Women's Studies Commons^™

Pindi Boys: The Cultural Production Of Urban Masculinity In Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Saad Ali Khan

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article seeks to understand and analyze the formation of urban masculinities in Rawalpindi, Pakistan by focusing on a subculture known as “Pindi boys,” who are young men aged 17-22. In doing so, this research offers an understanding of what it means to be a teen or young man from a low-income household in the urban city of Rawalpindi. How does sociocultural context influence boys and young men to embody a specific type of masculinity? Following the daily lifestyle of Pindi boys, this research avoids generalizations that result in an ahistorical analysis of men and masculinities in urban spaces. Considering …

Breeding, Mariah Susan, Wendy Chapkis Phd

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

In this interview, Breeding, a 75-year-old queer woman, explores questions of identity, culture, and activism. Breeding was born in New Hampshire, grew up in Ohio, and moved back to the East Coast as a teenager. She moved to Maine at 21, living in Ogunquit and Portland. Breeding discusses her family's background, including her parents' contrasting social classes, and the importance of a Unitarian Universalist group in creating early community. An important subject in the interview is Breeding’s first significant relationship with astrologer Wendy Ashley in Ogunquit and Portland, Maine. She discuses the complex bisexual and polyamorous culture of the 1970s, …

Quasi-Feminism And Identity Exploration In The Film Laapata Ladies, Dr. Bharat Dhiman, Nausheen Khan

Journal of Religion & Film

The film Laapata Ladies (2024), directed by Kiran Rao, is a social commentary revolving around misogyny and the socio-cultural barriers faced by women in rural India, serving as a brilliant ode to womanhood and conveying its message effectively without any melodrama, thereby reflecting social realities at a ground level. The film explores the protagonists’ inner dilemmas, constraints, struggles, and hardships, advocating the cause for inclusivity from a quasi-feminist perspective, poignantly urging us to re-examine our perspectives and stirring conversations around the need for women to establish their own identities, away from the standard kaleidoscope of the male gaze.

Research Guide To Womanist Literature: Historical, Anticolonial, And Fictional Perspectives, Apoliana Da Conceicao Dos Santos

FIRE Fund Bibliographies

This bibliography was compiled for both research and teaching purposes, organized into three thematic categories reflecting a hemispheric, anticolonial, and womanist approach to knowledge production. The collection centers Black, Afro-Latin American, and feminist voices, offering alternative epistemologies that challenge Eurocentric, patriarchal, and colonial frameworks commonly reproduced in academic syllabi. It invites professors and students across disciplines to engage with scholarship and storytelling that foreground women's histories, theories, and creative expressions.

The first category, Historical Womanist Literature, examines testimonies, resistance, kinship, and survival of Black women under slavery and colonial rule across the Atlantic world, drawing extensively from histories of gendered …

Echoes Of The Goddess: Reclaiming Power-Within In The Modern Workplace, Chloe E. Hanousek

Student Publications

This work examines gender inequality in the American workforce as part of a broader cultural system that consistently devalues care, embodiment, and relational labor. Rather than treating issues such as the wage gap or the motherhood penalty as isolated problems, it situates them within a historical pattern shaped by patriarchal power, medical dismissal, and the domination of nature. Through an interdisciplinary feminist approach, this work traces how the suppression of the feminine influences women’s working lives, health experiences, and relationships to their bodies. By connecting labor inequality to burnout, ecological harm, and the erosion of inner authority, it argues that …

Jute Mill Songs: Mary Brooksbank And Industrial Tradition In A Dying Industry, Erin Farley

Studies in Scottish Literature

This article outlines some key elements of Dundee’s industrial literary tradition, primarily associated with the city’s jute industry, as expressed in the songs and poems of Mary Brooksbank (1897-1978). It also explores ways in which writers working from the 1980s onwards have used the memory of the jute industry, Brooksbank herself, and associated verse traditions to imagine place and work in post-industrial Dundee.

‘And On One Toils, Into The Hill’: Working And Walking In Nan Shepherd’S North East, Sarah Leith

Studies in Scottish Literature

This article considers the duality of working and walking in Nan Shepherd’s writings about the North East of Scotland. Exploring Shepherd’s works from the perspectives of social and intellectual history, it considers the ways in which she represented both working and walking as labour during the first half of Scotland’s twentieth century.

Women And Religion In The Mongol Empire, Karlie Barnett

The Ozark Historical Review

This article contributes toward the effort to uncover the impact of women on the making of the Mongol Empire in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It also considers how women among the Mongols interacted with religion in varied and distinct ways and how these relationships influenced the development of Eurasian religions and the Mongol Empire overall. These interactions, which took place in the personal realm, the political realm, and in the realm of patronage, had profound effects on the development of Eurasian religions and the Mongol Empire.

Review Of: Feminist Conversations On Peace, Matilda Maseno

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Elite Patriot Women, Anthony Luna

History in the Making

This research paper explores the overlooked yet pivotal contributions of elite patriot women had on the American Revolution. It argues that their participation in the revolution was instrumental in shaping its outcome through grassroots organizing, frontline support, and propaganda creation. While men like George Washington and Alexander Hamilton dominated popular narratives, women from influential families played critical roles by organizing boycotts, producing goods, delivering intelligence, and rallying financial and moral support for the Continental Army. This study investigates how elite women such as Mercy Otis Warren, Sarah Fulton, Esther DeBerdt Reed, and Martha Washington didn’t just support the revolution from …

State Sexual Violence At Carceral Institutions In Iowa: A Position Paper, Chikako Inoue

Sociology Between the Gaps: Forgotten and Neglected Topics

No abstract provided.

Matrescence, Erin Kunz

The Cicadian

Kunz reflects on her transformation into motherhood, describing the physical, emotional, and psychological shifts that accompany the process known as matrescence. Through vivid memories of childhood and early parenting, she explores the complexities of maternal love, especially for women who did not receive unconditional love themselves. Her rocking chair becomes a symbol of nurturing and endurance, where she gave everything to her children while grappling with her own identity. Erin also highlights the supportive role of her partner, challenging traditional gender norms and celebrating shared caregiving. As her children grow, she mourns the environmental changes that have altered the …

Indigenous Women’S Reproductive Traditions: Reclaiming Sovereignty Through 500 Years Of Colonization, Stephanie A. Sellers

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

In Indigenous Women’s Reproductive Traditions, Stephanie Sellers delves into the rich history of Indigenous women’s reproductive practices before European colonization. The book highlights traditional methods such as birth control, abortion, and child spacing, which were integral to maintaining agency over their bodies. Sellers explores how these practices were disrupted by European patriarchal structures and examines the impact of forced sterilization in the 20th century. Today, Indigenous women are reclaiming their rights through movements for reproductive justice, advocating for a return to their ancestral practices and redefining concepts of womanhood and motherhood on their own tribal terms.

Love Amid The Rage: Feminist Affect In Women's Life-Writing, Genesis Siverio

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The aim of this thesis is to show the ways women’s emotions or affect, particularly rage and love, are described by women writers in their most intimate stories. I discuss the way emotion has been demeaned, and how feminist scholars have instead viewed the body as a place of insight, reclaiming a knowledge from the senses. In the midst of white supremacy and heteropatriarchy, women give voice to their affectual experiences and cultivate the feelings they have so often been denied. Focusing on the particular ways women’s anger manifests in their lives and in their bodies, I zoom in on …

The Layers Of Trauma In Gisella Perl’S I Was A Doctor In Auschwitz, Tiffany Sidders

Journal of Gender, Ethnic, and Cross-Cultural Studies

Contemporary trauma theory argues that trauma operates in a binary, linear fashion that represents healing from a crisis. As one of the foremost trauma theorists, Cathy Caruth situates trauma within a binary framework of either victim or perpetrator but does not fully account for victims who became perpetrators or those who perpetrated for survival—or for the survival of others. One example of such a figure is Gisella Perl. In her memoir I Was a Doctor in Auschwitz, Perl describes multiple layers of trauma that create a deeper connection to her emotions and her lived experience in Auschwitz. Unlike other …

Merawat Tulisan Dan Perlawanan Perempuan: Terbitan Berkala Sebagai Ruang Dan Praktik Feminis, Asri Pratiwi Wulandari, Mia Siscawati

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Women writers have always contributed to literary development, but their works and thoughts have been structurally forgotten and erased. We conducted this research to unearth women writers' lives, works, and thoughts, which continue to be ignored in literary studies. We use feminist qualitative method and literature review technique to study literary initiatives from women writers in the past such as women-only periodicals. This research uses Virginia Woolf's thoughts as an analytical tool, and our findings show that the women-only space initiative was a response to the mainstream literary ecosystem's lack of support for women writers in various eras and countries. …

Indigenous Finance And Women Empowerment: The Digital Transformation Of Stokvel Systems In South Africa, Papama Mtambeka, Ulrike Rivett, Rebecca Njuguna

African Conference on Information Systems and Technology

This paper explores how the digital transformation of stokvels in South Africa is reshaping women’s empowerment. Stokvels, a form of indigenous savings or rotating savings clubs, have long served as a financial safety net for women, particularly for underserved rural and peri-urban communities. However, with the increasing integration of mobile technologies, fintech platforms, and digital communication tools, these systems are undergoing a significant shift. Drawing on qualitative data from South African women engaged in digitally transformed stokvels, the study examines how digital tools redefine women’s economic and social empowerment. Through the lens of Nego-feminism and Snail-sense feminism, the research highlights …

Intersectionality In The Maze Of Oppression: A Feminist Criminology Analysis Of Systematic Vulnerability And Exploitation Of Indonesian Women Trafficked To Cambodia, Reza Anugrah, Lifiana Alanisya Mutaharina

Jurnal Kriminologi Indonesia

This study explores the vulnerability of Indonesian women to the crime of human trafficking in Cambodia, analyzing its structural and patriarchal roots. Employing a qualitative methodology through literature review, the paper delineates how socio-economic disparities and limited employment opportunities in Indonesia drive women toward illegal job offers that ultimately result in exploitation. Human trafficking syndicates exploit traditional gender constructs and manipulate identities to entrap victims, even involving women as alleged perpetrators. Criminological and legal analyses reveal a shift toward more complex forms of transnational crime, exacerbated by the use of digital technology. Although the Law of the Republic of Indonesia …

The Residual Impact Of Slavery On How Enslaved Black Females Defined And Made Meaning Of Sexual Violence: A Content Analysis, Suzanne R. Bates

Dissertations

Thompson-Miller & Picca (2016) and Feimster (2023) argued that enslaved African American women, and even free African Americans after the Civil War were victims of non-consensual sexual activity and rape. The NISVS report revealed that before the age of 18 years old, 35.5% of African American women experienced contact sexual violence, 29.5% experienced non-contact unwanted sexual encounters, and 20.7% experienced rape (Basile et al., 2022). Researchers of slave scholarship have made the case for the importance of including discourse on slavery and enslaved Black females’ experiences when discussing present day sexual violence among Black women in the US today (Balfour, …

A Religious Etiology Of Genito-Pelvic Pain And Pain With Penetration, Emily L. Carlson

Theses and Graduate Projects

Pelvic pain during penetration (PPDP) has been described using various diagnostic terms, including vaginismus, dyspareunia, and vulvodynia. The most recent and comprehensive classification is Genito-pelvic pain/penetration disorder (GPPPD) which is characterized by psychological distress associated with pain during or in anticipation of vaginal penetration (DSM-5-TR; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2022). The etiology of PPDP is multifactorial, involving a complex interplay of biological, psychological, and relational factors. Religious and cultural influences may play a significant role in shaping individuals’ experiences of sexual pain. This study investigated the etiology of PPDP in relation to the religious influences among women raised in Judeo-Christian …