There is evidence that women who live in societies that uphold male privilege -- the majority of the world's women -- are at increased risk for HIV infection. In Local Women, Global Science, Karen M. Booth looks closely at the operation of two clinics for sexually transmitted diseases in Nairobi, Kenya, and explores how internationally funded and nationally sanctioned interventions to stop the spread of HIV have focused almost exclusively on the sexual and reproductive behaviors of those who are least able to challenge male power and dominance -- working-class and poor women. Moving past the current politics of development, women's health, and AIDS prevention, Booth's work enhances our understanding of how globalized and local networks, power relationships, ideologies, and social practices contribute to the current AIDS crisis. This bold and important book reveals conceptual flaws in AIDS prevention policy and will inspire new ideas for dealing with this deadly epidemic in Kenya, Africa, and beyond.

Scientific and engineering research is increasingly global, and international collaboration can be essential to academic success. Yet even as administrators and policymakers extol the benefits of global science, few recognize the diversity of international research collaborations and their participants, or take gendered inequalities into account. Women in Global Science is the first book to consider systematically the challenges and opportunities that the globalization of scientific work brings to U.S. academics, especially for women faculty. Kathrin Zippel looks to the STEM fields as a case study, where gendered cultures and structures in academia have contributed to an underrepresentation of women. While some have approached underrepresentation as a national concern with a national solution, Zippel highlights how gender relations are reconfigured in global academia. For U.S. women in particular, international collaboration offers opportunities to step outside of exclusionary networks at home. International collaboration is not the panacea to gendered inequalities in academia, but, as Zippel argues, international considerations can be key to ending the steady attrition of women in STEM fields and developing a more inclusive academic world.

In the late 1990s, Egypt experienced a boom period in in vitro fertilization (IVF) technology and now boasts more IVF clinics than neighboring Israel. In this book, Marcia Inhorn writes of her fieldwork among affluent, elite couples who sought in vitro fertilization in Egypt, a country which is not only at the forefront of IVF technology in the Middle East, but also a center of Islamic education in the region. Inhorn examines the gender, scientific, religious and cultural ramifications of the transfer of IVF technology from Euro-American points of origin to Egypt - showing how cultural ideas reshape the use of this technology and in turn, how the technology is reshaping cultural ideas in Egypt.

This report aims to 'crack the code' by deciphering the factors that hinder and facilitate girls' and women's participation, achievement and continuation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and, in particular, what the education sector can do to promote girls' and women's interest in and engagement with STEM education and ultimately STEM careers.

"Technological capability has led, through Euro-American global domination, to the muting of other cultural views and values, even threatening their continued existence. There is a growing realization that the diversity of knowledge systems demand respect; some refer to them in a conservation idiom as alternative knowledge banks. The scientific perspective is only one. We now have many examples of the soundness of local science and practices, some previously considered 'primitive' and in need of change. However, this book goes beyond demonstrating the soundness of local science and arguing for the incorporation of others' knowledge in development, to maintain that we need to look quizzically at the foundations of science itself and further challenge its hegemony, not only over local communities in Africa, Asia, the Pacific and elsewhere but also the global community.--Publisher

A unique two-volume examination of the progress women have made in achieving political equality, Women and Politics around the World addresses both transnational and gender-related issues as well as specific conditions in more than 20 countries. Women and Politics around the World: A Comparative History and Survey is an exploration of the role of women in political systems worldwide, as well as an examination of how government actions in various countries have an impact on the lives of the female population. Women and Politics around the World divides its coverage into two volumes. The first looks at such crucial issues facing women today as health policy, civil rights, and education, comparing conditions around the world. The second volume profiles 22 different countries, representing a broad range of governments, economies, and cultures. Each profile looks at the history and current state of women's political and economic participation in a particular country, and includes an in-depth look at a representative policy. The result is a resource unlike any other—one that gives students, researchers, and other interested readers a fresh new way of investigating a truly global issue.

Spanning the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this fascinating history explores the lives and achievements of great women in science across the globe. Ten Women Who Changed Science and the World tells the stories of trailblazing women who made a historic impact on physics, biology, chemistry, astronomy, and medicine. Included in this volume are famous figures, such as two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie, as well as individuals whose names will be new to many, though their breakthroughs were no less remarkable. These women overcame significant obstacles, discrimination, and personal tragedies in their pursuit of scientific advancement. They persevered in their research, whether creating life-saving drugs or expanding our knowledge of the cosmos. By daring to ask ‘How?’ and ‘Why?’, each of these women made a positive impact on the world we live in today. In this book, you will learn about: Astronomy Henrietta Leavitt (United States, 1868–1921) discovered the period-luminosity relationship for Cepheid variable stars, which enabled us to measure the size of our galaxy and the universe. Physics Lise Meitner (Austria, 1878–1968) fled Nazi Germany in 1938, taking with her the experimental results which showed that she and Otto Hahn had split the nucleus and discovered nuclear fission. Chien-Shiung Wu (United States, 1912–1997) demonstrated that the widely accepted ‘law of parity’, which stated that left-spinning and right-spinning subatomic particles would behave identically, was wrong. Chemistry Marie Curie (France, 1867–1934) became the only person in history to have won Nobel prizes in two different fields of science. Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (United Kingdom, 1910–1994) won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1964 and pioneered the X-ray study of large molecules of biochemical importance. Medicine Virginia Apgar (United States, 1909–1974) invented the Apgar score, used to quickly assess the health of newborn babies. Gertrude Elion (United States, 1918–1999) won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1988 for her advances in drug development. Biology Rita Levi-Montalcini (Italy, 1909–2012) won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1986 for her co-discovery in 1954 of Nerve Growth Factor (NGF). Elsie Widdowson (United Kingdom, 1906–2000) pioneered the science of nutrition and helped devise the World War II food-rationing program. Rachel Carson (United States, 1907–1964) forged the environmental movement, most famously with her influential book Silent Spring.