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Home → Research Centres → Jigs → Issues → Volume 9, Number 1

Volume 9, Number 1

2005

Contents

Articles

 

Poetry

No information about poetry published in this issue is available at this time.

 

Book Reviews

 

Book Notes

 

Abstracts

ABORIGINAL GRANDMOTHERS AND THE LIVING MEMORIAL OF ORAL HISTORY

KATHLEEN BUTLER-MCILWRAITH, School of Humanities, University of Newcastle
JULIANNE BUTLER, Post-Graduate Student, University of Newcastle

Abstract

In the last decade, the issue of the Stolen Generations has been central to much academic debate. In detailing life histories, it is generally acknowledged that these individuals were denied their 'place' in their families. We write from the position of those who were not removed, and had/have positive experiences being nurtured in an Aboriginal family. Our sympathy for the Stolen Generations is two-fold. We are distressed at the ramifications of their racialised oppression, but we are also truly 'sorry' at the denial of opportunities to experience family, an opportunity from which we have so richly benefited. In this paper, we attempt to explain what those benefits entailed for us and thus what may have been for others.

 

RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE AND WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN NIGERIAN ISLAM: A CASE STUDY OF ALHAJA SHEIDAT MUJIDAT ADEOYE

DAVID OGUNGBILE, Department of Religious Studies, Obafemi Awolowo Univeristy, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examines the status and role of women in Nigerian Islam, with the case study of Alhaja Sheidat Mujidat Adeoye, the founder and leader of the Fadillullah Muslim Mission, Osogbo, Nigeria. It discusses religious experience of Sheidat Mujidat Adeoye which gave an impetus to the founding of her movement as this has not only changed the nature and form of Nigerian Islam, but it has also introduced a new expression into the tradition, thus causing an alteration in religious stereotypes within a religiously pluralistic community.

The study adopts a multi-disciplinary approach of anthropology, phenomenology and hermeneutics. The significance of this study lies in the tremendous and imposing prominence and huge patronage of Sheidat Adeoye, both by the people of Osogbo and the numerous visitors from several parts of Nigeria. This paper examines the uniqueness of the practices of Adeoye vis-à-vis the religious experience that gave birth to her movement. It investigates her activities and practices, her acceptance within the Muslim religious and Yoruba cultural patriarchal community, and public responses to her movement. The paper assesses the relevance of the movement as an Islamic group in religio-cultural and inter-religious contexts?

 

GENDER STUDIES AND GENDERED MORTALITY: AN EXPLORATION OF HUMAN FINITUDE

BETHNE HART, School of Humanities, University of Newcastle

Abstract

As social theory recognises that social life is gendered, so too gender studies should recognise that social life is mortal. However, key social theorists have noted the absence of feminist contributions to understandings of human mortality. Others have noted the presence of gendered scholarship surrounding women and human mortality. Both of these positions seek further theoretical and research explorations of the finiteness of human life.

This paper arises from a study of the social management of human finitude, through explorations of breast cancer as a life-threatening illness. In this study, women's experiences of life-threatening illness brought to consciousness the finiteness of human life: an awareness in finitude. However, these experiences of human finitude were powerfully shaped and disrupted through the social management of human mortality. Yet there were also patterns of living and healing that resisted these prevailing social processes, and acknowledged the limitations of lifetime.

This paper concludes with reflections upon the significance of gender to human finitude, and of gender studies to understandings of life and mortalitys.

 

MERIT IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: BARRIERS TO FEMALE EMPLOYMENT IN THE QUEENSLAND PUBLIC SERVICE FROM 1859-1959

LINDA COLLEY, Griffith Business School, Griffith University

Abstract

The cornerstone of public sector employment was the merit principle, under which recruitment and promotion was to be based on merit rather than patronage or political connections. In theory, the merit principle should have offered equal opportunity to all citizens. In practice, merit was interpreted in ways that maintained and reinforced male dominance in the workplace. Gender influenced perceptions of skill and the allocation of work. Labour market requirements harnessed and perpetuated these gendered perceptions for economic advantage. The Queensland case study confirms the inequitable application of the merit principle due to gendered stereotypes and protection of the male labour market. It also identifies how implementation processes can turn apparently neutral legislative principles into gendered policies and practices.

 

OF VIOLENCE AND CHIVALRY: A CASE STUDY OF DIVIDED AND OPPOSITIONAL MASCULINITIES IN INDUSTRIAL CONFLICT

ROBERT TIERNEY, School of Marketing & Management, Charles Sturt University

Abstract

In May and June 1991, a picket line, staffed mainly by men, initiated a two-week dispute against a fisheries employer in George Town, Tasmania. The picketers made several demands for the benefit of women workers at the fisheries plant, including, among other things, the cessation of the sexual harassment of women workers. This paper examines the myriad of causes of the dispute and the complex range of motives behind the men's decisions to establish and sustain the picketing. In particular, the paper considers the extent to which the men's demands for the cessation of sexual harassment transcended all other demands as the picketing progressed into its second week. The picketers' actions demonstrate important lessons for the union movement, such as the capacity of unionised men to oppose violent forms of masculinity against women.

 

EDUCATING RITA AND PETER: GENDER AND A HISTORY OF THE OPEN FOUNDATION PROGRAM, UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE, AUSTRALIA, 1974-1994

JOSEPHINE MAY, English Language & Foundation Studies Centre, University of Newcastle

Abstract

Willy Russell's play, 'Educating Rita' (1980) explores a powerful matrix of the themes of gender, class, adult education and academia. But what kind of story could have been written if the protagonists were Rita and Peter? This paper outlines a proposal for a history of a university access program called the Open Foundation Program, from its inception at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, in 1974 until 1994. Thousands of Ritas and Peters have by now gained entry into university through this program and there is no sign of demand dying out or 'steadying'. The paper explores some of the theoretical and methodological considerations for this proposed history. It briefly considers the deployment of gender as an analytic category in history, and then it canvasses the history of higher education in Australia. The paper goes on to examine some international gender studies of adult students in higher education. Finally it outlines the theory and methodology for the study, and explores the task of framing research questions on tertiary adult experience.