Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Women’S Empowerment And The Honey Production Projects In The Protected Areas Of Usumacinta Canyon, Mexico, Paola Selene Vera-Martínez, Erika Guadalupe Ceballos-Falcón

Journal of International Women's Studies

Beekeeping is an activity with positive effects for biodiversity and food security; furthermore, it is compatible with the conservation objectives of protected areas. Likewise, previous studies show that the participation of women in beekeeping projects gives them access to paid work and triggers the possibility of their empowerment. The aim of the article is to explore the process of women’s empowerment as one of the social results that derives from the meliponic farmers and beekeepers’ projects implemented in the protected area of the Usumacinta Canyon, Mexico. For this research project, visits were made to the places of honey production in …

Women’S Microenterprise And The Sdgs: Reframing Success In Women’S Economic Development In Sri Lanka, Melissa Langworthy

Journal of International Women's Studies

This research utilizes a capability approach to query the extent to which dominant conceptualizations of women’s micro-entrepreneurship enhance both economic and social development outcomes. Microenterprise programs speak directly to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly regarding poverty (SDG 1), gender equality (SDG 5), and decent work (SDG 8). However, microenterprise programs are embedded in institutional and normative definitions that limit women as “entrepreneurial,” thereby affecting women’s microenterprise motivations, characteristics, and capabilities. As a result, women’s enterprises continue to be largely informal and home-based subsistence enterprises that offer a low-quality employment option and fail to deliver “empowerment” outcomes. …

Gender Empowerment In Transoceanic Feminine Folklore And Shrines: A Kin Study Of Siddi Women’S Participation In Mai Misra Worship In Gujarat, India, Sayan Dey, Tias Maity, Tanmay Srivastava

Journal of International Women's Studies

The term Siddi refers to the African diaspora communities in India, who initially arrived in the 13th century with the Islamic invaders in Gujarat (then Sindh) as slaves, palace guards, traders, and musicians from the eastern parts of Africa, including Ethiopia, Zanzibar, Sudan, and Tanzania. In the 15th century, another group of Africans from South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique were brought to India by the Portuguese colonizers as slaves. The majority of the histories of the Siddi community are androcentric in nature, focusing on the contributions of African men and male spiritual figures towards the development of the Siddi community …

Women’S Empowerment And Modern Contraceptive Use: Evidence From Four Southeast Asian Countries, Chiew Way Ang, Siow Li Lai

Journal of International Women's Studies

Modern contraceptive prevalence rates differ across Southeast Asian countries due to the different levels of socio-economic development, cultural practices, and women’s empowerment. This study investigates the relationship between women’s empowerment and modern contraceptive use in Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, and the Philippines, where Demographic and Health Surveys data are available. The main study variables include modern contraceptive use (as measured by the percentage of married women aged 15-49 currently using a modern contraceptive method) and women’s empowerment measures, which include asset ownership, household decision-making, and attitudes towards spousal violence. Binary logistic regression is used to assess the association between modern contraceptive …

Women’S Empowerment And Antenatal Care Utilization In Pakistan, Kashif Siddique, Raana Malik, Irum Batool, Ahmed Usman, Salman Bin Naeem

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study aimed at examining the role of women’s empowerment in antenatal care utilization among married women in Pakistan. The population of the study was based on secondary data from the Pakistan Demographic Health Survey 2017-18. A sample of 6,996 married women was selected, and the women reported their antenatal visits in the last five years. The descriptive, Chi-square, bivariate, and multivariate logistic regression methods were used for data analysis through SPSS. The results of the study showed that only 15% of women had adequate antenatal visits. Bivariate analysis showed that women who had higher income status, higher education, and …

Feminist Knowledge, Self-Empowerment And Sisterhood, And Safe Space: How The “Perempuan Berkisah” Community Group Empowers Indonesian Women In The Pandemic Era, Rouli Esther Pasaribu

Journal of International Women's Studies

This research aims to understand how the Perempuan Berkisah community group empowers women during the pandemic in Indonesia and how to critically interpret the phenomenon of women’s empowerment. The research employed a content analysis method investigating Perempuan Berkisah’s Instagram account and interviewing and distributing a questionnaire to the community’s founder, committees, and general members. This study analyzed the kinds of empowerment narratives offered, identified the dynamic narratives on the Instagram account since its first establishment in 2019, and critically read the results of Instagram feed content analysis and interviews about women’s empowerment. This research revealed three elements to build a …

Reframing Gender Complementarity: Dance And Women’S Empowerment In Post-Genocide Rwanda, Carine Plancke

Journal of International Women's Studies

Post-genocide politics in Rwanda aim to construct a new, modern and developed nation. Gender equality is one of the issues highlighted to this end. However, in order to defend current reforms, politicians and feminist lobbyists generally refer to women’s traditional position as wives and mothers, embedded in the sacred value attributed to fertility. This article explores Rwandan dance to examine the evolution of views on feminine specificity and gender complementarity within the socio-political context of the promotion of gender equality. Through examining a government-supported youth troupe, founded by Tutsi returnee students, and contrasting it with a female drum troupe, which …

Women’S Social Empowerment And Microfinance: A Brief Review Of Literature, Ambreen Khursheed, Ather Azim Khan, Faisal Mustafa

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women’s empowerment is essential for socio-economic development as it is considered as one of the major factors for increasing worldwide development efforts. The influence of microfinance on women's empowerment is a debatable topic, as past studies have documented. Some researchers claim that microfinance facilitates women to increase their earning capacity, leading to greater control to tackle cultural irregularities. Others contend that their spouses mostly control micro-loans provided to women, causing severe demotion of women. In this paper, we examined the findings of past studies through word cloud analysis to determine the influence of microfinance on the decision-making power of women …

Salvation As Violence: Anti-Trafficking And The Rehabilitation Of Rescued Filipino Women Into Moral Subjects, Sharmila Parmanand

Journal of International Women's Studies

Philippine anti-trafficking and women’s rights legislation constructs sex work as victimhood. This understanding of prostitution positions interventions such as raids, rescue operations, and rehabilitation programs as core strategies for “protecting” and “empowering” all sex workers, regardless of their individual circumstances. Rehabilitation in this context refers to a range of psychosocial, medical, education, legal, protective custody, and economic services that help those designated as victims recover and reintegrate into society. There is a glaring lack of data on whether the socio-economic situations of rehabilitated women have improved and the current spaces for political advocacy by “survivors” are controlled by their rescuers. …

Explaining The Lack Of Progress In Yemeni Women’S Empowerment: Are Women Leaders The Problem?, Nadia Al-Sakkaf

Journal of International Women's Studies

Despite the existence of women’s empowerment policies and the appointments of women leaders to oversee the implementation and sometimes design of those policies, the Republic of Yemen has repeatedly ranked last in the WEF Gender Gap Index since 2006. Is this a problem of capacity? Are the women leaders, who are driving the national women’s development agenda forward, lacking in this field? This article investigates this question through a mixed-method research by surveying and interviewing Yemeni women leaders who were involved in empowerment policies in health, education, economic participation and political empowerment between 2006 and 2014. Findings from this research …

Explaining The Lack Of Progress In Yemeni Women’S Empowerment; Are Women Leaders The Problem?, Nadia Al-Sakkaf

Journal of International Women's Studies

Despite existence of women’s empowerment policies and the appointments of women leaders to oversee the implementation and sometimes design of those policies, the Republic of Yemen has repeatedly ranked last in the WEF Gender Gap Index since 2006. Is this a problem of capacity? Are the women leaders, who are driving the national women’s development agenda forward, lacking in this field? This article investigates this question through a mixed-method research by surveying and interviewing Yemeni women leaders who were involved in empowerment policies in health, education, economic participation and political empowerment between 2006 and 2014.

Findings from this research show …

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 …

The Exploitation Of Women And Social Change In The Writing Of Nawal El-Saadawi, Muhammad Youssef Suwaed

Journal of International Women's Studies

Nawal El-Saadawi is an Egyptian writer, a physician by education, who dedicated her life to promote gender equality. She is an activist writer, and the only one in Egypt who point out the connection of women’s sexual oppression to women’s social and political oppression. She boldly pursues women rights, and demands to change the status and image of the Arabic woman. Her writings include novels, studies and educated scholastic articles, focusing on the oppression and exploitation of the Arabic women, particularly customary rules imposed on women in rural Egypt relying on religion, tradition and the regime. Her writings keep the …

“We Know The Taste Of Sugar Because Of Cardamom Production”: Links Among Commercial Cardamom Farming, Women’S Involvement In Production And The Feminization Of Poverty, Sony Kc, Bishnu Raj Upreti, Bashu Prasad Subedi

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper analyses the impact of commercial cardamom farming on the livelihoods of women, revisiting the concept of the “feminization of poverty”. For the analysis of cash crop farming in Eastern Nepal, both quantitative and qualitative approaches have been used. A quantitative survey was conducted in 513 households in Ilam district between November and December 2015 followed by qualitative data collection. A literature review on the feminization of poverty and cash crop farming has also been included. A descriptive data analysis has been conducted from the perspective of the feminization of poverty against the background of cash crop farming. The …

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 …

Jordanian Social Norms And The Risk Of Intimate Partner Violence And Limited Reproductive Agency, Jennifer Mccleary-Sills

Journal of International Women's Studies

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive global problem that violates the rights of millions of women each year and has been linked with a multitude of adverse physical, mental, and reproductive health outcomes. In Jordan, socio-cultural constructs of masculinity and female sexuality legitimize control exerted on and violence perpetrated against women. These include the gendered social norms that keep women in disempowered positions and limit their ability make fundamental reproductive decisions such as whether and when to become pregnant. This paper explores some of the mechanisms by which low levels of gender equity increase Jordanian women’s risk of violence …

Housing Delivery In Nthutukoville, South Africa: Successes And Problems For Women, Catherine Ndinda

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper examines the notion of empowerment and what it entails in housing development. Through a critical analysis if the different phases in one particular housing project analyzed by the author, the paper highlights the areas of empowerment and emphasizes that it is a process, which in the case of Nthutukoville in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa began with securing land tenure. Access to resources and acquisition of skills are important. Both external and internal factors may be responsible for women’s inability to take charge of their lives. External factors include political violence, unsupportive local authorities, and a hostile environment as well …

Gender Based Violence In India: A Never-Ending Phenomenon, B. R. Sharma, Manisha Gupta

Journal of International Women's Studies

Religion, customs, age-old prejudices, etc. have put Indian women in a subservient and exploitable position in many domains of life. Low rates of participation in education, lack of economic independence, value biases operating against them, etc., have resulted in the women being dependent on men folk and other institutions of authority like the family, neighborhood and the society. They are usually ignorant of their rights and even if they are not, they do not have easy access to justice.

The issues related to women are being raised and discussed in various fora, in the recent times. Of these, ‘violence against …

The Differential Impact On Gender Relations Of ‘Transformatory’ And ‘Instrumentalist’ Women’S Group Intermediation In Microfinance Schemes: A Case Study For Rural South India, Nathalie Holvoet

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article starts from conflicting evidence regarding the impact of microfinance programs on women’s empowerment. It explores whether schemes that appear to be very similar on the surface may actually hide deeper differences that can help explain their diverging outcomes. The focus is on group intermediation, a feature that is overwhelmingly present in microfinance programs targeted at women. While group intermediation clearly has paid off in terms of individual programs’ financial profitability, it is also increasingly propagated on equity and empowerment grounds. This article argues that it is shortsighted to assume all forms of group intermediation will invariably achieve their …

Macro Promises Of Microcredit: A Case Of A Local Esusu In Rural Ghana, Carolette Norwood

Journal of International Women's Studies

Microcredit’s three big promises are one, to reduce poverty; two, to empower women; and three, to enhance family planning knowledge, attitudes and practices. Using a mixed-method approach, this study examines 204 women members and non-members of local eSusus in rural Ghana. Quantitative chi square analysis indicates no associations between membership in an eSusu and relative wealth; women’s autonomy family planning practices, knowledge or use and reproductive control. Meanwhile, the qualitative data shows that women members believe that eSusu are extremely useful for acquiring working capital to be reinvested in their small market ventures, and are helpful with school fee and …