Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Eating Burnt Toast: The Lived Experiences Of Female Breadwinners In South Africa, Bianca Rochelle Parry, Puleng Segalo

Journal of International Women's Studies

In South African society, many women have overcome traditional notions of gender by becoming primary breadwinners in their homes and providing primary financial support for their families. Employing a Phenomenological viewpoint, this paper contextualises the individual lived experiences of South African female breadwinners, utilising data collected from ten female breadwinners from the Mpumalanga and Gauteng provinces respectively using in-depth, semi structured interviews. Taking into consideration their intersectional experiences of gender, race, as well as cultural, traditional and patriarchal societal pressures, the study represents voices that have for a long time been silenced and marginalised, to understand how these women make …

Indigenous Communication: Socio-Economic Characteristics Influencing Contemporary Female Political Participation, Kehinde Oyesomi, Abiodun Salawu, Bankole Olorunyomi

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper takes into account the exceptionality of the socio-economic characteristics (age, income, education, marital status, occupation) of female participation in politics through the use of indigenous communication. The theory was laid on democratic-participant theory. Four communities were selected in Lagos and Ogun states. Survey design, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and in-depth interviews (IDI) were adopted to generate both quantitative and qualitative data for the study. Structured and semi structured copies of the questionnaire were administered on 800 purposively selected respondents but only 775 copies of the questionnaire were used for analysis. Four (4) focus group discussions, made up of …

A 'Derailed' Agenda?: Black Women’S Voices On Workplace Transformation, Claude-Hélène Mayer

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study assesses the experiences of workplace transformation of eleven Black women leaders working in South African higher education institutions (HEIs). The theoretical background is based in intersectional theories, also providing contextual information. The study uses a research paradigm based in Dilthey's modern hermeneutics, using qualitative methods, such as semi-structured interviews, as well as observations within HEIs. Interviews were analysed through content analysis. Findings show a strong commitment of women leaders to transforming their workplaces.

Their testimonies point in to the prevalence of gendered and racially biased experiences of Black women leaders in past and present. Their narratives include an …

Lived Experiences And Consequences Of Unemployment On Women: An Empirical Study Of Unemployed Young Women In Mahalapye, Botswana, Kabo Diraditsile, Mosetsanagape Alice Ontetse

Journal of International Women's Studies

Studies have shown that the experience and consequences of unemployment affect people differently depending on, for example, age and gender. The purpose of the present study was to identify factors that contribute to unemployment among young women aged 20-35 in Mahalapye village, investigate the effects of being unemployed, determine sources of support available to unemployed young women, and identify the gaps in state assistance in this regard. The study utilized a survey research method and adopted a descriptive research design. Cluster sampling was used with the sample size being one hundred (100) unemployed young women in Mahalapye. A face-to-face questionnaire …

Contextualising African Women’S Empowerment In Agriculture: Challenges From Climate Change And Mineral Extraction Perspectives, Lere Amusan, Oluwole Olutola

Journal of International Women's Studies

Most cultures in Africa view women’s role as subordinate to that of men. The patriarchal nature of human and social systems that are more or less an enduring feature of a typical African society, dictates that women are inferior and less powerful when compared to their male counterpart. Hence, their role should naturally be of a domestic calling. In addition to being relegated to the background of domestic affairs, most women function as food producers, at least, at the subsistence level. These dual roles are mostly unpaid, under-valued and, therefore, hardly accounted for in monetary terms. Rather than being beneficiaries …

Domestic Violence Against Women In Ghana: The Attitudes Of Men Toward Wife-Beating, Ellen Mabel Osei-Tutu, Ernest Ampadu

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study examines the issue of domestic violence against women; specifically, men’s attitudes toward wife beating. The data used was obtained from the 2011 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS). The results presented in this study come from a total 3,052 males from across all the 10 regions in Ghana. It is interesting to note that, although majority of the participants do not endorse wife beating, there was a significant number of these men who thought wife beating was justified for various reasons. That is, the attitude of men toward wife beating is complex to explain as the participants had divergent …

Ecowas And Free Movement Of Persons: African Women As Cross-Border Victims, Ayodeji Anthony Aduloju

Journal of International Women's Studies

Existing literature has investigated the challenges of interstate border dispute, border conflict and their security and developmental implications for the West African sub-region. ECOWAS Free Movement Protocol of Persons was instituted to enhance economic development of West Africa’s citizens. However, studies have shown that the protocol has relatively aided trans-border trafficking in persons, drugs, Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW). However, vulnerability of trans-border women traders in the sub-region have received little attention. This study utilized both primary and secondary sources of data gathering in order to interrogate the provisions of ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement of Persons vis-à-vis its …

Gender Dimensions And Women’S Vulnerability In Disaster Situations: A Case Study Of Flood Prone Areas Impacting Women In Malabon City, Metro Manila, Daniella Dominique Reyes, Jinky Leilanie Lu

Journal of International Women's Studies

Disasters are common in the Philippines, the effects of which are more adverse in the metropolis, characterized by population crowding and presence of geophysical hazards. Malabon City in Metro Manila is characterized by such risk factors to disasters. The target population of this study were women as they frequently remain at home while their husbands are out for work. The methodologies were both qualitative and quantitative through the use of key expert and subject interviews, and a survey questionnaire respectively. The objectives of the study were to look into the structure of Philippine disaster management, to investigate the role of …

"Der Sozialismus Siegt": Women’S Ordinary Lives In An East German Factory, Susanne Kranz

Journal of International Women's Studies

Socialism Triumphs adorned the roof of the office equipment factory (BWS) in the Thuringian town of Sömmerda until 1990. The factory became a driving economic force in the GDR. The city, called “the capital of computers,” represents a unique case of urban development and governmental support, showcasing the state’s anticipated unity of economic and social policy. This article explores the everyday lives of women working in the factory (1946 and 1991) and examines the state-sanctioned women’s policies, how they were implemented and how women perceived these policies and the officially accomplished emancipation of men and women. Sömmerda had roughly 23,000 …

Urban Nowhere: Loss Of Self In Lydia Davis’ Stories And Wang Anyi’S Brothers, Xue Wei, Kate Rose

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper focuses on how contemporary literary works by women authors in China and the U.S. reverse the individualist West/collectivist China assumption. It mainly compares the works of Lydia Davis and Wang Anyi with regards to urban women’s identities. Under the inspiration of revolutionary ideologies that characterize 20th century China, female characters are striving for meaning in their lives as individuals. In U.S.-American writings, however, the individual is becoming more anonymous and interchangeable, particularly in urban spaces. This article traces possible reasons and implications for this contrast.

Tracing The Development Of The Tunisian 1956 Code Of Personal Status, Rayed Khedher

Journal of International Women's Studies

Tunisia has a unique set of family law codes that continue to operate from 1956 to the present day. The 1956 Code of Personal Status deals with crucial issues such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, alimony, child custody and adoption. The enactment of this code and Tunisian women’s emancipation and its uniqueness in the Arab Muslim world can be attributed to a combination of various historical, political and social factors: the country’s ‘so-called’ homogeneity, its particular colonial experience, and above all the country's modernization policy implemented by Tunisia’s first president Habib Bourguiba. This article focuses on the early years of independence …

Farming Cooperatives: Opportunities And Challenges For Women Farmers In Jamaica, Amani Ishemo, Brenda Bushell

Journal of International Women's Studies

In many respects it is Jamaican women who play a pivotal role in small-scale farming, particularly in marketing farm produce. More highly educated than men, and gender-wise, women farmers are highly self-reliant; however, their socio-economic strength is not fully capitalized through cooperative endeavors to foster productivity on their farms. This research examines women’s cooperatives and the operations of women farmers in two remote rural communities using focus group discussion and targeted on-site investigation approaches. We find that over the years, small farming cooperatives are unsustainable because of their land-tenure problem, and lack of decision-making power at the grassroots level. The …

Ethnic And Gender Diversity In Top Level Management And Firm Performance: Shareholder’S Perspectives, Rohail Hassan, Maran Marimuth, Eraj Tariq, Raja Aqeel

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study examines the relationship between demographic diversity in top management levels with a firms’ financial performance using 84 non-financial companies in Malaysia. Demographic diversity consists of ethnic diversity and gender diversity. The top management level includes both the top management team and the board of directors. This study uses data from 2008 to 2012. Return on assets measures the financial performance. Ethnic and gender diversity measured by the number of Non-Malays and the number of females in top management respectively. This study incorporates descriptive statistics, correlation testing, and regression analysis. The results show that ethnic diversity in the top …

"Speaking Back" To The Self: A Call For "Voice Notes" As Reflexive Practice For Feminist Ethnographers, Fawzia Haeri Mazanderani

Journal of International Women's Studies

While what comprises “feminist research methods” is subject to debate, research with a feminist orientation is often characterised by heightened reflexivity and a recognition of the subjective nature of knowledge claims (Ryan-Flood and Gill, 2010). By drawing upon ethnographic research conducted among young people in post-apartheid South Africa, this paper interrogates the potential value of audio recordings or “voice notes” during fieldwork, in conjunction with the more traditional form of the fieldwork diary. I argue that, by providing an additional means through which to articulate the inevitable messiness of fieldwork, the recording of “voice notes” enables the researcher to “speak …

Post/Feminist Impulses: Neoliberal Ideology And Class Politics In Annie Wang’S The People’S Republic Of Desire (2006), Kelly Yin Nga Tse

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper critically examines post/feminist imperatives in relation to neoliberal ethos and class dynamics in The People’s Republic of Desire (2006) by transnational Chinese women writer, Annie Wang (b. 1972). While the novel positions itself as a transnational satire of the Western-styled consumptive furor in post-socialist China, its textual focus on a class-based commodity culture demands a critical consideration of its neoliberal investments. In probing Wang’s text, this paper adopts a feminist reading that attends to how neoliberal ideology and class politics operate together to corroborate a postfeminist stance. The awareness of feminist ethics notwithstanding, the text’s overall postfeminist disposition …

Mothers, Morality And Abortion: The Politics Of Reproduction In The Formation Of The German Nation, Yvonne Frankfurth

Journal of International Women's Studies

A substantial amount of literature dealing with conceptualisations of the nation has neglected the importance that gender and the politics of reproduction play in the construction of national identities. Analysing images of political campaigns and activists as well as public discourses on motherhood, abortion and childcare, I will illustrate the importance that gender and sexuality assumed in German nation-building projects before and after its unification in 1990.

After 1949, East and West German ideas of nationhood were premised on opposing ideas of gender roles, in that politicians within these two German nations mobilised distinct gender identities to assert their respective …

Nymphs And Nymphomania: Mythological Medicine And Classical Nudity In Nineteenth Century Britain, Isabella Luta

Journal of International Women's Studies

The concept of women being overwhelmed by excessive sexual desire had been present in medical discourse for a long time, but the nineteenth century saw a shift from describing this using the term ‘Furor Uterinus’ to ‘Nymphomania’. In this paper I will investigate the significance behind this change and explore how myth influenced medicine to tackle the question of why ‘Nymphomania’ became the preferred term for excessive female sexuality in the 19th century. I will consider the connections between artistic depictions of nymphs and medical descriptions of nymphomaniacs, whilst exploring the etymology of ‘Nymphomania’ and ambiguous uses of Latin and …

Sleeping Beauties: Mummies And The Fairy-Tale Genre At The Fin De Siècle, Eleanor Dobson

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay examines the relationship between mummy fiction and the fairy-tale genre in the closing years of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth. It argues that dormant and perfectly-preserved female mummies that populate much of fin-de-siècle mummy fiction emulate the figure of Sleeping Beauty or Snow White, preserved in glass coffins or museum display cases. Concurrently, it observes that while the suggestion of the marriage of the mummy is raised in a number of these texts, any chance of longstanding romantic union is often foiled, in contrast to the distinctly marital “happily-ever-after”s characteristic of the fairy …

Feminist Epistemology And The Question Of Difference Reconfigured: What Can Wittgenstein Tell Us About "Women"?, Jana Cattien

Journal of International Women's Studies

Feminist standpoint theory is an important tool of many a feminist activist. It provides us with the epistemological justification to take women’s experiences seriously – not as an obstacle to “objectivity”, but as a form of epistemic privilege. This paper takes postmodern and intersectional critiques of feminist standpoint theory as a critical point of departure to re-examine the debate around the relevance of the signifier “women” in feminist epistemology. Its aim is two-fold: first, it seeks to shed new light on these criticisms by using the lived experiences of mixed-race women as an innovative lens through which to examine the …

Introduction: New Writings In Feminist Studies, Laura Clancy, Charlotte Mathieson

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Elder Northfield's Home Or, Sacrificed On The Mormon Altar: A Story Of The Blighting Curse Of Polygamy, Pamela Hayes-Bohanan

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Elder Northfield’s Home or, Sacrificed on the Mormon Altar: A Story of the Blighting Curse of Polygamy, by A. Jennie Bartlett. University of Nebraska Press, 2015

Book Review: Feminist Edges Of The Qur'an, Merna Aboul-Ezz

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Feminist Edges of the Qur'an, by Aysha A. Hidayatullah. Oxford University Press, 2014

Book Review: Survival On The Edge: Seawomen Of Iceland, Wendy K. Rockne

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Survival on the Edge: Seawomen of Iceland, by Margaret Willson. University of Washington, 2016

Book Review: Science, Gender, And History: The Fantastic In Mary Shelley And Margaret Atwood, William Tringali

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Science, Gender, and History: The Fantastic in Mary Shelley and Margaret Atwood, by Suparna Banerjee. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014

Book Review: Questioning The 'Muslim Woman': Identity And Insecurity In An Urban Indian Locality, Aatina N. Malik

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Questioning the ‘Muslim Woman’: Identity and Insecurity in an Urban Indian Locality, by Nida Kirmani. Routledge, 2013

Book Review: Virginia Woolf: Essays On The Self, Margarita Esther Sánchez Cuervo

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Virginia Woolf: Essays on the Self, by Joanna Kavenna. Notting Hill Editions, 2014

Book Review: Women And The City, Women In The City: A Gendered Perspective On Ottoman Urban History, Deniz Zeynep Leuenberger

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Women and the City, Women in the City: A Gendered Perspective on Ottoman Urban History, by Nazan Maksudya. Berghahn Books, 2014

Book Review: Making Change - Nordic Examples Of Working Towards Gender Equality In The Media, Meghan Murphy

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Making Change – Nordic Examples of Working Towards Gender Equality in the Media, edited by Maria Edström & Ragnhild Mølster. Nordicom, 2014

Overcoming Obstacles To Educational Access For Kenyan Girls: A Qualitative Study, Norah Mwakio

Journal of International Women's Studies

Despite the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations Millennium Project, having its third goal as promoting gender equality and empowering women, and even with all new progress in equality, Kenya is still lagging behind when comparing the educational opportunities of boys and girls. In most cases where cultural beliefs are involved, the girl-child falls victim to violation of her rights, including her rights to education and freedom of expression. Many girls are forced into early marriages, experience Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and sexual exploitation, among many other concerns and at some point they all lead to her inability to …

'Better Off Dead' - Sasha's Story Of Living With Vaginal Fistula, Glory Joy Gatwiri, Helen Jaqueline Mclaren

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper draws on the narrative of a Samburu woman, whom we call Sasha, from northern Kenya. She has been living with recto- and vesico-vaginal fistula for more than ten years. Her homeland is characterized by abject poverty, patriarchy and traditional practices involving witchcraft, which is intertwined with the teachings of Christian evangelist missionaries that traverse the last two centuries. Sasha’s research interview offered representations of the broader social and political aspects affecting women with vaginal fistula and how this influences their lived experiences. We suggest that this condition is more than a biomedical issue, which we explain through our …