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Paper short abstract:

Empowerment refers to both subjective and objective reality and is sensed according to different situations which affect one’s life. Objective reality of empowerment refers to the structural conditions which allocates power in a society and access to resources whereas subjective means changes in perception, consciousness and sense of entitlement. For example: The liberal feminist asserts that man and women are equal in their rationality so posit equal opportunity to all. But it doesn’t mean that man and women poses the same atmosphere to develop their capabilities. The gender roles of man and women are differentiated by the society which makes a man more efficient to give a head start. Thus from that view point, for a true empowerment both subjective and objective realities must be fulfilled. Women with all the indictors of objective empowerment features like education, equality in gender division of labour, elimination of discriminatory laws, economically self sufficienc y etc also proved in effect to be powerless. Thus empowerment is not a thing to be given but rather it should be acquired.In this research paper, an endeavour will be made to analyze the various theoretical debates and issues relating to the concept of Empowerment of Women.The scope of the paper will be restricted to critically examine the Liberal Feminist debate on empowerment of women and its reflection on the present day development model for empowering women.

Paper long abstract:

Empowerment refers to both subjective and objective reality and is sensed according to different situations which affect one's life. Objective reality of empowerment refers to the structural conditions which allocates power in a society and access to resources whereas subjective means changes in perception, consciousness and sense of entitlement. For example: The liberal feminist asserts that man and women are equal in their rationality so posit equal opportunity to all. But it doesn't mean that man and women poses the same atmosphere to develop their capabilities. The gender roles of man and women are differentiated by the society which makes a man more efficient to give a head start. Thus from that view point, for a true empowerment both subjective and objective realities must be fulfilled. Women with all the indictors of objective empowerment features like education, equality in gender division of labour, elimination of discriminatory laws, economically self sufficiency et

c also proved in effect to be powerless. Thus empowerment is not a thing to be given but rather it should be acquired.In this research paper, an endeavour will be made to analyze the various theoretical debates and issues relating to the concept of Empowerment of Women.The scope of the paper will be restricted to critically examine the Liberal Feminist debate on empowerment of women and its reflection on the present day development model for empowering women.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper examines how “motherhood culture” is both sustained and contested in the contemporary Dutch society where working parents typically combine formal and informal care arrangements. The meaning of home as the ideal place for care largely determines women’s preference for part-time working．

Paper long abstract:

A male-breadwinner model, once widely endorsed and practiced by all classes in the Dutch society, has been replaced by "one-and-a-half model", in which both partners combine paid work and parenting, though women undertake a larger share in childcare and housework. In consequence, the Netherlands now exhibits both the highest rate of female employment and the highest incidence of part-time working among the EU member states. In their efforts of reconciling work and family, many parents combine formal and informal care arrangements, but the full-time use of childcare institutions is extremely rare. It is often stated that the number of days at day-care centre should not exceed the number of days that young children spend in home environment.

The result of my anthropological study including in-depth interviews with working parents and the analysis of survey data and policy document reveals the fact that "motherhood culture (moederschap cultuur)" is both sustained and contested in the contemporary care regime, which increasingly incorporates fathers and grandparents as well as professionals. Full-time housewives are now socially marginalized together with full-time working mothers; married women typically opt for working part-time to gain "the best of both worlds". I will further examine the cultural rationale of this current norm and explicate the ways in which the meaning of domestic domain has evolved in the face of the changing nature of child-rearing. The future directions of Dutch women's work style are likely to be determined by the persistence or transformation of the ideals surrounding the place for care.

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Paper short abstract:

In the Hasidic world where religion is everything, males and females have very specific roles and responsibilities, in both secular and religious life. How do people balance the familiar dichotomies upon which Hasidic communities rely, and deal with the problems outside of that experience?

Paper long abstract:

In the ultra-Orthodox world of Hasidic Jews, women have traditionally worked outside the home, enabling their husbands to study Torah full time. As Ayala Fader found in her recent work in Brooklyn, women are often the mediators between the Hasidic world and outside society. Because, in Hasidic culture, women have been the chief breadwinners for centuries, understanding the interaction of gender and social problems requires a different approach. This research examines the daily lives, thoughts, and interactions of married women in the Karlin-Stolin Hasidic community of Givat Ze'ev, in Israeli Occupied Palestinian Territories of the West Bank.

Hasidic men are the ultimate authorities on all religious texts, laws, and practices in a world where religion is everything. Women also invest totally in religion, but because they are denied access to texts and other male arenas, their religious activity manifests itself in unique ways. Furthermore, women are the ones concerned with the practical affairs of everyday life. In a community where women have widespread roles in the public forum, there is plenty of opportunity for women to exert influence and exact change. Nevertheless, men unarguably hold the ultimate decision-making power, and are the acknowledged leaders in their community. With such clearly defined gender delineations, how does the community balance the religious and the secular, and the male and the female, and problems that lie outside the familiar dichotomies upon which Hasidic communities rely?

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Paper short abstract:

Gender is a critical structural element defining informal traders as a social problem, clearly visible in Kumasi, Ghana in explicit verbal and physical abuse of women traders and craft workers as women. Men saw no targeting and more respect during price control, relocation and demolition.

Paper long abstract:

The streets and markets of Kumasi, Ghana's second largest city, have witnessed fifty years of hostile actions against traders. Interviews, observation and archival research detail gender disparities in rhetoric and tactics that constructed informal trading as a social problem. Price control enforcement consistently hit female-dominated commodities much harder than male. Despite ethnic targeting of "northerners," public media denounced traders as "those women" and defended them as "our mothers." One official solution to corruption in the cloth trade was forbidding women to sell cloth. Women foodstuff sellers faced arbitrary price controls, outright confiscation and physical violence. Men who sold spare parts, drove trucks and made kente and adinkra cloth, by contrast, were consulted to set price levels according to their input prices. Foreign "northern" men were accused of currency speculation and their stalls demolished, but they were never stripped or beaten in public like some women. Attacks on street and roadside vendors date from the colonial "hawker wars," when squads of sanitary inspectors terrorized bakers and cooked food vendors, eating their wares. Current neoliberal policies preclude price control, but street clearances and market relocations continue regularly as globalization increases the pressure to privatize prime land use for high-end commercial and residential use. Female-identified markets have been relocated repeatedly with, little notice or consideration of potential losses compared to male carpentry or auto repair. Gender explains most directly these contrasts between informal services considered productive or parasitic and between respect and disdain.

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Paper short abstract:

This panel seeks to show the impact of the gynecological cancer in the woman's life; more precisely to make a distinction about this impact between postmenopausal and premenopausal women. Therefore, the paper will assess the situation of pelvic gynecological cancer situation which also puts the women inside life and death concepts.

Paper long abstract:

Gynecological cancer is unusual considering the fact that it's about the feminine sphere. It has several consequences on the life quality of women and induces representations associated with death and life. Not only because the cancer generates a vital risk like most of the cancers, but also because the gynecological cancer places the procreation in this balance of life and death. Indeed, some treatments (such as removal of the uterus or chemotherapy) can cause a mourning of procreation, due to induced menopause.

It's therefore interesting to understand the experiences of this disease (reactions, questioning...) and the perception of death of procreation (the advent of infertility) between women who can no longer give birth and women who still can. Linked to this context of menopause, the impact of gynecologic cancer in women is probably different at the representational level. Therefore, it's necessary to make a comparison, in feminine times (age), between naturally menopausal women and younger women who underwent an induced menopause because of the disease.

Likewise, the gynecological cancer can cause the cessation of sexuality. This can be experienced as the end of the couple relationship. Also, the panel seeks to draw out diverse views and experiences of the gynecological cancer disease in women exposed to different situation (about menopause and sexuality).