Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Deconstructing Masculinity In A ‘Female Bastion’: Ambiguities, Contradictions And Insights, Charles C. Fonchingong

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article is informed by my experiences teaching women’s studies and specifically feminist theory to predominantly female and male students offering Women’s studies. As a mainstream academic discipline at the University of Buea, housing the only such Department in Cameroon’s Higher Education system, this study uncovers the broader polemics regarding gender and women’s studies.

Against the backdrop of a patriarchal society, this study attempts to account for the shifting strands on masculinity and femininity and gender transgressions as played out by students taking women’s studies. It also analyses the notions, misconceptions and stereotypes that characterise the discipline of women’s studies, …

The Role Of Gender, Self-Efficacy, Age And Extroversion On Smoking Behaviour Among Ambrose Alli University Students, Ekpoma, Nigeria, S. O. Momoh, H. O. Imhonde, E. Omagbe

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study examined the role of gender, self-efficacy, age and extroversion on smoking behavior among Ambrose Alli University Students. Two hundred and fifty (250) undergraduates participated in the study (males 160 and females 90). Questionnaire was used in collecting data that were analyzed in this study. The questionnaire consisted of 4 sections: the demographic variables, extroversion scale, self-efficacy scale and attitude toward smoking scale. Two out of the four hypotheses tested were supported. Results of the independent t-test indicated that there was a significant difference in the onset of smoking between females and males (t = 2.354, df = 248, …

Combating Violence Against Women (Vaw) In South Kivu: A Critical Analysis, Giulia D’Odorico, Nathalie Holvoet

Journal of International Women's Studies

During the on-going civil conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo or DRC), which has raged on and off since 1996 and throughout the post-2002 transition period, thousands of cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence against women have been reported. Drawing on secondary data and evidence from our own field research, this article describes and assesses aid delivery to victims of sexual violence. Aid practices on the ground, as well as the underlying policy framework are critically analysed through a gender lens. It is argued that the lack of a gender perspective in the relevant …

Polygamy Talk And The Politics Of Feminism: Contestations Over Masculinity In A New Muslim Indonesia, Sonja Van Wichelen

Journal of International Women's Studies

The political downfall of the Suharto administration in 1998 marked the end of the “New Order,” which was characterized by a 32-year period of authoritarian rule. Opening the way for democracy, it included the unlocking of Indonesian politics for the influence and participation of political Islam, which the New Order discouraged or banned. This shift led to a proliferation of Islamic issues in the public and political sphere. Many of them concerned issues of gender and have triggered profound debates about women’s rights and gender equality. This article examines one of these public concerns over “Islam and gender,” namely polygamy. …

Visible Under The Veil: Dissimulation, Performance And Agency In An Islamic Public Space, Julie Billaud

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper seeks to characterize new meanings attached to women’s veiling in an Islamic public space, drawing from observations, interviews and field notes collected among various women’s groups in Afghanistan. It is argued that while the chadari – or burqa, as the Western press miscalled it, using the Urdu denomination – has become the ultimate symbol of women’s oppression for Western audiences, it is necessary to take a closer look at its multiple and often contradictory uses and to contextualise the reasons for its maintenance, despite the downfall of the Taliban regime. Ethnographic research demonstrates that women who are attempting …

(Not) Higher, Stronger Or Swifter: Representation Of Female Olympic Athletes In The Israeli Press, Yair Galily, Nadav Cohen, Moshe Levy

Journal of International Women's Studies

Despite the IOC declaration of intent for gender equality in sport and in light of the fact that a greater number of women are participating in the Olympic Games covert connotations are hidden behind the distorted and biased image presented of female athletes in the press. The current study asks whether the size and extent of coverage really matter; does more extensive coverage necessarily mean equal and true representation of women in sport, or are we getting more of the same? The findings in this study indicate two parallel processes in terms of article content: First, the greater the number …

Palestinian Women’S Everyday Resistance: Between Normality And Normalisation, Sophie Richter-Devroe

Journal of International Women's Studies

The paper traces Palestinian women’s understandings, practices and framings of everyday resistance. Women’s resistance acts consist of both materially-based survival strategies and various coping strategies at the ideational level. Focusing on the latter, this study investigates women’s practices of travelling to create (a sense of) normal joyful life for themselves, their families, friends and community with the aim of shedding light upon the complex and mutually constitutive interplay between women’s agency and the various social and political power structures. It is argued that Palestinian women, although framing their acts of crossing Israeli-imposed physical restriction as acts of resistance against the …

Gender Empowerment And Equality In Rural India: Are Women’S Community-Based Enterprises The Way Forward?, Maria Costanza Torri, Andrea Martinez

Journal of International Women's Studies

Despite the renewed commitment of the international community to provide economic opportunities for poor women, most observers suggest that the majority of the past and current experience of community enterprise programmes for women has failed to make any significant impact on women’s incomes and social empowerment. Based on ethnographic research methods, this paper presents a feminist analysis of a singular women’s community enterprise promoted by local NGOs in the state of Tamil Nadu in India, usually known as GMCL (Gram Mooligai Company Limited). GMCL has been promoted by local NGOs in the state of Tamil Nadu and is an example …

Gender And Increased Access To Schooling In Cameroon: A Marginal Benefit Incidence Analysis, Tabi Atemnkeng Johannes, Armand Gilbert Noula

Journal of International Women's Studies

Of great importance to policy makers is to know if females and poor households benefit more or less than the males or rich households from an expansion in access to public education. This is marginal benefit incidence of public spending which is rarely determined. In this paper, we determine the extent to which an expansion in public education is effective in reducing gender gaps in enrollments and thus, poverty in Cameroon. Government subsidies directed towards higher education are poorly targeted and the poorest income groups receive less than the richest income groups and indeed favor those who are better off. …

Women And Peace Talks In Africa, Akin Iwilade

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper interrogates the role of women in peace talks in Africa. It addresses the exclusion of women and their peculiar interests from deliberations aimed at constructing a post conflict state framework that resolves the contradictions that incite violent conflict and provides safeguards against recurrence. The paper argues that the failure of peace talks to deliberately incorporate women interests detracts from their potential to effectively confront the questions of post conflict rebuilding. It notes the increasing inclusion of women but argues that this does not amount to gender representation. This is because at the heart of the inclusion is the …

Gendered Performance Performing Gender In The Diy Punk And Hardcore Music Scene, Naomi Griffin

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article considers the relevance of geographical theories about gender roles and how gender is performed, to the situated context of a local DIY (‘Do It Yourself) punk scene. It draws on an auto-ethnographic study carried out by the author between September 2008 and May 2009, which explored the themes of the body, gendered performativity and gendered spatialities. The study was based on the author’s observations, reflections and conversations with other participants at live music events (‘shows’) in a particular region of the UK, but also revealed how DIY punk offers an example of an imagined community, crossing temporal, spatial …

Healthy Choices And Heavy Burdens: Race, Citizenship And Gender In The ‘Obesity Epidemic’, Jeanne Firth

Journal of International Women's Studies

The ‘obesity epidemic’ is widely accepted as a major public health threat in the United States. This paper provides a critical examination of the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity’s action plan that is foundational to First Lady Michelle Obama’s ‘Let’s Move!’ campaign. The report reveals ideological anxieties about race, American citizenship, changing gender roles and women’s bodies. The framing of obesity as a personal problem and individual failing reflects the merger of American individualism and neoliberalism. Self-regulation and responsibility (and the mother’s responsibility for her children) are key in prescriptions to manage obesity, reflecting biopolitical techniques of governance …

Imagined Subjects: Polygamy, Gender And Nation In Nia Dinata’S Love For Share, Grace V. S. Chin

Journal of International Women's Studies

In this paper, I explore polygamy in Nia Dinata’s Indonesian film, Love for Share, and how it can be used as a key signifier to analyze the construction of gendered subjects, identities and relations in the phallocentric discourses of family and nation. In Indonesia, the family structure is inherently patriarchal and hierarchical in nature, one which exhorts wives to stay at home while husbands are seen as breadwinners and whose roles are non-domestic. However, women are doubly marginalized in Indonesia as their subordinate status in the domestic space is reified at the national level through the state ideology of the …