Angela M. Moe

Abject Economics The Effects of Battering and Violence on Women’s Work and Employability

Research on the effects of battering on women’s lives has focused on poverty, homelessness, and welfare receipt, often centering on women who are uneducated or undereducated. The authors analyze how battering impacts the work and employability of women from various employment levels and backgrounds. Data were obtained through qualitative interviews with 19 residents of a domestic violence shelter, some of whom had obtained substantial education and built solid and lucrative careers prior to being abused. The women described instances in which battering had obstructed their ability to find work, maintain employment, and use their wages to establish greater economic independence and safety.

Mothering, Crime, And Incarceration

This article examines the relationships between mothering, crime, and incarceration through the narratives of thirty women incarcerated in a southwestern county jail. The responsibilities of child care, combined with the burdens of economic marginality and domestic violence, led some women to choose economic crimes or drug dealing as an alternative to hunger and homelessness. Other women, arrested for drug- or alcohol-related crimes, related their offenses to the psychological pain and despair resulting from loss of custody of their children. Many women were incarcerated for minor probation violations that often related to the conflict between work, child care, and probation requirements. For all women with children, mothering represented both the burdens of an unequal sexual division of labor and opportunities for resistance to marginalization and hopelessness.

Silenced Voices and Structured Survival Battered Women's Help Seeking

Despite social and governmental responses to battering, many women continue to feel entrapped in abusive relationships. Using standpoint epistemology, this article examines the various aspects of help seeking, and the social and institutional responses to such efforts, through the narratives of 19 women in a domestic violence shelter. The findings are discussed with reference to Ptaceks social entrapment perspective and Gondolf and Fishers survivor hypothesis, illustrating the socioeconomic and political context of the control tactics utilized by abusers and the structural impediments to battered womens successful help seeking.

Battered Women, Children, and the End of Abusive Relationships

Much work has focused on the interpersonal dynamics of violent relationships, but less is known about the specific turning points that prompt women at least to try to end them. Using a feminist standpoint method and phenomenological-based analysis of in-depth interviews with mothers in a domestic violence shelter, this article focuses on the role of children in women’s decisions to leave abusive partners. It discusses arriving at the decision, the logistics involved in leaving and planning for the future, and it presents policy and advocacy-based recommendations that are aimed at addressing the social welfare of women and children.

Exploring the Literature on Relationships Between Gender Roles, Intimate Partner Violence, Occupational Status, and Organizational Benefits

Studies of intimate partner violence (IPV) and work have been primarily conducted with women in low-wage low-status (LWLS) positions, as much of this research has focused on poverty, welfare, and homelessness. Although women in LWLS positions represent a large percentage of working women in the United States, it is also important to investigate experiences of women in high-wage high-status (HWHS) positions because a growing number of women are employed within such jobs. We propose gender role theory can be used to explain occurrences of IPV among women in HWHS positions and their utilization of organizational benefits. We suggest those in HWHS positions may be likely to have access to organizational benefits (e.g., medical, vacation, and flexible work schedules) and the ability to utilize the Family and Medical Leave Act. However, prevailing gender roles existing in organizations may render women in HWHS positions unlikely to use benefits or to take leave.

Beyond the Belly: An Appraisal of Middle Eastern Dance (aka Belly Dance) as Leisure

Abstract Middle Eastern dance (aka belly dance) is an ancient and expressive form of movement, associated with feminine and community-based celebration and ritual. However, it is also thought of as erotic, seductive, and titillating. Despite stereotypes, belly dance appeals to contemporary women as leisure. This paper examines the intrigue with belly dance in the United States, specifically why women practice this dance form and what their involvement suggests about the gendered nature of leisure, and the need thereof, in womens lives. It also considers the possibility that belly dance may be a feminist form of leisure. Based on participant observation, journal narratives provided by dancers, and publically accessible online discussions, findings are examined along four themes: healing, sisterhood, spirituality, and empowerment.

Sequins, Sass, and Sisterhood: An Exploration of Older Women's Belly Dancing

Disempowering stereotypes plague public perceptions of older womens bodies, particularly within Western contemporary societies. Consequently, as women age, their bodies often become sources of shame, discomfort, and ridicule. Belly dance, as a form of recreative leisure, provides a unique and somewhat unexpected space for women to subvert such perceptions. Based on qualitative interviews with older American women who belly dance, this article examines the ways in which this form of recreation provides participants a means of (re)gaining mobility, (re)claiming social space, (re)building social support, and (re)defining what it means to be sensual later in life.

Women, Drugs, and Crime

Throughout feminist criminological scholarship, a concerted effort has been focused on understanding the backgrounds, criminal contexts, and programming needs of criminalized women. It is clear that criminalized women enter the justice system with a host of interconnected experiences and issues, ranging from childhood victimization, sexual assault, and intimate partner abuse, to homelessness, poverty, and illness. While these contribute to the motivations and rationales of women’s criminality, they are often aggravated by drug addiction. In a variety of ways, drug use is interlaced with women’s efforts to survive on a daily basis. This article examines the role drugs play in criminalized women’s lives through the narratives of 30 incarcerated women.

Healing Through Movement The Benefits of Belly Dance for Gendered Victimization

Perceptions of “belly dance” are that it is degrading, exploitive, and incongruous to feminism. Curiously, however, the dance is incredibly popular in various parts of the world, including the United States, as a form of recreation and creative expression. This article examines the apparent disconnect between public perception and practitioner standpoint. Findings indicate a strong holistic healing component, particularly in terms of gendered interpersonal victimization, where belly dance seems to hold potential for self-exploration and discovery. Grounded historically, culturally, and empirically, these findings are discussed in terms of their application to social work practice, as it relates to alternative therapies.