Women's Studies Commons^™

Twitter’S Role In Challenging The Marginalisation And Subjugation Of Women In Northern Nigeria, Tioluwalogo Olakunbi-Black

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper aims to examine social media’s role in advocating against the marginalisation and domination of women in Northern Nigeria with a focus on Twitter (X). This study analyses women’s strategies of digital advocacy drawing on feminist theory, specifically difference feminism, intersectional feminism, and post-structuralist feminism, alongside theories of technological determinism. Difference feminism argues that women possess distinctive qualities, experiences, and perspectives that differentiate them from men, and that these differences can be a source of strength rather than a basis for disadvantage. Intersectional feminism foregrounds intersecting identities such as race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality, emphasising the multiplicity of women’s …

Women’S Employment And Intrahousehold Bargaining Power: Evidence From Nigeria, Temitope O. Olalude, Olanrewaju A. Olaniyan

Journal of International Women's Studies

Although women’s participation in paid employment has increased in recent years, the extent to which this improvement correlates with increased intrahousehold bargaining power (IHBP) remains understudied. Women’s intrahousehold bargaining power plays a critical role in achieving a more inclusive and sustainable economy. This study therefore investigates the relationship between women’s employment status and IHBP in Nigeria using data from the 2013 and 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys (NDHS) to evaluate progress over time. We measured women’s employment status and assessed women’s intrahousehold bargaining power using two indices: the direct bargaining power index (DBPI) and the indirect bargaining power index …

The Social Reproduction Of Filipina Migrant Workers Represented In Ten Filipino Films, Elora Francisco, Precious Lois Layas, Karlena Ameina Saturnino, Leo Vicentino

Journal of International Women's Studies

The growing phenomenon of the Philippines’ high labor export has contributed not only to the country’s economy but also to that of countries all over the world who are receiving these migrants. With the demand for labor exports increasing, film narratives concerning overseas Filipino workers offer important insight into the experience of migrants. In particular, Filipina migrant workers (FMWs) face gendered socio-cultural constraints in their pursuit of financially supporting their families. While gender migration has been examined across various disciplines, the representation of the Filipina diaspora in mainstream contemporary Filipino films remains insufficiently explored. Thus, this study aims to determine …

The Making Of A Woman Superstar: An Analysis Of The Superstardom Of Malayalam Actor Manju Warrier, Sangeetha Ps, Jais Merlin P. Augustine

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article examines the construction and development of women’s superstardom in Malayalam cinema, drawing on the example of Manju Warrier, one of few Indian regional actresses to achieve sustained celebrity status that goes beyond youth and glamour. We draw upon Richard Dyer’s star theory, particularly his notion of the star as “structured polysemy,” a constellation of meanings that are produced by film roles, publicity, and audience reception (Dyer, 1998). This article examines how Manju Warrier’s star image is constructed through a productive interplay of film roles, mediated representations, public persona, and audience reception. The discussion also adopts a feminist film …

Brown Women, Cyberspace, And The Scopophilic Male Gaze In Hari Kunzru’S Transmission, Ayesha Perveen

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study draws upon gaze theory to explore the cinema-cyberspace-gender nexus presented in British Indian writer Hari Kunzru’s novel Transmission (2005). While Arjun Mehta is widely considered the protagonist of the novel, I focus instead on the representation of the character Leela Zahir both as an individual and as a virus. Although the virus unleashed by Arjun is the novel’s main source of cyberterrorism, I analyze cyberterrorism in terms of the cyberspace representation of women as scopophilic objects for the male gaze. For this purpose, I discuss the mindset behind the use of the “she” pronoun for the virus as …

Quantitative Comparison Of Writing Styles Among Indonesian Women Novelists: A Corpus Linguistics Approach, Vicno Triwira Dhika Jr, Ermanto Ermanto, Hasanuddin Ws, Ridha Hasnul Ulya, Aditya Rachman, Selfi Mahat Putri

Journal of International Women's Studies

Using the KORTARA Korpus Nusantara application, this study employed a quantitative corpus linguistics approach to examine the lexical density and average sentence length in nine novels by Indonesian women authors. The results indicated that each work differed greatly with respect to average sentence length and lexical density. When lexical density was analyzed through TTR, the results displayed a sufficiently wide range, suggesting the absence of a uniform women’s writing style in terms of vocabulary. For example, Dee Lestari’s Supernova: Roots (2002) achieved the highest TTR of 23.59%, which indicates an extensive and diverse vocabulary. Alaska Bay (2019) by Eka Aryani, …

Narrating Otherwise: Analysing Nancy Spero’S The First Language As Historiographic Metafiction, Ipek Ebru Yildiz, Rifat Sahiner

Journal of International Women's Studies

Through a feminist reading grounded in the framework of historiographic metafiction, this article aims to analyze pioneering feminist U.S. artist Nancy Spero’s The First Language (1981). Throughout the history of Western art, women’s bodies have been predominantly represented through the male gaze, reducing women to passive objects and excluding them from consideration as full subjects in historical and artistic narratives. In response to these modes of representation, Spero constructs a unique visual language that reclaims the female body from historical silence and repositions it as a political and narrative subject. The First Language brings together women figures from different cultures …

Feminist Knowledge Production And Editorial Praxis: A Bibliometric And Qualitative Analysis Of The Journal Of International Women’S Studies (2014–2024), Naresh Prajapati, Rupinder Singh, Mukesh Behera

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study presents a bibliometric and editorial analysis of the Journal of International Women’s Studies (JIWS) from 2014 to 2024, examining its scholarly output, citation impact, and evolving feminist priorities. Drawing on Scopus-indexed data, we analysed 1,255 articles authored by 1,705 contributors using SciVal, Biblioshiny, VOSviewer, and Microsoft Excel. Findings indicate a 7.05% annual growth in publications and a consistent citation rate of 2.84 per article, highlighting the journal’s expanding academic engagement. Single authorship dominates at 48.7% with international co-authorship at 8.1%. The journal’s reach extends widely into the Global South, particularly to India and Indonesia. Our keyword analysis identified …

Editorial Introduction, Diana Fox

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Policy Brief: Closing Egypt’S Boardroom Gender Gap, Auc Egypt Women On Boards Observatory, Dcode Consulting

Faculty Journal Articles

Egypt has more than doubled women’s board representation since 2019, but the pace has slowed to 0.5 percentage points a year, less than half of what is needed to reach 30% by 2030.

Since the Women on Boards indicator was established, Egypt has made measurable progress in women’s board representation, rising from 10.0% in 2019 to 24.8% in 2025. This is a 14.8-percentage-point increase, equivalent to a 148% increase from the 10% baseline. Across the four sectors monitored in the AUC Women on Boards Observatory’s 2025 Annual Monitoring Report (banking, non-bank financial services (NBFS), EGX-listed companies and public enterprises), representation …

Piercing The Veil In Sinners: Theological Insights From The Juke Joint, Antonio D. Sison Cpps

Journal of Religion & Film

Celebrated as a critical and commercial success, Ryan Coogler’s genre-defying opus Sinners has also been considered as one of the most culturally significant films of 2025. It also promises to be one of the most theologically resonant films of the year. This is evinced not only in its thematic and literary bases but, importantly, in its very audiovisual language and grammar, its stylistic strategies qua film. As reasoned in this essay, Coogler’s film is a rich locus theologicus, a nexus for theological discovery and insight.Sinners kindles the hermeneutical impulse to dialogue with African American/Pan-Africa theologies exemplified by the …

On Black Speculative Feminisms: Memory And Liberated Futures In Black Women’S Fiction, Aisha Matthews

Criticism

Black Speculative Feminisms: Memory and Liberated Futures in Black Women’s Fiction by Cassandra L. Jones. Ohio State University Press, 2024. $29.95 paperback

On Monstrous Work & Radical Satisfaction: Black Women Writing Under Segregation, Courtney Thorsson

Criticism

Review of Monstrous Work & Radical Satisfaction: Black Women Writing Under Segregation by Eve Dunbar.

Alison Place, Ed., Feminist Designer: On The Personal And The Political In Design, Anmol Shrivastava

Art Inquiries

No abstract provided.

“Ite Missa Est”: How Can The Altar Alter Attitudes And Actions?, Ebenezer Akesseh

Journal of Global Catholicism

This paper brings into focus the relationship between personal agency and so-

cial structure, demonstrating that what we celebrate on the altar forms within

us the proper dispositions that can help prevent the occurrence of corruption.

The first part examines corruption from a socio-cultural perspective and ex-

plains the incidence and effects of corruption. The second part discusses the

relationship between worship and the formation of actions and attitudes. It

highlights the need to embody the social implications of our celebrations. Using

responses from interviewees, the third part illustrates that the celebration of the

Eucharist shapes the commitments and conduct …

Editor's Introduction, Brent H. Otto S.J.

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

More Than A Name: Reparative Description For Women’S Archives, Allison Mccormack, Hallie Oines

Journal of Western Archives

This article describes a reparative description initiative at an academic library aimed at improving access to women’s archival collections. By hiring a metadata specialist through grant funding, the project revised legacy MARC records to update, expand, and standardize collection descriptions. Prioritizing inclusive language and accurate subject headings, the team addressed gaps that previously hindered discovery of women’s materials. Over two years, 818 records were remediated, enhancing creator, topical, and genre/form access points. The article discusses project challenges, strategies for respectful description, and the resulting improved discoverability, offering a replicable model for reparative archival work.

From Humanitarian Aid To “Counterrevolution”: Foreign Assistance To Pentecostals In Soviet Ukraine And Its Criminalization By The Gpu–Nkvd, 1932–1935, Oleksandr Korotaiev

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article examines foreign assistance to Pentecostal communities in the Ukrainian SSR and the mechanisms of its criminalization by Soviet state security agencies in 1932–1935. Drawing on GPU–NKVD criminal investigation files, secret police reports, party-state documentation, personal correspondence, and memoir sources, the study reconstructs transnational channels of humanitarian support, practices of resource distribution, and the transformation of survival strategies into objects of political repression.

Particular attention is devoted to two distinct models of foreign assistance. The Odessa case demonstrates a centralized system connected to the former leadership of the All-Ukrainian Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith and transnational Pentecostal networks …

The Negotiated Identities Of Refugee-Background Women During Resettlement, Iuliia Fakhrutdinova

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Refugee-background women experience unique challenges while resettling in the U.S. as they navigate complicated transnational gender roles, education gaps, migration trauma, learning a new language, and literacy in the adaptation process during resettlement, which can derail the productive paths they are on. Therefore, ignoring refugee-background women’s unique experiences and failing to understand their identities prevents our society from doing social justice and creating a space for a smooth adaptation to the new context. Language plays a paramount role in identity formation, as it moves away from the belief that identity is an essential concept. For refugee-background women during resettlement, their …

I Must Be Well, To Do Well: Examining The Relationship Between Toxic Stem Environments, Trauma, Stem Support, And Academic Outcomes Among Diverse Graduate Women In Stem, Aisha Farra

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Women, particularly Women of Colour (WOC), remain underrepresented in STEM. In the last two decades, research has sought to better understand women’s experiences in STEM, highlighting challenges such as isolation, sexism, and racism, which negatively impact mental health and STEM persistence. While these mental health challenges have been documented, further work is needed to examine how these experiences are related to trauma symptoms and physical health outcomes, as well as the mechanisms through which they shape academic outcomes. This quantitative study investigated the relationships among toxic STEM experiences (i.e., gendered racism, sexism, and isolation), trauma symptoms and physical health concerns, …