Women, Portuguese culture and Diaspora : Women from Goa in New Zealand and cultural adaptation

New Zealand is a nation of Migrants. Immigrants have played a significant role in the country’s economic growth and cultural development. With a population of four million people, New Zealand’s population is becoming increasingly culturally diverse. Almost one in five New Zealanders were born overseas, rising to one in three in its largest city, Auckland. Asians are the fastest growing ethnic group, increasing by around 140% since 1996. Indians account for 1.2% of the population (Statistics New Zealand, 2002). The Goan community in New Zealand is relatively small and its size is not formally recorded, however, anecdotally it appears to have grown to over 200 families in the Auckland area, with most arriving after 1996. For women who migrate, loneliness and isolation have been identified as the most ‘glaring’ experience and this is intensified by the loss of extended family networks when they migrate to a country where nuclear families are the norm (Leckie, 1995). The creation of new networks and maintenance of prior networks in new ways is crucial to the successful settlement and integration into a new country. This paper reports on how Goan, Indian women in Auckland, New Zealand used specific strategies to manage the adjustment to living in a new country. The findings reveal that participants used a variety of skills to settle in New Zealand such as cultivating a “can do” attitude, obtaining support and learning. These skills enabled them to move beyond their own culture and begin to take active part in New Zealand culture. However, this process was not immediate and the participants passed through a number of stages along a continuum of settlement and integration. These stages will be discussed below and situated within a body of literature.

Women on March in Goa : the gender transition in Higher Education after the Statehood

This paper attempts to address the interesting phenomenon of dominance of women in higher educational sector of Goa-a remarkable postcolonial event which occurred after Goa attained statehood in 1987. The Indian state of Goa has been experiencing a rapid socio-economic and cultural transformation. At present it enjoys many of the highest human development indicators in India, matching some of the developed countries. Its’ projected population at present is 1.45 million (Indian decennial census 2001 reported 1.348 million). When the Portuguese rule ended, the literacy was just 31 % whereas it stood at 82 % in 2001. Goa is a highly urbanized state in India. In 1960 there were just five towns and 15 % urban population. In 2001 the figures were, 44 towns and 50 % urban population. On economic front Goa has made tremendous progress mainly on account of the growth of mining, tourism and the service sector. Tourist arrivals in Goa have exceeded the state’s population from 2001. The Gross state domestic product (GSDP) at current prices in 2003-04 was Indian Rupees (Rs.) 96570 million, up from Rs. 3930 million when Goa became a full-fledged state. The banks are flush with funds indicating a booming economy. Goa has lowest birth and death rates and a life expectancy of 68 years for the males and 72 for females. The sex ratio however has shown a declining trend since 1960, from 1066 to 960 in 2001 (Table 1).The sex ratio for 0-6 years age group was 933. On this background we intend to examine the changing pattern of female education in Goa.

Lipid metabolism in women

Differences in whole-body lipid metabolism between men and women are indicated by lower-body fat accumulation in women but more marked accumulation of fat in the intra-abdominal visceral fat depots of men. Circulating blood lipid concentrations also show gender-related differences. These differences are most marked in premenopausal women, in whom total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and triacylglycerol concentrations are lower and HDL-cholesterol concentration is higher than in men. Tendency to accumulate body fat in intra-abdominal fat stores is linked to increased risk of CVD, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and other insulin-resistant states. Differential regional regulation of adipose tissue lipolysis and lipogenesis must underlie gender-related differences in the tendency to accumulate fat in specific fat depots. However, empirical data to support current hypotheses remain limited at the present time because of the demanding and specialist nature of the methods used to study adipose tissue metabolism in human subjects. In vitro and in vivo data show greater lipolytic sensitivity of abdominal subcutaneous fat and lesser lipolytic sensitivity of femoral and gluteal subcutaneous fat in women than in men. These differences appear to be due to fewer inhibitory alpha adrenergic receptors in abdominal regions and greater a adrenergic receptors in gluteal and femoral regions in women than in men. There do not appear to be major gender-related differences in rates of fatty acid uptake (lipogenesis) in different subcutaneous adipose tissue regions. In visceral fat rates of both lipolysis and lipogenesis appear to be greater in men than in women; higher rates of lipolysis may be due to fewer alpha adrenergic receptors in this fat depot in men. Fatty acid uptake into this depot in the postprandial period is approximately 7-fold higher in men than in women. Triacylglycerol concentrations appear to be a stronger cardiovascular risk factor in women than in men, with particular implications for cardiovascular risk in diabetic women. The increased triacylglycerol concentrations observed in women taking hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) may explain the paradoxical findings of increased rates of CVD in women taking HRT that have been reported from recent primary and secondary prevention trials of HRT.

Piety and sociability in early modern women's devotional writing

The letters of early modern women demonstrate that their experience of religion was essentially social, contrary to the impression created by much modern work on diaries or meditations. The stereotypical melancholic, pious lady is far from the ideal offered by spiritual advisors, women and men, in their correspondence. Letters demonstrate how women created networks of spiritual support within and beyond their families. Letters also testify to the agency exercised by early modern women in religious matters, particularly in their assumption of the role of religious advisor and in their engagement with ecclesiastical politics. While this is far from showing that religion empowered all early modern women, it does offer a corrective to the unduly gloomy view of the role of religion in such women's lives. Letters provide indispensable testimony to the social nature of women's responses to the changing religious culture and politics of the eighteenth century.

'Between slavery and freedom': the expulsion and enslavement of free women of colour in the US South before the Civil War

For free black women in the pre-Civil War American South, the status offered by ‘freedom’ was uncertain and malleable. The conceptualization of bondage and freedom as two diametrically opposed conditions therefore fails to make sense of the complexities of life for these women. Instead, notions of enslavement and freedom are better framed as a spectrum. This article develops this idea by exploring two of the ways in which some black women negotiated their status before the law—namely though petitioning for residency or for enslavement. While these petitions are atypical numerically, and often offer tantalizingly scant evidence, when used in conjunction with evidence from the US census, it becomes clear that these women were highly pragmatic. Prioritizing their spousal and broader familial affective relationships above their legal status, they rejected the often theoretical distinction between slavery and liberation. As such, the petitions can be used to reach broader conclusions about the attitudes of women who have left little written testimony.

Let's talk about sex(ism): cross-national perspectives on women partners’ narratives on equality and sexism at work in Germany and the UK

While the accounting academy has contributed in important ways to furthering our understanding of the relative absence of women in top positions in Professional Service Firms, in-depth empirical research that focuses specifically on sexism is rare, especially so from a cross-national perspective. Drawing on sixty interviews with women partners in public accountancy firms in Germany and the United Kingdom, this article examines how women partners talk about sexism and equal opportunities in the accountancy profession and considers how these narratives are patterned cross-nationally. Employing cultural theory, this study explores how elite women discursively relate to sexism and equal opportunities through their career histories and demonstrates the complex interrelation between the context in which these narratives are produced and the past and present positions of the respondents. Interestingly, it was the German respondents who drew on problematic notions of ‘choice’ and responsibility, where it was upon women to make a choice between their careers and home lives, while this decision-making process was not expected from men. This was in contrast to the accounts of the UK participants who, although also unveiling tensions in their talk, were more inclined to acknowledge continuing structural constraints.