Women's Studies Commons^™

Writing As Resistance: Assia Djebar’S Vaste Est La Prison, Joyce Lazarus

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay examines contemporary Algerian women’s condition, as it is articulated in Djebar’s autobiographical novel, Vaste est la prison (1995). After giving an overview of modern Algerian history, I offer a reading of Djebar’s novel that takes account of its potential to produce social change. This essay demonstrates that Djebar blurs the boundaries between autobiography, fiction and history in order to fully utilize the subversive potential of writing. Using the perspective of new historicism, I show how Djebar responds to her country’s unilateralism in language and its exclusion of women by her unique rhetorical strategies, in order to restore women’s …

Determinants Of Living Arrangements, Health Status And Abuse Among Elderly Women: A Study Of Rural Naogaon District, Bangladesh, Ahmed Mohammad Munsur, Ismail Tareque, K. M. Mustafizur Rahman

Journal of International Women's Studies

In this study, the socio-economic backdrops, living arrangements, health status and abuse of the women aged 60 years and older in the rural Naogaon district of Bangladesh are examined. The data were collected from seven villages by using probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling and the results show that an overwhelming majority of the elderly women in the age group 60-69 years who are widowed, illiterate, have no education and income, economically dependent, living with married children, unhealthy, suffer from arthritis related illness and are taking treatment from village doctors. Furthermore, the study shows that, nearly 35 percent elderly women …

Book Review: Everybody’S Family Romance: Reading Incest In Neoliberal America, Kristen Lambert

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Everybody’s Family Romance: Reading Incest in Neoliberal America by Gillian Harkins

From Discovery To Dissidence: Honduran Women’S Conceptions And Claims Of Human Rights, Christine Gervais

Journal of International Women's Studies

In recognition of the profound benefits of women’s engagement with their rights, this article presents an experiential account of how Honduran women comprehend, articulate, experience and advocate human rights and gender equality through non-governmental educational initiatives. Through the triangulated analytic among human security, post-victimization and citizen-based advocacy approaches, the article traces the women’s journeys from their moments of discovery of human rights towards instances of dissidence. In so doing, the women’s demonstrations of empowerment, agency, resistance and solidarity are brought to the fore. By featuring their voices, this study demonstrates how Honduran women are able to shape their own expectations …

Power, Structure, Gender Relations And Community-Based Conservation: The Cawswe Study Of The Sariska Region, Rajasthan, India, Maria Costanza Torri

Journal of International Women's Studies

Most current community development projects have a built in gender component. Despite the WID, WED and GAD schools of thought there is still however a long way to go in order to effectively implement these principles in conservation projects. Merely getting women a place on the policy-making agenda is not enough, especially if it comes at the cost of promoting a simplistic and often wildly inaccurate picture of gender-environment relations. This article analyses the repercussions of community-based conservation on women in terms of use, access, and control of natural resources. The area chosen is the Sariska region of Rajasthan, India. …

Contradiction And The Role Of The ‘Floating Signifier’: Identity And The ‘New Woman’ In Italian Cartoons During Fascism, Efharis Mascha

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper addresses the issue of political cartooning during Italian fascism, with specific reference to the role of women, as it is symbolised in the cartoons (i.e.the woman-mother/care-taker/fascist/worker). The latter will be revealed through a careful study of the contradictions generated by fascism and the representation of this ‘New Woman’ in political satire. The caricatures I will examine belong strictly to the Left discourse. They received high circulation figures and characterised Italy’s popular culture during the 1920’s. Whilst fascism did not provide any space for women to join the high ranks of the PNF (Partito Nazionale Fascista), the Left similarly …

Upscaling Community-Arranged Preparedness For Preventing Maternal Mortality In Ghana: A Case Study Of Keta And Akatsi Districts Of Volta Region, Chuks J. Mba, Irene K. Aboh

Journal of International Women's Studies

The main objective of the study is to assess maternal health in Ghana using empirical evidence from Akatsi and Keta districts of the Volta Region. Interviews were conducted from a sample size of 6,250 respondents within the reproductive age group of 15-49 years drawn from both districts in 2007. The results show that most of the women had only basic education and were generally petty traders, farmers and fishmongers. Overwhelming majority of the women stated that there was no community-arranged preparedness to aid them in times of emergency obstetric care. A significant proportion of the women (about 30%) relied on …

A Survey Of Osteoporosis Risk Factors And Practices Among Jordanian Women, Lubna Abushaikha, Suha Omran

Journal of International Women's Studies

The aim of this study was to explore osteoporosis (OP) risk factors among Jordanian women. Osteoporosis (OP) is a chronic complex health problem for millions of women worldwide, 80% of whom are postmenopausal women. Unless prevented or treated, this silent disease will continue to limit both the quantity and quality of life of many older women and significantly add to the health care cost for this group. A sample of Jordanian women in different settings in Jordan (N=192; mean age=43years). The study was descriptive and data were collected over a two month period in 2005 with the use of a …

Book Review: Rethinking Global Sisterhood: Western Feminism And Iran, Melissa Autumn White

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Rethinking Global Sisterhood: Western Feminism and Iran by Nima Naghibi

Book Review: Empowering Migrant Women: Why Agency And Rights Are Not Enough, Connie Oxford

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Empowering Migrant Women: Why Agency and Rights are not Enough by Leah Briones

Book Review: Crossing Borders: International Women Students In American Higher Education, Susan Iverson, Yu-Hui Chou

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Crossing Borders: International Women Students In American Higher Education by Dongxiao Qin

Ohio Women’S Centers: Statement Of Philosophy, Amber L. Vlasnik

Women's Center Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Gender Identity And Social Networking: A Queer-Feminist Critique Of Facebook, Gregory David Sides

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The purpose of my project is to foster critical discussions of the on-line social networking site Facebook by analyzing gender politics as mechanisms used on Facebook to include or restrict acceptance of users. I implement a gender-queer methodology in my work. This methodology complicates traditional understandings of sex and gender, and views them as a fluid continuum where one might exist anywhere between male and female, and beyond. In lieu of a traditional academic paper, I have made the conscious choice to execute my methods, methodology, and critique into an art piece. This serves an important purpose of making my …

Collaborating For Social Change: Photographic Empowerment And Activist Blogging, Jennifer Dana Weill

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Much of my coursework in my major, Women’s and Gender Studies, focuses on the way that certain identities have been privileged, oppressed, stereotyped and marginalized both socially and systematically on local and global scales. In particular, I study how societal institutions disadvantage and discriminate against non-hegemonic groups of people and the resistance and collaboration that these people have engaged in to challenge the dominant institutions.

These themes inspired me to design and create a collaborative photography collection on oppression and stereotyping among students at Syracuse University. The photographs are based on histories and stories that my participants shared with me …

Female Condom Knowledge, Attributes And Behavior: Barriers To Use And Potential For Acceptance Among Sexually Active Undergraduate Students, Paige Nuzzolillo 6368479

Honors Scholar Theses

Minimal research has been conducted on the acceptability of the female condom among college populations despite its existence in the world market since 1992. The FC2, an improved version of FC1, has recently been released in the United States, thus prompting the need for further acceptability studies. Due to increasingly high rates of STDs among those aged 15-24, every method of protection against STDs/HIV and pregnancy must be utilized. This study involved a campus-wide survey which examined University of Connecticut (Uconn) main campus (Storrs) undergraduate students’ knowledge of the female condom, perceptions of and attitudes towards the female condom as …

Leading Ladies?: Feminism And The Hollywood New Wave, Allison A. Smith

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

In the late 1960s, a new film movement emerged in Hollywood cinema known as the Hollywood New Wave. The women’s movement began roughly the same time as the Hollywood New Wave, but feminism was rarely a topic discussed in Hollywood cinema. The Hollywood New Wave is often considered a “boy’s club,” in the sense that most of the filmmakers, actors and other crewmembers were male and writing stories about male experiences. Women did have a part in these films in a limited way, yet there are some examples of strong female characters in select films.

Book Review: Law In The Service Of Legitimacy: Gender And Politics In Jordan, Stephanie Chaban

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Law in the Service of Legitimacy: Gender and Politics in Jordan by Catherine Warrick

Gender Analysis Of Women In The Philippine Agriculture And Their Occupational Issues, Jinky Leilanie Lu

Journal of International Women's Studies

Feminist research shows how gender, in interaction with other socioeconomic differentiation theories on class and ethnicity, influences agrarian transition, health patterns, and economic development. In the highland community where this study was conducted, women play a very important role in the production of vegetables and crops. At the same time, there are hazards facing these women predisposing them to certain occupational health issues. As such, this research study aimed to look into occupational issues of women, as well as certain cultural, political, socio-economic perceptions and attributes that affect women’s occupational issues. 251 women farmers from identified communities using cluster sampling …

Surviving Sexual Violence In Eastern Democratic Republic Of Congo, Susan Bartels, Jennifer Scott, Jennifer Leaning, Denis Mukwege, Robert Lipton, Michael Vanrooyen

Journal of International Women's Studies

Since 1996 a deadly conflict has been ongoing in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Within this conflict, sexual violence has been inflicted upon women as a strategic weapon of war. Given the challenges of working in this setting, this sexual violence epidemic has not been well studied. The current work is a retrospective chart review of women presenting to Panzi Hospital in 2006 requesting post-sexual violence care. The goals were to describe the demographics of sexual violence survivors and to define the physical and psychosocial consequences of sexual violence in Eastern DRC. A total of 1021 patient medical records …

Poverty Among Women In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review Of Selected Issues, Hazel M. Mcferson

Journal of International Women's Studies

Gender discrimination resulting in greater poverty among women is widespread throughout the developing world. However, the incidence of women poverty, as well as its depth and their vulnerability, is particularly marked in Sub-Saharan African countries of the tropical belt, albeit with significant rural-urban differences. The article reviews the interaction of traditional restrictions on women property rights, weak governance and violent civil conflict in perpetuating gender discrimination and women poverty in those countries. Statistics show some progress in women development indicators in Sub-Saharan Africa during the last decade, partly associated with improvements in governance and the end of civil war in …