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letter published by Suchasnist Publishers in London, England, which provides information about USSR’s nationalities and their problems. According to the newsletter, the Russians are hav ing a hard time keeping their vast empire on an even keel, and all because women in one part of their world are having too many babies and in the other part, very few. The difference comes from family structure and religious affiliations of these many people. The Slavic and Baltic women are largely urbanized whereas their sis ters in Central Asia and in the Caucausus still work in the fields and live in villages. The nuclear family of the Slavs is different from the extended family of the Asians with their far-reaching tribal relationships. Perhaps most important is the fact that in the vast regions of Kazakh, Uzbek, Tadzhik, Kirgiz, Turkmen and Azerbaidzhan the Islamic religion plays an important part in the lives of the people The point of these differences is that the Muslim women have families that are twice as large as those of the Slavic and Baltic women and the rate of reproduction in Central Asia and in the Caucasus is two and a half times that in other parts of the Soviet Union. Compris ing 20% of the total population of the Soviet empire, Central Asians and Caucasians are becoming the major source for the Soviet Army and the labor force. Traditionally, the Russians have distrusted the Asians, and many Asians neither want nor can integrate into the Soviet society. They do not want to leave their homeland for the sake of jobs or learn Russian ways. With their poor knowledge of the Russian language they seem to present a long-term threat to the cohesion of the Red Army. The Russians have come up with various campaigns to remedy these situations, such as intensified language instructions, propaganda campaigns to reduce the in fluence of Islam and of course a hard push toward cur tailing high birth rates among Muslim women. A change in attitudes toward reproduction in these women mean ing fewer children, is hoped for by the Soviet authorities with increased vocational training and greater availabil ity of contraceptives. On the other hand, the Soviets are hoping that the Slavic and Baltic women will increase their birth rate. As incentive the authorities propose to improve services in general in the countries involved, allow women shorter and more flexible working hours, extend maternity leaves, increase family counseling, offer financial aid to newlyweds and provide more housing. Women’s Studies — status report. In 1984 there were about 450 women’s studies programs in more that 3,000 colleges in the United States, accord ing to Virginia J. Cyrus, national coordinator of the National Women’s Studies Association. About 150 schools gave bachelor’s degrees in women’s studies, 50 gave master’s degrees and about twelve granted Ph.D’s. In an article for the New York Times magazine (April 22, 1984) Walter Goodman discussed the disputes and contentions surrounding women’s studies in Amer ican universities and colleges. Although the enlightened University of California at Berkley has been awarding B.A.’s in women’s studies since 1976, Mr. Goodman said that “resistance to these studies continues to run strong at the elite schools.” Annis Pratt, a teacher of woman’s literature and a monitor of tenure disputes for the National Women’s Studies Association listed Harvard, Princeton and Stanford as the “bad guys” in this respect. Mr. Goodman went on to say that “only a handful of colleges have granted women’s studies full-fledged de partmental status, which means a budget, tenured posi tions and a degree of control by the department’s own faculty”. Does women’s studies deserve a department is a question which raises another question, according to Mr. Goodman, and that is whether it constitutes an aca demic discipline with a unique methodology. Mr. Goodman quoted Richard P. Taub, associate dean at the University of Chicago, as saying ’’women’s studies is not a discipline,” an opinion which, as per Mr. Good man, elicited wide agreement in the academic world. On the other hand, wrote Mr. Goodman, ’’the claim that women’s studies is, or should be a separate disci pline, rests on the contention that women’s experiences are too special and too crucial to all aspects of society to be subsumed under existing disciplines.” Sandra Coyner, director of women’s studies at Kansas State University said that “traditional disciplines cannot pro vide suitable home for women’s studies, which aim at revolutionizing those very disciplines. We put family and reproductive relationships near the top of the list, not the bottom. We see qualities of sensitivity and nurtu- rance as achievements, not leftovers.” ”lf one objective of women’s studies is to gain a place for women in the academy, another is to raise the feminist consciousness of the many who pass through,” wrote Walter Goodman in the concluding part of his article. Defining consciousness raising as “aiming to enable women to break out of male-dominated ways of thinking and acting,” Mr. Goodman cites several schools of thought on that subject, claiming that it is in part ’’forwarding the social and political goals of the women’s movement.” Many scholars, he said, are not too keen on the combination of scholarship and politics, for the sake of both, but the common answer to the charge that women’s studies has a political coloration, is that all teaching is a political act. Marilyn J. Boxer, a professor fo women's studies at San Diego State University said ’’women’s studies must be explicitly political, consciously an academic arm of women’s liberation, and actively part of a larger social. movement that envisions the transformation of society.” Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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