Sally L. Kitch explores the crisis in contemporary Afghan women’s lives by focusing on two remarkable Afghan professional women working on behalf of their Afghan sisters. Kitch's compelling narrative follows the stories of Judge Marzia Basel and Jamila Afghani from 2005 through 2013, providing an oft-ignored perspective on the personal and professional lives of Afghanistan's women. Contending with the complex dynamics of a society both undergoing and resisting change, Basel and Afghani speak candidly--and critically--of matters like international intervention and patriarchal Afghan culture, capturing the ways in which immense possibility alternates and vies with utter hopelessness. Strongly rooted in feminist theory and interdisciplinary historical and geopolitical analysis, Contested Terrain sheds new light on the struggle against the powerful forces that affect Afghan women's education, health, political participation, livelihoods, and quality of life. The book also suggests how a new dialogue might be started--in which women from across geopolitical boundaries might find common cause for change and rewrite their collective stories.

Product Description: A comprehensive discussion of the issues faced by career women - from their viewpoint rather than that of the researchers is offered in this volume. The book uses both qualitative and quantitative techniques to find out what working women are really thinking about and experiencing, focusing on issues such as: sex discrimination; salary discrimination; child care; dual-career problems; maternity; and substance abuse...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Sally Kitch's study tells the story of an unusual, all-female urban utopian community founded in the late nineteenth century in Belton, Texas. The Woman's Commonwealth combined an ideology of celibacy with traditional business practices to achieve women's economic independence...read more

Product Description: From dust jacket flap: Sex is not a simple concept. Focusing on the issue of celibacy, the author explores the cultures of three post-Civil War utopian communities and their relation to female status in American society. From her examination of the Shakers, Koreshans, and Sanctificationists, the author concludes that the adoption of celibacy promoted theoretical sexual equality and female social power in those religious groups...read more