The Social Identity Of Women

This study presents new research and theory addressing the impact of social contexts upon the psychological processes of identity formation by women, and the contribution of social identity theory to the meaning of womanhood.

An insightful, and often surprising, look at adolescent girls' socialization in a historically elite, private, single-sex high school.

Using historical evidence as well as personal accounts, Tracy C. Davis examines the reality of conditions for `ordinary' actresses, their working environments, employment patterns and the reasons why acting continued to be such a popular, though insecure, profession. Firmly grounded in Marxist and feminist theory she looks at representations of women on stage, and the meanings associated with and generated by them.

This innovative volume integrates social identity theory with research on teaching and education to shed new and fruitful light on a variety of different pedagogical concerns and practices. It brings together researchers at the cutting edge of new developments with a wealth of teaching and research experience. The work in this volume will have a significant impact in two main ways. First and foremost, the social identity approach that is applied will provide the theoretical and empirical platform for the development of new and creative forms of practice in educational settings. Just as the application of this theory has made significant contributions in organisational and health settings, a similar benefit will accrue for conceptual and practical developments related to learners and educators – from small learning groups to larger institutional settings – and in the development of professional identities that reach beyond the classroom. The chapters demonstrate the potential of applying social identity theory to education and will stimulate increased research activity and interest in this domain. By focusing on self, social identity and education, this volume investigates with unprecedented clarity the social and psychological processes by which learners’ personal and social self-concepts shape and enhance learning and teaching. Self and Social Identity in Educational Contexts will appeal to advanced students and researchers in education, psychology and social identity theory. It will also be of immense value to educational leaders and practitioners, particularly at tertiary level.

This volume deals with issues and problems of national and gender identity in Central Asia, the Caucasus and Turkey. Articles discuss experiences and position of women vis-à-vis state intervention, economic, political and cultural change, in both public and private spheres of life. In the book the real life conditions and experiences of women are analyzed on three complementary levels. The first of these is the economic and institutional circumstances shaped by structural adjustment policies, globalization and transnational policies. The second is realities of everyday life, particularly pertaining to family, religion, tradition and education. The third level is that of politics and ideology where national and nationalist discourses often build on the gender identity shaped by the economic and social levels. The book does not only present a cross cultural analysis of women's position in the region but also reflects the varied perspectives of female scholars from many different countries and disciplines.

The general objective of this volume is to present and discuss different modes of existence in women’s texts and feminist identity in political and poetic discourse on the one hand, and to analyze the factors which determine differing relationships between women and society, and which result in specific forms of identity on the other. The essays in this volume explore language, gender, mass media, sexuality, class and social change, women’s identity as Blacks and in the Third World as well as the nature of domination, feminine criticism and female creativity. The volume opens with a challenging question by the feminist poet Adrienne Rich, ‘Who is We?’

In this ethnographic examination of Mexican-American and white girls coming of age in California’s Central Valley, Julie Bettie turns class theory on its head, asking what cultural gestures are involved in the performance of class, and how class subjectivity is constructed in relationship to color, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. A new introduction contextualizes the book for the contemporary moment and situates it within current directions in cultural theory. Investigating the cultural politics of how inequalities are both reproduced and challenged, Bettie examines the discursive formations that provide a context for the complex identity performances of contemporary girls. The book’s title refers at once to young working-class women who have little cultural capital to enable class mobility; to the fact that analyses of class too often remain insufficiently transformed by feminist, ethnic, and queer studies; and to the failure of some feminist theory itself to theorize women as class subjects. Women without Class makes a case for analytical and political attention to class, but not at the expense of attention to other social formations.

It has long been said that clothes make the man (or woman), but is it still true today? If so, how has the information clothes convey changed over the years? Using a wide range of historical and contemporary materials, Diana Crane demonstrates how the social significance of clothing has been transformed. Crane compares nineteenth-century societies—France and the United States—where social class was the most salient aspect of social identity signified in clothing with late twentieth-century America, where lifestyle, gender, sexual orientation, age, and ethnicity are more meaningful to individuals in constructing their wardrobes. Today, clothes worn at work signify social class, but leisure clothes convey meanings ranging from trite to political. In today's multicode societies, clothes inhibit as well as facilitate communication between highly fragmented social groups. Crane extends her comparison by showing how nineteenth-century French designers created fashions that suited lifestyles of Paris elites but that were also widely adopted outside France. By contrast, today's designers operate in a global marketplace, shaped by television, film, and popular music. No longer confined to elites, trendsetters are drawn from many social groups, and most trends have short trajectories. To assess the impact of fashion on women, Crane uses voices of college-aged and middle-aged women who took part in focus groups. These discussions yield fascinating information about women's perceptions of female identity and sexuality in the fashion industry. An absorbing work, Fashion and Its Social Agendas stands out as a critical study of gender, fashion, and consumer culture. "Why do people dress the way they do? How does clothing contribute to a person's identity as a man or woman, as a white-collar professional or blue-collar worker, as a preppie, yuppie, or nerd? How is it that dress no longer denotes social class so much as lifestyle? . . . Intelligent and informative, [this] book proposes thoughtful answers to some of these questions."-Library Journal