Jan Hagen
Within the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy a number of faculty, several of whom are highlighted here, are actively pursuing research relevant to women's issues. An overarching theme for three researchers-Frankie Bailey, Bonnie Carlson, and Cathy Spatz Widom-is gender and violence.
Gender and Violence
Frankie Bailey, whose research encompasses crime history and crime and the mass media, is now looking at the portrayal of victim-offender relationships in the mass media. She is considering rape as portrayed in popular films and will expand this to include the "eroticizing of violence," i.e. the close conjunction of sex and violence in such subgenres as film noir and slasher movies. A project under development is an examination of murders of and by females and the circumstances under which these crimes occurred. This project encompasses murders occurring in Albany from 1900 to 1950.
Bonnie Carlson, who has done extensive work on battered women and domestic violence, now has two studies underway on violence. One, on student judgments regarding dating violence, focuses on the factors that influence how students themselves think about what constitutes violence and abuse in dating relationships. Bonnie is also venturing into an unexplored area by examining domestic violence among developmentally disabled women. Qualitative in method, the study is expected to generate hypotheses for further research and to inform practice interventions with this population.
As part of a larger study on the intergenerational transmission of violence, Cathy Spatz Widom is examining gender differences in the long-term consequences of child abuse and neglect. This study, begun in 1986, is funded by the National Institute of Justice. Cathy hopes to receive continuation funding to conduct follow-up interviews that further explore the implications of the initial study.
Jan Hagen and Liane Davis, now Associate Dean at the School of Social Welfare at the University of Kansas, have also been involved in research regarding battered women. They recently published an article that uses a feminist perspective and the problem of wife abuse to illustrate how ideology affects both social policy and social work practice modes. They also have completed a nationwide study on state legislative and programmatic responses in developing social services for battered women and their children.
Life Cycles, Employment, and Welfare
Gender roles across the adult life span is an additional area of inquiry for Bonnie Carlson. She is looking at the manifestations of gender roles through role behaviors, self-perceptions, and attitudes in a sample of 130 women and men aged 25 to 65. The focus of this research is on the hypothesized changes from early adulthood to midlife with respect to traditional gender roles wherein men are said to become less masculine and more feminine and women less feminine and more masculine.
Norma Riccucci, whose research interests lie in the employment patterns of women and persons of color in public sector jobs, is currently examining the obstacles that women in public service professions face. These obstacles include discriminatory recruitment, hiring and promotion practices, the use of veterans' preferences, and a U.S. Supreme Court that is not particularly receptive to affirmative action. Norma is also considering the programs and policies that seek to overcome some of these obstacles, such as training and development efforts and the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
Jan Hagen and Irene Lurie, under the auspices of the Rockefeller Institute of Government, are conducting a ten-state, three-year study on the implementation of JOBS (Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program). This federal legislation introduced a new welfare employment program that was envisioned, in part, as creating a new social contract between government and welfare recipients and as transforming the nation's welfare system. The purpose of the study is to follow the complex chain of events between changes in federal law and changes in services for welfare recipients. Having multiple perspectives on the implementation of JOBS should enhance policy makers' understanding of welfare employment programs and their implications for the lives of poor women and their children.
The next feature of IROW NEWS will feature policy-oriented research underway at the Center for Women in Government.