Search results

This paper explores the relationship between gender and the origins and implementation of federal welfare aims in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. It is argued that women's groups played a significantly less direct role in the establishment of federal social insurance and social assistance programs in Puerto Rico than on the U.S. mainland. Early 20th century Puerto Rican feminist and other groups dedicated to the welfare of women and children were subsumed in political parties and their conflicts about the Depression-era quest for economic relief and later U.S.-supported economic developmentalism.

Volume 9 is a collection of advances in gender research from various parts of the world. The papers document the types of work in which women engage, and gender equity issues they face. They show the importance of considering the uniqueness of cultural contexts for understanding and resolving problems, but they also show how global interdependence affects local gender realities. The papers in this volume fall into two broad and overlapping categories: gender, work and development, and gender and discrimination.

Autumn Behringer has completed her Ph.D. at Purdue University and started a position as Assistant Professor of Sociology at Weber State University in the fall of 2004. Her research centers largely on the study of gender, intimate relationships, and social inequality. Her dissertation is a symbolic interactionist analysis of marital communications. She has a chapter, “The Meaning of Husband and Wife: Spouses’ Perceptions of Marital Labels,” forthcoming in Couples, Kids, and Family Life (Oxford University Press).