Power and gender: violence and affection experienced by children in Barbados, West Indies

Discourses on violence conceptualize the phenomenon as a property of (1) individuals, (2) social circumstances, and (3) social relationships. Rigorous comparative tests fail to support the first and second hypotheses. Survey data collected in 1990 from a national random sample of 407 men and women aged twenty to forty-five from the West Indian island of Barbados indicate that one of four experienced physical and emotional violence as children. Boys and girls were equally likely to be abused by both mothers (or other female caregivers) and fathers (or other male caregivers); stepparents were no more likely to treat children violently than were biological parents. However, the presence of a stepfather increased the likelihood that women battered their daughters and decreased the likelihood that women battered their sons. In general, powerful women protected their children from violence, treated them affectionately, and elicited affection for them from their men. The probability that a son experienced an affectionate relationship with a biological father rose with the length of time the two lived together, but only for sons with powerful mothers. By contrast, men battered powerless women and the children of powerless women. Powerless women battered their own children.(AU)

Working women's sexual risk taking in Jamaica

Although the rates of HIV are increasing among female populations in developing countries, there is little information available about factors influencing sexual risk taking among working class women. This paper describes some of the issues discussed by two groups of 58 women working in Jamaica: Informal Commerical Importers and women working in the Free Zone. These women discuss their economic vulnerability, expectations about the role of men as provides, multiple partners, perception of children as resources and concern about physical abuse as factors that could influence decisions about condom use. The implications of these findings are discussed for their impact of intervention programs targeting working class women in Jamaica.(AU)

Determinants of contraceptive use in Belize

Drawing from perspectives of wealth flows and opportunity structures, a path model comprised of socioeconomic status, education age, labor force participation, and family size is formulated. It is hypothesized that these variables are positive predictors of contraceptive use directly; and indirectly through woman's attitude regarding power in reproductive decision making. Residence (urban versus rural) and breastfeeding are used as control variables. These hypotheses are tested with data on currently married/in union women of reproductive age from the 1991 Belize Family Health Survey. Ordinary least squares regression and logistic regression are used to estimate each relationship in the model, first including a variable measuring current family size relative to a desired or ideal family size. The attitude that women should have power in reproductive decision making is a significant determinant of contraceptive use when current family size is included in the model but loses significance when current family size relative to an ideal is used. This model is then run separately for the two largest ethnic groups, Mestizos and Creoles, as identified by the language spoken in the household. The attitude that women should have power in reproductive decision making is a significant determinant of contraceptive use for women who speak Spanish whereas education and labor force participation are not. For the Creole, however, labor force participation and education are significant predictors of contraceptive use but attitude toward decision making is not. These relationships hold when current family size and current relative to ideal family size are not used in the models. The analysis demonstrates that groups of women, i.e., the Mestizo, with overall less education and lower labor force participation rates are more dependent upon their own attitudes to control their fertility. On the other hand, the higher status associated with more educated women who have higher labor force participation rates, i.e., the Creole, assumes and absorbs any effect of attitude in controlling fertility. It is speculated that attitudes are significant for Mestizos because they are part of a more traditional culture in which women have less opportunity for education and employment. In contrast, the creole women are so autonomous, as evidenced by their labor force participation and educational attainment, that attitude becomes irrelevant. (AU)