Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

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

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Gender In Translation, Khaoula Jaoudi

Journal of International Women's Studies

The mediator between people all over the world is language, and translation is the means by which we can cross borders. Translation can play an important role in moving towards a common livable world of coexistence and transnationality. Feminist translation theory emerged from the shared struggle women and translation experience; it criticizes the concepts that place both women and translation at the bottom of the literary and social scale. “La liberation des femmes passé par le language” is a famous saying among women of the 1970s feminist movement which indicates that women must be first liberated from language. And since …

Entrepreneurial Competencies In Graduate Students From Mexico: A Gender Perspective, Eduardo R. Diaz

Journal of International Women's Studies

Mexico faces a gender gap in opportunity entrepreneurship. Part of the problem is the masculine approach to business education in graduate programs. This research uses data from 173 female and male graduate students to compare self-efficacy levels in entrepreneurship and leadership. The data were collected under a cross-sectional, survey research design. Findings suggest that there were no statistically significant differences between females and males in five entrepreneurship and two leadership dimensions. Statistically significant differences were identified in one entrepreneurship dimension: initiating relationships with investors. A key takeaway is that females undervalue their ability to secure funds for entrepreneurial purposes.

Does Entrepreneur Gender Matter For Entrepreneurial Motivation: Answers From Micro Small And Medium Enterprises (Msmes) Of Assam, Ankita Sarmah, Bedabrat Saikia, Dhananjay Tripathi

Journal of International Women's Studies

With regard to SGD-5, this study attempts to examine the association between entrepreneur’s gender and their entrepreneurial motivation and to discover if entrepreneur’s gender influences the motivation. The study further tries to see if entrepreneurial motivation varies on the grounds of entrepreneur’s gender. Based on a qualitative approach, the study uses interview data of 320 MSME entrepreneurs from Assam, India. Two hypotheses—there is no association between entrepreneur’s gender and the entrepreneurial motivation (H01) and there is no significant difference between the mean rank of male and female entrepreneurs with respect to their motivational factors (H02)—are postulated and tested using Chi-Square …

Repression And Resistance: Negotiation Between Motherhood And Labour Force Participation By Igbo Women, Alka Vishwakarma

Journal of International Women's Studies

Focusing on the maternal and trading roles as conflicting and complementing, this article explores the female labour force of Igbo women in rural and urban Nigeria. The majority of Igbo women contribute to local trade by carrying on various types of activities, studies have shown that approximate 45.5 % (World Bank 2019) of the Nigerian labour force is women; they either participate in farm activities or carry petty business. 73.15% of women are engaged in farm activities while 26.85 % are in the non-farm activities. Labour force participation in trade activities is challenging; women are marginalized and limited in their …

Gender: A Useful Category Of Analysis For Tanzanian Researchers, Florence Wenzek

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article enriches reflections on the circulation of the concept of gender in the Global South by looking at the transformations of Tanzanian research on gender in education between the 1970s and the early 1990s. A close reading of the texts shows how the concept of gender has been used in this field of study since 1990; it considers variations depending on authors and their positioning. Comparing this with the writings of the 1970s and 1980s, when no one used the concept, reveals how it contributed to epistemological change. The article also reflects on the respective role of local factors …

“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 …

Political Communication Strategies To Increase The Opportunity Of Women's Political Representation In Indonesian Parliament, Zaenal Mukarom

Journal of International Women's Studies

Empirically, women's involvement in Indonesian politics still indicates a low participation level. This study aims to determine the political communication strategies undertaken by women and political parties which are considered to have a direct interest in women's representation in the legislature. The methodology employed included in-depth interviews, focus group discussion, and participant observation. The study was conducted in the West Java Parliament representing the dynamics of national politics. The study found that the current political communication strategies undertaken by women politicians involved alternative strategies such as mainstreaming gender, encouraging affirmative action to have at least 30% women's representation, and offering …

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 …

He Said, She Said: A Critical Content Analysis Of Sexist Language Used In Disney’S The Little Mermaid (1989) And Mulan (1998), Shakira Begum

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study looks at how Disney princess films perpetuate sexist tropes through language. By focusing on both feminism and linguistics, it uses an interdisciplinary approach underpinned by data analysis and media criticism. This paper uses a content analysis study of The Little Mermaid (1989) and Mulan (1998) to look at Disney’s role in shaping representations of women, and how this representation has shifted within the decade of the release of these two films. This paper answers the question: in what ways does language in media perpetuate sexist tropes; more specifically, how has the language of male characters in media perpetuated …

“Why Don’T You Hear Us?”: Interview Narratives Of Disabled Working Women In Private Small Business Firms In India, Deepanjana Varshney

Journal of International Women's Studies

This research explores the perception of disabled working women in small organizations in India's private sector. A meticulous study of past research revealed a paucity of research for working women with disabilities (WWD), especially in small enterprises in the Indian context. There are misconceptions and barriers associated with women with disabilities across the world. Past research demonstrates negative attitudes and related stereotyping notions regarding disabled working women. In sum, they are considered weak, incapable, and dependent on others. There has been insufficient research on employee disability, but there is limited research on the feelings and experiences of disabled working women, …

The Mundane Female Space: Re-Evaluating The Dynamics Of Women In The Transnational Kitchen, Kashyapi Ghosh, V. Vamshi Krishna Reddy

Journal of International Women's Studies

The kitchen space has often been read as the ultimate arena for women’s manifold repression, discomfiture, and gendered labour. This article aims to evaluate the nature of the kitchen space through the analysis of movies, which give a significant amount of visibility to the kitchen space. The arguments investigated in this article are laid out in two ways: one, to re-assess the stereotypical notions about the mundane space as prevalent in the literature, and two, to problematise the space and understand it from multiple perspectives and dimensions. We consider these two arguments while conducting a textual analysis and thematic network …

The Women Organizations And Activism In Combating Domestic Violence In The North Caucasus, Saida Sirazhudinova

Journal of International Women's Studies

There are a wide range of forms of domestic violence in the North Caucasus. Recent years have shown the scale of its spread and the complexity of the fight against domestic violence in the region. The spread of domestic violence in the region is facilitated by the residents themselves, traditional institutions, and religious structures that increase their influence. In addition, the authorities are not interested in solving the problems of domestic violence, and they hinder the work of human rights organizations and activists in every possible way. This article describes the features of the fight against domestic violence in the …

Gendered And Casteist Body: Cast(E)Ing And Castigating The Female Body In Select Bollywood Films, Bidisha Pal, Partha Bhattacharjee, Priyanka Tripathi

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study analyzes the lopsided relationship between gender and caste and the intertwining body politics in select Bollywood films. Bandit Queen (1994) and Article 15 (2019) are films that depict marginalized Dalit women—victims of (s)exploitation and twofold oppressions of graded patriarchy. Based upon real incidents, Bandit Queen tells the tale of Phoolan Devi who is gang-raped by the upper caste Thakur Shri Ram and his clans of the village while Article 15 takes recourse to the gruesome Badayun rape case of 2014 and presents the murder and possible rape of two lower caste young girls. In both the films, the …

Insidious Interlocking Of Gender And Caste: Consequences Of Challenging Endogamy, Mayurakshi Mitra

Journal of International Women's Studies

The Caste system in the Indian subcontinent is characterized by hierarchy or gradations according to occupational status. The evaluative standard that places a caste higher than others or lower compared to the rest is rooted in the Hindu Dharmashashtras. The high and the low are opposed to each other because of their associations with notions of purity and impurity in terms of the nature of their occupations. Since each caste is regarded as a closed group, special emphasis is placed on eating, physical contact, and marriage. Out of these three, the institution of marriage plays a significant role in the …

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

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Extent Of Domestic Violence Against Indian Women After The Implementation Of The Domestic Violence Act Of India, 2005, Archana Singh, Pushpendra Singh

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper aims to dissect and analyze the trends of domestic violence against women in India. It will explore the factors contributing to the risk and prevalence of violence against women following the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act of India in 2005. This study also assesses the magnitude of violence that makes women vulnerable. In addressing the above-mentioned objective, this study has used data from the National Family and Health Survey collected in 2005-06 and 2015-16. In the first stage of analysis, the magnitude of violence was estimated using socio-economic and demographic measures. In the second stage, the risk …

A Deviant Or A Victim Of Pervasive Stigmatization: Wicked Women In Kavita Kané’S Lanka’S Princess, Meenakshi Meenakshi, Nagendra Kumar

Journal of International Women's Studies

Building on the foundational theories of Judith Butler and Edwin Schur, this paper scrutinises the traditional myth of the Hindu epic the Ramayana and argues: (1) how socially constructed gender performance is naturalised by cultural ideology and (2) how infringement of this performance leads to labelling individuals as deviant. Women who transgress these cultural ideologies are defined as deviant and subjected to various punishments, from public humiliation to genital mutilation. Through an exploration of the novelist Kavita Kané’s mythology inspired novel Lanka’s Princess (2017), this paper focuses on the mythical figure known as Surpankha whose character embodies masculine attributes …

Role Portrayal Of Women In Advertising: An Empirical Study, Sangeeta Sharma, Arpan Bumb

Journal of International Women's Studies

One of the sensitive areas in the world of advertising and marketing is the portrayal of women. Women are an indispensable part of Indian society as they constitute half of the population and play critical roles. However, the depiction of women as sex symbols, objects of desire, and as having subservient behaviours has presented a great concern to feminist scholars, activists, and researchers. The objective of this research paper is to study how women’s role portrayal impacts consumers’ willingness to buy and to identify the difference in views of Indian men and women when it comes to the stereotypical role …

Security, Dividedness And Green Activism In Egypt, Jihan Zakarriya

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper attempts to trace green trends in contemporary political activism in Egypt. Taking into consideration the long, deep-rooted history of military rule in the country, it examines the interconnection between the concepts of security and resistance. The paper specifically focuses on post-2011 grassroots, civil and opposition movements in Egypt, arguing that they share and adopt green concerns with nonviolent, comprehensive activism that relate and politicize different forms of environmental, gender, socio-economic, and political violence. In this sense, to fight patriarchy and the militarization and securitization of public spaces and daily activities in Egypt, post-revolutionary activists, feminists, and opposition movements …

Does Gender Matter? Job Stress, Work-Life Balance, Health And Job Satisfaction Among University Teachers In India, Sandip Solanki, Meeta Mandaviya

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study investigates gender differences in the perceived level of stress of university instructors in India. An online cross-sectional survey was completed with 86 respondents comprised of 51 males and 35 females in the state of Gujarat. Results indicate that job stress on work-life balance is significantly stronger for females. Additionally, male respondents scored higher in managing anger at work compared with female respondents and reveal a stronger detachment with work. Further, male respondents have more health-related issues compared with females due to job stress and imbalance in work life, while females exhibit lower career resilience due to family characteristics …

“Not Women’S Work”: Gendered Labor, Political Subjectivity And Motherhood, Mary E. Wilhoit

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article challenges broadly applied beliefs about the gendered nature of informality and the marginalization of single mothers to argue that many such women in Ayacucho, Peru routinely sought out formal-sector jobs and used these to exert authority over certain local processes of development. I argue that this situation, influenced in part by the male-dominated nature of the lucrative but completely informal coca economy, may also reflect Andean ideologies of maternal authority and the freedom afforded to single, rather than married, women. This article draws on over sixteen months of fieldwork in rural Ayacucho, during which time I observed women’s …

Gender, Media, And Contraceptive Use In Nigeria: Men Need Help, Not Women, Obasanjo Joseph Oyedele

Journal of International Women's Studies

Nigeria’s annual population growth and fertility rates are fueling the popular postulation that by 2050, the nation will rank after India and China in population size. Increasing population growth amid poor economic and health statistics in Nigeria point to family planning as one of the long-term effective solutions to this issue. After years of raising awareness and knowledge building, there still exists a huge gap between knowledge of contraceptives and the application of the knowledge in Nigerian society. This gap has initiated a myriad of behavior change communication campaigns on the use of contraceptives. This study goes beyond considering the …

An Ecofeminism Perspective: A Gendered Approach In Reducing Poverty By Implementing Sustainable Development Practices In Indonesia, Sabarina Husein, Herdis Herdiansyah, Lg Saraswati Putri

Journal of International Women's Studies

Gender mainstreaming is one of the Indonesian central government’s alternative programs to achieve gender equality. Gender inequality is experienced by women, especially in underprivileged conditions. Gender mainstreaming to address environmental concerns and the lagging and oppression of the environment’s development. Moreover, women, as pioneers of their households, must find ways to survive in environments where massive exploitation has drastically reduced the ability to access natural resourses as a daily support system. It is important that equitable development for all genders to provide a sound environment and create a creative economy to improve living standards takes place. This research employs a …

The Escalation Of Gender-Based Violence During Lockdown As A Practical Theological Concern In The South African Context, Me Baloyi

Journal of International Women's Studies

The year 2020 will be remembered as the year in which the coronavirus managed to disturb almost the entire planet from many of its activities. During the lockdown, which saw more than 195 countries in the world trying to combat the virus, gender-based violence in South Africa rose at an alarming rate. The skyrocketing statistics reported to police during this period raises a lot of concern as to why, instead of lockdown uniting families and marriages, reports of violence are on the rise. Aside from other factors that the research will unveil, theologically the church is not innocent of its …

Intrahousehold Relationships And Decision-Making In Extended Households Of The Luguru Community, Kamille De Backer, Nathalie Holvoet, Mursali Milanzi

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article analyses intrahousehold decision-making in extended households of the matrilinear Luguru community in the Morogoro Region of Tanzania. Our research focuses on the participation of adult “extended” household members, mainly relatives such as in-laws, grandparents, and cousins, in household decision-making. It complements studies that conceptualise household decision-making as a bargaining process between two decision-makers. We explore whether factors such as age, education, life cycle and gender play a role in this process. As decision-making processes often vary depending on the decision-making area, we differentiate between seven broad decision-making fields which are relevant in their respective settings. Our study adopts …

Narratives Of Dalit Women And ‘The Outsider Within’: Toward A Literary Practice Of Dalit Feminist Standpoint, Bhushan Sharma

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper establishes an experimental methodology for developing a Dalit Feminist Standpoint Theory through the analysis of Baby Kamble’s The Prisons We Broke and Urmila Pawar’s The Weave of My Life. Exploration suggests an outline method to attain a standpoint and represents the more significant issues of marginalization of Dalit women, their subjectivity, their lack of voice as reflected in the Dalit Movement, Dalit Literature, Indian feminism, and in their everyday lives. This study claims that Dalit women writers have a potent standpoint as an 'outsider within,' and argues that their triply oppressed caste, class, and gender identity allows for …

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 …

National Identity Attachment And Its Variables, Tri Windari

Journal of International Women's Studies

National identity and nationalism have continued to influence economic, social, and political behavior despite their fluidity in a globalized and modernized world. Drawing on Benedict Anderson’s concept of “imagined communities” and the Social Identity Theory by Henri Tajfel and John Turner, national identity as a part of social identity is dynamic and plastic. It is relatively influenced by external and internal factors of individuals, including time and space. This fluid trait makes national identity difficult to explain and measure. This study utilizes a qualitative method based on secondary sources to analyze national identity attachment variables that affect it by focusing …

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 …