"The Women of Azua" studies the effects of male-oriented economic development projects and export processing industries on the traditional family structure in Third World countries. Emphasizing the sexual division of labor, this study is based on field observations and a survey of women in rural communities in the Dominican Republic. The communities studied are all located near large agribusiness food-production facilities. The author studies the impact of these companies--through their employment of women--on families, attitudes, level of living, and the aspirations of the women themselves. While measuring the impact of industrial employment on women and their families, this volume also presents a culture, and its women, not yet studied by North American sociologists.

This study covers a wide range of characteristics including levels of living, employment, marital status and attitudes, household division of labor, nutrition and health, childbearing, aspirations for children, etc. For each topic the author compares two representative samples of women: a community sample and a worker sample. The typical woman in the rural Dominican Republic is seen through the community sample. The worker sample displays the differences in women's lives due to their work for an export food-processing company.

The main focus of this book is on gender differences in seminarians goals, religious practice and beliefs, and experiences as prospective ministers. Based on an in-depth and extensive study of one Presbyterian seminary in the mid 1990s, this book addresses the question of whether gender affects the experiences, beliefs, and practices of men and women who seek clergy careers. Finlay concludes that women's different career patterns are partly a result of their different attitudes toward theological and social issues, which may be rejected by conventional church search committees. This represents a loss to the churches of a diversity of voices and the different experience that women can bring to the ministry.

This book takes a devastating look at the actions and policies of the George W. Bush administration in terms of their impact on women in the United States and abroad. Surprisingly, this is a largely ignored aspect of Bush's presidency, even though his policies have in many ways reversed or inhibited women's progress over the past three decades. While the media have focused on his opposition to abortion, Bush's less-publicized anti-feminist agenda has in fact been much more extensive. He has opposed women's interests in multiple ways, from shutting down women's offices in the government to de-funding programs that assist women, from opposing global women's rights treaties to supporting anti-feminist organizations. Contrary to his public claims that 'W stands for Women,' his policies, appointments and actions reveal a strongly patriarchal bent. This book also includes a chapter on the negative effects on women of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.