Gender Contract and Localization in Early Women's Magazines in Finland Since 1782

The publishers and editors of the early Finnish women's magazines were familiar with Central European, English and Swedish women's magazines. A women's magazine started the history of Finnish magazine publishing in 1782. However, it survived less than 6 months and the next 2 women's magazines appeared only 70 years later. The article asks how the publishers of the first four magazines chose, adopted and localized this particular international magazine genre. Successful localization needs the approval of the content by the readers. Only the fourth women's magazine Koti ja Yhteiskunta (Home and Society) published in 1889–1911 managed to create a permanent readership. The central theoretical concept used to analyze the localization is the gender contract, which defines the rights and duties of women in society and is renegotiated as women's situation is changing.     

Negotiating fragmented women's news: state,market and feminism in contemporary Chinese media

This study aims to explain the reasons for the transformation of women's news in contemporary China. It concludes that in comparison with women news's in the Maoist period, present-day women's news is represented in a fragmented way. This article analyses the differences among the individual, professional, and institutional aspects in news production, while emphasizing the complicated interaction among feminism, state, and market to illuminate the reasons behind women's news transformation. Due to the immanent masculinity of both state and market, feminism in China has to face a state–market complex, that is, double pressure. Comparing with state and market, the influence from feminism to journalism is quite weak and there is a long way to go before feminism realizes its own agenda for media transformation.     

Documenting the Broad Character of Student Populations in Women's Higher Education

Abstract

The three preceding articles identify the existence of a body of archival recordsof higher education institutions that can support historical investigation into the varied aspects of student life for women. Following a summary of those presentations, the author poses a series of historical questions relating to women's collegiate institutions and student life that scholars and students of women's higher education history might ask to gain a broader view of women's higher learning and “build meaningful contexts in which the evolution of women's higher learning can truly be appreciated.” An examination of the archival records of private, parochial, and public institutions of higher education for women may assist with answering specific and nagging questions and help arrive at a “fuller, more inclusive history of women's higher education.”     

Women's employment and professional empowerment in South Korean dramas: a 10-year analysis

This study examined how Korean dramas portray the relationship between women's life and work. Men were shown as more affluent, more educationally privileged, older, and yet less likely to be married than women. Far more men than women were employed outside the home and holding a professional occupation or managerial position. Among young adult characters, marriage increased men's employment but decreased women's. Married men were also the most likely to be professionals or managers whereas it was highly unlikely for women, whether married or single. The negative effects of being a parent on employment and on holding a professional or managerial position were consistent for women and men. Examination of women and men's employment and professional empowerment for the past 10 years in television dramas and South Korean social statistics revealed a parallel between television reality and the observed reality, except for a gross overrepresentation of men as professionals or managers in the dramas.     

BBC's Wednesday Magazine and Arts Television for Women

Wednesday Magazine (1958–1963) was an innovative BBC television afternoon arts and culture strand produced by the specialist BBC women's programme unit, which had been built up and nurtured by the first dedicated head of women's programmes Doreen Stephens, who was appointed in 1953. Stephens was responsible for the development of a diverse and extensive range of women's programming; highly ambitious in the offering that it presented to its female viewers. This article will examine the series Wednesday Magazine exploring the wealth of arts and culture items broadcast, whilst considering the programme's significance in critical histories of both women's programming and arts television. The article will also make an intervention into historical debates around what constituted women's television in Britain.     

“To Save Them from the Dangers to Their Faith”

Abstract

This article explores the history of Catholic women's colleges and former women's colleges in the United States, with specific focus on student life in the mid-twentieth century. In the peak year 1956-1957, 42,900 young Catholic (and sometimes non-Catholic) women attended about 116 colleges, a significant proportion of the higher educational sector. These colleges helped acculturate many children of Irish, German, Eastern European and Italian families to middle-class American society, at the same time creating a specifically female and Catholic culture on the college campuses. This culture, which was characterized by the ideals of femininity, religion, and service, can be reconstructed through materials in the college archives: for example, through minutes of faculty committees and student organizations, records of college events, photographs, audio-visual material, scrapbooks, catalogs, and student publications. The archives of Catholic women's colleges are important in that they document a little-studied area of American life- Catholic women's culture-and furthermore show how it has changed and evolved up to the contemporary period.     

An Evaluation of Public Library Websites: Describing Children's Services in Japan

ABSTRACT. This study is the first to investigate the amount and type of information about children's services described in Japanese public library websites, with particular reference to the Web pages intended for children, and the extent to which usability is taken into account in the design of these websites. Further, the study analyzes what kinds of content are more prevalent in children's services as described in Japanese public library websites in comparison with the actual delivery of these services. Finally, the study considers the usability of children's Web pages from the perspectives of how easy they are to read and understand.     

Does Ownership Matter?

Does media ownership affect the editorial page? Scholars such as Tim Groseclose, Jeffrey Milyo, and Tim Groeling have offered recent empirical tests for media bias in political news coverage. This article focuses on the editorial content of newspapers to examine whether a change in publishers affects a newspaper's editorial page's support for government action on public policy questions, the attention given to the major political parties, and the tone of coverage of the parties. Our content analyses compare the Wall Street Journal's editorial page before and after Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation purchased the paper with two newspapers that did not change ownership structures over the same time period (New York Times and Washington Times). We show that Murdoch's Wall Street Journal is far less supportive of government intervention in the economy, much more negative to Democrats, and much more positive to Republicans than the paper's editorial page was under Bancroft family ownership. We also show that the Wall Street Journal's changes were unique as the New York Times and Washington Times generally did not exhibit similar changes to their own editorial pages.     

Facilitating Collaboration and Research in Sex and Gender Differences and Women's Health: Year One Experiences

Librarians at the University of Florida Health Science Center Libraries partnered with faculty to promote awareness of and access to research on women's health and sex and gender resources in an outreach project funded by the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women's Health. The project featured elements that facilitated cross-disciplinary collaboration (using CoLAB Planning Series®, or CoLABs), instruction to various groups (including faculty, undergraduate students, graduate students, and professional students), collection development, and information dissemination. Librarians leveraged existing partnerships with faculty and built new ones. Success in this project demonstrates that libraries can partner effectively with their faculty on emerging trends and new initiatives.     

The Framing of Sexual Difference in SI for Kids Editorial Photos

The 1996 Olympic games, billed as "the gender equity Olympics," held out promise for better media coverage of female athletes; during the games, women's sport and its audience reached record levels. However, did the success for women's sports during the Olympics translate to significant changes in sports media? This study examines post-1996 editorial photographs in SI for Kids (SIK) to determine whether post-Olympic female athletes received more favorable coverage than in the magazine's inaugural issues.     

Readers' Perspectives on Advertising's Influence in Women's Magazines: Thoughts on Two Practices

This study explores how consumers react to advertisers' attempts to influence editorial content of media. Two practices are explored: complementary editorial (magazines giving editorial mentions to advertisers' products or services) and attempts at content censorship. Specifically, the study looks at how adult female readers of women's magazines make sense of the 2 aforementioned practices. Findings indicate that women believe editorial mentions of advertisers' products and services can be useful. Based on what the women in this study stated, attempts by advertisers to prevent media content from being published has greater potential to damage the credibility of both the advertiser and the magazine. Participants drew a basic distinction between the practices of complementary editorial and advertiser influence to prevent content: Editorial provides information, but advertiser influence to prevent content denies information.     

Bridging Generations

Abstract

Since 1994, undergraduate students at Rutgers University have had the opportunity to explore broad issues in the history of women's higher education by examining issues surrounding single-sex and coeducation at their own institution, with specific concentration on social issues and student culture. Four distinct seminars and projects, two of which incorporate oral history, and all four involving historical research in archival sources, have contributed to the historical literature and have added valuable documentation on the history of women at Rutgers University. This article presents an overview of these specific courses. It further provides an assessment from the particular perspective of a university archivist who attempts to document the history of the institution, promote the use of that documentary record by a diverse audience of users, including undergraduate students, and who has had the opportunity to teach two seminars on the history of women's higher education, using Rutgers as a case study. The courses to be discussed are: “Rutgers Women: A Living History” (1993-1995), a research seminar incorporating oral history of the first women students to enter the previously all-male Rutgers College in 1972; the Rutgers Oral History Archives of World War II (1994 to present), an ongoing project recording the memories of Rutgers men and women and their wartime experiences; the Douglass College Scholar's Program seminar on psychobiography (1998), a seminar which explored the life of Mary Clara Kangler, a 1938 graduate of the New Jersey College for Women whose tragic life ended in suicide; and the Douglass College Scholar's Program seminar on the history of the Douglass College and its role in the history of women's higher education in the United States (1999-2002), a research seminar based on archival research which explored the experiences of women and the controversial issues surrounding women's education at Rutgers.     

LGBTQ+ health research guides at North American health sciences libraries: a survey and content analysis

Objectives:Current literature recommends online research guides as an easy and effective tool to promote LGBTQ+ health information to both health care providers and the public. This cross-sectional study was designed to determine how extensive LGBTQ+ health guides are among hospital and academic libraries and which features are most prevalent.Methods:In order to locate LGBTQ+ health guides for content analysis, we searched for guides on the websites of libraries belonging to the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL) and the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL). Additionally, we searched the Springshare interface for LibGuides with the word “health” and either “LGBT” or “transgender.” Content analysis was performed to identify major characteristics of the located guides, including target audience and the information type provided.Results:LGBTQ+ research guides were identified for 74 libraries. Of these, 5 were hospital libraries, and the rest were academic libraries. Of 158 AAHSL member libraries, 48 (30.4%) had LGBTQ+ guides on their websites. Nearly all guides (95.9%) provided general LGBTQ+ health information, and a large majority (87.8%) also had information resources for transgender health. Smaller percentages of guides contained information on HIV/AIDS (48.6%) and women''s health (16.2%).Conclusions:Even though literature recommends creating LGBTQ+ health guides, most health sciences libraries are missing an opportunity by not developing and maintaining these guides. Further research may be needed to determine the usage and usefulness of existing guides and to better identify barriers preventing libraries from creating guides.     

An Analysis of Children's Web Pages in Public Library Web Sites in Japan

A progenitor article for this work can be found in Public Library Quarterly 27, no. 4. This study is the first to report on the types of contents in children's web pages and the characteristics of Web-OPACs for children in public library websites in Japan. This study reveals that children's web pages, in general, place more emphasis on providing guidance on library services and on the use of information resources for reference services, rather than on helping children with regular learning or providing research assistance to adults on children's services. Other findings are reported as well.     

To Hope or to Know: Coping with Uncertainty and Ambivalence in Women's Magazine Breast Cancer Articles

Breast cancer is one of the most feared diseases in contemporary Western society. Popular women's magazines are important sources of information about and orientation to the disease. The current study applies problematic integration theory in an interpretive analysis of all breast cancer articles appearing in five top-circulating women's magazines between 1997 and 2002. In so doing, the study illuminates two major challenges (uncertainty and ambivalence) and several imperfect approaches to coping constructed in this discourse (simplification, information-seeking/provision, affect management, trusting intuition, sustaining hope, and metaphoric reframing). These results have several clear and important practical implications and highlight a major and largely untried direction for future research.     

Formation of a talking space and gender discourses in digital diaspora space: Case of a female Korean im/migrants online community in the USA

This article explores an online community of female Korean im/migrants in the USA in order to investigate the formation of a digital diaspora of women on the web. Employing multiple research methods including in-depth interviews, textual analysis, and participatory observation, this article examines the largest online community of female Korean im/migrants in the USA (www.MissyUSA.com), focusing on how their unique talking space was created on this site and the ways in which the relevant gender discourses are presented and constructed in relation to their diasporic conditions. The findings show that these women's shared identity (i.e. being Korean, married, female, and living in the USA) is an important element in the formation and development of this online community, especially in the creation of a candid talking space – sokpuri – where they vent their innermost feelings about their lives in the USA. The Missy and ajuma are the two salient identity discourses and selective use and flexible appropriation of the terms are found. The ajuma image (less individualistic, more active in sharing information and helping others) is adopted when these women identify their online community as a place where the empowering ajuma spirit is alive; meanwhile, they still adopt the Missy image of a young, independent, and modern woman for their individual identities, despite its consumerist origin. Although the issues of housewifization and having an enhanced gender relationship are quite often discussed, this online community has a limitation in that it does not produce a consistent and systematic challenging voice.     

Women Library Users and Library Users of Traditional Women's Subjects

In the studies of general library use, women use libraries more than men. When use studies of particular subjects are done, women nearly always are more likely to use libraries for information on that subject than men. Yet there are few studies on women's information needs or use studies of traditional women's subjects. When women's subjects are written about in the library literature, the articles are nearly always on collection development, not on information needs. Information on women's subjects is primarily requested in public libraries and is not considered worthy of scholarly concern. Five specific categories of women's subjects: traditional women's subjects like needlework, practical information for the home, information related to a change in life like returning to school or to work, information on women's health issues, and information about parenting are reviewed. Current trends in commercial electronic information systems and telecommunications technology make the issue of information needs research and analysis urgent.     

Gender portrayal in Hong Kong and Korean children's TV commercials: A cross‐cultural comparison

This study examined gender portrayal in a sample of 345 television commercials broadcast during children's programmes in Hong Kong and Korea using content analysis. Literature suggests that Hong Kong culture differs from Korean culture on the dimension of Masculinity/Femininity proposed by Hofstede. The differences between the two countries provide a valid test of theory, and suggest hypotheses about the gender portrayal in children's advertising. The results of the study showed, contrary to expectations from Hofstede's framework, that the gender portrayal of central characters and the level of gender stereotyping in Hong Kong commercials was similar to those of Korean commercials. Possible explanations include the emerging homogeneous youth market using a standardized advertising strategy, and the rising concern for women's rights in Korea.     

Scrapbooks: Intrinsic Value and Material Culture

ABSTRACT

Scrapbooks present a particularly challenging set of preservation issues to archivists. However, as an intriguing combination of diaries, photograph albums, and ephemera, their format and arrangement are an essential part of their usefulness as sources to researchers. The fascinating link between scrapbooks and quilts, evident in a brief history of scrapbooks and an exploration of several types, indicates that scrapbooks are a particularly rich source for researchers interested in women's history. In order to facilitate the richest understanding of these unique and fascinating sources, material literacy should be increased among both archivists and researchers. In particular, archivists should understand the important function these records have to researchers, and how their storage and preservation choices affect that function.