Affilia

Research has shown that welfare policy plays a significant role in the subordination of women, and with each new policy iteration, it is important to continue to expose the way in which policy intentionally or unintentionally places women at a disadvantage. Using a socialist feminist framework, this article explores child care as a work-support benefit and the realities of the lived experience of those who receive child care subsidies. This policy is examined for its role in subordinating women as they attempt to navigate both work and family responsibilities while trying to move toward financial independence.

The study presented here explored the experiences of a Korean childless woman through self-reflection. The autoethnographic narrative describes the social encounters of the childless woman and how she constructs and presents her childlessness to others. It reveals her divided self experiencing ambivalence and inner conflict between her authentic self and her regard for cultural values. It shows her efforts to achieve the integration of the self and her struggle for destigmatization. The article focuses on a woman’s freedom of choice and highlights the need to empower childless women in a pronatalist society. Implications for social work professionals are discussed.

In this article, we review the literature on the risk factors that are associated with stalking victimization and perpetration using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. More specifically, we identified individual-level (sociodemographic), interpersonal-level (the relationship between the perpetrators and victims), societal-level (policies), and cultural-level (gender role socialization and social norms) factors that are associated with stalking behavior. We then draw implications from our review for assessment, prevention, and intervention strategies for social workers who are working with victims and perpetrators of stalking.

The study presented here considered heterosexual women who chose to conceive and raise children together with gay men outside marriage. In-depth interviews with 10 Israeli mothers who had established hetero-gay families revealed their motivations for choosing this family configuration and the characteristics they sought in the fathers. The findings revealed that the women maintained traditional values with respect to the ideal parental model, two-gender parenting, and the attributes they sought for the coparents of their children. Rather than overtly challenge institutional patriarchy, these women chose to establish an alternative family that circumvented patriarchal impositions.

This quantitative and descriptive study investigated the quality of life (QOL) and attitudes toward aging of 270 older women in Sanliurfa Province, Turkey. The Turkish versions of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument—Older Adults Module and the World Health Organization—Attitudes Toward Aging Questionnaire were administered to the participants. The results indicated that there was significant relationship between the women’s QOL and attitudes toward aging. Two dimensions of attitudes toward aging (physical change and psychological growth) were significant predictors of QOL in the women. It was also found that literacy and happiness affected some dimensions of the women’s QOL and some subscales of attitudes toward aging.

On the basis of a qualitative study with immigrant women in Windsor, Ontario, this article looks at women’s responses to the challenges they face in the Canadian workplace, together with the value they place on working outside the home. The women reflected on their job searches, employment conditions, and work experiences as mediated by the norms and traditions of their home countries. Because of the struggle to obtain a job and the delicacy of retaining a job in a precarious economic climate, the women did not fight the discrimination they encountered in the workplace.

This analysis of focus group dialogues about the intersection of race/ethnicity, HIV/AIDS, and alcohol use among HIV-positive Latinas and African American women explores consumers’ and providers’ perspectives on issues that influence the misuse of alcohol, the mechanisms of that influence, and factors that are critical to addressing the misuse of alcohol successfully in this population. The findings highlight the social structural influences of gender, race/ethnicity, and poverty and the interpersonal influences of family relationships, the disclosure of HIV, trauma and abuse, romantic partnerships, and motherhood on the misuse of alcohol. The discussion highlights suggestions for gender-specific and culturally responsive elements of alcohol treatment for HIV-positive Latinas and African American women.