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Articles 1 - 16 of 16
Full-Text Articles in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Gendering The Diaspora: Experiences Of British-Pakistani Muslim Women, Aisha Anees Malik
Gendering The Diaspora: Experiences Of British-Pakistani Muslim Women, Aisha Anees Malik
Journal of International Women's Studies
Migration and settlement accounts have primarily been men’s stories within which women are either absent or represented by community spokespersons who again are largely men. The host community and state see their existence within policy perspectives regulating immigration. To fill this gap, this paper explores the gendered experiences of British-Pakistani Muslim women by investigating how they negotiate certain aspects of their diasporic lives. It builds on their narratives in matters related to education, employment, language, dress, and community associations. It discusses the pressures on women due to multiple systems of oppression created by their various identities and how women deal …
Anxiety As A Source Of Motivation: A Critical Study Of The Select Novels Of Bapsi Sidhwa, Shraddha Dhal
Anxiety As A Source Of Motivation: A Critical Study Of The Select Novels Of Bapsi Sidhwa, Shraddha Dhal
Journal of International Women's Studies
The Parsi community in India is currently threatened by extinction due to diverse factors including low birth rate, fecundity, strict laws against religious conversion, and extreme urbanization. This small ethno minority forms a well-defined community by following an inveterate way of living; they only breed among community members, which is an outcome of their long-established allegiance. This closed way of living directs the collateral emergence of ethnic anxiety in its members about the prospect of their survival in the next century. This dwindling community has survived through adapting to centuries of social and cultural cataclysms in pre- and post-partition India. …
Quest For Selfhood: Women Artists In The South Asian Visual Arts, Prachi Priyanka
Quest For Selfhood: Women Artists In The South Asian Visual Arts, Prachi Priyanka
Journal of International Women's Studies
There has been a recent increase in country-focused publications on women artists in Southeast Asia that highlight the newfound interest in feminist-inspired discourses and histories of women artists. India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh have shared a common history and culture for millennia. The socio-economic cultural patterns in these three countries are very similar, particularly when it comes to the status of women. Notwithstanding the difference in religions followed and practiced in these countries, the women here more-or-less experience similar challenges in their advancement. These three countries have traditionally suffered from poverty, illiteracy, health and infrastructure issues, and are bracketed as third …
Educational Background And Identity: Factors Influencing Arab Women Learning English As A Second Language, Sundus Alzouebi, Diana Ridley, Khadeegha Alzouebi
Educational Background And Identity: Factors Influencing Arab Women Learning English As A Second Language, Sundus Alzouebi, Diana Ridley, Khadeegha Alzouebi
Journal of International Women's Studies
In the UK, being unable to communicate in English is a significant barrier to social inclusion. Each ESOL student brings a wealth of cultural experience and diversity to the country, but without sufficient proficiency in English to interact outside the home, migrants, refugees and settled communities struggle to integrate, can feel socially isolated and struggle to find employment.This is even more so for women, many of whom have childcare responsibilities. Arab women form a large proportion of the ESOL population, and often come from diverse backgrounds; some with high-level academic qualifications from their home countries and others who never attended …
Widows And Concubines: Tradition And Deviance In The Women Of Raja Rao’S Kanthapura, M. E. P. Ranmuthugala
Widows And Concubines: Tradition And Deviance In The Women Of Raja Rao’S Kanthapura, M. E. P. Ranmuthugala
Journal of International Women's Studies
Raja Rao’s 1938 novel Kanthapura depicts the impact of Gandhian thought on women and men, and this research focuses on the novel’s fashioning of female identities in terms of nationalism as espoused by Mahatma Gandhi. This analytical research paper hypothesises that although women constitute a considerable part of the narrative and have political agency, their identity is moulded by men to serve men’s nationalist interests: The paper contends that women must undergo transformation and refashioning of their identities for nationalism. The novel provides a strong argument for Mahatma Gandhi’s political ethic of empowering people and engages with diverse issues such …
Teaching Authorship, Gender And Identity Through Grrrl Zines Production, Sara Gabai
Teaching Authorship, Gender And Identity Through Grrrl Zines Production, Sara Gabai
Journal of International Women's Studies
Zines are self- published, non-commercial magazines that range in size, form and genre, and that tackle the most disparate issues including stories from everyday life. While academia has been reluctant to bring zines within the classroom due to their non-academic layout, multitude of styles, broken grammar, strong tones and content, this paper explains what brings zines into existence and how the latter give girls and women a chance to produce and write culture while creating new spaces of resistance. It will also investigate the politics of writing, the contradictions in grrrl zines, and their potential in displacing the boundaries of …
(Re)Imagining Haiti Through The Eyes Of A Seven-Year-Old Girl, Iliana Rosales Figueroa
(Re)Imagining Haiti Through The Eyes Of A Seven-Year-Old Girl, Iliana Rosales Figueroa
Journal of International Women's Studies
Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat’s new novel Claire of the Sea Light (2013) explores themes of love, loss, and death. The first character that is presented to us is Claire of the Sea Light, a seven-year-old girl, whose mother died giving birth to her and who is missing. It is at the intersection of this little girl’s loss that all the other characters and topics unfold. Madame Gaëlle, an upper class woman who has a fabric shop in Ville Rose, decides to adopt Claire in order to give her a better life. In this essay I demonstrate that Edwidge Danticat articulates …
In Search Of A Lost Identity: Iranian Women And Their Identity Issues, Mahsa Izadinia
In Search Of A Lost Identity: Iranian Women And Their Identity Issues, Mahsa Izadinia
Journal of International Women's Studies
Using the data from the lives of two Iranian women, I focus on how context and self impact the process of identity formation. My aim of the present study is to empower and emancipate women by highlighting the significance of knowing who they are and holding on to their dreams, values, and choices especially when the social and family contexts are limiting and oppressive. Elaborating on the concept of identity and its significance for human development, I discuss the life stories of the two Iranian women and their major challenges. I explain how they gradually dissociated from who they were …
Veiling And Blogging: Social Media As Sites Of Identity Negotiation And Expression Among Saudi Women, Hala Guta, Magdalena Karolak
Veiling And Blogging: Social Media As Sites Of Identity Negotiation And Expression Among Saudi Women, Hala Guta, Magdalena Karolak
Journal of International Women's Studies
This paper aims at assessing how Saudi Arab young women use social media for negotiating and expressing their identity. Through in-depth interviews with a sample of seven Saudi females aged 20-26, the research revealed that the internet, with its protection of individual privacy, provided the participants a space to negotiate the boundaries imposed on them by cultural and societal rules. Participants employed several tactics of negotiation such as using nicknames, concealing their personal images and using first names only in order not to be identified by their family names. Using multiple accounts is also popular among participants. Without gatekeepers, the …
The Legacy Of Simone De Beauvoir On Modern French Visual Art, Rebecca Trevalyan
The Legacy Of Simone De Beauvoir On Modern French Visual Art, Rebecca Trevalyan
Journal of International Women's Studies
Arguably the woman that first inspired and shaped the Women’s Liberation Movement in Western Europe, Simone de Beauvoir had an emboldening influence on women engaged in a variety of vocations. Visual art is an area of influence that has been less examined in academia. This project considers the heritage of Beauvoir’s Le Deuxième Sexe in the work of five French women artists; in particular the depiction of femininity as artifice, the tensions between painted appearance and corporeal reality, and the bravery required to take action, to persistently defy the gaze of a male-coded society.
Lottiamo Ancora: Reviewing One Hundred And Fifty Years Of Italian Feminism, Miguel Malagreca
Lottiamo Ancora: Reviewing One Hundred And Fifty Years Of Italian Feminism, Miguel Malagreca
Journal of International Women's Studies
This essay examines the struggle of Italian feminism for transforming long rooted beliefs and gender roles in Italy since the late nineteenth century. I specifically focus on the legal, political and symbolic levels. First, I describe the historical formation of Italian feminism and its relation with literature and politics. Next, I examine the emergence of new feminist groups, and their involvement with the late 1960s protests. I then briefly explore the issues of divorce, labor and family laws during the 1970s and 1980s. Finally, I summarize the progress of the lesbian and queer movements in their struggle for recognition and …
‘The Truth Is A Thorny Issue’: Lesbian Denial In Jackie Kay’S Trumpet, Ceri Davies
‘The Truth Is A Thorny Issue’: Lesbian Denial In Jackie Kay’S Trumpet, Ceri Davies
Journal of International Women's Studies
The focus of this paper is Jackie Kay’s novel, Trumpet, the fictionalised account of a woman (Josephine Moore) who lives her life as a man (Joss Moody). This paper looks at how Joss’s identity is constructed, as well as the impact this has on the identities of other people. In particular, the paper examines the difficulties faced by Joss’s wife, Millie, as she tries to help him keep his secret, and protect her own identity as a heterosexual wife. Her attempts to defend herself and her husband from accusations of lesbianism lead to an examination of the power of …
The Lady In The Looking-Glass: Reflections On The Self In Virginia Woolf, Stephen Howard
The Lady In The Looking-Glass: Reflections On The Self In Virginia Woolf, Stephen Howard
Journal of International Women's Studies
This essay addresses Virginia Woolf’s exploration of the concept of the self through reference to a range of her prose writings. In these writings, Woolf questions whether the self is unitary, constant and finally knowable, or fragmented, unstable and inscrutable; whether the self is merged with other people, and constructed from interactions with the world; and whether or not a durable and fixed self-image is a necessary prerequisite for successful social interaction. Woolf’s engagement with the conventions of biography is examined primarily through the lens of two short stories: ‘The Lady in the Looking-Glass’ and ‘An Unwritten Novel.’ I argue …
As You Wear: Cross-Dressing And Identity Politics In Jackie Kay’S Trumpet, Alice Walker
As You Wear: Cross-Dressing And Identity Politics In Jackie Kay’S Trumpet, Alice Walker
Journal of International Women's Studies
This paper explores the theories and practices of cross-dressing through the lens of Jackie Kay’s novel, Trumpet (1998). In the course of Trumpet, Kay explores the life of a fictional protagonist, ‘Joss Moody,’ who was born a woman but lived as a man. With close reference to recent critiques of cross-dressing, this paper conducts a detailed analysis of identity, gender, and personal autonomy as they are constructed within the terms of Kay’s text. Furthermore, it works to illustrate the complex ways in which gender and individuality intersect in contemporary cultures, while exposing the logic of gender binarism to intense …
Women’S Understanding Of The Effects Of Domestic Abuse: The Impact On Their Identity, Sense Of Self And Resilience. A Grounded Theory Approach, Emma Crawford, Helen Liebling-Kalifani, Vicki Hill
Women’S Understanding Of The Effects Of Domestic Abuse: The Impact On Their Identity, Sense Of Self And Resilience. A Grounded Theory Approach, Emma Crawford, Helen Liebling-Kalifani, Vicki Hill
Journal of International Women's Studies
Research on women who have experienced domestic abuse indicates that they feel marginalized; stigma, shame and fear about the response of services stop women from seeking the support they need. The current study aimed to explore the unique perspectives of women who have experienced domestic abuse in order to gain an understanding of their experiences, their perceived identity, sense of self and resilience. Interviews were conducted with eight women who had experienced domestic abuse and transcripts were analysed using grounded theory methodology. Findings indicated that domestic abuse had a significant impact on the women interviewed. In particular, the ongoing relationship …
Looking At Me, Are You? Social Status And The Veil, Angelika Böck
Looking At Me, Are You? Social Status And The Veil, Angelika Böck
Journal of International Women's Studies
In this article I discuss the dialogical method which is used to study the idea of perception among individuals, especially to understand the question of perception toward the veil in Yemen in 2007. Furthermore I elaborate on my exploration of “portrayal” as an art form which lies at the basis of my approach. To be occupied with matters of the veil means to deal with questions of image and gaze. Therefore I also try to give a basic overview on this topic. The article ends with a short description of a corresponding experiment I carried out in Germany one year …