Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Do Resources Create Empowerment?: A Study Of Tribal Women Farmers In Madhya Pradesh, India, Sudarshan Thakur, Simran Malkan

Journal of International Women's Studies

As of late, there has been debate about the importance of recognizing women in agriculture as farmers. The demand to be recognized is backed by women’s significant contribution to the household economy. Scholars have attempted to establish a correlation between land ownership and women’s empowerment in agriculture. This is an oversimplification of the situation of women farmers and their empowerment, especially in the context of tribal society where women have better access to and control over community and forest resources. We undertook this study to examine if having land and other resources is a prerequisite for the empowerment of tribal …

Writing Adivasi Women: Widening The Research Canvas, Shashank Shekhar Sinha

Journal of International Women's Studies

Adivasis have become visible in debates around indigeneity, identity politics, conversion, development, and displacement, and more recently on climate change. However, gender remains a comparatively marginalized theme and Adivasi women or tribal women remain marginalized subjects. This article explores the broad themes and conceptual frameworks around which Adivasi women have gained maximum visibility in colonial and postcolonial India. It analyzes the trends in available research on Adivasi women and the problems involved. The article underlines the need to widen our research canvas, ask more questions, and consider more layers and complexities in research pursuits.

To What Extent Does Labor Force Participation Empower Women?, Karolin H. Lehmann

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper critically examines the relationship between women’s labor force participation (LFP) and empowerment, particularly in the Global South, utilizing Naila Kabeer’s empowerment framework. By challenging the orthodox conceptualization of LFP, the study reveals its methodological limitations as a measure of women’s economic engagement. By emphasizing the dynamic nature of empowerment as a multifaceted process within the formal and informal sector, this paper highlights the interplay of agency, resources, and achievements within Kabeer’s framework. Drawing from global examples, it demonstrates the varied impacts of paid work on women’s decision-making in both private and public spheres. While acknowledging the potential of …

Toward Inclusive Advancement: An Analysis Of Gender Equity In Kenya, Gloria Nyambura Kenyatta

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article assesses the notion of gender parity and its function towards inclusive advancement in the Kenyan context. Gender parity has been extensively acknowledged in the 2010 Constitution of Kenya, although its intended outcomes still need to be attained. Men and women have different needs, which should be harmonized for efforts geared towards achieving inclusive advancement. Both are entitled to equity in the advancement agenda. Through secondary research, this paper reviews the international, regional, and national frameworks on gender equity to which Kenya is a signatory. These frameworks are significant in supporting the country's efforts towards gender equity. The paper …

What Are The Attitudes Towards Changing Gender Roles Within The Saudi Family?, Rasis Alanazi, Munira Alhugail, Tagreed Almeshary

Journal of International Women's Studies

Saudi Vision 2030 was launched with a focus on three main themes: “a vibrant society,” “a thriving economy,” and “an ambitious nation” (2017). In order to realize these primary themes, more participation of women is required in the workforce. A number of legislative reforms have supported the entry of more women into the workforce, such as lifting the male guardian permission for work and travel, supporting programs for childcare, allowing women to drive cars, and ensuring women’s involvement in leadership positions. Saudi women are now working in defense, mining, construction, manufacturing, and retail among other sectors. As a result, women's …

Negotiating Empowerment: Pakistani Women Exercising Agency In Domestic And Public Spheres, Laraib Qureshi, Saadia Abid

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article explores women negotiating empowerment in domestic and public spheres as beneficiaries of a women’s empowerment project. While these empowerment interventions are noteworthy, they are also misleading because they ignore the local expressions of agency, where women at home also exercise power and conscious decision-making in their own contexts, just as much as any other working women--which is equally significant when talking about empowerment. We argue that there are other expressions of empowerment that are neglected, trivialized, or unacknowledged by the mainstream discourse. In a similar context, we argue that local women, while understanding the NGO’s definition of empowerment, …

Women’S Labour Force Participation: Economic Growth Nexus In Sub-Saharan African Countries, Chinasa E. Urama, Ezebuilo R. Ukwueze, Divine N. Obodoechi, Oliver E. Ogbonna, Afamefuna A. Eze, Oluwaseun B. Alade, Paschaline N. Ugwu

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women’s labour force participation is an aspect of empowerment and a leeway to achieving the SDGs due to the contribution of women’s labour to economic growth. This study investigated the impact of women labour force participation on economic growth in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Important lessons were drawn from Israel as to how Israel has been empowering and currently improving women’s labour force participation and economic growth in general. The study employed a two-step system Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) with panel data from 35 selected SSA countries. The findings showed a positive relationship between gross fixed capital formation, female …

The Economic Empowerment Of Women In The Hadith And Its Application In The Indonesian Context, Umma Farida, Abdurrohman Kasdi, Yuyun Affandi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Discrimination against women's rights in the economic sector based on Islamic teachings is still common in Indonesia. This article aims to reveal the economic empowerment of women by the Prophet Muhammad. During his life, he took sides with women by giving them their rights, including those in the economy. Also, it aims to portray the implementation of the Prophetic teachings related to women's economic rights in the Indonesian context by using descriptive-analytical research methods. The collected data is then analyzed using gender and Islamic approaches. The results showed that the Prophet had upheld and implemented women's economic rights through his …

Women’S Empowerment And The Well-Being Of The Unemployed Women In Yakurr, Nigeria, Achoda Thomas Omang, John Thompson Okpa, Ofem Nnana Okoi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Issues on women’s deprivation, marginalization and empowerment are well documented in literature. The impact of women’s empowerment on the well-being of unemployed women in Yakurr Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria, is yet to receive sufficient investigation from scholars. Thus, this study explores the relationship between women’s empowerment and the well-being of the unemployed women, aged 18-45 years in Yakurr Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. It specifically examines the types and access to available women’s empowerment programmes, the nature of empowerment programmes that women have benefitted from, as well as areas of positive impact in …

The Role Of Emirati Women During The Covid-19 Pandemic And The Challenges, Suaad Zayed Al-Oraimi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Using a qualitative methodology of personal interviews and participant observation, this research investigates the role of Emirati women in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent impact/challenges. Research participants included female Emirati health care workers and educationists. We observed Emirati families to help better understand the challenges women went through during the pandemic. Contrary to existing narratives about the invisibility, docility, marginalization, victimhood, and dependency of Arab women, this research reveals that Emirati women were able to exercise agency in the fight against the pandemic due to the following factors: longstanding government empowerment of women, a sense of …

Alternative Forms Of Resistance: Afghan Women Negotiating For Change, Sara N. Amin, Nazifa Alizada

Journal of International Women's Studies

In this paper we examine how Afghan women resist, strategize and negotiate family and societal constraints to take advantage of the expanding education and employment opportunities in the post-Taliban era. We focus on how these women exercise agency and what resources they mobilize to maximize their opportunities in the face of potential constraints. We argue that to understand women’s agency and changing gendered power relations in the family, it is crucial to examine every day individual behaviors that deviate from prescribed dominant gender behavior and infuse altered meanings to dominant gendering discourses. Our research highlights that gendered power is partial, …

Impact Of Digitization On Women’S Empowerment: A Study Of Rural And Urban Regions In India, Dhanamalar M., Preethi S., Yuvashree S.

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women's empowerment plays a crucial role in the overall development of any society besides positively impacting the daily lives of women. The winds of radical change in the fields of employment and information technology have brought with them a wide range of opportunities for women in India and across the globe. The primary objective of this study is to find the usage of digitization in rural regions and urban regions by women. The study aims to perceive how basic internet centres and training should be provided for rural women to help them utilize the internet facilities. The “Internet Saathi” projects …

A Study On The Status Of Women’S Empowerment In Urban Bangalore, India, Sangeetha Menon, Ranjitha M, Shweta Sharma

Journal of International Women's Studies

The urge to empower is a human quality and a multidimensional phenomenon. It allows individuals or groups to participate and prosper in households, communities, and countries through political or development processes. Numerous studies have associated empowerment with many developmental outcomes. In the past decades, significant advances have been made among women in many fields like health, education, and employment. However, increasing incidence of violence against women, under-representation of women in decision-making, discriminatory laws governing marriage, land, property, and inheritance hinder women’s empowerment. It is further blocked by new challenges that have emerged over the last decade, such as tackling HIV/AIDS …

Feminization Of Poverty Program (Pfk) And The Empowerment Of Women Heads-Of-Household In East Java, Indonesia, Sulikah Asmorowati, Violeta Schubert, Dian Yulie Reindrawati

Journal of International Women's Studies

Severe conditions of poverty have been found in households headed by women in East Java Province, Indonesia. In response to this, the Provincial Government of East Java initiated an innovative program called Jalin Matra (Jalan Lain Menuju Mandiri dan Sejahtera or Another Way Towards Sustenance and Welfare) in which one of the programs is Program Feminisasi Kemiskinan (PFK). This paper is based on a research that is concerned with the implementation of PFK in the regions of Trenggalek and Lamongan, East Java, Indonesia, especially in the village level. It is especially focused on the impacts of the program implementation on …

Dignity And Empowerment: An Exploration Of The Microcredit Experiences Of Women In Rural Bangladesh, Rahima K. Lipi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Modern microcredit, as a tool for economic and social development, emerged with the assumption that it would promote women’s empowerment. Some researchers have found that microcredit has had a significant amount of success. However, some of these supportive studies have also ignored the subjective history of the participants. A second critical view of microcredit presents the practice as a Western World notion which exploits women as a tool of the market economy in order to gain profit, arguing that it has failed to provide an alternative to women’s vulnerability and survival. This article focuses on the drawbacks of both approaches. …

Resisting The Male Gaze: Feminist Responses To The "Normatization" Of The Female Body In Western Culture, Diane Ponterotto

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper attempts to present a feminist critique of the social and political promotion in Western culture of a univocal model of female corporeity imposed on women, and consequently detrimental to female subjectivity and agency. Starting from the Foucauldian position concerning social oppression determined by the disciplinary gaze of power structures, the paper discusses perspectives of resistance to the patriarchally-motivated scrutiny of the female body, and to the mass-media induced coercion of conformity to the normatized model for the female body in contemporary society.

Microcredit Lending To Female Entrepreneurs: A Middle East Case Study, Alida M. Gomez

Journal of International Women's Studies

There are more than 4 billion people in the world living off of less than 1500USD per year. These are the people worldwide without access to commercial banks and credit unions. These are the people that microcredit lending institutions are here to help. This paper focuses on the advantages to allocating the microcredit loans to female entrepreneurs. Highlighting women’s empowerment through microcredit lending, and using the Middle East as a case study, this paper uses studies from throughout the region that show that microcredit loans are improving communication, access to information regarding rights, and improved household welfare. Through access to …

Social Status And Change: The Question Of Access To Resources And Women's Empowerment In The Middle East And North Africa, Elhum Haghighat

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) do not face a single social ideology that opposes change. It is incorrect to conclude that Islam per se is predominantly responsible for limiting women’s access to resources, employment, reproductive health, and social services. It is critical, however, to understand how Islam is used as an instrument of control in the hands of the governing elite; when expedient, Islam and historical traditions of patriarchy supply a framework and a justification for impeding or limiting women’s progress. At times, it has also been used in concert with government aims to slow population …

Empowering Women In Rural Bangladesh: Impact Of Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee’S (Brac’S) Programme, Dilruba Banu, Fehmin Farashuddin, Altaf Hossain, Shahnuj Akter

Journal of International Women's Studies

From the Introduction:

Literally, ‘empowerment’ is seen to relate to the user’s power. It involves undoing negative social constructions, so that the people affected can perceive themselves as having the capacity and the right to act and have influence (Rowlands, 1995:102). Rao and Kelleher (1995:70) define women’s empowerment as “the capacity of women to be economically self-sufficient and self-reliant with control over decisions affecting their life options and freedom from violence”. In the existing socio-cultural milieu of Bangladesh, embodied within the phrase of ‘empowerment’ is the concept of change. The development activities of Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) in Bangladesh lead empowerment …

Who Will Empower The Better Half? Social Dynamics In Operation, Debabrata Lahiri, Santanu Mitra

Journal of International Women's Studies

In a game theoretic framework it can be argued that a gender sensitive institution is an offshoot of certain social conditions, which in most cases need to be acted upon by some anti-establishment catalytic agent. Given the fact that among about half of the population there is a need for such an institution, the main function of a catalytic agent is to engineer a conversion of that need into an active demand. In a society characterized by gender exploitation, catalytic agent can only come exogenously. For a sub-society it is easier to come across such an exogenous catalytic agent. The …

Empowerment Beyond Numbers: Substantiating Women’S Political Participation, Bilkis Vissandjee, Alisha Apale, Saskia Wieringa, Shelly Abdool, Sophie Dupéré

Journal of International Women's Studies

From our households and into our communities, from independent States to international governing bodies, gender operates as a construct of evolving aspects of women’s identities and is a medium through which expectations are prescribed, social norms are formed and power relations are negotiated. Gender constructs that impede women’s access to the public spheres of society diminish the possibility for equitable and empowering life conditions. Of particular emphasis in this paper, facilitating women’s entry into political bodies across the world is also compromised by persistent obstacles in women’s opportunities in both political and private spheres of life.

Our research engages female …

From Discovery To Dissidence: Honduran Women’S Conceptions And Claims Of Human Rights, Christine Gervais

Journal of International Women's Studies

In recognition of the profound benefits of women’s engagement with their rights, this article presents an experiential account of how Honduran women comprehend, articulate, experience and advocate human rights and gender equality through non-governmental educational initiatives. Through the triangulated analytic among human security, post-victimization and citizen-based advocacy approaches, the article traces the women’s journeys from their moments of discovery of human rights towards instances of dissidence. In so doing, the women’s demonstrations of empowerment, agency, resistance and solidarity are brought to the fore. By featuring their voices, this study demonstrates how Honduran women are able to shape their own expectations …

Examining Empowerment Among Indian Widows: A Qualitative Study Of The Narratives Of Hindu Widows In North Indian Ashrams, Nimi Mastey

Journal of International Women's Studies

Contemporary discourse on widowhood in India tends to concentrate heavily on quantitative evaluation. Discussion of the narratives of the women is confined to more popular medium, and tends to focus on the need of the women to be empowered. By simply visiting ashrams in Vrindavan it becomes clear that the term “empowerment” is vastly up to interpretation. This study focuses on the models of empowerment applied by two different widow ashrams: Ma-dham and Chetan Bihar. Through obtaining narratives of the women’s lives, I attempt to assess the success of the ashrams in “empowering” the widows, and question the necessity and …

Women’S Empowerment In Bahrain, Fakir Al Gharaibeh

Journal of International Women's Studies

In Bahrain, the role of women can be determined by examining their activities in all sectors of society. Traditions and laws primarily hold women back from their full participation in the economy and politics of the nation. Discrimination that has carried forward into the constitution of the land was caused by adherence to historical remnants of a society that does not really exist anymore. This study presents the social, economic, and political reality of Bahraini women in light of applicable legislation, and the barriers women face in achieving equality. The objective is to examine these realities within the context of …

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 …

Arab Spring: Women’S Empowerment In Algeria, Sangeeta Sinha

Journal of International Women's Studies

The Arab Spring brought turmoil, upheaval and regime change in its wake. But these winds of change barely touched Algeria, and when it did we did not hear or see any women. In order to answer the two questions, the paper explores the status of women in present-day Algeria within a historical social and political context. Understanding the status of women is done by delving into some of the historical processes that Algerian women have had to confront. In order to understand the empowerment process, the study uses the empowerment framework as outlined by the Beijing Platform of action and …