Brave: Young Women’s Global Revolution Book Review

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International Journal for Intersectional Feminist Studies, Volume 4, Issue 1 & 2, September 2018, ISSN
2463-2945
Gayle Kimball. Brave: Young Women’s Global Revolution (in two volumes, Vol. 1: Global Themes & Vol. 2: Regional Activism). [Equality Press], 2017. With introduction, b/w photographs and notes. x, 373 pp & xiv, 643 pp.
Morgan Brynnan
Finally, we hear the authentic voices of girls and young women from around the globe, from the traditional to the radical. Encompassing interviews and fieldwork from 88 countries, sociologist Gayle Kimball brings together over a decade of original research on female youth. Such research is sorely lacking, as most other works of this kind are regional and/or discuss youth without including their voices. Kimball goes beyond standardized internet surveys of middle-class youth, with in-depth video interviews available on the companion blog, https://globalyouthbook.wordpress.com, of young women from the favelas of Brazil to the upper-class in Saudi Arabia. Some of the interviews and contacts went on for over a decade as the young women moved into adulthood, and Kimball traveled for much of the research.
A monumental piece of research and analysis from Feminist Standpoint Theory, Kimball includes and compares other notable surveys of youth and women’s issues in the two volumes. Don’t expect to hear only feminist voices—traditional young women speak clearly in these pages as well. A good history of feminism and what it means today to young women is part of the essential reading in Brave. Both volumes discuss the impact of neo-liberal policies, war, non-violent resistance, and upheavals.
Consumerism and media are addressed in depth, as well as organizing in the Internet Age. Discussion questions are included following each chapter and the endnotes are a rich source of further information.
While there is heavy coverage of the Arab Spring uprisings, the two works go far beyond the Middle East to report on women making change in other countries (Volume 2, Regional Activism, covers The West, Latin America, Africa, MENA, Russia, China, and India).
This work includes many references to important figures in various movements, related source materials, and films. It could be improved with the addition of an index, bibliography, and filmography for easier access and further research. A link to the core survey questions and most frequent answers is included.
23
International Journal for Intersectional Feminist Studies, Volume 4, Issue 1 & 2, September 2018, ISSN
2463-2945
Great reading for anyone interested in what girls and young women really think politically. Especially useful for courses in Women’s Studies, Youth Studies, Girl Studies, Political Science, and Global Studies, this is a record of the otherwise unnamed young women who have changed our century.
NOTE: This work is part of a series of books based on the longitudinal international survey work of Dr. Kimball. Other books in the series include Ageism in Youth Studies: Generation Maligned (Cambridge Scholars, 2017); How Global Youth Values Will Transform Our Future (Cambridge Scholars, 2018); Resist! Goals and Tactics for Changemakers (forthcoming, 2018); and Democracy Uprisings Led by Global Youth (forthcoming).
Dr. Kimball welcomes you to critique upcoming drafts. Contact the author at GKimball@csuchico.edu
Morgan Brynnan is a mother, librarian, and unabashed feminist living in the United States. With activist roots going back to the Women’s Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice at The Seneca Army Depot and ACT-UP, she writes from a life lived fully. Currently, she reads and writes on women and youth issues while raising her eleven year old daughter in a small Northern California farming town. She holds degrees in Librarianship, Spanish, and in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. You can reach her via email at mbrynnan@gmail.com.
Morgan Brynnan, 2018
2018, by Morgan Brynnan. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

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How Global Youth Values Will Change Our Future

New book by Gayle Kimball:

How Global Youth Values Will Change Our Future

Please ask your library to order from Cambridge Scholars in the UK.

Chapter 1: A Global Generation

Youth Characteristics; Academic Ageism; Get to Know Eva, Abel, Sahar and Yuan; Glocal Hybrid Youth Culture; Global Media Influence, Global Tends Shaping Our Future; How Youth Will Change the Future

 

Chapter 2 Generation Gap

Teenaging of Culture vs. War on Kids; Academics’ Viewpoint; A Current Generation Gap? Helicopter Parents Push School Success; What Youths Think About Adults

 

Chapter 3 Traditional Values

Critics of Modern Values and Stress; Traditional Rural vs. Modern Urban Values; Conflicting Values; Respect for Elders; Traditional Values in First Generation Immigrant Youth; Youth More Family-Focused

 

Chapter 4 Modern Values

Morally Lax and Relativistic?; Cultural Developmental Stages Change Values; Individualism vs. Collective Values; Modern Cultural Creatives; Values in Traditional Muslim Countries; Youth Value Education, Service and Career But Are Anxious

 

Chapter 5 Religious Beliefs

Religious Beliefs; Questions About God; Life Purpose; Meaning of Suffering; Youth Participation in Organized Religions: Comments about Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism and Animism; Spirituality

Books about Global Youth by Gayle Kimball and 4,000 youths

Ageism in Youth Studies: Generation Maligned (Cambridge Scholars Press)

How Global Youth Values Will Transform Our Future (Cambridge Scholars Press)

Brave: Young Women’s Global Revolution (Volumes 1 and 2, Equality Press from AK Press)

Your Mindful Guide to Academic Success: Beat Burnout (Equality Press)

For contents, email the author gkimball@csuchico.edu

High School Students Discuss Stress, Anxiety, and Political Issues

44 high school students in Chico, CA, discuss stress, anxiety, and political issues. September, 2017

I asked 44 high school students in Chico, California, about their explanations for girls being more anxious and depressed than boys, according to national surveys. One boy said that male depression is prevalent too, as he knows from personal experience, so it may be we don’t know as much about what boys are really feeling due to social definitions of masculinity. The answers of these Advanced Placement students are found on the book webpage.[i] The most common explanation is female hormones impact emotion so “their brain is a chemical maelstrom.” They’re always moody, said one boy. Another said that the motherly instinct makes girls more emotional. They mature faster; “They take things more seriously so they get anxious about a test that a male might not even study for.”

The second most common explanation is that girls are held to a higher standard in their appearance and behavior, as “society holds women on this pedestal and many women think that they aren’t good enough and feel less than their counterparts,” magnified by comparison to fake posts on social media and airbrushed photos of models. Due to high expectations of perfection, “we always have to act polite and be conservative. They expect more from us but treat us worse than males.” There’s a double standard in appearance, so that “We are worried about the way we look and guys make it clear that eating nothing and being tan is considered hot.” That leads to the third explanation that a patriarchal society makes women anxious due to sexual assault, putdowns (called “hoes” and “stupid”) in a culture where young women are “slut shamed, cat called, put down, and left to basically do what men won’t.” Women are judged by their appearance and attractiveness to men, facing more ”societal scrutiny.” A boy observed, “Society is patriarchal and their lives are significantly more difficult. As a male, everything has literally always been easy for me. That is not the case for anyone who is not like me in color, class, or gender. Our society’s truly deplorable ongoing bias towards women is a strain on our collective unconscious.” It seem that young people believe that girls are more anxious and depressed because of their hormonal fluctuations, being held to a higher standard of appearance and behavior, and faced with more judgment and criticism in a society dominated by men. There’s nothing comparable to the excuse that “boys will be boys.

Causes of stress in this order

• School, homework, tests
• Family problems, pressure from parents
• Social worries, drama
• Time taken by work and sports
• Personal worries about the future, social anxiety
• Bad stuff happening around the world
• Coping Techniques in this order:
• Logic, reason, plan, organize, perspective
• Sports

• Sleep, nap, bath
• Fun with friends
• Talk with friends
• Music
• Pray, meditate, breathing
• Social Media
• Sex

Q3     Q4

 

English

English

Q1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regional Difference in Spiritual Attitudes of SpeakOut Youth

Some regional differences surface in SpeakOut respondents’ statements about their life purposes. Rural Chinese youth value service to the motherland and to family: Asian students value getting into a good university: Muslim students value following the principles of their religion and spreading it to others: and African youth place high value on their religion and on having children. Mother of George (2013) portrays this African emphasis on giving birth. The film is about Nigerians living in New York City and the problems created when, a year and a half into marriage, the bride has not gotten pregnant. Reginald, a young Nigerian who gathered book responses for me, explained in an email,

Africans are the most religious, with 67% seeking their purpose in God/Allah, followed by Central and South America (47%) and the Middle East (46%). Western respondents are least likely to know their life purpose—56% in Western Europe and Australia and 20% in North America don’t know. The most altruistic, concerning with doing good deeds, are in India (71%), North America (59%), Eastern Europe (57%), and Central Asia (53%). The most altruistic with a focus on helping family are East Asia (36%), Central Asia (17%), and India (12%). The least altruistic in that they responded to the first question about what you would ask the wisest person by asking about their personal success are Central and South America (37%), followed by 35% in Africa, and 34% in Central Asia and India (gender differences aren’t significant). The most desirous of knowing the meaning of life are in Eastern Europe and Russia (42%), Western Europe and Australia (38%), and North America (37%). Interest in what happens after death is highest in Africa (27%) and Western Europe (19%). Regional differences are more significant than gender or age group.

 

“Ageism in Youth Studies” book now affordable

Ageism in Youth Studies

Generation Maligned

Gayle Kimball

From £19.9

 

Ageism is prevalent in a great deal of current scholarship in the social sciences as scholars fault youth for being delinquent or politically apathetic. Researchers ignore young people’s actual voices, despite their leadership in recent global uprisings, some of which unseated entrenched dictators. Neoliberalism must be exposed in its focus on youth sub-cultures and styles rather than economic barriers caused by growing inequality and rising youth unemployment rates. Ageism in Youth Studies also discusses the debate about “Generation We or Me” and if Millennials are narcissistic. Resources about global youth studies are included, along with the results of the author’s surveys and interviews with over 4,000 young people from 88 countries.

http://www.cambridgescholars.com/ageism-in-youth-studies

Global Survey of 20,000 Gen X Youth

The Varkey Foundation released a study that claims to be the first and largest global survey of Generation Z attitudes in 2017 because there’s “very little in-depth reputable polling on the opinions and attitudes of Generation Z.” It surveyed 20,088 young people ages 15 to 21 from 20 representative countries in 2016. They were part on online research panels, meaning they all had acess to the Internet. Their results reinforced my Global SpeakOut survey findings that youth attitudes are “remarkably similar” globally:  They’re generally happy, comfortable with diversity, value helping others, are not religious, and are most influenced by their parents. Their parents are the main influence on their values (89%)–followed by friends and teachers–and 67% have a good relationship with their parents. Only 30% say celebrities influence their values and less than 17% report being influenced by politicians. Family is their priority for the future, more so than health, career, or money. Only 42% say religion is significant to them (especially in Africa), while 39% say it has no significance to them (especially in Japan, Australasia, and Europe). Instead of religion they value service to others; 67% think that making a wider contribution to society is important, especially if they gain more skills and knowledge.

The Digital Natives have faith that technology (84%) and education (80%) will make the future better, but in 16 out of 20 countries more young people believe the world is becoming worse. Overall, 37% think the world is getting worse, only 20% think it’s getting better, and the rest didn’t pick either possibility. The most pessimistic are in Western developed countries, France and Italy, while emerging countries of China and India have the highest percentage of optimistis about the future. The lack of good education makes 69% of them worry about the future. They’re more concerned about extremism and terrorism (83%) than climate change (66%), except in China. There pessimism is not surprising when they grew up with rapid change, growing inequality, terrorism, the refugee crisis, poor education in many developing nations, the rise of populism, climate change and probably the first generation to that will be worse off than their parents.

Two-thirds (68%) say they’re happy; more so in emerging countries (Indonesia, Nigeria, and India) than in developed countries (France, Australasia and the UK). The older respondents and the young women were less happy than younger and male respondents. The least happy Gen Z respondents live in Japan and South Korea. More than half (60%) think their country is a good place to live. However, over two-thirds lack overall emotional well-being, as measured by they don’t think about their problems too much, they don’t feel anxious, lonely, unloved or bullied. Only 17% think they get enough sleep, exercise, and time for reflection so it’s not surprising that they don’t feel content. Their main sources of anxiety are money and school.

Gen X has liberal viewpoints: Opposing prejudice, 89% believe men and women should be treated equally (especially in Canada and China), 74% believe that transgender people should have rights, 66% believe in safe and legal abortion, 63% believe same-sex marriage should be legal, but only about half believe in free speech if it’s offensive to religion or minority groups. Support for free speech is highest in Turkey and Argentina, countries with a history of authoritarian governments, and lowest in Nigeria and China. Young people in 14 out of the 20 countries are supportive of immigrant rights in their country. Few think a person’s religion is an important factor in selecting a friend. Only 3% think fame is the most important factor in choosing a career.

 

Emma Broadbent, et al., “Generation Z: Global Citizenship Survey,” Varkey Foundation, January 2017.

https://www.varkeyfoundation.org/sites/default/files/Global%20Young%20People%20Report%20%28digital%29%20NEW%20%281%29.pdf