of TA research literature was conducted. Most TA literature pertains to a specific domain (schools, public figure threats, workplaces) and target audience (clinicians, school personnel, law enforcement). TA guidelines are typically based on literature reviews with some based on empirical measures and others having no strong evidential basis. The most common concepts in TA are exploration of the threatener's mental health, the motivation for the threat and the presence of any plans. Rather than advocating for the development of a protocol for conducting TA, this article outlines the common areas of inquiry in assessing threats and highlights the limitations of current TA guidelines.

Long-term effects of physical activity level on changes in healthy body mass index over 12 years in young adult women

Objectives To examine the effects of overall level and timing of physical activity (PA) on changes from a healthy body mass index (BMI) category over 12 years in young adult women. Patients and Methods Participants in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (younger cohort, born 1973-1978) completed surveys between 2000 (age 22-27 years) and 2012 (age 34-39 years). Physical activity was measured in 2000, 2003, 2006, and 2009 and was categorized as very low, low, active, or very active at each survey, and a cumulative PA score for this 9-year period was created. Logistic regression was used to examine relationships between PA accumulated across all surveys (cumulative PA model) and PA at each survey (critical periods PA model), with change in BMI category (from healthy to overweight or healthy to obese) from 2000 to 2012. Results In women with a healthy BMI in 2000, there were clear dose-response relationships between accumulated PA and transition to overweight (P=.03) and obesity (P<.01) between 2000 and 2012. The critical periods analysis indicated that very active levels of PA at the 2006 survey (when the women were 28-33 years old) and active or very active PA at the 2009 survey (age 31-36 years) were most protective against transitioning to overweight and obesity. Conclusion These findings confirm that maintenance of very high PA levels throughout young adulthood will significantly reduce the risk of becoming overweight or obese. There seems to be a critical period for maintaining high levels of activity at the life stage when many women face competing demands of caring for infants and young children.

Efficacy of family mediation and the role of family violence: Study protocol

Background Family law reforms in Australia require separated parents in dispute to attempt mandatory family dispute resolution (FDR) in community-based family services before court attendance. However, there are concerns about such services when clients present with a history of high conflict and family violence. This study protocol describes a longitudinal study of couples presenting for family mediation services. The study aims to describe the profile of family mediation clients, including type of family violence, and determine the impact of violence profiles on FDR processes and outcomes, such as the type and durability of shared parenting arrangements and clients’ satisfaction with mediated agreements. Methods A mixed method, naturalistic longitudinal design is used. The sampling frame is clients presenting at nine family mediation centres across metropolitan, outer suburban, and regional/rural sites in Victoria, Australia. Data are collected at pre-test, completion of mediation, and six months later. Self-administered surveys are administered at the three time points, and a telephone interview at the final post-test. The key study variable is family violence. Key outcome measures are changes in the type and level of acrimony and violent behaviours, the relationship between violence and mediated agreements, the durability of agreements over six months, and client satisfaction with mediation. Discussion Family violence is a major risk to the physical and mental health of women and children. This study will inform debates about the role of family violence and how to manage it in the family mediation context. It will also inform decision-making about mediation practices by better understanding how mediation impacts on parenting agreements, and the implications for children, especially in the context of family violence.

A Safe Vaccine (DV-STM-07) against Salmonella Infection Prevents Abortion and Confers Protective Immunity to the Pregnant and New Born Mice

Pregnancy is a transient immuno-compromised condition which has evolved to avoid the immune rejection of the fetus by the maternal immune system. The altered immune response of the pregnant female leads to increased susceptibility to invading pathogens, resulting in abortion and congenital defects of the fetus and a subnormal response to vaccination. Active vaccination during pregnancy may lead to abortion induced by heightened cell mediated immune response. In this study, we have administered the highly attenuated vaccine strain delta pmrG-HM-D (DV-STM-07) in female mice before the onset of pregnancy and followed the immune reaction against challenge with virulent S. Typhimurium in pregnant mice. Here we demonstrate that DV-STM-07 vaccine gives protection against Salmonella in pregnant mice and also prevents Salmonella induced abortion. This protection is conferred by directing the immune response towards Th2 activation and Th1 suppression. The low Th1 response prevents abortion. The use of live attenuated vaccine just before pregnancy carries the risk of transmission to the fetus. We have shown that this vaccine is safe as the vaccine strain is quickly eliminated from the mother and is not transmitted to the fetus. This vaccine also confers immunity to the new born mice of vaccinated mothers. Since there is no evidence of the vaccine candidate reaching the new born mice, we hypothesize that it may be due to trans-colostral transfer of protective anti-Salmonella antibodies. These results suggest that our vaccine DV-STM-07 can be very useful in preventing abortion in the pregnant individuals and confer immunity to the new born. Since there are no such vaccine candidates which can be given to the new born and to the pregnant women, this vaccine holds a very bright future to combat Salmonella induced pregnancy loss.

Leadership through the Gender Lens: Women and Men in Organisations

Leadership and management remain highly gendered. Recent decades have seen a major international growth of studies on gender relations in leadership, organisations and management, in both empirical research and theoretical analysis. The differential relations of women and men to leadership and management are a key question for both theory and practice. Recent research and discussion on the gendering of leadership have been influenced by and have addressed: feminism; recognition of women and women’s situations, experiences and voices in leadership; organisational culture; communication; divisions of labour, hierarchy, power and authority; imagery and symbolism; information technology; sexuality, harassment, bullying and violence in organisations; home-work relations; men and masculinities in leadership; globalisation, transnationalism, intersectionality and post¬¬colonialism – amongst other issues. Having said that, the vast majority of mainstream work on leadership retains little or no gender analysis. In most business schools and other universities the position of gender-explicit work on leadership is still not well established. Leadership through the Gender Lens brings together critical analyses and debates on gender, leadership and management with contributions from 13 countries and five continents. How leadership and management are gendered can mean more gender equal or more gender unequal conditions for women and men. This includes how education and training can contribute to gendered leadership and management. The volume is organised in three main sections, on: careers and leadership; management, hierarchy and leadership: and interventions in leadership.

From ‘Afflicted’ to Activists: Structural Violence and Climate Change Discourse in the States of Pernambuco and Paraíba in Northeast Brazil

This study approaches the problem of poverty in the hinterlands of Northeast Brazil through the concept of structural violence, linking the environmental threats posed by climate change, especially those related to droughts, to the broader social struggles in the region. When discussions about potentials and rights are incorporated into the problematic of poverty, a deeper insight is obtained regarding the various factors behind the phenomenon. It is generally believed that climate change is affecting the already marginalized and poor more than those of higher social standing, and will increasingly do so in the future. The data for this study was collected during a three month field work in the states of Pernambuco and Paraíba in Northeast Brazil. The main methods used were semi-structured interviews and participant observation, including attending seminars concerning climate change on the field. The focus of the work is to compare both layman and expert perceptions on what climate change is about, and question the assumptions about its effects in the future, mainly that of increased numbers of ‘climate refugees’ or people forced to migrate due to changes in climate. The focus on droughts, as opposed to other manifestations of climate change, arises from the fact that droughts are not only phenomena that develop over a longer time span than floods or hurricanes, but is also due to the historical persistence of droughts in the region, and both the institutional and cultural linkages that have evolved around it. The instances of structural violence that are highlighted in this study; the drought industry, land use, and the social and power relations present in the region, including those between the civil society, the state and the private agribusiness sector, all work against a backdrop of symbolic and moral realms of value production, where relations between the different actors are being negotiated anew with the rise of the climate change discourse. The main theoretical framework of the study consists of Johan Galtung’s and Paul Farmer’s theory of structural violence, Ulrich Beck’s theory of the risk society, and James Scott’s theory of everyday peasant resistance.

Silenced women in Joan Rileys fiction

Esta dissertação busca analisar como Joan Riley, escritora jamaicana que vive na Inglaterra, expõe e denuncia em suas obras a submissão feminina diante da opressão e violência sexual sofridas por mulheres negras. Objetivamos apontar a crítica ao papel dos discursos patriarcal e pós-colonial, práticas de poder que tornam o contexto social das mulheres representadas em seus romances propício para o exercício do jugo masculino, através da exploração do silêncio de mulheres vítimas de abusos sexuais. O necessário recorte do objeto restringiu a análise às duas personagens centrais dos romances The Unbelonging (1985) e A Kindness to the Children (1992), mulheres cujas subjetividades foram anuladas pela objetificação de seus corpos e a desumanização de suas identidades

Las Mujeres en Colombia por la paz

Tesina de Master para el Magíster en Género y Desarrollo, Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. 94 p.

Involvement of rural women in aquaculture: an innovative approach

Although women have proved to be competent in adopting new aquaculture technologies, their role is very much restricted and often ignored. One of the major reasons is the location of aquaculture sites and several sociocultural taboos against women who strive to earn for their family’s subsistence in rural areas. There is a gender bias in many aquaculture activities. To ensure that women utilize their full potential in profitable activities like aquaculture, it is necessary to provide capacity building support to rural women, which will eventually lead to their empowerment. In countries like India, the technology provided to women must take into account cultural aspects. One such project - backyard ornamental fish breeding and management - has been found to offer immense scope for improving the livelihood of rural women. This paper gives some practical tips for dissemination of technology in the rural sector, particularly to rural women.

Hamas in Politics: Democracy, Religion, Violence

Gunning, Jeroen, Hamas in Politics: Democracy, Religion, Violence (London: Hurst Publishers Ltd, 2007), pp.xiv+310 RAE2008

Organizing women as women: Hybridity and grassroots collective action in the 21st century

The Million Mom March (favoring gun control) and Code Pink: Women for Peace (focusing on foreign policy, especially the war in Iraq) are organizations that have mobilized women as women in an era when other women's groups struggled to maintain critical mass and turned away from non-gender-specific public issues. This article addresses how these organizations fostered collective consciousness among women, a large and diverse group, while confronting the echoes of backlash against previous mobilization efforts by women. We argue that the March and Code Pink achieved mobilization success by creating hybrid organizations that blended elements of three major collective action frames: maternalism, egalitarianism, and feminine expression. These innovative organizations invented hybrid forms that cut across movements, constituencies, and political institutions. Using surveys, interviews, and content analysis of organizational documents, this article explains how the March and Code Pink met the contemporary challenges facing women's collective action in similar yet distinct ways. It highlights the role of feminine expression and concerns about the intersectional marginalization of women in resolving the historic tensions between maternalism and egalitarianism. It demonstrates hybridity as a useful analytical lens to understand gendered organizing and other forms of grassroots collective action. © 2010 American Political Science Association.

Safety and Pharmacokinetics of Dapivirine Delivery From Matrix and Reservoir Intravaginal Rings to HIV-Negative Women

Vaginal microbicides for the prevention of HIV transmission may be an important option for protecting women from infection. Incorporation of dapivirine, a lead candidate nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, into intravaginal rings (IVRs) for sustained mucosal delivery may increase microbicide product adherence and efficacy compared with conventional vaginal formulations. Twentyfour
healthy HIV-negative women 18–35 years of age were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to dapivirine matrix IVR, dapivirine reservoir IVR, or placebo IVR. Dapivirine concentrations were measured in plasma
and vaginal fluid samples collected at sequential time points over the 33-day study period (28 days of IVR use, 5 days of follow-up). Safety was assessed by pelvic/colposcopic examinations, clinical laboratory tests, and adverse events. Both IVR types were safe and well tolerated with similar adverse events observed in the placebo and dapivirine groups. Dapivirine from both IVR types was successfully distributed throughout the lower genital tract at concentrations over 4 logs greater than the EC50 against wild-type HIV-1 (LAI) in MT4 cells. Maximum concentration (Cmax) and area under the concentration–time curve (AUC) values were significantly higher with the matrix than reservoir IVR. Mean plasma concentrations of dapivirine were ,2 ng/mL. These findings suggest that IVR delivery of microbicides is a viable option meriting further study.

Agricultura urbana, condición para el desarrollo sostenible y la mejora del paisaje

Este artículo resulta de investigaciones en torno al “enverdecimiento” de las ciudades y las oportunidades de la agricultura urbana para la alimentación de una población en constante aumento que no trabaja la tierra. También es fruto de actividades de mejora de ambientes urbanos realizadas con la Escuela de Ingenieros Agrónomos de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. A través de casos de agricultura urbana, entendiendo por ella el conjunto de prácticas para la producción de alimentos y plantas ornamentales dentro de las ciudades y en sus entornos, se analizan alternativas para la recuperación de espacios construidos e incremento de la calidad de vida de la población. Todo ello se traduce, además, en creación de riqueza y mejora del paisaje urbano, siempre desde criterios de sostenibilidad que favorecen el desarrollo local desde la Cumbre de la Tierra de Río de 1992 y la Conferencia sobre Desarrollo Sostenible Río+20 de 2013.

Habitat for Humanity: Calibrating Best Practice Against the MDGs

Poverty alleviation lies at the heart of contemporary international initiatives on development. The key to development is the creation of an environment in which people can develop their potential, leading productive, creative lives in accordance with their needs, interests and faith. This entails, on the one hand, protecting the vulnerable from things that threaten their survival, such as inadequate nutrition, disease, conflict, natural disasters and the impact of climate change, thereby enhancing the poor’s capabilities to develop resilience in difficult conditions. On the other hand, it also requires a means of empowering the poor to act on their own behalf, as individuals and communities, to secure access to resources and the basic necessities of life such as water, food, shelter, sanitation, health and education. ‘Development’, from this perspective, seeks to address the sources of human insecurity, working towards ‘freedom from want, freedom from fear’ in ways that empower the vulnerable as agents of development (not passive recipients of benefaction).

Recognition of the magnitude of the problems confronted by the poor and failure of past interventions to tackle basic issues of human security led the United Nations (UN) in September 2000 to set out a range of ambitious, but clearly defined, development goals to be achieved by 2015. These are known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The intention of the UN was to mobilise multilateral international organisations, non-governmental organisations and the wider international community to focus attention on fulfilling earlier promises to combat global poverty. This international framework for development prioritises: the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and empowering women; reducing child mortality; improving maternal health; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing a global partnership for development. These goals have been mapped onto specific targets (18 in total) against which outcomes of associated development initiatives can be measured and the international community held to account. If the world achieves the MDGs, more than 500 million people will be lifted out of poverty. However, the challenges the goals represent are formidable. Interim reports on the initiative indicate a need to scale-up efforts and accelerate progress.
Only MDG 7, Target 11 explicitly identifies shelter as a priority, identifying the need to secure ‘by 2020 a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers’. This raises a question over how Habitat for Humanity’s commitment to tackling poverty housing fits within this broader international framework designed to allievate global poverty. From an analysis of HFH case studies, this report argues that the processes by which Habitat for Humanity tackles poverty housing directly engages with the agenda set by the MDGs. This should not be regarded as a beneficial by-product of the delivery of decent, affordable shelter, but rather understood in terms of the ways in which Habitat for Humanity has translated its mission and values into a participatory model that empowers individuals and communities to address the interdependencies between inadequate shelter and other sources of human insecurity. What housing can deliver is as important as what housing itself is.

Examples of the ways in which Habitat for Humanity projects engage with the MDG framework include the incorporation of sustainable livelihoods strategies, up-grading of basic infrastructure and promotion of models of good governance. This includes housing projects that have also offered training to young people in skills used in the construction industry, microfinanced loans for women to start up their own home-based businesses, and the provision of food gardens. These play an important role in lifting families out of poverty and ensuring the sustainability of HFH projects. Studies of the impact of improved shelter and security of livelihood upon family life and the welfare of children evidence higher rates of participation in education, more time dedicated to study and greater individual achievement. Habitat for Humanity projects also typically incorporate measures to up-grade the provision of basic sanitation facilities and supplies of safe, potable drinking water. These measures not only directly help reduce mortality rates (e.g. diarrheal diseases account for around 2 million deaths annually in children under 5), but also, when delivered through HFH project-related ‘community funds’, empower the poor to mobilise community resources, develop local leadership capacities and even secure de facto security of tenure from government authorities.

In the process of translating its mission and values into practical measures, HFH has developed a range of innovative practices that deliver much more than housing alone. The organisation’s participatory model enables both direct beneficiaries and the wider community to tackle the insecurities they face, unlocking latent skills and enterprise, building sustainable livelihood capabilities. HFH plays an important role as a catalyst for change, delivering through the vehicle of housing the means to address the primary causes of poverty itself. Its contribution to wider development priorities deserves better recognition. In calibrating the success of HFH projects in terms of units completed or renovated alone, the significance of the process by which HFH realises these outcomes is often not sufficiently acknowledged, both within the organisation and externally. As the case studies developed in the report illustrate, the methodologies Habitat for Humanity employs to address the issue of poverty housing within the developing world, place the organisation at the centre of a global strategic agenda to address the root causes of poverty through community empowerment and the transformation of structures of governance.

Given this, the global network of HFH affiliates constitutes a unique organisational framework to faciliate sharing resources, ideas and practical experience across a diverse range of cultural, political and institutional environments. This said, it is apparent that work needs to be done to better to faciliate the pooling of experience and lessons learnt from across its affiliates. Much is to be gained from learning from less successful projects, sharing innovative practices, identifying strategic partnerships with donors, other NGOs and CBOs, and engaging with the international development community on how housing fits within a broader agenda to alleviate poverty and promote good governance.