Livelihoods, Security and Needs: Gender Relations and Land Reform in South Africa

This article focuses on the land reform programme in South Africa as well as on broader questions of rural women’s needs. It draws on interviews with 47 key informants, drawn particularly from the NGO sector, carried out in 2002 and 2003. It examines the importance of ‘land’ compared with wider issues such as personal and bodily security. Despite some encouraging state initiatives, most informants felt that poorer rural women remained marginalized within the land reform programme and more generally. Needs for independent income, health, and personal security were emphasised, with secure access to land seen as potentially beneficial although not as strong a priority. However, this should not be ‘read’ as an argument for ignoring the benefits of land rights for women: a rural women’s movement is needed to carry this forward demands both for economic rights and those linked to bodily integrity

Gender, Land and Sexuality: Exploring Connections

This article explores links between the issues of sexuality and gendered control over agricultural land. It discusses gendered land rights in several settings, concentrating particularly on agrarian and land reforms. I argue that land redistribution in the "household" model, discussed for Chile and Nicaragua, tends to entrench male household and agricultural control. In contrast, more collective forms, discussed for Vietnam, have displayed economic weaknesses but had potential to undercut such control by socialising women's labour. Fears about and visions of female sexuality have much to do with backlashes against inclusion of women, either through allowing them membership of cooperatives and collectives or through granting rights such as joint titling to land. In sub-Saharan Africa, there currently exists much discussion of improving women's control over agriculture and its products. These continue to meet opposition, despite female predominance in agriculture in the region. Thus, even though women work on the land in many societies, this does not give them any automatic "closeness" to nature or say within households. Control over women's, especially wives', labour within peasant households, is linked to the manner that their persons and their labour are bound up in this socio-economic form. The article also examines two feminist attempts to configure alternative agricultural forms: the case of a lesbian agricultural collective in the west of the USA and an Indian model of new female-centred households for single women. Heterosexuality as an institution and gender subordination more broadly, as the examples here indicate, have to do not only with sexual practices or identity but extend also to issues of labour and access to crucial resources. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York

Women’s Land Rights: Tenure, Organisational Issues, the Local and the Global

This paper discusses women’s relation to land and landed property through an examination of gender relations with regard to land rights and within agrarian reforms. Women’s – especially married women’s – relation to land often has implications for their status as members of a social and political collective. Moreover, land remains an important livelihood resource in many societies; its importance is likely to increase in time of economic crisis. The current global trend is for women to take more responsibility in agricultural production where they do not already predominate (FAO 2005)

Mental health services for children and adolescents with learning disabilities: a review of research on experiences of service users and providers

Background: Children and young people with learning disabilities experience high rates of mental health problems. Methods: The present study reviewed the literature on mental health services for children with learning disabilities, to identify known models of service provision and what has been experienced as effective or challenging in providing good services. Results: Children with learning disabilities and their parents experience barriers accessing mental health services that are related to a lack of information and perceptions of services as being inadequate. Service providers identified a lack of resources as a barrier to meeting needs. Although positive experiences are also observed, many parents have found services to be inappropriate or overwhelming. Conclusion: Research linking population need to available resources, and service models to services users’ outcomes would be valuable to make clear recommendations on how mental health services can address the needs of this group more effectively

Migration and attitudes towards domestic violence against women: a case study of Libyan migrants in the UK

This article analyses attitudes to domestic violence against women (DVAW) among Libyan migrants in the north of England; this is the first such study of Libyan migrants. One hundred seventy-five (175) respondents were interviewed in a questionnaire survey and 20 in semi-structured interviews. Migrant status has been identified as an important marker or precarity; gendered and racialised experiences deepen structural forms of insecurity. The research explored the impact of migration on participants’ attitudes to DVAW. The concepts of gender regime and gender order, additionally, help to provide a framework for understanding of the multifaceted nature of unequal gender relations within Libyan Arab communities. The study found that gender and educational level were the most important variables associated with views about DVAW within the sample, whereas length of stay in the UK was not statistically associated with attitudes towards domestic violence. The article explores reasons for relative continuity in beliefs about DVAW in the context of the insecurities of migration. Despite continuities, shifts and changes are taking place within many women’s lives

Pre-hospital assessment of the role of adrenaline : measuring the effectiveness of drug administration in cardiac arrest (PARAMEDIC-2) : trial protocol

Despite its use since the 1960s, the safety or effectiveness of adrenaline as a treatment for cardiac arrest has never been comprehensively evaluated in a clinical trial. Although most studies have found that adrenaline increases the chance of return of spontaneous circulation for short periods, many studies found harmful effects on the brain and raise concern that adrenaline may reduce overall survival and/or good neurological outcome. The PARAMEDIC-2 trial seeks to determine if adrenaline is safe and effective in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. This is a pragmatic, individually randomised, double blind, controlled trial with a parallel economic evaluation. Participants will be eligible if they are in cardiac arrest in the out-of-hospital environment and advanced life support is initiated. Exclusions are cardiac arrest as a result of anaphylaxis or life threatening asthma, and patient known or appearing to be under 16 or pregnant. 8000 participants treated by 5 UK ambulance services will be randomised between December 2014 and August 2017 to adrenaline (intervention) or placebo (control) through opening pre-randomised drug packs. Clinical outcomes are survival to 30 days (primary outcome), hospital discharge, 3, 6 and 12 months, health related quality of life, and neurological and cognitive outcomes (secondary outcomes). Trial registration (ISRCTN73485024)

Gender and agrarian reforms

The redistribution of land has profound implications for women and for gender relations; however, gender issues have been marginalised from both theoretical and policy discussions of agrarian reform. This book presents an overview of gender and agrarian reform experiences globally. Jacobs highlights case studies from Latin America, Asia, Africa and eastern Europe and also compares agrarian and land reforms organised along collective lines as well as along individual household lines. This volume will be of interest to scholars in Geography, Women’s Studies, and Economics

Doi moi and its discontents: gender, liberalisation, and decollectivisation in rural Viet Nam.

This article explores the ways in which liberalisation processes and the decollectivisation of agriculture have impacted on gender relations in Viet Nam. In Viet Nam, decollectivisation entailed a highly egalitarian land redistribution and so presents a nearly unique case study. I discuss two sets of theories: market transition theory and feminist theories analysing the household and household production processes. While market transition theories offer some insights into the differential effects of liberalisation, they do not address aspects of women's work outside the formal economy. In contrast, feminist theories are able to comprehend the complex and interlocking nature of households, lineages, and the wider economy for women's lives and work.I argue that collectivisation of agriculture presented some advantages for women, in that some work was socialised, and earning work points made their work more visible than it had been within peasant households. Decollectivisation and capitalist market relations have offered opportunities for some: for instance, Vietnamese women's role as market traders has been restored. Agricultural productivity has risen, and this has benefited women as well as men. However, this process also restores much more control to male household heads. New property laws give wives the right to have their names on title deeds, along with husbands; however, this is rarely enforced. The majority of peasant women face a loss of services, increased economic instability, and increased risk. New forms of labour organising may be needed to assist rural women in realising land and other rights