This article addresses how people account for their beliefs and what social factors affect or determine those accounts. Considering the explanations women in five African countries give for their opposition to female genital cutting (FGC), we empirically examine the link between movement adherence and frame resonance. Although international anti-FGC activists employ medical and human rights frames to combat the practice, we find most of the women surveyed do not use these frames to account for their opposition to FGC. Rather, they tend to explain their opposition simply by stating female genital cutting is a ‘bad tradition.’ Based on descriptive statistics and the results of HGLM analyses, we conclude that 1) the importance of frame resonance for movement adherence varies across groups, 2) frame resonance is less important to ‘adherents’ whose supportive attitudes predate mobilization, 3) personal factors, such as being circumcised, exposure to western influence, and independence, increase the likelihood ...

How does gender affect work rewards for professionals in a state-run economy? Using surveys from physicians in Estonia in 1991, the authors first found that the gender of the physician did not affect the level of formal rewards. However, because the state allocated formal rewards on the basis of professional purity, which was negatively correlated with feminization, specialties that had the greatest proportion of women also had the lowest formal rewards. These findings contrast with the author's findings for the level of informal “black market” rewards. Women were less likely to receive informal rewards than men, especially if they worked in subfields high in professional purity. The authors conclude that the link between professional purity and feminization is critical in explaining pay differences informal work rewards while gender itself is the critical factor in explaining informal reward differences.

Because the media plays a critical role in cross-cultural communication, bias in the portrayal of particular cultures is an important issue. In this article, we use the form of newspaper articles over time to arbitrate between two competing theories of media coverage: Is the media primarily driven by self-interest, that is, the need to sell newspapers, or is it driven primarily by the same principled ideas that fuel international activism? Analyzing international newspaper articles on female genital cutting from 1978 to 1998, we find a close correspondence to international activism. Tracing the strategies of “transnational advocacy networks,” most articles are primarily devoted to leverage and accountability themes. Further, the ultimate decrease in articles on female genital cutting was not preceded by a decrease in articles designed to shock readers but rather by a peak in stories that emphasized the accountability of governments to eradicate female genital cutting. Over time, perhaps as the appropriate...

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