This lecture is cosponsored by Center for the Study of Women in Society and the Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies, both located at the University of Oregon.

Dr. Cynthia Bejarano is the Stan Fulton Endowed Chair in Arts and Sciences and an associate professor of Criminal Justice at New Mexico State University. In 2010, she was named Outstanding New Mexico Woman of the Year by the New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women for her activism in bringing attention to feminicide in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and for her advocacy for farmworkers and their families.

Her publications and research interests focus on border violence, immigration issues, and gender violence at the U.S.-Mexico border. She co-founded Amigos de las Mujeres de Juarez, which works for justice for missing and murdered women on both sides of the border, and is the co-editor of an interdisciplinary anthology with Rosa-Linda Fregoso entitled Terrorizing Women: A Cartography of Feminicide in the Américas (Duke University Press, June 2010). She is also the author of the book “Qué Onda?” Urban Youth Cultures and Border Identity, published by the University of Arizona Press in 2005. She is the principal investigator for the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP), a federally- and state-funded university program, which assists farmworkers and the children of farmworkers to attend New Mexico State University. Dr. Cynthia Bejarano was the recipient of the Donald C. Roush Excellence in Teaching Award in 2008. She grew up in southern New Mexico in the El Paso-Juarez borderlands and received her Ph.D. from Arizona State University.

In-depth interviews reveal a broad range of violence against girls—with far-reaching and enduring effects

By Krista M. Chronister, Associate Professor, University of Oregon College of Education, Counseling Psychology Program

At 85 percent, women make up the overwhelming majority of reported partner violence victims in the United States, and partner violence is the most common form of violence against women around the world (1.2). Although all communities experience partner violence, there are significant disparities in partner violence rates and individuals’ access to services in marginalized communities (3,4). To date, girls, ages 16–24 years, are most at risk for experiencing dating violence (5). Studies conducted with youth from diverse identity, socioeconomic, and geographic communities suggest dating abuse rates range from 25 percent to 50 percent (6).

Several contextual and developmental challenges make adolescence and early adulthood an especially vulnerable time for partner violence. Adolescence and emerging adulthood are developmental periods associated with increased identity exploration, instability, experimentation with substance use, romantic relationships, and parenting responsibilities (7). Negotiation of such developmental transitions, in a sociocultural context that provides little support and affirmation for youth and marginalizes their experiences, places this group at particular risk for violence (8).

National data show that nearly 10 percent of adolescents reported physical violence from a dating partner in the previous year, and nearly three of every 10 adolescents reported psychological abuse victimization in the previous year (9). Girls experience a broad range of dating abuse from their partners. Our team’s in-depth interviews with 19 girls from racially, ethnically, socioeconomically, and geographically diverse backgrounds revealed the breadth of violence that girls experienced and the far-reaching and enduring impact of such violence on their educational engagement and vocational development (10).

Girls experienced a broad range of emotional, physical, and sexual violence. We found several distinct consequences of such violence on their school engagement, in particular. Decreases in school engagement included missing more days from school, receiving less instructional time, and an immediate decline in academic performance. Girls’ decline was the result of several factors: abusive partners emotionally and physically abused girls at school, and consequently, girls were unable to attend or concentrate in classes; partners did not allow girls to attend school; and partners interfered with girls’ studying and homework completion. Second, girls struggled to stay engaged in school and perform well because they were healing from physical wounds and experiencing depression, anxiety, and shame. Third, most girls were engaged in substance use that seriously impacted their school engagement and performance. Substance use often was the activity that first connected girls with abusive partners or partners forced girls to use alcohol and other drugs. Finally, girls often experienced isolation and rejection from family members, peers, and school personnel. Partners systematically destroyed girls’ engagement with strong social support networks at home and school, which, in turn, decreased girls’ ability and motivation to perform academically.

In general, out of all stressors or tasks related to the abusive relationship that girls dealt with, adolescents reported that interpersonal relationships and negotiating the school environment was the most stressful (11). Most participants used multiple and varied coping strategies during and after the abusive relationship, and how they attempted to cope directly influenced the ultimate abuse consequences. In line with adolescent coping literature, those participants who were able to identify multiple strategies, whether healthy or unhealthy, seemed to function at a higher level in their relationships and at school than those who identified no coping strategies or only one type. All girls stopped attending extracurricular school and work activities. Cessation of these activities seriously impaired girls’ ability to gain new experiences and training, benefit from social support, and earn money. Several girls also transferred schools to escape abusive partners. Although a school transfer may seem like the best idea, girls shared with us that some of their credits did not transfer to the new schools, and they were held back academically to repeat some classes. Most girls shared that they did not feel safe at school because abusive partners knew how to use the school context to enact further abuse and to alienate girls from school personnel and peers.

Girls shared several examples of how the actions of school personnel and family members were helpful and hurtful. Some girls reported that school personnel grew frustrated with their declining academic performance and attempted to address the situation in different ways. Some girls grew closer to their teachers because the teachers expressed care and concern while other girls reported growing more distant from their teachers after teachers expressed disappointment and frustration with the girls. In all of the girls’ stories, however, no teacher asked directly about whether girls might be experiencing abuse. Teachers’ hesitancy to ask about abuse, however, is not surprising given the lack of training and support that many teachers receive on asking about and reporting abuse.

“I had a couple of teachers pull me aside sometimes, you know, trying to get me to tell them what was wrong, what was going on. The security people at my high school would actually see him up in my face and they’d have to break us up and they’d send him to class and send me to the counselor or my vice principal.”— Sara*

The effects of dating violence on girls’ future vocational orientation also were devastating. Many girls described themselves as “damaged goods” and expressed feeling unworthy of healthier relationships and not knowing how to build a “better life” without support. Julie’s comment illustrates the juxtaposition between her desire to pursue specific vocational goals and serve as a strong role model for her children, and the family and community reality in which she was living.

“I want my child to grow up and be a strong independent woman… If I keep on going how I am, I am not going to be able to be that mother to show her the way to go… I need to look at reality, you know…. My dream is to be a nurse, but reality is, I am just going to be a stripper.”— Julie*

Girls with a family member or peer who supported them shared that healing emotionally from dating violence was a long journey, even with the best support.

With greater attention to how dating violence impacts girls’ development, scholars will be better able to enhance girls’ access to educational, work, and economic opportunities and strengthen girls’ ability to live their lives free from violence long-term. ■

 * All names have been changed to protect identities.

Notes

1. Bureau of Justice Statistics (2003).

2. Heise, Raikes, Watts, & Zwi, 1994; National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 2003; Walker, 1999.

3. Browne, Salomon, & Bassuk, 1999; Plichta, 1996; Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000a.

4. Benson & Fox, 2004a, 2004b.

5. Arriaga & Foshee, 2004; Capaldi, et al., 2001; Kim & Capaldi, 2004.

6. e.g., Carver, Joyner, & Udry, 2003; Cascardi, Avery-Leaf, O’Leary, & Smith-Slep, 1999; Jouriles, McDonald, Garrido, et al., 2005; Lewis & Fremouw, 2001.

7. Arnett, 2006; Dishion, Nelson, & Kavanagh, 2003.

8. Arnett, 2006; Ehrensaft, Cohen, Brown, et al., 2003.

9. Center for Disease Control and Prevention; Eaton, Davis, Barrios, Brener, & Noonan, 2007; Halpern, Young, Waller, Martin, & Kupper, 2004; Roberts & Klein, 2003.

10. Chronister, Marsiglio, Linville, & Lantrip, 2011.

11. Zimmer-Gembeck & Skinner, 2008; Donaldson et. al., 2000; Williamson et. al., 2003.

Local Community Resources for Young Women Experiencing Partner Violence

• Ophelia’s Place   /    http://www.opheliasplace.net/
• Womenspace    /   http://www.womenspaceinc.org/
• Looking Glass Counseling Services   /    http://www.lookingglass.us/

Women in Diender getting water from tap provided by solar powered pump.

CREATE! Center for Renewable Energy and Appropriate Technology is working in six villages in rural Senegal helping the people living in those villages to meet basic needs in the areas of water acquisition and storage; local food production; and fuel wood conservation. We recently had the opportunity to post Elizabeth Larson, a senior at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, to the small village of Diender in southern Senegal for a one-month internship during her winter break. She lived in the village, worked alongside the women, and communicated with them in their local language. Following are some of Elizabeth’s reflections on the experience, the problems faced by the women and girls of the village, and the impact of the work that CREATE! is doing:

Access to Water

Before CREATE! installed a solar-powered pump at the communal well in Diender, women and girls devoted much time and effort each day to procuring the water their families needed for drinking and cooking. The pump greatly simplifies this task. In addition to making it easier and less time consuming to obtain water for household needs, the solar-powered pump also makes it possible for the women of the community to utilize a sustainable, gravity-fed irrigation system, which CREATE! helped them design, install and maintain. This irrigation system makes it possible for the women of Diender to adopt a community garden model. The use and maintenance of the solar-powered pump also requires that women assume accountability for keeping the pump in good running order and insuring that the village adopts responsible water use practices.

Community Garden Project

Diender women weighing eggplant harvested from the community garden.

Arguably the most important contribution of CREATE! to Diender is the community gardening program. This is not only because of the resources it produces for the village, but also because of the leadership and learning opportunities that it provides. In their garden the women grow a variety of vegetables on arid land, which prior to the installation of the irrigation system was virtually untillable. Supported by CREATE!’s community advisors, they are trained in planting, growing, irrigating, harvesting and marketing their crops. Since this agricultural project produces more food than the village can consume, it provides the women of Diender with a newfound source of income and the opportunity to manage a small business enterprise for the benefit of the entire community.

Improved Cook Stoves (ICS)

Elizabeth Larson with Diender women and an Improved Cook Stove that they built themselves.

The households in Diender traditionally cook in pots placed on three stones with a fire in the middle. This approach to cooking is quite energy inefficient, which means that cooking in this manner requires that the women of the village spend an inordinate amount of time each day gathering fuel with which to cook. This need for large quantities of wood fuel also leads to deforestation in the area near the village. Additionally, cooking on an open fire is dangerous and often results in household members being burned by the contents of a pot, which easily is overturned. To address these many issues, CREATE! introduced an improved cook stove (ICS) design to the women of Diender. While this stove utilizes a basic three-stone design, it incorporates an enclosure made from indigenous materials (clay, sand and grain). This design significantly increases the efficiency of the stove, reducing the need for the women of the village to spend so much time procuring fuel and resulting in less deforestation around the village. It also offers the additional benefit of being much safer than the three-stone design without the enclosure.

Impact on Lives of Women and Girls

Diender cooperative group members taking a break from work in the garden.

If one asks the women of Diender if life is easier now than it was before CREATE! arrived in their village, they answer a resounding, “Yes.” Not only has the program introduced by CREATE! made life easier for these women, it also instills in them an increased sense of leadership and responsibility. Before starting the program, the community agreed to adopt a cooperative group structure that involves the women of the village in all leadership positions including president, vice president, treasurer, and secretary of the cooperative group. An increasing number of girls of all ages are attending the local school, suggesting that there may now be fewer chores that these young girls need to complete to insure that their households run smoothly.

By Nancy Sanford Hughes, Founder
StoveTeam International

Editor’s Note: Nancy Sanford Hughes is one of five Americans to win a 2011 $100,000 Purpose Prize for making an extraordinary impact in an encore career.

These 34 volunteers had just returned from a stove-testing trip in Honduras.

We started helping local entrepreneurs to build stove factories four years ago by assisting Gustavo Peña, who now owns his own factory in El Salvador, and who has not only produced thousands of fuel-efficient stoves but has employed 15 individuals, educated his children, and established local scholarships.

I returned from Honduras in early November, where I worked with a new factory owner, Anibal Murcia, and the volunteers field-testing the Ecocina stove. On the morning of my departure, I received a call from Sanya who had already arrived.

“Nancy” she said, “There are five in the village who have been hospitalized for tuberculosis. Should we still go?”

The families in San Jose de las Lagrimas have lived where there has been NO water, and there are NO toilets and little work. In a squatters’ camp such as this, everyone is at risk for acute respiratory infection, and there are villages such as this one throughout the world.

The first house I visited was ten by twelve. There were tree trunks at each of four corners, black plastic and old plastic bags for walls, and inside was a smoky open fire and a makeshift bed. Santiago had left the house at 3:30 a.m. and returned four hours later after cutting and carrying home 77 pounds of firewood. He and MariaLouisa stayed in the home all day, and smoke filled the tiny room. Santiago had no energy left to work, and Maria Louisa was too ill to stand. The two of them lived that day on ten tortillas. This is the story of only one family in the village, but there were others—men, women, children and babies, living in smoke.

Much of the world lives like this. There are mothers with babies on their backs, and the smoke from their cooking fires may eventually kill both them and their children, while the surrounding forests become denuded. The problem is so preventable, and the solution so inexpensive and so simple.

Before we received the support from the Purpose Prize (see below)* we helped local people start six factories in five countries in four years, reducing pollution and deforestation and improving the lives of over 90,000. None of us had any experience with factory work or stove building, and all of us were over 60, but we worked hard, and have made a significant difference.

Now the recognition and money from the Purpose Prize will help us start more factories to give employment to local people to produce safe, inexpensive, fuel-efficient Ecocina stoves—both saving lives and reducing pollution—and also protecting the forest. The demand is there, and the solution is simple.

* Thanks so much to the members of The Templeton Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies and Civic Ventures for recognizing me and all of us who founded StoveTeam International by honoring us with the Purpose Prize, and a huge thank-you to Synchronicity and Milagro Foundations, and Rotary International, who supported us from the very beginning. We are a TEAM, and I am just the face you see instead of the hundreds of volunteers, an extremely committed Board of Directors, and Sanya, our one employee. The award is theirs.

December 14, 2011—Lamia Karim, associate director of the University of Oregon Center for the Study of Women in Society, quoted in The New Republic:

…“Skepticism of microfinance and its benefits, meanwhile, has migrated to the academy as well. Lamia Karim, an anthropologist at the University of Oregon and the author of Microfinance and Its Discontents, has questioned the claim that offering small loans directly to Bangladeshi women has been empowering. On the contrary, she has found women are often pressured to hand over loans to their husbands or male relatives. At the same time, microcredit agencies have created what she terms an “economy of shame,” in which the traditional role of women as bearers of “family honor” is used to leverage repayments—a key yardstick of MFIs’ success. (Grameen, for instance, proudly trumpets a loan recovery rate of close to 97 percent). To avoid the public shame of default, many women take out additional loans from different lenders, and quickly find themselves mired in a quicksand of debt.”…

Anastasia and some of her creations.

Last November, I wrote about the Molo Wool Project, an activity that our NGO Friends of Kenya Schools and Wildlife (FKSW) supports in Kenya. FKSW has assisted the 35 members of the Karunga Women’s Group, participants in this project, with skills training in the fiber arts and business development. In 2010, a $1000 loan from FKSW assisted the group to start a tree nursery. Since 2007 they’ve earned more than $26,000 from their hand-knitted products and income from the seedlings is now beginning to bring the group a second source of revenue. In February, we interviewed some of the participants to see how the project is impacting their lives.

The Molo Wool Project: One Member’s Story

Since picking up knitting needles just three years ago, 54-year-old Anastasia Njuguna has seen her natural talent and creativity emerge to make her one of the most prolific knitters in the group. She is also one of the top earners. The quality of her work is exceptional and her creations include chameleons, dogs, horses, goats, angora goats, pigs and antelope. She doesn’t use patterns. Her story about learning to knit a chameleon is illustrative, not only of her talent, but of her determination to better her life.

“My name is Anastasia Watiri Njuguna. When I joined the group, I knitted sweaters but I didn’t know how to knit animals. My first attempt on chameleons I came up with chameleons that were discredited because the legs were straight. And I was told ‘no, no, no, they must have some fingers and things like that.’ So when I did the next one, I had some feet, but I was told ‘no, this looks like a bird’s feet.’ That’s when I decided I wanted to learn what a chameleon looks like.

“So the first day, I went to the forest and I didn’t find one. The second day I didn’t succeed, but on the third day, I found the chameleon. So I took it to a neighbor’s house and tried to learn everything about the structure of its body, the way it walks, and all that and after that I was comfortable with the chameleon.”

Next, she taught herself to make a goat, with some help from her husband. “My husband, Mwangi, has a second wife and he lives with her near Nairobi. Sometimes when I went visiting my husband I saw a goat tethered there. When I saw this goat, I went and bought some synthetic yarn from the shop and started to knit that. When I started on the second one, my husband came in and he asked me, ‘What is it you’re doing?’ I said ‘I’m knitting. I’m trying to knit a goat.’ He said ‘Okay, fine. If that’s what you’re doing, let me take you to the neighbor. They have many different types of goats and then you can pick the ones you want for the example.’”

Anastasia in front of her home.

Anastasia says the Molo Wool Project has helped her increase her income and spoke about the impact her earnings have had on her and her family. “My husband and I have one child. Our daughter has five children. My daughter and her children are dependent on me. Previous to joining the Karunga Women’s Group I had difficulty supporting that family, especially my daughter’s children. When I became a member of the group I was paid initially very little because I only knew how to knit one thing. But since I’ve learned more, the amounts kept growing. The first time I had a substantial amount it was 5,000 Kenya shillings ($53). I had always asked my husband to buy me a phone. I needed a phone seriously. So with the first payment I received, I bought a phone.

“With the second payment I extended this house. I felt it was a bit tiny for me, my daughter, and my daughter’s children. So now it’s much bigger. From the last payment, I was able to buy clothes for the children and my daughter. I also paid school fees for all the children and bought food. And now I have saved some 10,000 shillings ($107), and I’m waiting for the next time I get some more money. I wish to buy a water tank. The first thing I want to invest in is improving my house.

“At the moment, my livelihood is dependent more than 50 percent on the knitting enterprise. I also take up casual employment on peoples’ shambas (farms) but the knitting is actually the backbone of my livelihood. I am now less dependent directly on my husband. He is old and he is no longer working. He is just doing some little farming.

“But I went ahead and asked my husband to bring money for some food even though I knew he didn’t have it. And he brought it. My husband must feel that he is contributing to his family. So the little that he gave wasn’t enough to buy everything that we need, but now he feels that we have done it as a family team. I don’t want to show myself, or to tell my husband—now that I am more capable—that I don’t need him in my life. I need him. I would hate a situation where he feels challenged because he feels that I have more income now. I can’t tell him how much I earn. It’s difficult for many women to tell their husbands what they earn, and even worse for me, because there are two wives. That would be more challenging on the husband and the other wife. So I have to keep my secrets to myself.

“I’m training my daughter to make some of these products. She tried the chameleon but it didn’t come out very well. Now she has learned to make the horses. And so I think I’m capable of doing more. And this might even lead to another means of livelihood and more contribution by my daughter. So I’ve been able to teach others how to make some of those products, but I’m still working on learning more.”

Some of you may not want to read this article, because of its graphic references to the crimes that took place on the Penn State campus. But this is an incredibly important feminist analysis of the situation, and we wanted to share it with you.

The Penn State Scandal: Connect the Dots Between Child Abuse and The Sexual Assault of Women on Campus
http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/tenuredradical/2011/11/1401/

by Lindsey Reynolds, Founder, Thembanathi

When I started a project in 2003 to support programs for women and children in areas of South Africa impacted by HIV, I named it Thembanathi, meaning “Hope with Us” in isiZulu, because of my strong belief in supporting communities that are trying to solve their own problems and address their own needs. This past summer, while finishing my field research for my PhD, I lived with a local family in the Umkhanyakude district of KwaZulu-Natal. The site is approximately one hour north of childcare facilities Thembanathi has been supporting for the past seven years. The area, part of the former homeland of KwaZulu, is one of the poorest in South Africa and has one of the highest reported HIV rates in the world (adult HIV prevalence is about 25 percent, with rates peaking at 59 percent for women age 25 to 29).

While living in this community, I discovered that a group of community leaders had been working for some time to try to find a solution for the community’s desperate need for a childcare center to provide care for young children. Though they were motivated to give their time and energy to strengthen programs for children in their community, they lacked the resources and networks necessary to get such an initiative going. Inspired by their dedication, we at Thembanathi decided to try to help them make their dreams a reality.

Childcare programs are an important means of supporting children and families, particularly in areas like this one that have not only been hit so hard by the HIV epidemic but also struggle with the long-term effects of apartheid, poverty, and unemployment. The programs help offset the effects of disease and poverty by providing educational and emotional support and food for young children. The facilities help relieve the burden of care of young children on families, allowing older siblings to return to school and caregivers to seek work. Additionally, childcare centers can serve as community centers around which other services—such as home-based care, educational programs for older children, and income-generation projects—can be organized.

We are excited to work on this project because we believe that solutions to the problems these families face need to be structural and must start with young children, giving them skills for a better life. Consistent with our belief that community ownership and involvement is essential for the success and sustainability of the project, we selected a dedicated local woman to be director of the program. A former teacher and active school board member, she is inspired to dedicate her life to this project, she told me, because she wants to give back to the community to thank them for the many ways they supported her and her children after the death of her husband. In addition, a community advisory committee has been elected, whose first project will be to establish a community garden that will provide healthy food for the children at the center.

At Thembanathi, our goal is to help this community to build a new childcare facility, provide equipment and materials, and fund operational costs for at least the first two years. This support will help the project to get on its feet. Over time, we will help the center to become more financially independent.

You can help us help this community by supporting this project through direction donations, hosting a South African jewelry and craft sale this holiday season, and by spreading the word. To learn more about our current work and this critical new project, contact me at lindsey@thembanathi.org, check us out on Facebook at www.facebook.com/thembanathi, or visit our website at www.thembanathi.org

Hope with us!

Lindsey Reynolds Bio

Lindsey was born and raised in Eugene. She received her master’s in international health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and is currently completing a joint PhD in public health and anthropology at Johns Hopkins. She has been doing research in South Africa on HIV and its impacts on children and families since 2003.