Abortion in the United States' bible belt: organizing for power and empowerment

Over the last 30 years, conservative power in the United States, financed and organized by Christian fundamentalist sects, the Catholic Church, and conservative corporate and political leadership, has become more threatening and potentially destabilizing of progressive democratic principles and practices. Powerful interlocking political, financial and social forces are arrayed against women in many Southern and Western states. They are having destructive effects on women's ability to control their fertility and maintain bodily integrity and health. Poor women and women of color are disproportionately affected by restrictions on abortion services. Strategically developed interventions must be initiated and managed at every level in these localities. It is urgent to coordinate and empower individuals, multiple organizations and communities to engender effective changes in attitudes, norms, behavior and policies that will enable women to obtain reproductive health services, including abortion care. This paper describes contextual factors that continue to decimate U.S. women's right to health and, then, describes a community organizing-social action project in a number of US' states aimed at reversing the erosion of women's right to have or not to have children

Primary teachers careers in England and Wales: the relationship between gender, role, position and promotion aspirations

Original article can be found at: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t716100719--Copyright Taylor and Francis / Informa --DOI : 10.1080/14681360000200089This study explores gender differences in UK primary teachers’ perceptions of their careers, through a national questionnaire survey and follow-up interviews. It is framed by reference to Weiner’s three main components of feminism (the political, the critical and the practical) and a concern to highlight difference and complexity, as well as patterns and trends, within primary school teaching. Female and male respondents indicated different areas of concern and influence on their careers and it was found that while reported reasons for not seeking or not achieving promotion were multifaceted, the known and experienced disproportionate promotion of men, plus the frequently traditional gender differences in work - home orientation and contextual / situational expectations, contrived to limit career development for a significant number of women.Peer reviewe

Systems Ideologies and Street-Level Bureaucrats: Policy Change and Perceptions of Quality In a Behavioral Health Care System

This article examines the stability of street-level bureaucrats\u27 negative perceptions regarding a newly implemented managed care system on quality of care and service delivery in a publicly funded behavioral health care system. Overall findings indicate that the generally negative perception of managed care did not differ between staff in the two programs, indicating a weak effect on attitudes of frontline workers. More proximal variables to the caregiver, such as service type and job title, show more influence on attitudes. The conclusion discusses the implications of these findings for practicing administrators and academic researchers