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July 14, 2005

IWPR’s Research News Reporter is distributed monthly to highlight inventive, informative, innovative, and sometimes controversial research relating to women and their families. Each selection includes a short description of the research and either a link to the report itself or a citation. We sometimes include short pieces in their entirety.

In this edition:

1. The Ties That Bind: Women’s Public Vision for Politics, Religion, and Civil Society
2. Women and Social Security: Benefit Types and Eligibility
3. How to Exercise Flexible Work: Take Steps with a “Soft Touch” Law
4. Common at its Core: HIV-Related Stigma Across Contexts

1. The Ties That Bind: Women’s Public Vision for Politics, Religion, and Civil Society

Amy Caiazza

The Institute for Women’s Policy Research

June 2005

A new report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research studies religious female activists’ perspectives on their moral values and their experiences claiming leadership positions. Through a series of 75 in-depth, qualitative interviews with women activists working in religious contexts, Caiazza identifies four basic sets of values underlying women’s activism: stewardship; love, peace, and compassion; interconnectedness; and basic worth and dignity. The report discusses how these activists were able to overcome both personal hesitation and external resistance, sometimes with the aid of mentoring or training programs, in order to enter the public sphere. In addition, Caiazza explains that many of the participants felt that they had the moral authority to work for change in the public sector because of their faith.

These findings present a new understanding of “moral values” and a new way to frame the traditional concepts of rights, public life, and social policy in American society. According to the author, the activists’ emphasis on interconnectedness and mutual responsibility underscores a call for redefining the public sphere as a place of partnerships and relationships among citizens and communities, rather than simply a place where individuals act to protect their individual rights. Moreover, the article explains that these women take values that are traditionally thought of as relevant only to the private or family sphere, such as caring and connectedness, and reinterpret them such that they are pertinent to the public sphere. The author concludes by urging political and religious leaders to incorporate women’s perspectives in order to more fully integrate and genuinely promote women’s voices and leadership in society.

http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/I914.pdf

A Research-In-Brief and a Press Release are also available:

Research-in-Brief: http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/I915.pdf

Press Release: http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/Ties_That_Bind_release.pdf

2. Women and Social Security: Benefit Types and Eligibility

Sunhwa Lee

The Institute for Women's Policy Research

June 2005

In this briefing paper, the author outlines the different types of Social Security benefits (retired worker, disabled worker, and survivor benefits) that women are eligible for either as workers or as spouses or family members. The article emphasizes how spousal and survivor benefits are particularly important for women because many women, due to caregiving responsibilities, either do not earn enough to be eligible for Social Security benefits or receive higher benefits as spouses rather than as workers.

By examining the Social Security Administration’s data as of December 2003, the author finds that among all Social Security beneficiaries, 70 percent receive retired worker benefits (32.7 million people). Among those who receive retired worker benefits, women account for 52 percent (16.9 million women). Although the majority of men and women are eligible for retired worker benefits as a result of their work records, 15 percent of women (compared to only 0.2 percent of men) have access to benefits only as a spouse. Furthermore, research shows that 36 percent of all retired women worker beneficiaries receive benefits based on their husband’s earnings. Thus, a little more than half of all women retired worker beneficiaries rely, either fully or partially, on their husbands’ earning records for their Social Security benefits.

The paper finds that in December 2003, recipients of disability benefits accounted for 16 percent of all Social Security beneficiaries (7.6 million), with nearly 80 percent of these recipients under retirement ages. Research also shows that in December 2003, survivor beneficiaries accounted for nearly 15 percent of all Social Security beneficiaries, with women making up 71 percent and children making up to 28 percent of all survivor beneficiaries. Excluding children, the percentage of women survivor beneficiaries would rise to 99 percent. According to the author, this illustrates the importance of Social Security benefits for family members upon the death of a male earner.

http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/D463.pdf

3. How to Exercise Flexible Work: Take Steps with a “Soft Touch” Law

Jodie Levin-Epstein

The Center for Law and Social Policy

June 29, 2005

This policy brief begins by detailing the U.K.’s new “soft touch” law, which encourages flexible scheduling in the workplace, and then analyzes the issues involved in instituting a similar law in the United States. The new U.K. law, which as implemented in 2003, gives employees with young children (under age six) or disabled children (under age 18) the right to request a change in work arrangements. According to the author, this law does not obligate employers to accept the requests, but rather provides a formalized avenue for requests to be made. The author finds that since the law’s implementation, there has been increased flexibility in the workplace and the U.K. government has proposed extending the right to request to more employees, including parents of older children and caregivers of adult relatives.

The author points to key differences between the U.S. and the U.K. that may affect the implementation of a similar law in the U.S. First, Levin-Epstein states that issues pertaining to work-life balance are not yet at the forefront of U.S. political discussions and thus are rarely the subject of U.S. legislation. Second, she argues that there is no expectation in the U.S. that part-time and full-time workers be treated equally. The author believes this may prove to be problematic since many of the requests in the U.K. involve switching from full-time to part-time work. Despite these obstacles to implementing a U.S. adaptation of the law, the researcher states that a soft touch law is an ideal first step towards more flexible work because it signals the value of flexible work without involving an employer mandate. Levin-Epstein finds that a soft touch law could open the door to further discussions about other work-life balance issues.

http://www.clasp.org/publications/work_life_brf3.pdf

4. Common at its Core: HIV-Related Stigma Across Contexts

Jessica Ogden and Laura Nyblade

The International Center for Research on Women

2005

This report states that although it is indisputable that HIV and AIDS-related stigma is a major obstacle to the prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS, policymakers are hesitant to take actions to combat stigma since it is believed that stigmas are too culturally and context specific to be effectively addressed. This report, comparing the research of four distinctly different countries- Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia, and Vietnam, finds that stigma is in fact remarkably consistent across contexts. Similarities exist in the key causes of stigma, the forms stigma takes, and the consequences of stigma. Any differences found are largely of nuances and degrees, rather than in substance.

Ogden and Nyblade find that both knowledge and morality serve as key causes for stigma. Although in certain areas there is high knowledge of how HIV is transmitted, the researchers find that this does not prevent a pervasive fear in all four countries that HIV transmission can occur through ordinary interactions involving no exchange of bodily fluids. This fear leads directly to stigma in the form of isolation of persons living with HIV and AIDS. Another root cause of stigma, according to the report, is the assumptions made about the moral integrity of people living with AIDS, as it is not uncommon for HIV and AIDS patients to be blamed for their condition.

The authors’ research also shows that the manner in which stigma manifests it self is consistent among the four countries. These forms of stigma can be categorized into four broad groups: physical (such as beatings), social (such as the loss of power and identity within the community), verbal (such as gossip), and institutional (such as denial of loans and loss of housing). According to the authors, the consequences and impact of stigma affect not only the individuals living with HIV and AIDS, but also their family members. Stigma also impacts the treatment and prevention of HIV and AIDS. Again, these consequences are largely consistent across contexts. The authors conclude with several recommendations, which involve both individual change and structural change. Examples include providing information on how HIV is transmitted and on how it is not transmitted, providing HIV and AIDS information in an interactive format, and providing HIV and AIDS information without direct reference to specific groups such as gay men, sex workers, or young women.

http://www.icrw.org/docs/2005_report_stigma_synthesis.pdf