Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

The Other Dimensions Of Dalit Oppression: Tracing Intersectionality Through Ants Among Elephants, Arundhati Sen

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper demonstrates how gender abuse is not merely restricted to hierarchical gender oppression but also operates within an intersectional framework where gender is intertwined with hierarchical caste exploitation. While revisiting White bourgeois feminism, bell hooks emphasizes the incorporation of different marginal perspectives to make feminism an all-encompassing radical movement, accessible to everyone. Inspired by the lens that hooks uses to interpret Black feminism and the Indian scholars who approach Dalit feminism from an intersectional standpoint, I analyze Sujatha Gidla’s autobiography Ants among Elephants (2017), a family story of a lower-middle-class rural South Indian Dalit woman. I argue for the …

Heed Their Rising Voices: Conflicts And The Politics Of Women’S Representations, Maha Bashri, Prospera Tedam

Journal of International Women's Studies

Conflicts and wars have many parallels wherever they occur around the world. For many people worldwide, the media is the most important source of information on these conflicts and their effects on vulnerable groups such as women and children. Women’s experiences in particular mirror the atrocities of war zones. Yet, it is certain women whose stories and voices are amplified the most by the media. The war in Ukraine in comparison to ongoing conflicts in countries such as Afghanistan and Syria garnered more media coverage in a shorter time span. By reporting on some conflicts while neglecting others, and representing …

Why Ismat Chughtai Faced Trial: An Intersectional Reading Of The Reception Of “Lihaaf” In Colonial India, Mrinalini Raj

Journal of International Women's Studies

In this paper, I study Ismat Chughtai’s short story “Lihaaf” (“The Quilt,” 1942) side by side with her essay “The Lihaaf Trial” (English translation, 2000). I also analyze their reception of these texts in regards to their treatment of sexuality, women, and morality in the colonial period. I engage the texts through the lens of intersectionality. Multiple aspects affected the reception of Chughtai’s “Lihaaf” because it explores the intersection of multiple axes of oppression like gender, colonialism, class, and sexuality. During the colonial period in India, the British colonizers directly influenced Indian morality through laws and emphasized British cultural superiority. …

Converging Crises And The Cost Of Exclusion: Unveiling The Invisible Women Of Sri Lanka’S Economy, Lihini Ratwatte

Journal of International Women's Studies

In Sri Lanka, women’s labor force participation has never exceeded 35% in over three decades. As of 2022, the country was ranked 110 out of 146 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index. The gaps in women’s participation in the formal economy alongside women’s limited political empowerment are two leading causes for the country to be lagging in such global gender equality indicators. At a large cost to the economy, the existence of archaic gender norms that promulgate women’s unpaid care work often exclude women from the formal labor force. This paper dissects the socio-economic and socio-political factors …

Women Suffering From Multiple Sources Of Oppression In Upper Egypt: A Case Study Of Intersectional Targeting And Integrated Development Interventions As The Way Out, Laila El Baradei, Passant Elwy

Journal of International Women's Studies

Scholars in the field of gender and development are strong advocates of the concept of “intersectionality,” first coined by Crenshaw in 1989, as a way of thinking about how marginalized groups may be subjected to oppression from various sources. The main purpose of this research is to make a case for how intersectional targeting, together with integrated development interventions, can be useful in helping vulnerable individuals, specifically women, suffering from multiple sources of poverty and oppression. A case study, coupled with in-depth field interviews, was the method employed for assessing the application of an intersectional lens by a nonprofit development …

Healing Justice As Intersectional Feminist Praxis: Well-Being Practices For Inclusion And Liberation, Sharon Doetsch-Kidder, Kalia Harris

Journal of International Women's Studies

Since at least the 1830s, Black feminists in the US have spoken of how oppression harms the spirit and have also expressed the need for Black people to respect themselves in the face of anti-Black racism (Guy-Sheftall, 1995). The recognition that oppression negatively impacts well-being continues today. Research in community health and psychology has demonstrated how Black Americans, Native Americans, and Latinx people have been victims of mass incarceration, state-funded and state-sanctioned violence, and systemic discrimination in schools, workplaces, healthcare, and housing. Due to these conditions, racial and ethnic minorities in the US suffer disproportionately from mental and physical illnesses …

Migrant Academic/Sister Outsider: Feminist Solidarity Unsettled And Intersectional Politics Interrogated, Maria Tsouroufli

Journal of International Women's Studies

Feminist sisterhood has been heavily criticized by Black feminists and others as installing a false sense of equality among women and being overly ambitious in disrupting the models and boundaries of the neo-liberal university. This paper draws on the autobiographical account of a White-other, female European migrant academic in the United Kingdom to consider how intersectional disadvantage and privilege shapes feminist sisterhood with profound implications for academic identities, careers, and belonging in the internationalized university and the wider socio-political British context. I draw on my professional trajectory to demonstrate how othering and violence in the form of verbal abuse, microaggressions, …

After Violence: Dalit Women’S Narratives And The Possibilities Of Resistance, Anandita Pan

Journal of International Women's Studies

The history of feminist criticism has undergone a long trajectory where it gets written in terms of difference and sameness. Such anxieties get written in the Indian scenario with reference to the “caste” question. The predominant constructions of “woman” and “Dalit” give prominence to savarna women and Dalit men. As such, the mutuality of caste and gender is unaddressed. The intersectional identity of Dalit women, simultaneously affected by caste and patriarchy, has challenged this homogeneity claimed by mainstream Indian feminism and Dalit politics. Dalit feminism provides a critique of Brahmanism implicit in mainstream feminism, and the reproduction of patriarchal norms …

“Other” And “Othering” In The Intersectionality Of Inequalities: Alevi Women’S Experiences In Private And Public Spaces, Tuğba Metin Açer

Journal of International Women's Studies

Turkey is one of those geographies where ethnic and sectarian communities live together. Ethnic and sectarian differences in social life create a fragile structure in terms of "othering" and position groups against one another. Alevis are one of the several ethno-religious communities of Turkey that are positioned against Sunni Muslims. In Turkish literature, othering experiences of Alevis are discussed within the framework of totalizing discourses by reducing this issue to the category of sects, thus creating inequality in the social space which is generally related to the Alevis’ ethno-religious identity. Furthermore, it is observed that women’s experiences are ignored in …

Transitioning To The Top: Learnings From Success Stories Of Indian Women Leaders In Academia, Hemlata Vivek Gaikwad, Suruchi Pandey

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women leaders in Indian organizations experience several challenges and obstacles that affect their career progression as well as performance. The study was premised on the under-representation of women in leadership positions across organizations. The challenges and barriers faced by Indian women leaders have been well documented, but very little research has been conducted on the experiences of women who aspired and achieved the top positions. The study intended to explore and develop a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of women leaders so as to define pathways for future leaders to come. The study through the prism of intersectionality theory …

Dalit Women: Narratives Of Vulnerability, Violence, And A Culture Of Impunity, Bhushan Sharma

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Feminism, Sexuality, Gender, Labour: Invisible Stigma Of Sex Work And Menstrual Labour In India, Soma Mandal

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article attempts a feminist analysis of understanding sex workers' limitation to command holistic living practices at all points in their life, based on degenerative quality of sexual labour and degree of violence involved. Combined with the practical limitation of bodies' usage and experiential ways of negotiating routine sexual tasks, the intersecting issue of menstruation in sex workers' lives stands as one of the fundamentally neglected aspects of women's health care service in red light areas. Based on assumptions of the degenerative notion of labour, the stigma associated with sex work and menstrual-related pollution it will explore how gendered, informal …

Toward A Feminism Without Scaffoldings: Mapping A Research Project, A Narrative From The Field, And A Draft Bill, Debarun Sarkar

Journal of International Women's Studies

The paper maps the site of a funded research project to understand how three knowledge articulations—harassment-knowledge, LGBTQ-knowledge, and intersectionality-knowledge—intersect in and around a research project and are produced, circulated, interrogated, and codified to note how intersectionality-knowledge effaces other possible articulations. The paper begins with an auto-ethnographic account of a Ford Foundation funded research project in India, led by key power-brokers of the LGBTQ+ movement, focusing on concerns of discrimination of non-normative genders and sexualities in India. The paper juxtaposes a Ford Foundation funded research project, a narrative from the fieldwork conducted for the project, and a draft of the Equality …

“It Is Not Breasts Or Vaginas That Women Use To Wash Dishes”: Gender, Class, And Neocolonialism Through The Women In Nigeria Movement (1982-1992), Sara Panata

Journal of International Women's Studies

The first self-declared Nigerian feminist organization was founded under the name of Women in Nigeria (WIN) at a meeting in Zaria in May 1982. WIN was a left-wing movement including women and men. This article seeks to shed light on knowledge production in the field of feminism and gender studies in Nigeria, focusing on WIN’s texts and discourses. Approaching knowledge production from the perspective of social history, my analysis examines the biographical trajectories of the association’s activists, the ways in which their journeys influenced the use of global knowledge and the production of “situated knowledges”, and how intellectual work operated …

Interrogating Intersectionality: Dalit Women, Western Classrooms, And The Politics Of Feminist Knowledge Production, Radhika Govinda

Journal of International Women's Studies

Intersectionality’s enormous success raises questions about its purchase as a critical methodology outside the context of its origin, as to how it has taken on meaning and use in Global South contexts. Its widespread espousal across disciplines within Western academia itself compels one to ask whether curricula – and how these are transacted in classrooms – are informed by its analytic insight, and if so, what are the challenges in enacting it as critical pedagogy. In this paper, I bring into conversation key Anglo-American and Indian feminist scholars writing about intersectionality and reflect on my own methodological and pedagogical engagements …

Feminism And Intersectionality: Black Feminist Studies And The Perspectives Of Jennifer C. Nash, Goutam Karmakar

Journal of International Women's Studies

This in-depth conversation with Jennifer Christine Nash, the Jean Fox O’Barr Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University, USA, aims to illuminate the complexities of intersectionality in feminist discourse. This interview focuses on Nash’s work and perspectives on intersectionality in relation to gender, class, race, sexuality, and hierarchies of power and privilege. This interview discusses precarity, vulnerability, and intersectionality in black feminist discourse, as well as the marginalisation of black women’s heterogeneity, the politics of reading associated with intersectionality, and the relationship between temporality and intersectionality. Additionally, this conversation discusses Nash’s monograph, Black Feminism Reimagined (2019), post-intersectionality …

Who Will Speak For The Pasmandaa Women? —Dalits, Women, Muslims, And The Politics Of Representation, Rafia Kazim

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article questions the deliberate omissions of disadvantaged Dalit Muslim women, also known as Pasmandaa women, from feminist, Dalit, and subaltern discourses. To understand the multiplicative nature of oppression and discrimination that these women are continually subjected to, this article foregrounds the intersectionality framework to get a nuanced picture of intersecting vertices of discrimination. It argues that by excluding these severely disadvantaged women from their respective agenda, feminist and Dalit activists have contributed towards their perpetual marginality. Underlying such unaccounted absence of these women is an insouciant attitude of the Pasmandaa leaders towards them. Their approach towards the non-representation of …

Casteing Gender: Intersectional Oppression Of Dalit Women, Bhushan Sharma, K. A. Geetha

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Women’S Studies And Interdisciplinarity, Eve Oishi, Jennifer Abod

Journal of International Women's Studies

A section of a Special Issue of the Journal of International Women’s Studies dedicated to pioneering Black Lesbian Feminist scholar, activist, artist, teacher Angela Bowen, Ph.D. (1936-2018), one of the first scholars to receive a Ph.D. in Women’s Studies. The special issue contains sample materials from Bowen’s archive, which will be housed at Spelman College, including writings, audio and video of speeches, and photos documenting her career as a dancer, her friendship with and scholarship on Audre Lorde, her activism on Black lesbian and gay issues, and her career in Women’s Studies, among other topics. This section focuses on Bowen’s …

Intersectional And Global Perspectives, Eve Oishi, Jennifer Bowen

Journal of International Women's Studies

A section of a Special Issue of the Journal of International Women’s Studies dedicated to pioneering Black Lesbian Feminist scholar, activist, artist, teacher Angela Bowen, Ph.D. (1936-2018.) The special issue contains sample materials from Bowen’s archive, which will be housed at Spelman College, including writings, audio and video of speeches, and photos documenting her career as a dancer, her friendship with and scholarship on Audre Lorde, her activism on Black lesbian and gay issues, and her career in Women’s Studies, among other topics. This section focuses on the intersectional and global aspects of Bowen’s activism, organizing and scholarship including writing …

Speaking Out: Feminism/ Lgbtq Writings And Speeches, Eve Oishi, Jennifer Abod

Journal of International Women's Studies

A section of a Special Issue of the Journal of International Women’s Studies dedicated to pioneering Black Lesbian Feminist scholar, activist, artist, teacher Angela Bowen, Ph.D. (1936-2018.) The special issue contains sample materials from Bowen’s archive, which will be housed at Spelman College, including writings, audio and video of speeches, and photos documenting her career as a dancer, her friendship with and scholarship on Audre Lorde, her activism on Black lesbian and gay issues, and her career in Women’s Studies, among other topics. This section focuses on her speeches and published writing on feminist and LGBTQ issues from the early …

Editors’ Introduction—Doing Her Work, Eve Oishi, Jennifer Abod

Journal of International Women's Studies

The editors’ introduction to a Special Issue of the Journal of International Women’s Studies dedicated to pioneering Black Lesbian Feminist scholar, activist, artist, teacher Angela Bowen, Ph.D. (1936-2018.) Bowen was a friend and early scholar of Audre Lorde, and examples of her writing about Lorde are included. The special issue contains sample materials from Bowen’s archive, which will be housed at Spelman College, including writings, audio and video of speeches, and photos documenting her career as a dancer, her activism on Black lesbian and gay issues, and her career in Women’s Studies, among other topics.

From Glass Ceiling To Green Canopy: An Intersectional Model Of Feminist Sustainability In Fondes Amandes, Trinidad, Rachel Mulroy

Journal of International Women's Studies

The Fondes Amandes Community Reforestation Project is a sustainable model of agro-forestry that emerged contemporaneously with the more globally familiar Permaculture Design. Although the FACRP model has been recognized for their contributions to the Caribbean region and worldwide sustainability and environmental movements, they are not well known in the global North and West. Akilah and Kemba Jaramogi stress the importance of grassroots involvement as critical to adaptation and mitigation in combating climate impacts. However, there is a lack of acknowledgement and reciprocity within the movement that is linked to broader discourses on race, gender, and geography. The influence of these …

Intersectional Alliances To Overcome Gender Subordination: The Case Of Roma-Gypsy Traveller Women, Laura Corradi

Journal of International Women's Studies

By linking the oppression of women with other axes of oppression, the intersectional theories and methodologies employed in the last few decades have proved to be strategic in building awareness, forming alliances, and influencing transversal politics. In this paper, the case of Roma/Gypsy/Traveller (RGT) women is discussed through the multiple discriminations they suffer from, the birth of feminism and gender activism in the communities, intersectional alliances with non-Gypsy feminists, and the anti-racist and LGBTIA-Queer movements. In the second part of the paper, I offer a focus on shared political ‘emotions’, ‘fluid identities’, ‘travelling activism’, and the need for decolonization of …

Confronting Discrimination And Structural Inequalities: Professional Nigerian Women’S Experiences Of Negotiating The Uk Labour Market, Joy Ogbemudia

Journal of International Women's Studies

The line between hypervisibility and invisibility appears to be blurred for Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women in the workplace due to their race and gendered status (Lander and Santoro 2017). The intersection of race and gender exposes many BAME women to discrimination, structural inequalities, and the dynamics of tokenism, which can be a cause of intense job dissatisfaction (Stroshine and Brandl 2011).

It is often the case that discussions on the economic integration of immigrants focus mainly on how the socio-economic dynamics of the host country can limit them to certain labour market sectors. While this is a key …

How Should An Understanding Of Gender Shape Our Approach To The Production Of Knowledge?, Alice R. Dunn

Journal of International Women's Studies

For feminists, the question of what it means to take a feminist approach to the knowledge production process itself is of paramount importance. Drawing on postcolonial and intersectional thought and embedded in a discussion of the realities of the academic research process, this paper questions how an understanding of gender should shape such an approach. Ultimately, it argues the importance of moving beyond self-reflexivity alone and towards an understanding of research as a process of representation.

Starting from the intuition that feminist normative theorising should be grounded in women’s experiences, I first consider how the starting point and end point …

What Does It Mean To ‘Decolonise’ Gender Studies?: Theorising The Decolonial Capacities Of Gender Performativity And Intersectionality, Julianne Mcshane

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper argues for an understanding of Judith Butler’s concept of gender performativity and Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality as decolonial methodologies, alternative epistemologies, and forms of political praxis within gender studies, specifically focusing on the field’s institutionalisation within Western universities, given both their historic complicity in naturalising imperialist ideas and my own lived experience studying within them. I argue that gender performativity and intersectionality act as decolonial methodologies by revealing the respective erasures of constructedness and situatedness within certain dysconscious, imperialist conceptions of ‘gender’ grounded in Whiteness, as well as how these erasures remain otherwise hidden and/or naturalised (to …

Decolonizing The Womb: Agency Against Obstetric Violence In Tijuana, Mexico, Ester Espinoza-Reyes, Marlene Solís

Journal of International Women's Studies

Obstetric violence is a human rights violation that consists of actions or omissions of healthcare personnel that harms people during pregnancy, childbirth or puerperium. Some practices through which it is expressed are the mistreatment, unnecessary procedures, denying of medical attention or provoking damage either physically or mentally. In particular, we understand obstetric violence as the result of a colonization of the womb, that is, of the occupation of the concept of motherhood by the dictates of patriarchal ideology (Fineman, 1991; Ehrenreich, 1993) and of the Colonial/Modern Gender System, proposed by Lugones (2007). The objective of this paper is to analyze …

Ghostly Others: Limiting Constructions Of Deserving Subjects In Asylum Claims And Sanctuary Protection, Maria E. Vargas

Journal of International Women's Studies

In this article, I examine the different constructions of deserving subjects in the new Sanctuary Movement and how sexuality, gender, whiteness, and class create an ostensibly inclusionary agenda that produces ghostly others. Punitive anti-immigrant legislation in the United States has incited mass protests to defend the rights of undocumented migrants. In 2007 this pro-immigrant movement sought to deploy the sanctuary strategy as practiced in the Central American Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s. Using the case of Sulma Franco, a Guatemalan lesbian who was granted Sanctuary by the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Austin, I illuminate the limitations of deservingness under …

The Time To Question, Rethink And Popularize The Notion Of ‘Women’S Issues’: Lessons From Jordan’S Popular And Labor Movements From 2006 To Now, Sara Ababneh

Journal of International Women's Studies

Jordanian women were an integral part of the Jordanian Popular Movement (al Hirak al Sha’bi al Urduni, Hirak in short) protests in 2011/2012. Yet, despite their large numbers and presence, female protestors did not call for any of the commonly known ‘women’s issues’ (qadaya al mar’a) which include fighting Gender Based Violence (GBV), legal reform, increasing women’s political participation, and women’s economic empowerment. This paper argues that the protestors’ silence concerning most of the problems usually included in the list of ‘women’s issues’ raises the question of how prevalent these issues are (or not) in the lives of Jordanian women. …