Gabriele Griffin

Gender Issues in Elder Abuse

Introduction Thinking in Numbers - The Feminization of Old Age and Its Conditions Gender Issues in the History of Research on Elder Abuse Ageism and Sexism - Discrimination in/of Old Age Paid To Care - Gender Issues in Elder Abuse in Institutional Settings Who Cares? A Gendered View of Care and Elder Abuse in Domestic Settings Conclusion Do We Care? Future Directions for Work on Gender Issues in Elder Abuse

The mutual constitution of risk and inequalities: intersectional risk theory

In this article, we examine the conceptual importance of integrating risk and intersectionality theory for the study of how risk and various forms of inequality intersect and are mutually constitutive. We argue that an intersectional perspective can advance risk research by incorporating more effectively the role of such social categories as gender and race into the analysis of ‘risk’ as an empirical phenomenon. In doing so, the intersectional perspective articulates more clearly the connection between the social construction of risk and, on the one hand, the reproduction of new and complex social inequalities and, on the other, intersections of social class, gender, ethnicity and other social categorisations. We trace the intellectual division between risk and feminist-inspired intersectionality research, showing how these approaches can be aligned to study, for example, risk-based welfare and social policy. We use a discussion of general directions within welfare policy to illustrate how an intersectional perspective can be used to show the ways in which new governance strategies create new divisions and reproduce existing forms of social inequality. We conclude the article with a call for a new research agenda to integrate intersectional frameworks with risk theory in order to provide a more nuanced analysis of the relationship between social inequality and risk.

Balancing Agendas Social Sciences and Humanities in Europe

Taking as its starting point the European Commission’s agenda for promoting collaborative, interdisciplinary research that includes the Humanities as well as the Social Sciences, this article argues that arts and humanities research needs greater integration into that research agenda and more, as well as more imaginative and incentivizing, funding and support. Utilizing the issue of the London bombers as an example, the article indicates that the Arts and Humanities can provide both insights into and perspectives on the challenges Europe faces in the 21st century. It suggests that a trans-disciplinary approach to research issues is required that is, inter alia, best supported by the establishment of advanced interdisciplinary research institutes that include the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Psychological counselling in post-Soviet Russia: Gendered perceptions in a feminizing profession

In this article the authors discuss psychological counselling as it emerges as a gendered profession in the transitional economy of Russia. Based on qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 23 female and three male practising counsellors, the article analyses their perceptions of their profession, focusing in particular on two key issues: (1) their reasons for entry into the profession; and (2) their expectations of their work as a profession. The authors argue that both female and male counsellors’ perceptions of their entry into this profession revealed highly gendered stances, and furthermore, that these were strongly imbricated in the legacies of Soviet employment policies and gender ideology.

The ‘Ins’ and ‘Outs’ of Women’s/Gender Studies: a response to reports of its demise in 2008

In the spring of 2008, fuelled by the impending demise of the undergraduate Women’s/Gender Studies programme at London Metropolitan University, a series of public statements proclaimed the death of Women’s/Gender Studies. This article constitutes a response to these statements. Taking a broadly European view of the state of Women’s/Gender Studies, it argues that the discipline has established a research infrastructure, mainstreamed its undergraduate curricula and its pedagogical underpinnings, and continues to attract research funding and significant numbers of postgraduate students. It finally suggests that the ‘fate’ of disciplines is not teleological but iterative.

Gender Studies as a Profession

The good news is that Gender Studies is bucking the trend. The trend I refer to here is the one outlined in the 2006 OECD report Women in Scientific Careers: Unleashing the Potential. That report is full of the woes of women’s underrepresentation in academe, their under-representation in absolute terms, in specific disciplines, in senior positions, in decision-making bodies, among PhD students – everywhere. Well, as was evident at the GenderChange in Academia: Remapping the fields of work, knowledge, and politics from a gender perspective conference held at the Georg-August-University of Gottingen in February 2009, the same cannot be said for Women’s and Gender Studies where, on the contrary, one might say, women are in fact over-represented.2 Women’s or Gender Studies is in that respect one of the true success stories of higher education. But, of course, this success is also regarded by some as its Archilles’ heal since the absence of men in the discipline has, arguably, led to Women’s Studies preaching its messages to the converted rather than converting the unconvinced, that is men – and, of course, some women – of the need to promote the rights of women across all spheres of activity. Well, I shall not pursue this argument here but I want to hang on to the notion of Gender Studies as a success story in higher education because I think we often lose sight of that in the dailiness of our labours.

Constitutive Subjectivities: Contemporary Black and Asian Women Playwrights in Britain

This article focuses on the work of Black and Asian women playwrights in Britain and examines their position as constitutive subjectivities in contemporary British culture. It suggests that recent developments in theatre studies such as the emphases on the postcolonial, intercultural, world theatre and performance art, which have emerged simultaneously with these playwrights’ work and might have offered some critical reception of their work, have not done so because of their maintenance of a colonial cultural imaginary that is more engaged with the elsewhere and the ‘other’ than with the here and now and the diasporic reality of contemporary Britain. Utilizing Avtar Brah’s concept of the ‘diaspora space’, the article argues that Black and Asian women playwrights’ work in Britain not only demands an interrogation of British theatre as a ‘white’ space but also asks that we accept Britain as a diasporic space.

What Mode Marriage? Women's Partner Choice in British Asian Cultural Representation

N 16 November 2005 British newspapers carried reports that Labour MP Ann Cryer had called for a ban on marriage between cousins ‘after research showed alarming rates in defective births among Asian communities in Britain’ (Giannangeli 2005). According to the Guardian , ‘an investigation by BBC Newsnight claim[ed] that British Pakistanis account for 30% of all British children with recessive disorders, which include cystic fibrosis’ (Butt 2005). These findings led Ann Cryer to argue that ‘Asian communities [have] to adopt a different lifestyle and look outside the family for husbands and wives’ (Butt 2005). The Telegraph ’s Marco Giannangeli suggested: ‘The findings were expected to be condemned by the Asian community, in which many see the tradition of marriages between first cousins as culturally fundamental.’ He reported the words of a woman married to her first cousin who defended cousin-marriage by saying: ‘You have an understanding, you have the same family history . . . It’s just a nicer emotional feel.’ In response to these reports, Aamra Darr, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Research in Primary Care at the University of Leeds, wrote a rebuttal on 2 December 2005 that argued that ‘liken[ing] cousin marriage to lifestyle issues . . . underestimates the complex emotional and social rationale as to how people make choices about life partners’ (Darr 2005). Darr demanded ‘a concerted focus on supporting at-risk families to make informed choices’ rather than demanding that British Pakistanis change their preference for cousin marriage, and suggested that such a focus, as well O w G A B R I E L E G R I F F I N .......................................................................................................

Desert Island Texts

The following contributions came in response to a request, sent to a number of key figures in feminism today, to write on a text that had been formative for their thinking as feminists. The chosen ...

Women's/Gender Studies,1 Professionalization and the Bologna Process—Cross‐European Reflections

This article focuses on the interrelationship between Womens Studies, the professionalization of its students, and the so‐called Bologna process, with the emphasis very much on the first two terms, since the Bologna process itself is currently in process, and its outcomes remain uncertain. Based on findings from two EU‐funded projects, it argues that Womens Studies students want to engage in the labour‐market but on specific terms; that the labour‐market orientation which the Bologna process demands is inherent in Womens Studies but finds expression mostly at post‐graduate level, since few European countries have Bachelor degrees in Womens Studies; and that more needs to be done both to publicize the labour‐market orientation of Womens Studies, and to help students translate this into working reality. It also suggests that the academic labour‐market diversification initiated through the Bologna process through the setting up of for instance quality assurance agencies offers employment opportunities to Womens Studies students.