Religion, Gender, and Bodies: Women’s Polyvalent Roles and Experiences in the Biopolitics of Taiwan’s Presbyterian Missions

The Presbyterian missions and medical missions in 19th-century Taiwan were successful enterprises that over time developed into the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, which stands today as the largest Christian minority church in this country. Through a Foucauldian biopolitical perspective, this paper analyzes the roles of female missionaries in the management of bodies and the subjective experiences of both foreign and Native women in the missions. Going beyond descriptive narratives and control-versus-agency reductionist frames, the paper points the polyvalent semantics of such roles and experiences. It also explores the complex relations between the women’s biopolitical functions, the PCT’s industrial type of biopolitical apparatus, and the biopolitical regimes of the late Qing dynasty and the Japanese colonial government in the early 20th century. The conclusions remark on the analytical relevance of biopolitical perspectives in the study of gender and body-related phenomena in Christian missions and Christian religions beyond Western societies.

Changes in Liver, Kidney and Atherogenic Indices of Women in Ebocha, Niger-Delta, Nigeria due to Gas Flaring

Gas flaring causes pollution to the environment and also affects the human organs such as the liver and kidneys. The present study seeks to investigate changes in liver, kidney function and atherogenic predictor indices of native women of Ebocha, Niger Delta, Nigeria who have over the years been chronically exposed to the persistent gas flaring in the area. Two hundred (200) healthy and freely consented women aged between 30 to 50 years were recruited; one hundred (100) from Ebocha and one hundred (100) from Uturu the control station. Results revealed that the values of serum activities of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate transferase (AST) alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and the concentrations of albumin and total protein were significantly (p<0.05) higher in Ebocha women when compared to values of women from Uturu. The pollution caused as a result of gas flaring did not affect the concentrations of bilirubin in women from both sites. However, serum creatinine, urea, K+, Na+, Cl- and HCO3-concentrations were significantly (p<0.05) higher in Ebocha women when compared to values for women from the control station. Ebocha women had significantly (p<0.05) reduced concentrations of serum triglyceride, total cholesterol and HDL cholesterol but significantly (p<0.05) increased LDL-cholesterol and atherogenic predictor indices in comparison with those from Uturu indicating that chronic gas flaring has negative effects on the liver, renal function, lipid profile and atherogenic predictor indices of women resident in Ebocha. Liver, kidney, atherogenic indices, gas flaring, women, Niger Delta.

Is There Evidence of Gender Preference for Offspring in France? Examining the Predilections of Native Women and Immigrant Women from Asia and Africa

This paper investigates gender preferences for offspring within the native French population and among immigrants from North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Turkey and Vietnam-Cambodia-Laos in France by combining the Family and Housing Survey (2011) and the Trajectories and Origins Survey (2008). In so doing, it is the first paper to examine the persistence (or lack thereof) of gender preferences among immigrants in France. This allows the findings of the paper to serve as a tool for monitoring the immigrant integration process in the country. Using (multilevel) logistic regressions to examine transitions to second and third child births contingent upon gender of existing children and by migration status provides two main results. First, regarding evidence of gender preferences, the results show: mixed gender preferences and weak daughter preference among native French women when transitioning to the third parity; mixed gender preferences among second-generation Turkish immigrant women when transitioning to the third parity; and a daughter preference for second-generation North African, Sub-Saharan African and Vietnamese-Laos-Cambodian immigrant women when transitioning to the third parity. Second, for the immigrant sample, these preferences emerge in the face of declining fertility, across subsequent generations of immigrants, and on average as a deviation from their country of origin gender preferences. This not only points to the malleability of gender preferences for offspring but also lends credence to both the selection and adaptation hypotheses in explaining immigrant integration in France.

Women and the Law

In the early modern Atlantic world, the law conditioned gendered power relations in European and colonial contexts alike. The everyday workings of legal systems yielded a vast archive of legal sources. These include statutes, treatises, petitions, legal instruments, and court, notarial, and probate records. Since emergence of women’s and gender history as vibrant fields of inquiry during the final decades of the 20th century, scholars have mined these and other complementary sources in order to interrogate women’s relationship to the law. Casting c. 1400–1815 as a distinctive period spanning from early colonial encounters to the birth of modern nation-states, these researchers emphasize that overlapping jurisdictions and legal systems shaped early modern women’s statuses and access to recourse. They have traced the ways in which the law structured women’s lives opposing ways: as an instrument of regulation and discipline, and as a source of authority for women within their households and communities. They have additionally analyzed women as legal actors, examining their uses of law and the forms of skill and strategy they demonstrated in the course of such activities. European-descended settlers and officials transported metropolitan legal systems with them to colonial contexts, and such legal systems thus functioned as an instrument of colonialism, affording greater accessibility and protections to white women than to black and indigenous women. Yet African-descended and Native women equally possessed their own understandings of law and justice, and they maneuvered within European-derived legal systems to advance their own interests. This bibliography attends to the major areas of scholarly inquiry on women and the law c. 1400–1815, many of which necessarily overlap. In keeping with recent scholarly trends in Atlantic and early American history, it does so by grouping works thematically. This organizational structure reflects the interconnectedness of the early modern Atlantic world and underscores that the history of women and the law resists straightforward narratives of declension or improvement. By inviting comparisons across regions, a thematic approach clarifies the ways in which specific imperial and local contexts shaped women’s relationship to the law. It also reveals commonalities in the patriarchal character of European-derived legal systems, and the ways in which they functioned similarly in order to create intersecting hierarchies of race, class, and gender. For specific regions, see also the separate Oxford Bibliographies articles Gender in the Caribbean, Gender in Iberian America, and Gender in North America.

Exploring Inequalities in HPV Vaccine Uptake among Cape Verdean Immigrant and Portuguese Native Women

Based on data from the FEMINA study, this communication aims to explore inequalities in HPV vaccine uptake. Results highlighted differences between the Portuguese and the Cape Verdean women: 97% vs. 67% had heard about the HPV vaccine; 30% vs. 9% had been vaccinated, and 71% vs. 82% had reported a lack of medical recommendation as a major reason for not having been vaccinated. Further research on the mechanisms that operate in the production of health disparities is needed to promote equity-focused interventions.

Criminalizing the Colonized: Ontario Native Women Confront the Criminal Justice System, 1920–60

Over the past decade, Aboriginal women’s conflicts with the law and their plight within the penal and child welfare systems have received increasing media and government attention. Framed by the political demands of Native communities for self-government, and fuelled by disillusionment with a criminal justice system that has resolutely failed Native peoples—both as victims of violence and as defendants in the courts—government studies and royal commissions have documented the shocking overincarceration of Native women. At once marginalized, yet simultaneously the focus of intense government interest, Native women have struggled to make their own voices heard in these inquiries. Their testimony often speaks to their profound alienation from Canadian society and its justice system, an estrangement so intense that it is couched in despair. “How can we be healed by those who symbolize the worst experiences of our past?” asked one inmate before the 1990 Task Force on federally sentenced women.2 Her query invokes current Native exhortations for a reinvention of Aboriginal traditions of justice and healing; it also speaks directly to the injuries of colonialism experienced by Aboriginal peoples.

Identity Crisis and Solution for Canadian Native Women in Halfbreed

Maria Campbell’s autobiography Halfbreed is a self-exploration of herself in the process of her survival pursuit. Her thirty three years of bitter experience with racism and poverty are the major content of her autobiography. Moreover, she has also recorded in the work the sense of alienation in her own land which mainly has made her to feel the traumatic painful experience. Hence, Identity crisis is seen as the major issue that steeps as a block for not only to herself but also to her community women fully towards overcoming their social barriers like poverty, sexism, and racism. Moreover, her self-exploration sets up an ideal to her community women to become stronger and self-reliant. Hence, the paper argues that how Campbell has created her own identity while experiencing problems and issues on her growing up with shameful identity and how she has become the solution to all the halfbreeds like her. The paper further studies that how Campbell has dealt with shame and humiliations which are the threat in achieving empowerment. The paper also analyzes the solution that Campbell has developed by herself despite her negative experiences, what she has learned from the negatives and how she has constructed her own identity which strengthens herself and her community as well.

Decolonizing VAWA 2021: A Step in the Right Direction for Protecting Native American Women

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was hallmark legislation aimed at combating violence against women. While violence against women is a national issue that affects women of all race/ethnicities, it affects Native American women the most, as Native women experience the highest rates of violence. Violence against Native women is rooted in colonization because it decreases the power of tribal government, diminishes tribal sovereignty, and devalues Native Americans, which in turn leaves Native women more vulnerable to victimization. As such, amendments to VAWA must take particular action on violence against Native women, including actions that support decolonization. The 2013 VAWA reauthorization acknowledged colonization and was the federal government’s first step in the decolonization process. It restored tribal jurisdiction over some VAWA crimes, but there are still gaps regarding protecting Native women. This policy analysis examines the proposed VAWA reauthorization, HR 1620, and provides three specific recommendations in order to better protect Native women: (1) allow tribes to write their own rape laws, (2) expand tribal jurisdiction to all VAWA crimes and stranger and acquaintance violence, and (3) enhance tribes’ abilities to secure VAWA funds and resources. These recommendations are discussed in terms of existing literature and implications for Native people and Native communities.

Female employment and migration in European countries: Introduction to the Special Issue

Objective: This chapter introduces the reader to the Special Issue "Female Employment and Migration in European Countries". Background: While there is a large body of research on the labour market performance of male migrants, women’s employment behaviour after migration has only recently moved into the focus of attention. Method: This Special Issue draws on various research methods and data sources, including register, census, and survey data. Some of the studies focus on specific national contexts, such as the German, Spanish, Dutch, and Belgian situations. Other studies compare female migrants across European countries and between origin and destination countries. Results: The contributions in this Special Issue help to disentangle the complex interplay of socio-economic factors, family and fertility behaviour, gender role attitudes, and institutional constraints and policies that shape the employment behaviour of migrant women after they migrate. Conclusion: In many European countries, the employment rates of first-generation female migrants, and particularly those of women from non-EU countries of origin, lag behind the employment rates of native women. While prior research has often reported that socio-economic and cultural factors play a role in shaping the employment behaviour of female migrants, the contributions in this volume also emphasise the strong relevance of institutional factors in the receiving country, including migration, family, and labour market policies.