Pamela Abbott

An Introduction to Sociology : Feminist Perspectives

1. Introduction: Feminism and the Sociological Imagination 2. Feminist Sociological Theory 3. Stratification and Inequality 4. Education 5. The Life Course 6. The Family and the Household 7. Health, Illness and Medicine 8. Sexuality 9. Work and Organisation 10. Crime, Deviance and Criminal Justice 11. Politics 12. Media Culture 13. Feminist Knowledge

Women, Health and Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is a health problem for women, and not just because of the injuries they receive. It leads to acute and chronic physical injury, miscarriage, loss of hearing or vision, physical disfigurement and often depression, alcoholism and sometimes suicide. The medical and caring professions are in the best position to act as the front line in helping women who are assaulted by their partners, because most of the female population visit doctors, are visited by health visitors or use the services of midwives during their twenties and thirties, but the pervasive medical model and the individualistic stance of modern medicine mitigate against this role. This article gives the first results from a survey of medical professionals - doctors, practice nurses, health visitors and midwives - in one English county. It looks at how often they are aware of seeing cases of domestic violence in their practice, what they know about it, what they would be prepared to do about it and how they see their own r...

Gender, Power, and Sexuality

Notes on the Contributors - Introduction P.Abbott & C.Wallace - Womens Oppression in the World and in Ourselves: a Fresh Look at Feminism and Psychoanalysis C.New - Women and Citizenship: the Insane, the Insolvent and the Inanimate? Y.Summers - Money and Power in Marriage J.Pahl - Feminist Sociology and Educational Change: Studying the Reforms of School Governing Bodies R.Deem - Human-centred Systems...Women-centred Systems? Gender Divisions and Office Computer Systems Design E.Green, J.Owen, D.Pain & I.Stone - Young Women, Harassment and Heterosexuality: Violence, Power Relations and Mixed Secondary Schooling J.Halson - Gender Issues in Inter-Agency Relations: Police, Probation and Social Services A.Sampson, D.Smith, G.Pearson, H.Blagg & P.Stubbs - Policing domestic violence S.Edwards - Penetrating Womens Bodies: the Problem of Law and Medical Technology C.Smart - Index

Women farmers in south‐west England

Abstract There has been research on women running businesses and on women as farmers’ wives, but little is known about women farmers—women running their own businesses within the rural economy. This paper reports on long interviews with nine women farmers in the South West of England. All had become involved in farming during or as a result of marriage, but at the time of the interviews all were business‐women in their own right, running farms or substantial independent businesses within a farming enterprise. The paper looks at their lives in terms of the power inherent in their positions on the one hand and the necessary interaction of domestic and farming obligations on the other. We also point out the importance of women farmers in a rural economy and the gender‐specific difficulties which they face.

Conflict over the grey areas: District nurses and home helps providing community care

Abstract Policies of providing care for dependent groups including the elderly have a specific impact on women. This paper examines the conflict that has arisen between two groups of predominantly female workers (district nurses and home helps) over who should provide personal care for frail elderly people. The paper concludes that the conflict relates not so much to the professional skills needed for nursing care of frail elderly people but to the labour market position of women in general and of nurses and home helps in particular.

What Drives Migration from the Middle East? Why People Want to Leave Arab States

• Drivers of migration include conflicts and instability, but are mostly economic. • Over half of migrants and displaced persons originating from MENA stay within the region. • Most likely to emigrate are young, educated men seeking temporary stays to find work • EU public debate focuses on potential security threats from population inflows, but ignore economic benefits both to host countries (supporting EU welfare systems) and to countries of origin (e.g. remittances) • EU policy must avoid falling victim to short-term electoral calculus and focus on long-terms solutions to causes of migration.