• Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage
• 2017-2021close
• 5. Gender equality close

Abstract It has now been more than thirty years since Joan Wallach Scott (1986) argued that gender is a legitimate and necessary category of historical analysis that applies to all fields, including genetics. In the intervening years, a substantial body of work has appeared that adds women to the historiography of genetics. While this is a necessary component for including gender as a category of analysis in genetics, it is not sufficient. Gender analysis involves the broader goal of integrating gender into the interrogation of how social factors within research practices and institutional organization influence scientific work and knowledge production in genetics. This article argues for the imperative for inclusion—including both women and gender analysis—which, taken together, not only provide a more equitable and informative picture of the discipline's development, but also yield a historiography that more faithfully reflects the activity of doing science.

Abstract Research has shown that health service utilisation for depression (HSUD) is less common among men than women. However, most evidence is cross-sectional, and there is limited information about gendered outcomes of depression. This cross-country study assesses gender differences in HSUD and in the persistence of depression by using cross-sectional and longitudinal data. We used data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), from 5428 participants between 50 and 80 from nine European countries, fulfilling criteria for depression in Wave 5 (assessed by the EURO-D depression scale). We modelled non-HSUD among all those depressed in Wave 5 (“cross-sectional data”) and those not depressed in Wave 4 (“longitudinal data”), and the persistence of depression in Wave 6, as a function of gender. We used logistic regressions adjusted for age, marital status, country, education, financial strain, and severity of depression. Non-HSUD was more likely among depressed men than women in both cross-sectional (82.4% vs 73.2%, OR = 1.54, 99%CI = 1.54–1.55) and longitudinal analyses (94.4% vs 88.3%, OR = 2.27, 99%CI = 2.25–2.29). Gender differences were greater among low-educated participants and those with less pronounced financial strain. Among those with HSUD, men were more likely to remain depressed (62.3%, OR = 2.26, 99%CI = 2.22–2.30). Among those without HSUD, depression was more likely to persist among women (45.4%, OR = 0.79, 99%CI = 0.78–0.79). Results suggest that cross-sectional analyses underestimate men's disadvantage in HSUD. Interventions are needed to improve the demand for care and treatment adequacy among men, increasing their perception of need and their mental health literacy.

Cultural beliefs and practices find expression through rituals. Rites of initiation or passage are some of the most common rituals among the indigenous African societies. Pregnancy and Childbirth are not only biological events, but also socially and culturally constructed with associated symbols that represent the social identities and cultural values of Africans. Birth is a rite of passage, and children are perceived as special gifts from the Supreme Being. As such, pregnancy and childbirth are special events cherished and celebrated through varied rituals. Drawing on empirical literature and relevant commentaries, this paper aims to discuss selected rituals and embodied practices surrounding the start of life (pregnancy, birth, and early motherhood). The paper will specifically focus on the following aspects: pregnancy rituals; birth songs and dancing; the omugwo (care after birth); the cord and placenta rituals; and the naming ceremony. Some of the pregnancy rituals are purificatory in nature and therefore beneficial for maternal and infant health. The celebrations surrounding the birth of a child are community events, marked with singing and dancing. Following childbirth, the new mothers are not expected to participate in house chores to allow them time to recuperate. In all, discourses concerning the beginning of life, i.e., pregnancy and the periods surrounding it, are filled with rituals which are embodiments or expressions of cultural values, customs, and beliefs.

From an Iberian perspective, a Galician-Portuguese one, more specifically, the aim of this essay is a dialogical reading of the poetry of women-poets of our century who propose a different view of the feminine and of feminine identity, putting into play a certain theology of femininity, alongside concepts that explicitly call for the representation of the body: Anunciações [Annunciations] (2016), by the Portuguese writer Maria Teresa Horta, a novel in verse that rewrites “with all the senses” the biblical encounter between the Virgin and the Angel; and O libro da egoísta [The Selfish Woman´s Book] (2003) by the young Galician poet Yolanda Castaño, a work that integrates literary and audiovisual codes and where the reflection on identity unfolds and multiplies, returning an image built between the most intimate self and the public perception of the writer. A partir de uma perspetiva ibérica, mais concretamente galego-portuguesa, propomos neste ensaio uma leitura dialogante da poesia de mulheres-poetas do nosso século que nos oferecem uma visão outra do feminino e da identidade feminina, pondo em jogo uma determinada teologia da feminilidade a par de conceitos que convocam de modo explícito a representação do corpo: Anunciações (2016), da escritora portuguesa Maria Teresa Horta, um romance em verso que reescreve o encontro bíblico entre a Virgem e Gabriel; e O libro da egoísta (2003) da jovem escritora galega Yolanda Castaño, uma obra que integra códigos literários e audiovisuais e onde a reflexão sobre a identidade se desdobra e se multiplica, devolvendo uma imagem construída entre o eu mais íntimo e a perceção pública da autora.

At the height of the Irish War of Independence, 1919–1921, 45-year-old Kate Maher was brutally raped. She subsequently died of terrible wounds, almost certainly inflicted by drunken British soldiers. This article discusses her inadequately investigated case in the wider context of fatal violence against women and girls during years of major political instability. Ordinarily her violent death would have been subject to a coroner’s court inquiry and rigorous police investigation, but in 1920, civil inquests in much of Ireland were replaced by military courts of inquiry. With the exception of medical issues, where doctors adhered to their ethical responsibility to provide clear and concise evidence on injuries, wounds and cause of death, courts of inquiry were cursory affairs in which Crown forces effectively investigated and exonerated themselves. This article adopts a microhistory approach to Maher’s case to compare how civilian and military systems differed in their treatments of female fatalities. Despite the fact that the medical evidence unequivocally showed that the attack was of a very violent sexual nature, the two soldiers directly implicated were not charged with rape or any other sexual offence. In her case, and in those of other women who died violently while in the company of soldiers and policemen, prosecutions of the men involved resulted in acquittal by military court martial. This was so both for women portrayed as of immoral character and for others assumed to be ‘respectable’. It also reflects on the wider question of sexual violence during the Irish War of Independence, concluding that while females experienced a range of gender-determined threats and actions such as armed raids on their homes, the ‘bobbing’ of hair and other means of ‘shaming’, rape, accepted as the most serious act of sexual assault, was regarded by all combatants as beyond the pale.

Abstract This article explores the plight of Pakistan’s Christian minorities as depicted by author and journalist Mohammed Hanif in his novel Our Lady of Alice Bhatti. Literature has the ability to inspire immense empathy for the other by lending voice to the forgotten and marginalized, which is the first step to any dialogue for social justice. Examining the so-called fictional depictions against scholarship on the subject, the article studies the complex intersectionality of religion, caste, class, and gender that manifests in the mistreatment of Christian minorities. Through the framework of fiction, it brings to light the lived experience of Pakistani Christians, and in the process, demonstrates the evocative power of literature towards understanding those who find their human dignity threatened by power and privilege.

and (7) the role of Hos 1–3 in Jewish and Christian liturgical traditions. This study offers soundings from across historical, religious, and interpretive traditions that give a sense of the wide-ranging ways in which this book has been read and understood through the centuries. In particular, it highlights that while specific questions and issues related to Hosea have persisted through the years, the underlying interpretive assumptions and approaches to these questions have shifted considerably in various historical periods, which in turn has led to considerable diversity in the reception of this prophetic text. This article examines a number of contested and contentious issues in the reception of Hosea 1–3, exploring how readers through the centuries have engaged with the interpretive challenges found in the initial chapters of this prophetic text. These include (1) debates concerning whether the marriage of Hosea and Gomer should be understood literally or figuratively (3) proposals on how to understand the metaphorical elements related to Hosea’s marriage and Israel’s infidelity (4) ethical, theological, and rhetorical concerns raised by these chapters, including feminist critiques (6) the themes and rhetoric of chp. 2, including the punishment and wooing of the wife and Israel (2) questions concerning the identity of the woman in chp. 3 in relation to the events of chp. 1 (5) the place of Gomer’s children in the opening chapter of the book