Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In previous research, Olson and Kessel found that the rhetoric of the modern political widow generates a rhetorical dialectic in which widows must simultaneously associate and dissociate with the legacies of their husbands. This dialectic seems to be a uniquely modern phenomenon, since the modern political widow is unwilling to play the part of benchwarmer as so many political widows have in the past. Yet, throughout the last half century, some political widows have had colorful and sustained careers in Congress. Two widows in particular, Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine and Representative Lindy Boggs of Louisiana defy the stereotype of political widow as benchwarmer. Their rhetorical strategies transcend this dialectic by carving out lengthy and distinguished careers at a time when women were still considered political novices. The focus of this paper is on the rhetoric of these two unique members of Congress. We conclude that, in her own historical context, each woman adopted rhetorical strategies which would allow her to be successful in the US House. These strategies are often divergent, and represent the different challenges faced by Margaret Chase Smith in the 1940s and Lindy Boggs from 1972-1990.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper will examine the gendered effects of weapons proliferation in Karamoja, a pastoralist region in North-eastern Uganda. It seeks to analyse which social groups were targeted for and benefited from the recent 2001-2002 weapon collection program, explicitly clarifying whether certain social groups were marginalized or ignored in the process and the distribution of in-kind benefits linked to the program, such as maize meal, ox ploughs and iron sheeting. It will also explore how successful the weapons collection program was at fully disarming households, to what extent women were involved in the decision to disarm or retain firearms, and whether the experience and perception of (in)security of men and women differed as a result of the de-commissioning of weapons. Finally, this case study seeks to determine whether and how practical disarmament affected demand factors for small arms, for example, cultural notions of masculinity and femininity and the gendered socio-economic depravation in the Karamoja cluster. The paper will question whether the weapons collection program has had any positive or negative contributions to the long-term social, economic and political empowerment of women and men of the sub-region.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In his famous essay, Citizenship and Social Class, T.H. Marshall articulated his tripartite model of citizenship rights -- civil, political, and social -- and identified citizenship as a status produced through national laws and political processes. Thus, in Marshall’s view, a central feature of citizenship is that it emanates from national rather than local laws and institutions. Many aspects of Marshall’s account of citizenship have been challenged, but most recently his emphasis on citizenship as a national status has been reconsidered as attention has shifted to the importance of local production and regulation of citizenship rights. Not surprisingly, this new emphasis on the local is also oversimplified. In this paper, I argue that, in many instances, neither the localist nor the nationalist model of citizenship adequately describes the production of citizenship through legal norms and practices, even (or perhaps especially) when such norms conflict. Instead, individuals are often required to navigate local and national norms and processes in order to secure the rights of citizenship. To illustrate this dynamic, I analyze the efforts of widows who sought federal military pensions in early nineteenth-century America. Although the widows’ pensions were created by national statutes and allocated through national administrative processes, women were nevertheless required to marshal the support of their families, neighbors, and local officials when seeking a pension. The experiences of these women demonstrate how the rights of citizenship are neither inherently national nor inherently local, but in many instances are negotiated through the laws and processes that constitute family, community, and nation.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This research paper reviews theories of female suicide bombers, focuses on their characteristics, analyzes their personal motives, makes assessments of tactics and strategies behind using female suicide bombers.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Widows are an economically vulnerable group, a significant constituency among the poorest of the poor. Rural widows must feed their families and educate their children despite rural poverty and the lack of opportunities for women. The economics of widowhood is therefore a significant social problem in less developed countries.
This paper explores the economic coping practices of rural widows in Cambodia. Thirty-three widows were interviewed on site using a semi-structured interview guide. The widows' predominant economic plan was to combine rice cultivation with an assortment of microenterprises, a "rice plus" strategy. Many widows were unable to grow enough rice on their land to feed their families. They filled the hunger gap by raising cash through microenterprises to purchase additional rice. Family members worked cooperatively, pooling their resources in a spirit of family solidarity. Gender work roles were both permeable and persistent, flexible in the short run but maintaining traditional roles in the long run. Most widows called on relatives or exchanged transplanting labor for plowing services, although a few women took up the plow themselves. The paper concludes that Cambodia's gender arrangements offer many economic options to widows but also devalue their labor in a cultural structure of inequality.