Exploring links between the social reform, nationalist, and women\u27s movements in India.

The investigation utilized a historical/comparative methodology to trace connections between three social movements---the Social Reform, Nationalist, and Women\u27s Movements in India. While some researchers (e.g. Tarrow (1994); Snow & Benford (1992)) offer the concept of the cultural and master frame to explain linkages between movements, this research went further by probing additional elements such as social networks and political career patterns. Connections were evident since all three were united through the master frame. The social reform movement laid the groundwork for both the nationalist and feminist movements. However, the impact of the reform and nationalist movement on Indian feminism was paradoxical. While both social reform and nationalism advanced the concerns of women, they also hindered the progress of the feminist movement through the propagation of contradictory roles and images of women. These movements also omitted certain feminist issues and thus many dissatisfied women mobilized their efforts to raise the status of women. Consequently, the master frame both empowered and limited movements. However, this cultural frame represented but one facet of the link between movements. An analysis of the life histories of women suggested that social networks and political career patterns also played a significant role in further connecting these movements.Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1997 .S26. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 39-02, page: 0415. Adviser: Tanya Basok. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1998

Cultural differences in shame-focused attitudes towards mental health problems in Asian and Non-Asian student women.

This study explored differences in shame-focused attitudes to mental health problems in Asian and non-Asian students. The ‘Attitudes Towards Mental Health Problems’ (ATMHP) is a self-report scale designed for this study to measure: external shame (beliefs that others will look down on self if one has mental health problems); internal shame (related to negative self-evaluations); and reflected shame (believing that one can bring shame to family/community). A second questionnaire was designed to measure concerns with confidentiality. Results suggest that Asian students have higher external shame and reflected shame, but not internal shame beliefs. Asian students were also more concerned with confidentiality when it comes to talking about personal feeling/anxieties

Coercion, consent and the forced marriage debate in the UK

An examination of case law on forced marriage reveals that in addition to physical force, the role of emotional pressure is now taken into consideration. However, in both legal and policy discourse, the difference between arranged and forced marriage continues to be framed in binary terms and hinges on the concept of consent: the context in which consent is constructed largely remains unexplored. By examining the socio-cultural construction of personhood, especially womanhood, and the intersecting structural inequalities that constrain particular groups of South Asian women in the UK, we argue that consent and coercion in relation to marriage can be better understood as two ends of a continuum, between which lie degrees of socio-cultural expectation, control, persuasion, pressure, threat and force. Women who face these constraints exercise their agency in complex and contradictory ways that are not always recognised by the existing exit-centred state initiatives designed to tackle this problem