Digital Commons Network^™

Challenges Documenting Early Era Regional Leaders, Danelle L. Moon

Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

“Of Course They Claim They Were Coerced”: On Voluntary Prostitution, Contingent Consent, And The Modified Whore Stigma, Yenwen Peng

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper starts with a reflection on the main tactic adopted during the Taipei prostitutes’ movement, namely, the “poverty as force” rationale, and argues that a campaign strategy that focuses on the justification of prostitutes’ consent to their job does not help them much; instead, it reinforces the stigma on “voluntary” prostitutes. I suggest that sex workers’ activism abandons the now dominant “voluntary vs. forced” division of prostitution and, emphasizes the working conditions of sex workers rather than the reasons that underlie those workers’ consent. This suggestion by no means implies that we neglect the critical moral value of consent. …

Women World Leaders: Comparative Analysis And Gender Experiences, Robert P. Watson, Alicia Jencik, Judith A. Selzer

Journal of International Women's Studies

Research suggests that executive political office poses additional and different political challenges for women than legislative office. Yet, a few dozen women have attained their nations’ highest executive office. Surprisingly little research has been devoted to the experiences of these women world leaders. This study builds profiles of the women world leaders in the modern era and analyzes their backgrounds and political experiences in an effort to both identify commonalities among the women leaders and assess the challenges they faced on account of their sex.

Legal Injustices: The Zina Hudood Ordinance Of Pakistan And Its Implications For Women, Rahat Imran

Journal of International Women's Studies

During recent decades the women of Pakistan have been the most vulnerable and convenient targets of social, domestic and sexual violence. This paper will examine the trend of sexual violence against women that emerged in Pakistan with the introduction of the Islamization process through the implementation of the Sharia laws since1979. The paper’s main focus will be on rape and the state legislation that governs it, namely the Zina Hudood Ordinance of 1979 and the Law of Evidence of 1984, and how the gender-discriminatory nature of these laws serves as a powerful weapon in the hands of the patriarchal society …

Gender: Kosova’S Other Challenge, Richard Beilock, Ymer Havolli

Journal of International Women's Studies

The extent of differences in roles between the genders in Kosova is examined. Kosovar men, on average, devote 57 percent of their non-rest time to earned income activities (i.e., agriculture, other self-employed, and hired), and only 4 percent to housekeeping. In very sharp contrast, Kosovar women, on average, devote 14 percent of their time to earned income activities and a staggering 65 percent to housekeeping. There are considerable differences across Kosova’s ethnic groups, with much less rigid gender roles among ethnic Serbians than is true for ethnic Albanians. It is argued that rigidly defined gender roles result in significant inefficiencies …

Weight Control Behavior And Women: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, Jacqueline A. Walcott-Mcquigg

Journal of International Women's Studies

The objective of this study was to seek directly from culturally diverse women information on their weight control behavior. Specific questions were: What types of weight control behavior are practiced by women? 2) What factors influence participation in weight control behavior? and, 3) what are the cultural influences on women’s motivation and ability to participate in weight control behavior? Face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of 135 middle-income women (African American, Caucasian, Mexican American, Puerto Rican) in their homes, offices, and at other places in their neighborhoods. Additional data collection included measuring body weight and height. The …

Reach Out: The Newsletter Of Maine Speakout Project (Fall 2005), Maine Speakout Project, Community Counseling Center

Reach out : the newsletter of Maine Speakout Project (2004-2006)

No abstract provided.

Family Affairs Newsletter 2005-10-01, Jean Vermette

Family Affairs newsletter (2004-2016)

FAMILY AFFAIRS was a free, twice-a-month, social activities newsletter for the GLBTQI (gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans/queer/intersex) community, sent out around the 1st and 15th of each month. It covered the State of Maine only. The list was begun and maintained for many years by Jean Vermette in Bangor, and later operated by Zack Paakkonen of Portland. Over the years it evolved from a social activities newsletter into a business directory, classified ad service, and community bulletin board.

Contact: Little Orphan Ellie, Andrew Gordon

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

By featuring a woman scientist as protagonist, Contact (1997) is a welcome change in the largely male-dominated territory of American science-fiction film. The astronomer Dr. Ellie Arroway is an exceptional woman for recent SF film: a brilliant, dedicated visionary who defies the male scientific establishment, goes it alone, risks her career and life for her beliefs, and succeeds in the end by taking a dangerous journey to the stars to contact intelligent extraterrestrial life. Although the movie is largely faithful to the novel by Carl Sagan, it deviates from the novel in certain critical respects which end up making Contact …

Pushing Containment: The Tale Of The 1950s Science Fiction Vamp, Susan A. George

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Starting with the observations of Janet Staiger and others regarding the female vampire or Vamp character, who has sucked men dry physically, financially, and/or morally for centuries, this essay looks at the representation of the Vamp in three science fiction films of the 1950s and 1960s—Them! (1954), The Wasp Woman (1960), and The Leech Woman (1959). The essay focuses on what the science fiction Vamp adds to the representation of the cinematic Vamp, first seen in films such as The Mothering Heart (1913) and A Fool There Was (1915), and how they represent age-old male fears regarding the feminine …

Review Of Alien Woman: The Making Of Lt. Ellen Ripley, By Ximena Gallardo C. And C. Jason Smith, Luke Vassiliou

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

No abstract provided.

To The Max: Embodying Intersections In Dark Angel, Lorna Jowett

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Dark Angel is often classed with other television shows featuring female action heroes (such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Alias) but I argue that it exhibits a more than usual emphasis on the body of its female protagonist and that this is integral to its use of science fiction and other genres to mediate a politicised postfeminist representation of gender. The science fiction genre, it is often argued, arises directly out of Gothic fictions such as Frankenstein, and in Dark Angel the protagonist, Max, is a post-modern Frankenstein's monster, blurring boundaries between human and monster, subject and …

El Movimiento De Mujeres Y El Estado Nicaragüense: La Lucha Por La Autonomía, Sarah Moberg

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El Movimiento de Mujeres ha sido un movimiento social vital, diverso e influyente en la historia de Nicaragua, comenzando a mediados del siglo veinte. Ha tenido tres etapas en su evolución, bajo las tres diferentes estructuras del Estado: la dictadura Somocista, el gobierno Sandinista, y los gobiernos neoliberales. Durante las tres etapas, el Movimiento tuvo cambios en sus agendas, sus debates, su membresía y su forma de organización. La relación con el Estado es un gran factor en el rumbo de un movimiento social. Ha influido en las estrategias políticas y las formas de participación, las cuales también han influido …

It's Not Easy Being A Cast Iron Bitch: Sexual Difference And The Female Action Hero, Diana Dominguez

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Lt. Ellen Ripley of the Alien series of films, Sarah Connor of the Terminator series, and Lindsey Brigman of The Abyss are examples of a special category of female role in Hollywood – the female action hero. To varying degrees of success, the three characters mentioned above defy the principal dilemma filmmakers seem to have in creating a character that can reconcile the presumably mutually exclusive aspects of cast iron bitch and traditional patriarchal societal views of femininity. Ripley, Connor, and Brigman infiltrate the male-dominated category of the action hero, but they are not a direct feminine challenge to the …

Women’S Rights And The Japanese State, 1880 To 1925, Barbara Molony

History

Recent scholarship on the relationship between women and the state in Japan has approached this question from a variety of perspectives. Among other subjects, scholars have looked at women as targets of government policies;¹ agents of specific parts of the state;² participants in organized or institutionalized politics or movements;³ members of groups that interacted with state power;⁴ and objects of discourses about women and the state.⁵ This chapter explores the relationship of women and the state by examining discourses on “women’s rights” in the late nineteenth century (especially the 1880s and 1890s) and the interwar …

Multiculturalisms Past, Present, And Future, Marilyn Edelstein

English

Once upon a time, most classes, in both schools and universities, focused on historical events shaped by white men, scientific discoveries made by white men, philosophies constructed by white men, and literary and artistic works created by white men. This time was not so long ago-and during some of our lifetimes. Since at least the late 1960s, this normative maleness and whiteness-which always claimed to be universal-has been challenged by the development of ethnic studies, women's and gender studies, and multiculturalism. Especially in literary studies-and nowhere more than in the field of American literature-the canon has exploded, as more works …

Apocalyptic Empathy: A Parable Of Postmodern Sentimentality, Rebecca A. Wanzo

Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies Faculty Research

This essay analyzes the relationship between feelings and politics in Octavia E. Butler's novels "Parable of the Sower" and "Parable of the Talents." Comparison of the sentimentalism approach used by the author and Harriet Beecher Stowe in the novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin"; Characteristics of Butler's novels which are categorize as postmodernism; Significance of feeling of the novels' heroines to political activism.

What’S So Special About Women’S History; Next Steps Facing Historians And Archivist Documenting Regional Women’S History, Danelle L. Moon

Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Nº50: Comunidades Sustentables: Un Sueño Posible, Colectivo Con-Spirando

Con-spirando

Translation: Sustainable Communities: A Possible Dream

Introduction: Winning And Short Listed Essays From The Second Annual Essay Competition Of The Feminist And Women’S Studies Association, Kristin Aune, Karen Throsby

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Refracting Mothertongues: Considering Mobility Through Language, Michaela Fay

Journal of International Women's Studies

In this article I explore the interplay between language and mobility. As the number of debates about mobility and belonging has grown both in the social sciences and in feminist theory, there has been an increasing discussion about the interaction between language and place and I argue here that increased mobility leads to changes in one’s understanding and experience of the languages one dwells in. My argument is that the ways in which language is reflected upon shapes the ways in which subjects experience and define their mobility and further, that when individuals reflect about language, they also reflect, in …

What Sort Of Mental Health Problems Are Experienced By Women In Contemporary British Society? What Do Different Feminist Perspectives Offer As Alleviation?, Penny Halliday

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay argues that by labelling British women’s mental health distress and treatment in terms of a purely medical model, underlying contributory social structures and phenomena such as gendered roles, ethnicity and poverty, have largely been ignored by the (male dominated) psychiatric profession. This labelling is historically rooted in the pathologisation of the feminine condition; therefore, women’s mental ill health is substantially a social construct and a product of a patriarchal society. To fully explore a way through mental health distress - a term used by MIND to emphasise the inorganic origins of many mental health problems - labels need …

Missy ‘Misdemeanor’ Elliott: Rapping On The Frontiers Of Female Identity, Eliza Sellen

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper provides an analysis of Missy Elliott as a contemporary icon, using the innovation and creativity of two of her music videos (One Minute Man and She’s A Bitch), as media texts that both illuminate and disrupt feminist frameworks of identity. This paper begins with a discussion of the ways in which Elliott subverts and revises cultural signifiers; particular attention is paid to female embodiment and sexuality, blackness and power. The paper moves to discuss the visual landscape created through this cultural play, and explores this terrain through the theoretical frameworks of science fiction and technology.

This …

The Silencing Of Women: The Irish Abortion Laws And Religion, Rachael Wright

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay attempts to look at the unfortunate circumstances that surround women in Ireland in regards to abortion. Rather than looking at the pro- and anti-life arguments which are commonly discussed when approaching abortion issues, I have chosen to concentrate on the legal and ethical matters in Ireland that seem to have control over Irish women’s bodies and consequently their personhood. Through the investigation of the changing Irish laws brought about by the Grogan and X cases, it is possible to understand how religious and patriarchal sentiment has continued to suppress women’s personal choice in regards to abortion. By looking …

Gender Issues In Hiv/Aids Epidemiology In Sub-Saharan Africa., Ben E. Wodi

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

"The patriarchal nature of African societies continues to shape women’s sexual behavior in the region. This in turn accounts for the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS among women in sub-Saharan Africa. Of the several factors implicated in the unequal prevalence of the disease among women in Africa, economic dependency/feminization of poverty, unequal distribution of sexual power (sexual violence and coercion), limited educational opportunities and lack of political will continue to dominate the literature (Robinson, 2004; Dunkle, et al., 2004; Martin and Curtis, 2004; Eaton, et al., 2003; Mill and Anarfi, 2002). While programmatic and financial initiatives have increased significantly in the …

Transnational Health Promotion: Social Well-Being Across Borders And Immigrant Women's Subjectivities., Denise Gastaldo, Amoaba Gooden, Notisha Massaquoi

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

In this article, the authors use two qualitative studies to address transnationalism in the intersection of migration, gender and health promotion studies. The experiences of women who have recently (less than 3 years ago) immigrated to Canada are examined focusing on their transnational health promotion activities. Despite the invisibility of women’s unpaid work in transnational and migration studies, we argue that the well-being of families, communities and nations is currently being produced in local, national, and international networks of health promotion and care giving and by the wealth generated by women’s labour. Our contribution is to bring together gendered health …

Unsettling Experiences: Transnational Dialogues Of Necessity In Journal, Nationalité: Immigré(E) And Paletitas De Guayaba, Tim Gerhard

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

In this paper, I examine the transnational stories of two women --one born in France of Algerian descent and the other born in the United States of Mexican descent-- whose lives are interrupted by the inability to understand their status as ethnic women in the country of their birth. By analyzing their works in the proper socio-historical context and by defining how they fit into a relatively new mode of expression --the autoethnography-- I establish a transnational dialogue between the works of these two women. Transnational stories such as these challenge the superiority of the transnational identities established by the …

Getting Connected? The Politics Of Mobilizing A Transnational Feminist Response To The War On Terror, Krista Hunt

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

This paper examines the essential role that the Internet has played in mobilizing a transnational feminist response to the war on terror. The use of the Internet by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) and feminists opposed to the war on terror exemplify the power of this technology to give voice to women who have in many different ways been silenced off-line. This timely case study illustrates how crucial the Internet can be to gain international attention regarding human rights abuses, to solicit transnational support, and to provide an international forum for those who are politically disenfranchised. …

Memories In Vacuum And Western Beach: Questioning The Nature Of Space In The Israeli Context, Anat Litwin

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Environmental Justice And Women's Rights: A Tribute To Wangari Maathai, Mechthild Nagel

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

The United Nations Millenium Development Goals (MDG) focus on key social, economic and political issues; gender and environment are just some of the areas noted. What are the lessons learnt from Kenya’s Green Belt Movement (GBM), spearheaded by Wangari Maathai? MDG analysts might benefit from understanding an NGO’s strategies, like GBM. It will be argued that GBM’s consensus movement mobilized urban and rural women around tree planting income-generating activities, consciousness raising, women’s rights, and political empowerment. GBM’s harambee spirit has the potential of replication across the continent.