Topic:
Genes, Gender and Culture
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new as of June 1, 2008
Baby name wizard! - Okay, I'm stretching this one to fit it in, but it's fun. Must be some academic use or value: Changing popularity of names over decades? [added 6/17/05]
Men and women in the U.S. - a report from the Census Bureau [added 3/20/05]
The status of women in the states, 2004 - a report from the Institute for Women's Policy Research [added 12/1/04]
Statistics on women - "This section contains facts and figures on women's participation in politics, governance, and decision-making and other relevant statistics on women." From Onlinewomeninpolitics.org. [added 7/1/04]
GenderNet - From The World Bank Group, this site "seeks to reduce gender disparities and enhance women's participation in economic development through its programs and projects. It summarizes knowledge and experience, provides gender statistics, and facilitates discussion on gender and development." [added 11/20/03]
Book chapter - a chapter "Thinking about gender, thinking about theory: Gender and emotional experience" (1999) by Stephanie Shields from Gender and emotions: Social psychological perspectives, edited by Agneta Fischer. [added 7/23/03]
Gender in the Visual Arts - This detailed lecture, accompanied by many images, was created by Mary Ann Sullivan. [added 2/4/03]
Gender equity in college faculty pay - Um, not yet. [added 4/20/08]
"1943 guide to hiring women" - A blast from the past -- for example, "Give the female employee a definite day-long schedule of duties so that they’ll keep busy without bothering the management for instructions every few minutes. Numerous properties say that women make excellent workers when they have their jobs cut out for them, but that they lack initiative in finding work themselves." [added 4/20/08]
Women and workplace stereotypes - interesting essay describing some research on the "damned if you do, doomed if you don't" situations women face in the workplace [added 1/8/08]
"Traditional gender roles hold back female scientists" - [added 12/15/07]
"The case for cyberfeminism" - “Four dolls, two plastic and two biological are seated around a small table inside a Starbucks coffee shop at an upscale shopping center outside Dayton, Ohio. They are all enjoying skim lattes. It is a Saturday. These same four dolls, along with their husbands and dates were guests at a dinner party the previous Thursday.” Yes, it's an opinion essay that takes the form of a one-act play. [added 12/15/07]"Are women asking for low wages?" - Research report entitled, "Are women asking for low wages? Gender differences in wage bargaining strategies and ensuing bargaining success" [added 8/05/07]
"Women at work: A progress report" - a just-released report (2007) from Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas [added 7/19/07]
Moms and jobs - "Moms and jobs: Trends in mothers' employment and which mothers stay home" is a fact sheet from the Council on Contemporary Families. [added 7/19/07]In which job sectors are men and women concentrated? - an interesting recent survey of the European Union, finding that women are concentrated in fewer job sectors than men -- see the graph on the first page that captures it well [added 7/14/07]
Women earn less than men - Here's the report from the American Association of University Women that has recently made the news in the U.S. It finds that "just one year out of college, women working full time already earn less than their male colleagues, even when they work in the same field. Ten years after graduation, the pay gap widens." [added 7/14/07]
"Does science promote women?" - "Many studies have shown that women are under-represented in tenured ranks in the sciences. We evaluate whether gender differences in the likelihood of obtaining a tenure track job, promotion to tenure, and promotion to full professor explain these facts using the 1973-2001 Survey of Doctorate Recipients. We find that women are less likely to take tenure track positions in science, but the gender gap is entirely explained by fertility decisions. We find that in science overall, there is no gender difference in promotion to tenure or full professor after controlling for demographic, family, employer and productivity covariates and that in many cases, there is no gender difference in promotion to tenure or full professor even without controlling for covariates. However, family characteristics have different impacts on women's and men's promotion probabilities. Single women do better at each stage than single men, although this might be due to selection. Children make it less likely that women in science will advance up the academic job ladder beyond their early post-doctorate years, while both marriage and children increase men's likelihood of advancing." [added 7/7/07]
Working Women Survey - 26,000 women respond to a 2006 online survey from the AFL-CIO [added 12/30/06]
Bias keeping women out of science - "Women are being filtered out of high-level science, math, and engineering jobs in the United States, and there is no good reason for it, according to a National Academies report released yesterday." [added 12/30/06]
"No job for a woman" - an exhibition and resources on "the effects of war on women's lives during the 20th and 21st centuries" -- from the Imperial War Museum [added 12/26/06]
"Visible invisibility: Women of color in law firms" - report from the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession [added 12/26/06]Barriers to women's advancement in the workplace - From Catalyst, here is the executive summary of "Different cultures, similar perceptions: Stereotyping of Western European business leaders," and the full report. [added 7/6/06]
"Stewardess Uniforms" - I know, this is bit of a weird site. Some guy wants to share his fascination with the changing stewardess uniforms. Some date back to the 1950s. [added 7/6/06]
Do apparel "sweatshops" in third world countries help or hurt women? - According to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, the apparel industry in third world countries encourages further education for women. "In short, the maligned suppliers of Nike, Gap and Wal-Mart encourage governments to educate women, give women a reason to stay in school and pay them well by local standards. Our study presents a picture of textile and footwear plants that’s far less harrowing than the sweatshop stereotype and more compatible with surveys in dozens of countries that find female workers feel they benefit from the factory jobs." [added 7/6/06]
What is mom's job worth? - Study looked at what a stay-at-home mom's and a working mom's earnings might look like if you compared their work as a mom to comparable jobs like "laundry machine operator," "psychologist," and "CEO." [added 7/6/06]Perceptions of men and women as business leaders - "Women 'take care,' men 'take charge': Stereotyping of U.S. business leaders exposed" is a research report from Catalyst. "In this exploratory study, Catalyst takes a detailed view of corporate leadership.We consider ten essential behaviors required of corporate leaders. By looking at leadership as a set of separate but related behaviors, we pinpoint just where women leaders are vulnerable to stereotyping, and show how the negative effects of stereotyping on any particular leader behavior can spill over to other leader behaviors. This specificity gives us a better foundation for recommending solutions." [added 1/10/06]
"Women Working, 1800-1930" - a new collection from Harvard University Library -- included are documents, images and teacher resources. [added 1/9/06]
Gender: "101 facts on the status of workingwomen" - recent (2005) report from Business and Professional Women [added 1/8/06]
"Getting a job: Is there a motherhood penalty?" - a press release about some interesting research - here is the research article [added 1/7/06]
Most desirable careers - The career most Americans encourage their children to pursue is to "be a doctor" according to this recent poll. Interestingly, "20 percent of Americans recommend that young women become physicians, while 17 percent suggest medicine as a career for young men." [added 9/20/05]
"Some occupations becoming more gender-neutral" - brief report published in the Occupational Outlook Quarterly [added 8/30/05]
"Inequities persist for women and non-tenure-track faculty" - report from the American Association of University Professors [added 8/30/05]Do women "opt out" of leadership and power at work? - article entitled "Women pursuing leadership and power: Challenging the myth of the 'opt out revolution'" from the Center for Gender in Organzations [added 6/20/05]
College degree contribution to gender wage gap - The study "Contribution of degree subject to the gender wage gap among graduates: A comparison of Britain, France and Germany" from the Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society examines one of the possible factors as to why women earn less than men. [added 3/1/05]
101 facts on the status of working women - The Business and Professional Women's Foundation "has updated its compilation of 101 Facts on the Status of Workingwomen." [added 12/1/04]
"Latina Women of NASA" - Not much here yet, but this new site includes some biographies and links to other Hispanic/NASA connections. [added 7/23/03]
"Celebrating Diversity: Women Energize an Atomic World" - From the International Atomic Energy Agency, this site relays stories of women in the nuclear field. [added 7/16/03]
Gender and the MilitarySexual violence in the U.S. Armed Forces - "A considerable sacrifice: The costs of sexual violence in the U.S. Armed Forces" is a paper from The Miles Foundation. [added 1/9/06]
Women in the Military - text and audio from a conversation about women in combat - other relevant links are also included - from National Public Radio [added 7/23/03]
Women in military service for America - links to a variety of resources [added 3/6/02]
Tailhook '91 - PBS Frontline show on the Navy Tailhook Convention where "83 women and 7 men were assaulted during the three-day aviators' convention, according to a report by the Inspector General of the Department of Defense (DOD)."
Gender Roles in Home/Marriage/Sex
The man who is pregnant - A blog entry about the man in the news who recently announced he is pregnant. See some video and some good analysis of the story. [added 5/11/08]
"Men's changing contribution to housework and child care" - [added 4/20/08]
The paradox of polygamy - "Contrary to popular belief, most women benefit from polygynous society, and most men benefit from monogamous society. This is because polygynous society allows some women to share a resourceful man of high status." [added 4/13/08]
"Muslim American women confront domestic abuse" - [added 4/5/08]
"Korea's 'best mom' chosen as face of new currency" - Interesting story -- "South Korea's central bank on Monday chose the face of Korean motherhood as the first woman to be featured on its banknotes, but women's rights groups say the selection only reinforces sexist stereotypes." [added 12/15/07]
Saudi gang-rape victim punished - In Saudi Arabia, "the 19-year-old victim was sentenced last year to 90 lashes for meeting with an unrelated male, a former friend from whom she was retrieving photographs." Then "the judges more than doubled the punishment for the victim because of 'her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media.'" Here is a story about the Muslim American Society condemning the Saudi court's actions. Here is a news video about the story and a response from the rape victim. [added 12/15/07]
"The truth of the mommy wars" - interesting and provocative essay [added 12/9/07]
Realistic female dolls for men - "Thousands of men are shelling out $6,500 for hyper-realistic dolls that answer all their needs -- and don't talk back." No mention in the article of women buying men dolls. What would a male doll that answered all of women's needs be like? [added 12/9/07]
Widows in India flock to city to die - Sad story of how, "ostracized by society, thousands of India's widows flock to the holy city of Vrindavan waiting to die." [added 10/27/07]
Polygamy follows Africans to New York City - article in The New York Times [added 7/19/07]Moms and jobs - "Moms and jobs: Trends in mothers' employment and which mothers stay home" is a fact sheet from the Council on Contemporary Families. [added 7/19/07]
More on honor killings - a story of a young Turkish woman living in Germany who claims to be escaping an abusive husband and the fear of an "honor killing" [added 7/14/07]
Mail-order brides - This interestingly entitled article, "Romance is dead: The consumer husband marries a surrogate corpse and the mail-order bride industry invites feminism to the wedding," suggests that "intimacy is a topic in need of analysis by legal scholars. The mail-order bride industry provides a useful starting point, most poignantly through the experience of the consumer-husband and his purchased bride. Males who purchase their sexual gratification embody a masculinity reflective of the desire for female subordination and passivity. But this context reveals deeper concerns about the intersection of masculinity and sexuality at large." [added 7/7/07]
Feet binding in China - Two elderly women share their very interesting stories of feet binding and other aspects of life years ago in China. [added 12/30/06]
The practice of sati - This article describes the practice of sati (self-immolation) in which a Hindu widow throws herself on the funeral pyre of her husband to remain pure and demonstrate "everlasting devotion to her husband." The article describes the evolution of the practice and the use of the term. This page is from the Women in World History project from The Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. You can also visit the homepage of the Women in World History site which contains a lot of good educational resources. [added 12/30/06]
Honor killings in Iraq - An article describing crimes against women in Iraq in the name of family honor -- also an audio story on the topic from National Public Radio. [added 12/30/06]What is mom's job worth? - Study looked at what a stay-at-home mom's and a working mom's earnings might look like if you compared their work as a mom to comparable jobs like "laundry machine operator," "psychologist," and "CEO." [added 7/6/06]
Domestic violence against women - report from the World Health Organization [added 1/13/06]
Home economics resources - Huge (about 400,000 pages) repository of books and journals available online from 1850-1950 on home economics and related disciplines from Cornell University libraries -- provides a fascinating picture of past norms and roles. For example, I did a search for "good wife" and found a 1950 text that described what a good husband and a good wife should be like. [added 8/30/05]
Marital history - How many Whites (or Hispanics or Asians) were married between the ages of 15-19 according to the 2000 census? How many were married by the time they were 60 years of age? Pour through some U.S. Census Bureau on marital history. It's fun, try it! [added 6/17/05]
Child marriage
Story 1; Story 2; Story 3
A sad yet utterly fascinating story is told in this Chicago Tribune series (2004) of young girls being forced to marry as early as seven years of age. The first link tells of such practices in Ethiopia. The second link is to the second and more hopeful installment of this story, covering efforts in Egypt to reverse the devastating effects of this practice. The third link is to a story covering early marriage in the U.S. [added 3/1/05]Changing norms regarding breastfeeding in public - report summarizing the current status of breastfeeding laws in all 50 states of the U.S. [added 12/1/04]
The Pill - very informative website accompanying the PBS American Experience episode on the history and influence of the contraceptive pill - includes some video clips and tracking of attitudes over time. [added 6/9/04]
Mothers giving up daughters - The following excerpt comes from a fascinating article in the latest issue of Science News entitled, Mother and child disunion: Don't take a mother's love for granted. "Shortly after arriving in Taiwan in 1957, Stanford University anthropologist Arthur Wolf reached the rural village of Hsia-ch'i-chou. There, he met a weathered-looking woman who told an incredible story. Several decades previously, she had given away her five infant daughters and had replaced them with five girls adopted from other families and fated to become wives to her five sons. The friendly, outgoing woman seemed proud of what she'd done, Wolf recalls, adding that she described the dispatching of her babies to new homes as smart household management. "I gave away all five girls and raised instead wives for my five sons," Wolf remembers her saying. "This saved me [money and ultimately the need to pay dowries] as well as the trouble of arranging 10 marriages." For each marriage of an adult son, for example, she would have had to throw large and expensive feasts, as well as pay a fee to the bride's family." [added 4/06/04]
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM): Amnesty International / NOCIRC - The first link from Amnesty International provides a lot of background info on FGM as well as why the organization has taken up this issue. The second link is to NOCIRC, an "educational non-profit organization committed to securing the birthright of male, female, and intersex children and babies to keep their sex organs intact." [added 3/30/04]
"Levittown: Documents of an Ideal American Suburb" - a study of the changing and developing American suburb through one of its most famous case studies - told primarily through images as this site is from the Art History Department of the University of Illinois at Chicago [added 12/03/02]
Gender and sexuality - links [added 9/10/02]
"How to be a Good Wife" - purportedly from a home economics high school textbook, 1954 (can anyone verify this?)
"Making 'Welfare to Work' Really Work" - position paper from the Division of the Psychology of Women of APA
Gender in Education and Athletics
Single-sex schools - a brief article by Elaine Cassel [added 3/23/04]
Title IX report (2003) - "'Open to All': Title IX at Thirty" is a report from the Secretary of Education’s Commission on Opportunity in Athletics. [added 7/23/03]
"Title IX at 30: Report Card on Gender Equity" - (June, 2002) - "Title IX at 30: Report Card on Gender Equity is a follow-up to the 1997 NCWGE publication, Title IX at 25: Report Card on Gender Equity. This new report reasseses the law five years later and examines the state of gender equity in education in ten key areas: access to higher education, athletics, career education, employment, learning environment, math and science, sexual harassment, standardized testing, technology, and treatment of pregnant and parenting students." [added 8/14/02]
India's first transgender TV host - "Her forthcoming show, called 'Yours, Rose,' will be a venue to debate all kinds of socially taboo topics." [added 1/8/08]
Do girls prefer pink? - a good description of how the media often overblows research findings [added 11/18/07]
Advertising soap in America - The Ivory Project, from the National Museum of American History, contains hundreds of interesting print soap ads from 1838-1998, primarily for Ivory soap but also including other brands. Interesting to track the portrayal of women in particular through these ads. [added 7/1/04]
Picturing Women - "Picturing Women explores how women are figured, fashioned, turned into portraits, and told about in words and pictorial narrative." [added 6/9/04]
Lesson plans - high school plans on gender portrayal [added 9/10/02]
Gender in the media - links to lots of articles on gender roles and gender portrayal in the media - from the U. of Iowa Dept. of Communication Studies [added 9/10/02]
"The Merchants of Cool" - PBS website accompanying its Frontline program first aired in 2001. It is a "report on the creators and marketers of popular culture for teenagers." Now view the entire program online! [added 8/30/02]
About-Face.org - "a San Francisco-based group, About-Face combats negative and distorted images of women" - site contains hundreds of images of women, negatively and positively portrayed, with commentary. Also a few research articles and "lots o' links" to body image and other topics [added 3/21/02]
"Is there anything good about men?" - interesting APA address (2007) from Roy Baumeister on how culture tends to exploit men in certain ways [added 11/18/07]
"The double dividend of gender equality" - From UNICEF, "The State of the World's Children 2007 examines the discrimination and disempowerment women face throughout their lives - and outlines what must be done to eliminate gender discrimination and empower women and girls. It looks at the status of women today, discusses how gender equality will move all the Millennium Development Goals forward, and shows how investment in women's rights will ultimately produce a double dividend: advancing the rights of both women and children." [added 12/30/06]
The Gender Genie! - Interesting site in which you paste some text you (or anyone) have (has) written. The Genie will tell you whether you are male or female! It uses a simple algorithm to reach its conclusion. Try it out. Here is an explanation of the program and its success rate. [added 12/30/06]
Is Title IX working? - "In recognition of the 35th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark law that mandates equal educational opportunities for male and female students, the National Women’s Law Center today is releasing the outcome of an investigation of Title IX complaints as well as the results of a national poll that shows overwhelming public support for Title IX." [added 8/05/07]
"'Women's town' puts men in their place" - Fascinating story of an area of China: "Traditional women dominate and men have to be obedient in the areas of Sichuan province and Chongqing, and now we are using it as an idea to attract tourists and boost tourism," the official, surname Li, said by telephone." Now they are building a tourist site -- Women's Town -- to allow tourists to experience this turning of gender roles on its head. Sounds like an article from The Onion to me. [added 7/14/07]
"Women lose ground in the new Iraq" - [added 12/30/06]Wendy Macpherson "outbowled everybody in the country" - This may be the first case of a woman winning a major sporting event in the U.S. (in the world?) over all participants, including men. Know of other such cases? [added 12/26/06]
"Spread of Islamic law in Indonesia takes toll on women" - article from the New York Times [added 7/6/06]
Girls names - Here is an interesting column about the popularity of girls names in the U.S., with particular attention to the name "Madison." It is apparently one of several boys names that became popular as a girl's name over time. "The list of former boys names since appropriated by girls now includes Vivian, Joyce, Beverley, Leslie, Lindsey and Ashley." An expert in names noted in the column that one reason parents have chosen "male" names for their girls is to "give the daughter a strong image." Interestingly, the expert "could think of no examples in the U.S. of traditional girls names that common usage transformed into boys names. It's a sign, he said, of the deep-rooted sexism in our society that 'parents think a girls' name would contaminate a boy and make him weak.'" [added 7/6/06]
"How to get more Pakistani girls into school" - report from The World Bank [added 7/6/06]
"Jewish women and the feminist revolution" - resources from the Jewish Women's Archive [added 1/10/06]
"Promoting gender equality in transport" - This paper from the Equal Opportunities Commission in the UK investigates travel patterns of men and women and "unintended gender-bias in UK transport policy." [added 1/9/06]
Girls and gaming - "Dr. Denise Agosto examines computer game use among girls and suggests how teacher-librarians can encourage girls to become equal players in the male-dominated world of gaming." [added 6/20/05]
"Japan debates female succession" - article from BBC News (2005) [added 6/17/05]
Masculinity - links to various related resources - from the Gender and Diversities Institute [added 8/14/02]
Neurosexism - "A number of recent popular books about gender differences have drawn on the neuroscientific literature to support the claim that certain psychological differences between the sexes are ‘hard-wired’. This article highlights some of the ethical implications that arise from both factual and conceptual errors propagated by such books." [added 4/20/08]
Sex differences in math and science - excellent article in Science News reviewing the different positions for "why females lag behind males in math and science achievement" [added 1/8/08]
The White male effect in risk perception - a study/discussion of why white males seem to be less risk averse than women and minorities [added 12/9/07]
Differences in performance on computer-based exams? - "No," according to this report -- "Overall performance scores for students among the various Academic Years revealed no differences between exams given in the traditional pen-and-paper and computer formats. Further, when we looked specifically for gender differences in performance between these two testing formats, we found none." [added 7/06/07]
Gender differences towards corruption - Based on experimental data collected across several countries, this research report describes gender differences in attitudes towards corruption. [added 12/30/06]
Sex differences in negotiation tactics - "Two experiments show that sex differences in the propensity to initiate negotiations may be explained by differential treatment of men and women when they attempt to negotiate." - From the Faculty Research Working Paper Series at Harvard [added 1/8/06]
What women want - Who should know better than Chicken of the Sea? Read their survey results on this question. [added 8/30/05]
Gender differences in undergraduate education over time - "Gender differences in participation and completion of undergraduate education and how they have changed over time" - for example, this report from the National Center for Education Statistics finds that "women went from being the minority to the majority of the U.S. undergraduate population, increasing their representation from 42 percent to 56 percent of undergraduates." [added 6/20/05]
Male/female brain differences - The excellent website Neuroscience for Kids briefly reviews some research on possible differences in the brain of males and females. [added 6/17/05]
National Women's Hall of Fame - From the U.S. -- do you know of any other nation that has such a site? [added 7/6/06]
Two recent reports came out at about the same time -- one report finds that for the first time in recorded history, women have a longer life expectancy than men in every country in the world. On the other hand, this report from Social Watch finds that "No country in the world treats its women as well as its men." [added 7/5/06]
Timeline of women's history in U.S. - from the Walker Library at Middle Tennessee State University [added 1/14/06]
Timeline of women's rights movement - March is Women's History Month, and here is a "timeline of key events in the American women's rights movement." [added 6/20/05]
Facts for Women's History Month - From the U.S. Census Bureau -- you can click on each fact to learn more about it. [added 6/20/05]International Women's Day - This site provides a history of International Women's Day. [added 4/06/04]
Women's studies / women's issues resource sites - extensive set of links [added 4/5/04]
Documents from the Women's Liberation Movement - "The materials in this on-line archival collection document various aspects of the Women's Liberation Movement in the United States, and focus specifically on the radical origins of this movement during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Items range from radical theoretical writings to humourous plays to the minutes of an actual grassroots group." From Duke University. [added 7/16/03]
Women of the Century: 100 Years of American Heroes - some good biographical and historical information organized by decades and by category of contributions (e.g., sports, science) [added 2/4/03]
Art4empowerment - "The mission of art4empowerment is to empower women through art. We focus on women who have experienced abuse or domestic violence. We believe that everyone can benefit from art making for healing, self-knowledge and empowerment. Our initiatives include: organization and volunteer management of Art for Empowerment programs, exhibitions, presentations, publications, and scholarly research. Visit our gallery to see stunning works by survivors and artists." [added 7/06/07]
Women in Afghanistan - website accompanying the story of Afghan women trained as video journalists to tell the story of women under the Taliban rule and now [added 3/1/05]
The Women of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico - This site provides a bibliography and links to resources related to the murder and sexual abuse of approximately 400 women in and around this community. [added 4/06/04]
Repression of Women in Afghanistan - "'We want to live as humans:' Repression of women and girls in Western Afghanistan" is a recent report from the Human Rights Watch. [added 2/4/03]
"Three are gay, three are straight" - article about the opportunity to study a family in which three brothers are gay and three are straight [added 10/27/07]"The science of gaydar" - Here's a very interesting article in The New Yorker describing some recent research identifying physical characteristics, such as the counterclockwise hair whorl and denser fingerprint ridges, that are more common in gay men than straight men. Here is a research article on the hair whorl. Here is an article looking at the genetic bases of homosexuality. [added 8/05/07]
Male homosexuality tied to older brothers? - "A new study finds that homosexuality grows more likely with the greater number of biological older brothers-those sharing both father and mother-that a male has." [added 12/26/06]
"Should thin be illegal?" - You may have heard about France's proposed new law that would make it illegal to "provoke a person to seek excessive weight loss by encouraging prolonged nutritional deprivation that would have the effect of exposing them to risk of death or directly compromise health." Here is a blog entry about it with a disturbing picture. [added 5/11/08]
"Eating disorders may be contagious" - [added 5/11/08]
"In Japan, it's the men who want to be skinny and cute" [added 12/15/07]
The sexualization of girls - This new report from the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls finds that "the proliferation of sexualized images of girls and young women in advertising, merchandising, and media is harming girls' self-image and healthy development. This report explores the cognitive and emotional consequences, consequences for mental and physical health, and impact on development of a healthy sexual self-image." [added 7/7/07]
Sexualization of children in Australia - The article argues that through advertising and children's magazines young children (particularly girls) are becoming prematurely sexualized. [added 12/30/06]
Pink's "Stupid Girls" video - very interesting music video from Pink attacking the media and popular culture's influence on female's self-image [added 7/6/06]
"I'm not good enough" - "According to a new report published 3/27/06 by the Priory Group, entitled ‘I'm Not Good Enough', millions of British women currently suffer from low self-esteem which adversely affects their mental health, relationships, work prospects and quality of life." [added 7/6/06]
Body image resources - a list of fiction and non-fiction books as well as videos on body image and eating disorders, from the School Library Journal [added 2/22/06]
Killing us softly 3 - preview - a fairly long preview video of the Killing us softly 3 video about the media's protrayal of female body image [added 6/9/04]
"Idealized women in TV ads make girls feel bad" - media report of recent research (Journal of Clinical and Social Psychology, 2002) that has garnered a lot of media attention [added 8/30/02]
"Dying to be Thin" - PBS often has excellent companion websites for its programs, and this one for a Nova episode is no exception. Along with hearing from experts, reading personal stories and finding links to other resources, you and your students can watch the entire television program online! (with QuickTime or RealPlayer plug-in)
Eating Disorders in Fiji - "After Three Years of Western Programming, Five Times as Many Teenage Girls Report Vomiting to Control Weight"
Body image affects math scores - report from APA describing research in which women wearing a swimsuit (as opposed to a sweater) performed lower on a math test (1999)
Menstrual cycle and brain reward activation - More research on possible relationships between stages of the menstrual cycle and women's choices and behaviors, with a look at changes in the brain [added 8/05/07]Changing a boy to a girl - fascinating and famous case of John/Joan whose penis was accidentally removed during a circumcision when he was eight years old - an article (1997) from The Rolling Stones [added 7/16/03]
Death of David Reimer - The boy raised as a girl mentioned above died recently (May, 2004) at age 38. [added 5/13/04]
Audio: Interview with John Colapinto - Hear NPR's interview of the author of As nature made him: The boy who was raised as a girl, a book about David Reimer. [added 5/13/04]
"How culture affects the way we think" - A good report from the 2007 APS convention [added 10/27/07]
Reading faces - article on how Americans and Japanese read faces (and emoticons!) differently [added 7/19/07]
More on honor killings - a story of a young Turkish woman living in Germany who claims to be escaping an abusive husband and the fear of an "honor killing" [added 7/14/07]
"American women through time" - an exhibit created by Ken Middleton at Middle Tennessee State University [added 7/8/07]
How culture influences emotions - An article describing some research of Jeanne Tsai: "Tsai's work explores how ethnic culture shapes our emotional lives, particularly our concept of happiness." [added 12/30/06]
"Insight into how children learn cultural values" - interesting article reviewing some very interesting research about how cultural values are passed on in different societies [added 12/30/06]
Feet binding in China - Two elderly women share their very interesting stories of feet binding and other aspects of life years ago in China. [added 12/30/06]
Differing "models of agency" - an interesting summary of a 2006 article in Psychological Science which investigates how our explanations of our heroes' exploits varies across cultures [added 7/6/06]
"Canadian Cultures" - essay in the most recent APS Observer about Canadian culture and U.S.-Canada relations [added 7/6/06]
The Japanese social concept of amae - Interesting article about this Japanese social behavior roughly defined as "a person's expectation that another person will indulge him or her and the obligation of the second person to do so, whether or not he or she wants to." [added 12/1/04]
Mothers giving up daughters - The following excerpt comes from a fascinating article in the latest issue of Science News entitled, Mother and child disunion: Don't take a mother's love for granted. "Shortly after arriving in Taiwan in 1957, Stanford University anthropologist Arthur Wolf reached the rural village of Hsia-ch'i-chou. There, he met a weathered-looking woman who told an incredible story. Several decades previously, she had given away her five infant daughters and had replaced them with five girls adopted from other families and fated to become wives to her five sons. The friendly, outgoing woman seemed proud of what she'd done, Wolf recalls, adding that she described the dispatching of her babies to new homes as smart household management. "I gave away all five girls and raised instead wives for my five sons," Wolf remembers her saying. "This saved me [money and ultimately the need to pay dowries] as well as the trouble of arranging 10 marriages." For each marriage of an adult son, for example, she would have had to throw large and expensive feasts, as well as pay a fee to the bride's family."
The above link takes you to the abstract of Wolf's article on this topic. If your library has a database subscription to Current Anthropology you should also be able to read the full article online. [added 4/06/04]
Articles - a number of interesting articles (in RTF) from Steven Heine on cultural differences in social behaviors, particularly between East Asian and North American [added 9/10/02]
The Literature & Culture of the American 1950s - extensive set of links from an online English course, The American 1950s
"Monkey police provide social stability" - article from Scientific American [added 2/22/06]Gene for monogamy? - Public press article about interesting research recently published in Nature. "By transferring a single gene to the pleasure center of the naturally promiscuous male vole, researchers at Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta were able to make it happily monogamous, they say in a letter in the journal Nature." [added 7/1/04]
Cooperation among the baboons - interesting article of possible cultural transmission of female baboons' attempt to induce more cooperation from male baboons [added 6/9/04]
"Beast buddies: Do animals have friends?" - an intriguing question and article from ScienceNews [added 6/9/04]
More monkey culture stuff - What are them darn monkeys up to now? [added 6/9/04]Influence of genes on social behavior of macaque monkeys
Abstract
Press release
Very interesting article of "nature over nurture" in which "young monkeys reared by a mother other than their own are more likely to exhibit the aggressive or friendly behavior of their birth mothers rather than the behavior of their foster mothers, a University of Chicago researcher has shown for the first time." The first link is to an abstract of the article; the second link is to a press release about it. [added 3/23/04]"Monkeys reject unequal pay" - This is an interesting study of macaque monkey sense of fairness and aversion to inequity recently (2003) published in Nature. [added 11/20/03]
"Rebranding the Hyena" - fascinating article on the social world of the hyena - The spotted hyena is one of the few mammals in which the female is the dominant sex. Also interesting is the research on the "immigrant male" who has left his original clan to attempt to join a new clan. Entering the clan at the bottom of the hierarchy, the immigrant males are even forced to adopt a submissive posture to tiny cubs. And, yet, DNA paternity testing found that "an astonishing 97 percent of cubs are fathered by immigrant males, even though they are outranked by the younger native males." [added 6/13/02]
Resources for the Teaching of Social Psychology is a part of the CROW Project, Course Resources on the Web. CROW is sponsored by the Associated Colleges of Illinois and generously supported by UPS. This site was created by Jon Mueller, Professor of Psychology at North Central College, Naperville, IL. Send comments to Jon.
