Women's Studies Commons^™

Workplace Cultures And Gender Dynamics In The Uae: Emirati And Expatriate Perspectives, Maxime Jaffré, Tatiana Karabchuk, Asna Kozhikkattil

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study examines the moral regulation and institutional structure of the gendered division of labor in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a rapidly modernizing society characterized by demographic imbalance and state-led economic diversification. Drawing on Durkheim’s theory of moral regulation and Weber’s concept of rationalization, the paper analyzes how women’s empowerment and Emiratization policies reshape workplace cultures across gender and citizenship lines. The analysis is based on original survey data collected between 2019 and 2024 (N=10,100), comparing Emirati citizens and expatriate residents. Descriptive findings reveal overwhelming support for women’s right to work and for gender parity in political representation, indicating …

Beyond The Double Burden: A Gendered Analysis Of E-Commerce, Unpaid Care Work, And Financial Resilience In Indonesian Msmes, Mia Ajeng Alifiana, Mamduh M. Hanafi, Bowo Setiyono

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study challenges the narrative of e-commerce’s potential for empowering women in the Global South by exploring the structural barriers that women entrepreneurs face in Indonesia, both as paid and unpaid workers. The study also challenges the notion of “techno-optimism,” which suggests that digital entrepreneurship inherently empowers women, by highlighting the obstacles women face in economic engagement due to a “second shift” of domestic labor. Through a systematic review and bibliometric analysis of 158 articles indexed in Scopus and Web of Science, we map the intellectual structure of the literature on e-commerce and the financial performance of micro, small, and …

A Feminist Examination Of Ao Naga Practices In Relation To Gender Roles And Care Work, Limatula Ozukum, Aswathy V. K.

Journal of International Women's Studies

Food practices within Indigenous communities are important sites of caregiving, cultural identity, and knowledge transmission. This study examines the food practices of the Ao Naga Tribe in Northeast India through a feminist ethnographic lens, focusing on the gendered organization of cooking, caregiving, and traditional healing practices. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork conducted in 2025, including semi-structured interviews and oral histories with community members in Nagaland’s Mokokchung district, the study explores how everyday food preparation and care practices shape household and community life. The findings reveal that women perform most of the daily cooking and caregiving responsibilities. At the same time, men …

A Comprehensive Analysis Of Government Initiatives And Microfinance Performance: Economic Empowerment Of Women Through Self-Help Groups In India, Diganta Sarkar, Dileep Kumar Gupta, Shipra Gupta

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study is anchored in feminist understandings of empowerment as a relational process shaped by gendered power hierarchies within households, communities, and financial institutions. We offer a comprehensive analysis of governmental efforts, bank linkages, and economic empowerment of women through micro-finance in Self-Help Groups (SHGs). Although the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) data only provides aggregate financial indicators, we interpret the trends in savings, borrowing, and repayment in dialogue with feminist and intersectional scholarship on microfinance in India. The study provides insights into the role of microfinance in SHGs and the magnitude of support for women’s empowerment, …

Crafting Resistance: Kalpourgan Pottery As Gendered Expression And Cultural Identity Among Baloch Women In Iran, Arman Ovla

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article examines the Indigenous pottery tradition of Kalpourgan, a remote village in Iranian Baluchistan, where women have sustained a thousand-year-old ceramic crafting practice that does not require a wheel. Drawing on visual ethnography, field interviews, and postcolonial feminist theory, the study explores how Kalpourgan pottery functions not only as material culture but also as a gendered form of labor embedded within household economies. Through direct observation, semi-structured interviews with women potters, and visual documentation—including photography, drawing, and video—the research traces how design is embedded in oral transmission, ritual practice, and intergenerational knowledge systems. The findings demonstrate that pottery production, …

Moralized Patriarchy In Kazakhstan, Aigul Zabirova

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article examines how patriarchal norms persist in post-socialist Kazakhstan despite expanding opportunities for women in education and public life. Using nationally representative survey data (N=8,101), I analyze attitudes toward maternal employment, educational priorities, labor market rights, and household income arrangements. I find a hybrid gender regime in which support for women’s education and public participation coexists with continued endorsement of men’s economic priority and authority within the family. Gender hierarchy does not disappear under modernization. Rather, it is reproduced through culturally valued ideas of duty, virtue, and family harmony. I call this gender order “moralized patriarchy.” To explain how …

Home As A Workplace: Gender, Labour, And Domesticity In Homestays In Kerala, India, P P Anjusha, Prachi Thakur, Toney K Thomas

Journal of International Women's Studies

Tourism homestays are increasingly presented as an opportunity for women’s empowerment and inclusion around the world. However, this study argues that the focus on homestays as entrepreneurial opportunities for women obscures the persistence of patriarchal structures that limit women’s agency when their labour is commercialised. Grounded in theories of “doing gender” (West & Zimmerman, 1987) supplemented by role theory and critical feminist perspectives, the study highlights how gender is enacted and reproduced daily in homestays. This research draws on qualitative interviews with women hosts in the state of Kerala, India to explore how the gendered division of labour operates within …

Rural-To-Urban Migration And Household Reconfiguration In China: Lived Experiences Of Muslim Migrant Women Workers In Jinan, Ila Joshi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Rural-to-urban migration in China has profoundly reshaped Chinese society since 1979, resulting in separated families, so-called “left-behind children,” and socio-economic inequalities as part and parcel of the migration process. This paper examines the impact of rural-to-urban migration by focusing on the experiences of migrant women belonging to the Muslim (Tatar/Hui) community in Jinan, Shandong province of China. Despite the relaxation in restrictions on migration in the post-reform era, migrants—especially women migrants—face persistent legal and emotional challenges. Through ethnographic fieldwork, this study analyses the experiences of eight migrant women employed in formal, semi-formal, and informal work sectors. These in-depth interviews are …

Special Issue Editorial Introduction: Family Formation, Gender Equality, And The Gendered Division Of Labor In The Global South, Tatiana Karabchuk, Soumaya Abdellatif, Aizhan Shomotova, Malina Voicu, Muhamad Olimat

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Jewish Women’S Folk Memory Of Argentine Schooldays, 1900–1955, Jacqueline Laznow

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

This essay explores the folkloric formation of Jewish-Argentine female identity through schoolyard experiences and domestic resistance in the first half of the twentieth century. Drawing on interviews with women who later made aliyah, the study analyzes these accounts as personal experience narratives, arguing that painful memories of antisemitism and “otherness” are cognitively restructured through folk processes into a symbolic frame for communal interpretation. These narratives function as “legend discourse,” sparking commentary and intergenerational transmission, and serve as mechanisms for reconstructing daily life within a dominant Christian culture. They reveal a “hyphenated” Jewish-Argentine identity reimagined from the perspective of the narrators’ …

Using Fiction To Teach About Reproductive Control, Julie Shayne

Feminist Pedagogy

This essay is a short discussion of two new novels about reproductive rights denied: Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel and Where the Girls Were by Kate Schatz. In it, I offer very abbreviated summaries of the books and a discussion of why novels are useful in social science classrooms.

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif In Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations In Mesoamerica, The American Southwest, And The Andes, Billie J. A. Follensbee, Lois Martin

Zea E-Books Collection

No abstract provided.

Healthcare Access And The Persistent Racial Disparities In Low Birth Weight, Zaheda A. Hussain, Yadanar Moe

DePaul Discoveries

Low birth weight (LBW), defined as less than 2,500 grams, is an influential factor contributing to infant mortality in the United States, with significant racial disparities between Black and White mothers. This study analyzed data from 3,054 Black and White mothers collected from the 2018 National Health Interview Survey to explore the association between access to medical care and LBW within different racial groups. The prevalence of LBW was 8.0%. Overall, mothers without a usual place of medical care had, on average, an 18% higher risk of LBW than those with a usual place (OR = 1.18, 95% CI: 0.80–1.74). …

Hindu Poetry And The Project Of An Inter-Spiritual Catholic Theology, Francis X. Clooney

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article engages the work of the Indian south Indian Tamil-language Vaiṣṇava poet saints known as the Alvārs. The article specifically focuses the First HundredHoly Linked verses of Poykai Ālvār to argue for inter-spiritual learning between Catholics and Hindus. The article concludes with personal reflections on this encounter within the context of the global Catholic Church

Female Athletes With Differences Of Sex Development (Dsd): A Christian Perspective On Fairness And Compassion, Angela M. Robles

Movement and Being: The Journal of the Christian Society for Kinesiology, Leisure and Sports Studies

One of the most significant controversies in elite women’s sport relates to the participation of female athletes with differences of sex development (DSD), as demonstrated by recent Olympic debates surrounding athletes like Imane Khelif and Caster Semenya. Today, a complex challenge continues to evolve at the intersection of DSD and competitive sports, and it requires careful consideration. The central argument of this paper is that DSD athletes are worthy of compassionate treatment grounded in their inherent dignity, and is founded on the understanding of what it means for humans to be created in the image of God (imago Dei). The …

The Secret(S) To Success: Genlis’S Guide To Raising A Foolproof Daughter, Jennifer Law-Sullivan

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Abstract: “The Secret(s) to Success: Genlis’s Guide to Raising a Foolproof Daughter”

Stéphanie-Félicité de Genlis’s Adèle et Théodore ou lettres sur l’éducation, first published in 1782, is an epistolary conduct novel that examines the question of how best to educate girls. Attempts to answer the question were exceedingly in vogue in the late 18^th century and can be traced back to Fénelon’s 1681 Traité de l’éducation des filles. Genlis’s novel offers a robust critique of previous education treatises, Rousseau, and a patriarchal society that did little to educate girls and mothers. She couches her critique in a …

The Matrix, Spring 2026, The Women's Resource Center

The Matrix

Matrix Editor: Trinity Sue

Women's Resource Center Advisor: Marisol Ruiz

Women's Resource Center Staff (listed alphabetically):

• Namixtu'lu' Esteva
• Pamela Hernandez
• Kaylee Luna
• Izzie Rodríguez-Torres
• Alexis Sarmiento
• Venus Shearer
• Trinity Sue

Authors/Illustrators in issue (listed alphabetically):

• Megan Atherton, p. 11
• Brenna, p. 24
• Jess Carey, p. 17
• Leyla Craven, p. 20
• Annabelle Davis, p. 37
• Erica Drew, p. 18
• Sage Fowler, p. 11
• Aven Gehlert, p. 30
• Emily Hartling, p. 24
• Riley Hemenover, p. 12
• Pamela Hernandez, p. 14
• Ella Humphrey, pp. 22-23, 31, 35, and throughout
• Iran@alittlepoke, p. 13
• Kaylee Luna, pp. 25, 29
• Randi Maveety, p. 34
• Xenia McLean, …

[2026 Honorable Mention] Impact Of Chicana Rewritings Of La Virgen De Guadalupe And La Malinche, Destiny Villarreal Quintero

Ethnic Studies Research Paper Award

This piece elaborates on the cultural significance of La Virgen de Guadalupe and La Malinche in Mexican/ Chicanx communities and how they impact women's gender roles.

Investigating The Effect Of Gendered Seating Proximity On Classroom Success For Female Engineering Students, Cassandra Savukinas, Kayla D. Taylor

Student Research Symposium (SRS)

This research will examine how aspects of an undergraduate learning environment, specifically seating choices and spatial positioning of female-presenting students, affects classroom success for female-identifying engineering students. Existing literature highlights the underrepresentation of women in engineering and gender disparities in STEM education, which persist from elementary school through higher education. Single-sex K-12 school environments report enhanced academic performance and self-esteem for female students; however, few studies explore gendered seating proximity in coeducational, male-dominated undergraduate STEM courses. Investigating how gendered seating dynamics impact components of classroom success can provide insight into improving retention and engagement for female-identifying students in engineering majors. …

Balancing Our Capacity To Serve: A Phenomenological Exploration Of Black Women Navigating Personal, Professional, And Community Leadership Roles, Shemeka K. Brathwaite

Student Theses

This phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of Black women community leaders as they navigate a balance between their professional, personal, and community leadership roles. The research design uses the theoretical frameworks of Black Feminist Intersectionality and Role Theory, specifically addressing the cultural burdens imposed by the Strong Black Woman archetype, which adds additional role strain. The study began with a questionnaire completed by 54 Black women community leaders, followed by 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews selected from this pool. The study’s key findings are illustrated in a Black Women’s Sustainable Community Leadership Framework. Black women community leaders exude high self-efficacy, …