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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (2 results)

  • Article
Thinking Gender Papers (2010)

This essay inquires into the process of gender role negotiation in Saudi Arabia by examining the dynamics of organizations that straddle ambiguous state-society boundaries and how they have been used to pioneer successful gender reform initiatives in the conservative oil kingdom. The specific case of inquiry is the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), the leading organization in which women were elected to governance positions for the first time in the history of Saudi Arabia. The JCCI also became the prototype for a series of successful initiatives that established business women’s councils in the main Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CCIs) across the country. In the context of the JCCI narrative, the essay makes a number of claims: 1) the dynamics of associational life in Saudi Arabia constitute crucial negotiation sites of the current governance reform process taking shape in the country; 2) that a “straddler” focus of analysis provides a useful model for inquiry into gender articulation in Saudi Arabia; and 3) that “straddler” organizations were indispensable for the success of pioneering feminist reformers in the country and the discursive shifts they achieved. State laws and regulations that set the rules for the corporatist arrangement of Saudi CCIs and their internal governance were examined. The web presence of national and regional CCIs were also analyzed in terms of the information that they provided to the public, the primacy of gender reform issues in their presentation, and the ability of users to connect with businesswomen councils and their leaders.

    Cover page: Straddler-based Gender Reform in Saudi Arabia: The Case of Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry
    • Article
    • Peer Reviewed
    UC San Francisco Previously Published Works (2009)

    Background

    While premature suture fusion, or craniosynostosis, is a relatively common condition, the cause is often unknown. Estrogens are associated with growth plate fusion of endochondral bones. In the following study, we explore the previously unknown significance of estrogen/estrogen receptor signaling in cranial suture biology.

    Methodology/principal findings

    Firstly, estrogen receptor (ER) expression was examined in physiologically fusing (posterofrontal) and patent (sagittal) mouse cranial sutures by quantitative RT-PCR. Next, the cranial suture phenotype of ER alpha and ER beta knockout (alphaERKO, betaERKO) mice was studied. Subsequently, mouse suture-derived mesenchymal cells (SMCs) were isolated; the effects of 17-beta estradiol or the estrogen antagonist Fulvestrant on gene expression, osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation were examined in vitro. Finally, in vivo experiments were performed in which Fulvestrant was administered subcutaneously to the mouse calvaria. Results showed that increased ERalpha but not ERbeta transcript abundance temporally coincided with posterofrontal suture fusion. The alphaERKO but not betaERKO mouse exhibited delayed posterofrontal suture fusion. In vitro, addition of 17-beta estradiol enhanced both osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation in suture-derived mesenchymal cells, effects reversible by Fulvestrant. Finally, in vivo application of Fulvestrant significantly diminished calvarial osteogenesis, inhibiting suture fusion.

    Conclusions/significance

    Estrogen signaling through ERalpha but not ERbeta is associated with and necessary for normal mouse posterofrontal suture fusion. In vitro studies suggest that estrogens may play a role in osteoblast and/or chondrocyte differentiation within the cranial suture complex.
      Cover page: Estrogen/Estrogen Receptor Alpha Signaling in Mouse Posterofrontal Cranial Suture Fusion
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