Digital Commons Network^™

From “Hot Mommies” To Differently Abled Mothers: Diverse Portrayals Of Mothering In An Indonesian Women’S Magazine, A. Priyatna, L.M. Rahayu, M. Subekti

Journal of International Women's Studies

Mothering and motherhood are among two key components of the construction of femininity. This study examined how mothering is embodied and performed by various women in Femina, Indonesia’s most popular women’s magazine, which targets primarily middle- or upper-middle-class women in their twenties and thirties. The sample set consisted of 17 portrayals of women as mothers in Femina during the years 2015 and 2016. We found that Femina depicts various ways in which women can function as mothers while remaining contented and balancing their different roles; in doing so, the magazine encourages a feminine and feminist celebration of mothering. Femina’s representations …

Japanese Gender Role Expectations And Attitudes: A Qualitative Analysis Of Gender Inequality, Melanie Belarmino, Melinda R. Roberts

Journal of International Women's Studies

Due to current technology and the third wave feminist movement, gender inequality in other countries now has a global, socially aware platform. However, due to non-reporting, the voices of women experiencing violence and inequality in Japan are largely unheard. The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate the gender role expectations in Japan that lead to inequality and victimization inflicted on Japanese women. Data was obtained through interviews with all available and consenting bilingual speakers at a Japanese University, and findings reveal that there are very specific expectations for Japanese women in the home, at work, and in society. …

Conceptualisation Of Honour Codes Amongst Turkish-Kurdish Mothers And Daughters Living In London, Ferya Tas-Cifci

Journal of International Women's Studies

The present study analyses how immigrant women transfer and preserve their traditional honour codes, and whether women from different generations (mothers and their daughters) adhere to the same codes. Focusing particularly on the Turkish-Kurdish community living in London , the study asks, ‘How traditional honour codes are conceptualised and transferred by the women of the Turkish-Kurdish community and whether mothers and daughters share the same opinion about them.’ In a traditional society it is considered to be mothers’ duty to ensure that their culture and traditions, and particularly honour codes, are transferred and taught to their children, especially to their …

Media Empowers Brave Girls To Be Global Activists, Gayle Kimball

Journal of International Women's Studies

A surprising way to silence young women globally, in addition to overly protective families, is by scholars of youth studies and development professionals. Ageism against youth is rarely discussed, so this article reveals this academic bias that ignores or discounts youth voices—especially young women. However, in the safe space of their bedrooms, the Internet and the cell phone enable young women to express their voices, even to organize uprisings. They can get around family restrictions and desires to protect them by speaking publicly from a private space. Some media provide empowering images for young women activists and informative networks of …

Cape Verdean Theatre: Enacting Political Theory And Reclaiming Roots For Crioulo Performance, Eunice S. Ferreira

Journal of Cape Verdean Studies

Shining a spotlight on the Cape Verde Islands illuminates the rich diversity of theatre of the African diaspora and places its unique crioulo identity and creole identities in general, center stage. This article focuses on the post-independence theatre movement in Cape Verde where the re-Africanization theories of Amílcar Cabral (assassinated PAIGC leader in Cape Verde’s liberation struggle) shaped national identity and guided the pioneering work of theatre troupe Korda Kaoberdi (Wake up, Cape Verde). Under the dynamic leadership of Francisco Gomes Fragoso, a medical doctor who adopted the artistic name of Kwame Kondé, the troupe Korda Kaoberdi sought to create …

Youth And Politics: Is There Space For Youth In Cabo-Verdean Politics?, Aleida Mendes Borges

Journal of Cape Verdean Studies

All over Africa young people face serious economic, social and emotional challenges in their everyday lives as the generation hardest hit by the failures of neoliberalism (Honwana 2012). In the absence of political role models, this so-called ‘waithood generation’, has rejected traditionally understood notions of political participation associated with representative democracy and are taking the role of active citizens moving away from the ‘myopic obsession’ over voting and party systems.

In Cabo Verde in particular, where politics are characterised by vertical relations of everyday political life and citizen-state interactions, this paper analyses young people as a window to understanding broader …

Where Blackness And Cape Verdeanness Intersect: Reflections On A Monoracial And Multiethnic Reality In The United States, Callie Watkins Liu

Journal of Cape Verdean Studies

As a Black American and fourth generation Cape Verdean American growing up in the United States, I’ve found that race and ethnicity are frequently conflated in ways that obscure my social reality and identity or put two integrated parts of myself into opposition with each other. In examining my own ethno-racial experience, I use critical race studies and identity construction to disentangle the structural concepts of race and ethnicity and build a frame work for understanding my own integrated existence within the United States. My personal trajectory is situated within the current and historical sociostructural context of Diaspora, White Supremacy …

A Note From Guest Editor, Terza A. Silva Lima-Neves

Journal of Cape Verdean Studies

Our time is now. It is the time to redefine our identities in our own voices, reflecting our stories, creating legacies that we are all proud of leaving behind for future generations.

The valuable contributions made by Cabo Verdean women to their communities across the globe have been vast and diverse. However, if one does a search of the words or subject “Cabo Verdean women” or “Kriola”, the yielded results are of hypersexual, tightly dressed, and sensual beings. Similarly in music videos, social media and film, the Kriola is more often than not featured for her physical attributes and not …

Kriola Culture Of Mobility: Towards A New Research Paradigm, Janine De Novais

Journal of Cape Verdean Studies

Inspired by the display of ingenuity and resilience at the 2018 Poderoza Conference for Cabo Verdean women, this theoretical essay calls for research that takes up a Kriola culture of mobility (KCM). Neckerman, Carter and Lee (1999) define a minority culture of mobility as “a set of cultural elements that is associated with a minority group, and that provides strategies for managing economic mobility in the context of discrimination and group disadvantage.” After Neckerman and colleagues, I argue that KCM research can explore and clarify the intersectional and multicultural dynamics that attend the sociocultural mobility that Cabo Verdean women in …

Family History And Genealogy: The Benefits For The Listener, The Storyteller And The Community, Anna Lima

Journal of Cape Verdean Studies

Thanks to the internet, discovering one’s ancestry is just a few clicks sway. Family histories and genealogies with intricate family trees filled with dates of birth, marriage dates, and death dates are meticulously documented for posterity. This process entails hours of research through census, immigration, baptism, and obituary records if you’re able to access them. There’s nothing greater for a genealogist to discover another generation of previously unknown ancestors and to tell the rest of your family. One would think that genealogy is a very new area of research since our ancestors obviously didn’t bother to pass this information on …

Introduction: Women’S Movements And The Shape Of Feminist Theory And Praxis In Latin America, Erin E. O'Connor, M. Gabriela Torres

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Exploring Pronatalism And Assisted Reproduction In Uk Medicine, Alexa Warnes

Journal of International Women's Studies

Globally, procreation is highly valued, and motherhood has long been seen as the normative role for women. Production of a biologically-related family in keeping with social norms is a key driver of the growing demand for assisted reproductive technologies as a ‘cure’ for infertility, which includes the provision of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) within the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).

In this paper I argue that pronatalism – a social bias in favour of biological motherhood – entrenches harmful social norms for women as a group. I will question whether assisted reproductive technologies in the form of IVF bring radical …

"New Writings In Feminist And Women’S Studies Winning And Short-Listed Entries From The 2018 Feminist And Women’S Studies Association’S (Fwsa) Annual Student Essay Competition", Laura Clancy, Irralie Doel

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Violence As A Site Of Women’S Agency In War: The Representation Of Female Militants In Sri Lanka’S Post-War Literature, T. N. K. Meegaswatta

Journal of International Women's Studies

The increasing visibility of armed women in violent conflicts in the modern world has unsettled conventional beliefs of inferiority, weakness, innocence, and the resultant fragility and victimhood of women. Although in theory it is possible to conceptualize armed woman and violence as empowerment, in practice, the temporal realities that inevitably haunt any discussion of ‘terrorism’ and ‘terrorists’ in conflict ridden polarized societies severely curtail the terminology available to frame militancy in general and the ‘terror’ it generates as ‘liberatory’. However, fictional and non-fictional literary work that were published in the aftermath of Sri Lanka’s war (1983-2009) between the state forces …

Women, Metaphors And The Legitimisation Of Gender Bias In Spanish Proverbs, Benedicta Adokarley Lomotey

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper aims at analysing the role of proverbs in the sustenance of gender violence within the Spanish context. As demonstrated by feminist linguistic activities, one of the avenues through which the status quo of both men and women are enacted and sustained is through language. However, given the complex nature of the relationship between gender and language, speakers often overlook the role of discourse on gender relations. The author investigates this inter-connection using a multidimensional approach which includes insights from Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) theory of metaphor and Austin’s (1965) Speech Act theory. This study confirms that quite a …

Estranged Labour On The Global Assembly Line? ‘Sewing Girls’ Of Post-Colonial Garment Factories In Sri Lanka, Prajna Seneviratne

Journal of International Women's Studies

Inspired by the Marxian conceptualization of ‘estranged labour’, this paper seeks to explore the phenomenon of ‘sewing girls’ of global garment factories in Sri Lanka leaving waged work after a relatively short span of time, drawing on this trend of thought. Even though issues surrounding female labour in the global garment industry are widely researched, there is little or no evidence of existing literature attempting to place the empirical issues within a Marxist conceptual framework. It is in this context that this paper, which takes on a methodological approach of ethnography from a feminist perspective attempts to narrate the ‘stories’ …

Sexism And Gender Profiling: Two Decades Of Stereotypical Portrayal Of Women In Nollywood Films, Kevin Uwaecheghi Onyenankeya, Oluwayemisi Mary Onyenankeya, Oluyinka Osunkunle

Journal of International Women's Studies

Critics of Nollywood especially gender activists, have challenged its predominant, if not exclusive portrayal of women for its narrowly traditional occupational and domestic roles and images. This paper seeks to examine various ways women are depicted in Nollywood films, including physical appearance, domestic and family life, occupational life and interpersonal relationships over a 20 year period spanning the video film era. The research employed a quantitative content method to analyse 10 films while the coding sheet that contained established content categories served as the data gathering instrument. A multistage sampling technique was used to draw the sample. The findings revealed …

Feminist Media Studies Across Borders: Re-Visiting Studies Within The Brazilian National Context, Carolina Matos

Journal of International Women's Studies

Feminist media studies in the US and the UK have built a strong tradition of research, which has aimed to look at the correlation between structural gender inequalities in society and how these have been played out in the media. These range from classic studies on soap operas to debates on the sexualization of culture and the construction of forms of femininity within a post-feminist context (i.e. Gill, 2006; McNair, 2002; Ang, 1985; Tuchman at el, 1978). Research on the relationship between gender and the media has arguably become an important arena of inquiry in Latin America. Feminist media studies …

Measuring The Impact Of Gun Theft On City-Level Gun Crime Rates, Thomas Senst

Master’s Theses and Projects

The history of gun culture in the United States is complicated. Guns are an integral part of American history and attempts to control them through policy are often contentious. However, research suggests that gun crime occurs in areas where there are more guns (Braga, 2017; Braga & Pierce, 2005; Cook, Harris, Ludwig, & Pollack, 2015; Kennedy, 2011; Koper, 2013; Pierce, Braga, Hyatt, & Koper, 2004). Consequently, as gun accessibility increases within cities, the likelihood of gun crime also increases. When researching gun accessibility, it is important to note how guns are accessed. Often, guns are accessible in three ways: (1) …

“Racial Repercussions Of The British Imperial Curriculum:” Misperceptions Of The Natives In George Orwell’S Burmese Days, Cyi Gyi Paradis

Honors Program Theses and Projects

This study explores how English writers falsely portray the indigenous people of the British colonies in novels. During the first two decades of the twentieth century, in particular, authors of Imperialist fiction often misrepresent natives in the British colonies as deviant, detestable, deplorable beings that lack moral compasses. By researching the fields of literature, history, education, and cultural studies, I will examine how George Orwell’s novel Burmese Days distorts descriptions of the Burmese people. Previous studies on Burmese Days focus mainly on misrepresentations of the Burmese as a homogenous race; however, my research will encompass how literary distortions target multiple …

Searching For Identity: Connecting Students To Young Adult Literature In The Classroom Through Language, Samantha Correia

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Young adult literature largely influences the cultures and the lives of young people; often these popular young adult novels become well-known as they are made into movies and are in high demand. These novels are not just for young adults; these texts can be read at any age and have accessible themes that many people can relate to. However, in this research, young adult literature will be discussed in terms of how these novels affect children, mostly from ages ten to eighteen, as many of the characters in these texts are a similar age to them. Young adult literature (YA …

Speaking And Silence As Means Of Resistance In Alifa Rifaat's Distant View Of A Minaret And Bahiyya's Eyes, Sumaya M. Alhaj Mohammad

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study aims at investigating the dilemma of creating a counter discourse that speaks against the dominant androcentric one in Alifa Rifaat’s fiction. The study explores the characterization of the protagonists of two short stories: “Distant View of a Minaret” and “Bahiyya’s Eyes,” culled from Rifaat’s collection Distant View of a Minaret and Other Short Stories (1983). These stories present two different paradigms of resistance that the female protagonists use, which are speaking and silence. The study argues that both speaking and silence are attempts to heal women’s cyclic trauma, as they are means of representing women’s experience and oppression …

Apology Or No Apology: Indigenous Models Of Subjection And Emancipation In Pakistani Women’S Fiction, Aroosa Kanwal

Journal of International Women's Studies

This survey paper focuses on Pakistani Anglophone literary narratives that examine the multiple identities of victimized women as opposed to the commonly endorsed essentialist and reductive argument that is too easily conscripted into post-9/11 global discourses surrounding women of colour. In the context of the global hegemony of Western scholarship, my purpose in this paper is to foreground the simultaneous liberation and subjection, centricity and marginality, of Pakistani women. I argue that it is important to situate third world women’s subjection as well as agency in relation to the class, regional, ethnic and religious diversities that inform the degree and …

A Failure To Regulate? The Demands And Dilemmas Of Tackling Illegal Content And Behaviour On Social Media, Majid Yar

International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence & Cybercrime

The proliferation and user uptake of social media applications has brought in its wake a growing problem of illegal and harmful interactions and content online. Recent controversy has arisen around issues ranging from the alleged online manipulation of the 2016 US presidential election by Russian hackers and ‘trolls’, to the misuse of users’ Facebook data by the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica (Hall 2018; Swaine & Bennetts 2018). These recent issues notwithstanding, in the UK context, ongoing concern has focused in particular upon (a) sexually-oriented and abusive content about or directed at children, and (b) content that is racially or …

Traversing Transdisciplinary Pathways: Suturing Knowledges In Search Of Elucidation, João Rosa

Journal of Cape Verdean Studies

No abstract provided.

Human Development, Economic Policy And Income Inequality In Cabo Verde, João Monteiro

Journal of Cape Verdean Studies

By most accounts, Cabo Verde is making tremendous achievements economically, politically, and socially. Forty years after becoming independent, it finds itself consistently among the highest performers on human development scales anywhere in Africa. This paper is a reflection on Cabo Verde’s development and economic growth as it relates to questions of income and resource distribution. Specifically, it considers the challenge of inequality in the distribution of income and the possibility that present inequality trends may be related to economic policy-making over that last twenty-five years. It draws on government reports and United Nations and World Bank documents to capture the …

Reading In Cape Verde: Instructional Practices And Teacher Attitudes, David Almeida

Journal of Cape Verdean Studies

Given that no extensive study on reading instruction and reading attitudes has been carried out country-wide in The Republic of Cabo Verde, (a ten island archipelago off the western coast of Africa), educational practitioners and policy makers in that nation are left with a dearth of accurate information when making decisions surrounding these constructs in the classroom, in the universities, or in the policy rooms of that nation. In a 2007 article, Commeyras & Inyega published research on reading instruction in Kenya and encouraged researchers to follow their example, i.e. to locate all pertinent literature and to conduct a review …

Representação E Comportamento Politico Na Perspetiva Do Género Em Cabo Verde, Roselma Évora

Journal of Cape Verdean Studies

O artigo apresenta um retrato da representação politica por sexo em Cabo Verde após a abertura politica feita em 1991. Ainda que a democracia tenha permitido trazer a participação das mulheres nas esferas de decisão do país, as evidências indicam uma profunda desigualdade de representação das mulheres no processo de decisão do arquipélago. Para compreendermos esse retrato tomamos em conta as dimensões institucionais e culturais, considerando tais dimensões determinantes para entendermos o desequilíbrio de representação daquele país.

Breaking Their Silence On Intimate Partner Violence: Discussions With Cape Verdean Women, Dawna M. Thomas

Journal of Cape Verdean Studies

Family/intimate partner violence is a serious social problem, with women and children victimized at profoundly higher rates than adult males. Although the domestic violence community has worked tirelessly to develop programs to reach culturally diverse women, Cape Verdean women continue to be underserved and misunderstood. The Cape Verdean Women’s Project was a qualitative study with women who shared their experiences with intimate partner violence. A feminist theoretical framework offers a foundation for examining the Cape Verdean women’s experiences with intimate partner violence and for developing recommendations for working with the community to develop intervention and prevention strategies. This article presents …

Cape Verdean Counter Cultural Hip-Hop(S) & The Mobilization Of The Culture Of Radical Memory: Public Pedagogy For Liberation Or Continued Colonial Enslavement, Ricardo D. Rosa

Journal of Cape Verdean Studies

The paper traces the possibilities and limitations of transnational Cape Verdean Hip-Hop’s mobilization of the culture of radical memory for the disruption of racialized transnational capitalism and neocolonialism. One of the most common reference points, both in the symbolic formations of popular culture and emerging scholarly texts is the focus on CV Hip-Hop’s embrace of the life and work of Amilcar Cabral. Undoubtedly, Cape Verdean Hip-Hop Culture(s) & Cape Verdean youth counter-culture(s), more broadly, continues to serve as the most vital space for the (re)mobilization and (re)invigoration of Cabral’s thought, yet, much more is unfolding in these spaces. The paper …