Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This study examined whether the short global measure of equity that is typically used in communication research has fidelity to the manner in which equity was originally conceptualized. Results showed that the two measures correlate only marginally with each other and with criterion variables. These findings have significant implications for study of equity and relational communication, especially relational maintenance, because they cast question on how valid our measurement of equity has actually been.

Publication Type: Invited Paper

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This presentation presents research conducted with promising teacher educators of color and explicates their perspectives around the problems and promises of preparing pre-service teachers for diverse and urban classrooms.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In Justice, Gender, and the Family, Susan Moller Okin argues for an equal division of paid and unpaid labor among spouses, as the solution to gender inequity in modern marriage. While Okin’s argument about gender inequities within marriage turns on the effects of sexism and gender roles, the importance of economic realities should not be overlooked. In addition to gender-based discrimination, our society’s current structure of paid labor effectively undermines the achievement of gender equity. Working in tandem with sexism, the need for at least one full-time employee in a family makes the equal division of paid and unpaid labor highly impractical in most cases. Beginning from the premise that the full-time employment imperative presents a significant obstacle to true equality in the home, this paper identifies one factor that contributes to the need for full-time employment: healthcare. A move away from employer provided healthcare, which currently privileges full-time employment, would reduce as least some of the need families feel to have one full-time wage earner, and would represent a tangible step toward the achievement of Okin’s ideal.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The African Union (AU), the successor to the Organization of African Unity (OAU), has become a leader among regional and international organizations in terms of gender representation. Since its founding in 2002, it has achieved gender parity in its executive arm (the Commission), stipulated that delegations to the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) must include at least one woman, and appointed a woman to head the PAP. These gains were not handed to women; African women’s networks mobilized to achieve them. Why were African women’s networks able to incorporate gender issues into the AU? What resources did they draw on and what strategies did they employ? The paper addresses these questions by analyzing the transition from the OAU to the AU and interactions among African women’s networks, OAU/AU personnel, and African leaders. I argue that the decision to create a new regional institution enabled groups to push for substantial changes in gender policies. African women’s networks drew on official linkages with the OAU/AU, worked closely with the OAU/AU gender machinery, involved high-profile African women, organized a series of meetings immediately prior to OAU/AU summits, and sought the support of key African leaders. Their sustained mobilization paid off. They succeeded in pressuring states to recognize the effective participation of women as a central objective of the AU, to employ gender-neutral language in AU documents, to adopt a Protocol on the Rights of Women, and to pass and to implement gender quotas in the AU Commission and the Pan-African Parliament.