Women's Studies Commons^™

The Tearful Gaze In Elizabeth Gaskell’S Ruth: Crying, Watching And Nursing, Rosemary Langridge

Journal of International Women's Studies

Using the complex figure of Mary Magdalene, in her various guises as sexualised sinner, repentant weeper and observant watcher, this essay addresses the complexities and contradictions found in Elizabeth Gaskell’s 1853 novel Ruth. Although presenting a largely sympathetic view of the ‘fallen woman,’ the eventual catastrophic and puzzling demise of the protagonist casts a bleak picture of the likelihood of redemption for such women in nineteenth century British society. As several feminist critics have pointed out, the narrative is frequently disrupted by the unspoken presence female sexuality suggesting Gaskell’s uncertainty about the nature of her heroine’s fall; was Ruth’s sexual …

Arab Women And Political Development, Rowaida Al Maaitah, Hadeel Al Maaitah, Hmoud Olaimat, Muntaha Gharaeibeh

Journal of International Women's Studies

Although many measures have been taken by the majority of Arab countries to enhance women’s representation in decision-making positions, women’s participation in public life and positions of power have not been achieved the desired level. The Arab region ranks the lowest in the world in terms of women’s participation in parliaments. The objective of this paper is to examine the Political participation of women in the Arab countries and identify different challenges that impede Arab women participation in politics and decision making. Challenges include: cultural factors, the stereotyped image of women, women's low self-confidence, lack of coordination among women's organizations, …

Gulf Cooperation Council (Gcc) Women And Misyar Marriage: Evolution And Progress In The Arabian Gulf, Tofol Jassim Al-Nasr

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women’s status continues to undergo rapid evolution in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC). The modernization policies sweeping the energy-rich region has resulted in unintended social and gender imbalances. Partly due to the wealth distribution policies and the vast influx of foreign labor into the GCC, the region’s indigenous people are facing several challenges as they adapt to their surrounding environment. Improvements to women’s education have resulted in an imbalance of highly educated women relative to their male counterparts in the region, tipping the scales of gender roles. While both men and women accept predominantly paternal values, the strides in women’s …

Woman Entrepreneurship In The Al-Batinah Region Of Oman: An Identification Of The Barriers, Ruqaya Al-Sadi, Rakesh Belwal, Raya Al-Badi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Recognizing the presence of some self-motivated women entrepreneurs in Oman, this study identifies the barriers that they confront and highlights the challenges that are needed to boost entrepreneurship. This study aims to find the factors inhibiting women entrepreneurship in the Al-Batinah region of Oman, focusing on women entrepreneurs especially from the small and medium scale enterprises. This study illustrates and focuses on women entrepreneurship in Oman how it is developing; it observes and reports the hindrances; and it suggests some measures for improvement in the role of women entrepreneurs. Overall, it adds to the literature on entrepreneurship, especially in the …

Women’S Empowerment In Bahrain, Fakir Al Gharaibeh

Journal of International Women's Studies

In Bahrain, the role of women can be determined by examining their activities in all sectors of society. Traditions and laws primarily hold women back from their full participation in the economy and politics of the nation. Discrimination that has carried forward into the constitution of the land was caused by adherence to historical remnants of a society that does not really exist anymore. This study presents the social, economic, and political reality of Bahraini women in light of applicable legislation, and the barriers women face in achieving equality. The objective is to examine these realities within the context of …

Factors Associated With Contraceptive Use Among Jordanian Muslim Women: Implications For Health And Social Policy, Muntaha K. Gharaibeh, Arwa Oweis, Farouk M. N. Shakhatreh, Erika Sivarajan Froelicher

Journal of International Women's Studies

The objectives of this quantitative study were to identify factors associated with contraceptive use by Jordanian Muslim women; to estimate factors that predict the variance in contraceptive use; and recommend appropriate health and social policies to enhance quality of life of Jordanian women. A cross -sectional design was used to collect data from 487 married non-pregnant women aged 18 to 49 years who resided in three southern governorates in Jordan using a structured interview guide. Results showed that 63.2% of women used some form of contraceptive method; IUD was the most frequently used method (44.2%). The percentage of women exposed …

Women’S Rights: Tunisian Women In The Workplace, Sangeeta Sinha

Journal of International Women's Studies

Tunisia is unique among Arab nations, due to the fact that women have been granted equal rights by the Constitution. Tunisia obtained its independence from France in 1956. During the colonial period, women were marginalized, and they little access to education. Economic activity was largely confined to the household, while wearing of the veil was widespread. Since 1956 Tunisian women have made great strides toward achieving greater rights, but has it been enough. This study describes the current status of women in Tunisia given the changing socio-political scene. Have women’s rights progressed or has they been hampered by cultural and …

The Other Extremists: Marxist Feminism In Egypt, 1980-2000, Hanan Hammad

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article focuses on independent Marxist feminists in Egypt during the last two decades of the twentieth century. I show that despite the Islamist discourses that called for women’s withdrawal from public places simultaneously with the demise of state feminism, the public sphere was far from monolithic. Independent Marxist Feminists attempted to challenge the strictures of gender, and to participate with alternate discourses and activism in and through alternate media and public spaces. My goal is to shift the attention from Cairo-based politics and movements and to shed light on feminist activism in the relatively closed communities in small provincial …

Women And The Kuwaiti National Assembly, Muhamad S. Olimat

Journal of International Women's Studies

Kuwaiti women’s long struggle for a seat in the National Assembly culminated with remarkable success on May 16, 2009. For the very first time in Kuwait’s political history, the women’s movement managed to send four female representatives to the National Assembly. Their electoral success ushers a new phase in Kuwait’s political process in which women finally become active participants. The goal of this article is to examine women’s struggle for political rights, their electoral success, their role in current Kuwaiti politics, their accomplishments, and their future in politics in Kuwait.

Attitudes Toward Women’S Participation In Public Life In The United Arab Emirates, Husein Mohammad Al-Othman

Journal of International Women's Studies

The goals of this study are to identify attitudes of university students toward women’s participation in public life (social, economic, and political), and to determine the effect of independent factors on their attitudes. To achieve these goals, I used a self-reported questionnaire to collect data from a stratified random sample (1260 students), as well as descriptive statistics (percentages) and inferential statistics (forward stepwise regression). Results of the study revealed that the majority of respondents support women’s participation in public life in UAE society. Also, university students supported the right of women to have equal educational opportunities, as well as equal …

Feminism And Democracy, Louis Edgar Esparza

Human Rights & Human Welfare

After work on December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks walked onto a bus that was to take her home that night. She ended up on a trip to jail instead, for refusing to give her seat to a white passenger. The event triggered resistance to bus segregation, the founding of the Montgomery Improvement Association, and the election of the then-unknown Dr. Martin Luther King as its leader. The success of the campaign is an integral battle in our historical retellings of the US African American Civil Rights Movement. Fewer recount the sexual harassment against black women by white …

Culturally Universal Or Culturally Specific: A Comparative Study Of The Anticipated Female Leadership Styles In Taiwan And The United States, Chin-Chung Chao, Dexin Tian

Communication Faculty Publications

Guided by Bass and Avolio’s leadership frameworks and Hofstede’s modified cultural dimensions, the present cross-cultural study aims to compare and explore the relationships between cultural values and anticipated female leadership styles in non-profit organizations in Taiwan and the US. Regression and t-test analyses of 307 participants in 138 Rotary Clubs in the two societies reveal two research findings. First, Rotary Club members in Taiwan have higher scores in all the cultural dimensions of collectivism, masculinity, and life-long relationships than their US counterparts. Second, transformational leadership proves to be the most anticipated leadership style among Rotary Club members in both cultures. …

The Angel And The Imp: The Duncan Sisters’ Performances Of Race And Gender, Jocelyn Buckner

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

From 1923 to 1959 Vivian and Rosetta Duncan performed the show Topsy and Eva in front of thousands of audiences in the United States and abroad. This essay examines how the Duncan Sisters’ appropriation of blackness through a yin and yang performance of black and white womanhood, their sexualized but ultimately infantilizing routine as young girls, and their take on anarchistic comedy resulted in a particular spin on age, gender, race, and sexuality that reinforced their privilege as white women even while it pushed the boundaries of acceptable femininity in the swiftly shifting American culture of the first half of …

The Feathered Hand: Installation, Drawings, Prints By Alison Derby Hildreth, University Of New England Art Gallery

Exhibition Catalogues

The Feathered Hand: Installation, Drawings, Prints is the catalogue from the University of New England Art Gallery’s January 5 –April 3, 2011 exhibition of work by Alison Hildreth.

Hildreth described the work as: “… an installation and a group of drawings and prints that I have been working on over the past 2 years. The drawings and prints I think of as walks through a changing landscape of associative ideas; each carries something from the previous image but moves on to a new interpretation. They continue end to end: divided cities, natural and manmade terrains, maps of investigations inspired as …

Imperial Domesticity: Native American Gender Ideology And Conformity In The Late Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Centuries, Christina Moehrle

American Studies Senior Theses

This project is informed by the history of Native American removal across Western lands, and the sociological and economic strategies that forced the assimilation of distinct native tribes into a mass, dominant white culture. Considering this assimilation through the imposition of domesticity and European gender ideology, this project aims to explore the political over and undertones of the cult of domesticity, and to analyze how domesticity and domestication were used to construct gender, social, and economic conformity. Post-bellum American politics regarded the women’s experience and domestic ideals as prototypes for national values. The importance of home production for the …

Gloria Anzaldua And Alanis Morisette: The Untangled Flavors Of Conocimiento, Audrey Nathalie Romero

Theses Digitization Project

This paper explroes the notion that the human body plays a predominant role in the act of writing, and examines how Gloria Anzaldua's concept of writing from the body, which she calls conocimiento (Spanish term for consciousmess), is manifested in Alanis Morissette's lyrics.

Caring Work: Opening A Space Of Possibility For Exploring Transnational Feminist Solidarity Between Privileged And Marginalized Women, Beverly Romero Natividad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Neoliberalism, through its emphasis on personal responsibility and individual freedom in accelerating economic development globally, has only pushed women further into the margin of society. Structural adjustment programs (SAPs), which impose state budget cuts on healthcare and welfare programs, particularly have kept poor women and women of color in poverty and generally, have exploited women's labor. However, in this age of neoliberalism, women's solidarity becomes more significant. Because neoliberalism is founded on individualism, its downfall rests on alliance-building. Against this backdrop, I explore the possibility of fostering transnational feminist solidarity between privileged and marginalized women engaged in formal caring work. …

Ua41 University College Connection, Dennis K. George, Dean, Wendi Kelley

UC Publications

No abstract provided.

Ua98/2 Potter College For Young Ladies Administration, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Administrative records related to Potter College. The series includes grade books, textbook list and a receipt.

Engendering Injustice: Drug Laws, Drug Economies, And The Marginalization Of Women In New York State, Kate Mcgee

American Studies Senior Theses

On November 8, 1983, Elaine Bartlett left her apartment in Harlem, and headed to Grand Central Station. There, she met her boyfriend, Nate. They were headed to the Monte Mario Hotel in Albany. To any bystander, they may have looked like any other couple. But Elaine Bartlett knew different. That’s because she had a four-ounce bag of cocaine stuffed down the front of her pants. In 1983, Bartlett was a twenty-six year old woman with four children. A male friend, George Deets—although she knew him as Chris at the time—told her that if she delivered the drugs, she could earn …