Arts and Humanities Commons^™

An Assessment Of The Constitutional, Legislative And Judicial Measures Against Harmful Cultural Practices That Violate Sexual And Reproductive Rights Of Women In South Africa, John Cantius Mubangizi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Sexual and reproductive rights of women are widely violated and abused in Africa, partly because of numerous gender-based cultural and traditional practices. All these practices exist to varying extents in many African countries—including South Africa. The Bill of Rights in the South African Constitution has several provisions that relate to the protection of sexual and reproductive rights of women, but the Constitution also provides for the right to culture, which allows for traditional and cultural practices—some of which violate certain human rights norms including the sexual and reproductive rights of women. International and constitutional protection notwithstanding, such rights can only …

Textually Mediated Labour Activism: An Examination Of The Ladies Auxiliary Of The Canadian Mine Mill & Smelter Workers Union, 1940s-1960s, Elizabeth Quinlan, Andrea Quinlan

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper examines the activism of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Mine Mill and Smelter Workers Union – Canada (MMSW) in the 1940s and 1950s. Drawing on Institutional Ethnography (IE), this paper examines the work of individual MMSW Auxiliary locals across Canada and the ways in which localized political action was coordinated through texts. The paper focuses on how Ladies Auxiliary locals activated two kinds of texts, the MMSW Ladies Auxiliary (LA) Constitution and the district and national Auxiliary newsletters, and examines how these texts coordinated Ladies Auxiliary members’ union work. The paper reveals the political organizing efforts of the …

Reducing Poverty Among Arab And Muslim Women: The Case Of Arab Women In Israel, Yosef Jabareen

Journal of International Women's Studies

The international experience suggests that work is the best way of lifting families out of poverty. Thus, this paper assumes that one crucial policy, among many others, aimed at poverty reduction is to increase the women’s participation in the labour market and their access to decent work. This issue is critical among Arab and Muslim women around the world in general and among Arab women in Israel since the participation rate of women in the labour market is quite low and about 55% of the Arab families live under the poverty line. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the reasons …

Addressing The Safety And Trauma Issues Of Abused Women: A Cross-Canada Study Of Ywca Shelters, Leslie M. Tutty

Journal of International Women's Studies

Shelters for women are often seen as the major resource for intimate partner violence, yet few evaluations have been published. This study describes the needs, trauma symptoms and safety issues of 368 women as they enter and leave emergency shelters in ten Canadian violence against women emergency shelters; nine operated by the YWCA and a private shelter in Nova Scotia. The results capture the nature of the abuse, what the women wanted from shelter residence, the services they received, and their plans for afterwards. On shelter entry, on the Danger Assessment over 75% of women residents fell in the range …

Prostitution In Thailand: Representations In Fiction And Narrative Non-Fiction, Lisa Lines

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper explores problematic Western approaches to women working as prostitutes within the ‘sex tourism’ industry in Thailand through an examination of how their situation is portrayed in the various English-language fiction and non-fiction narratives written on this topic. The first half of this study focuses on the context, practices and working conditions of the Thai sex tourism industry. This is then used as the lens through which to analyse the approaches to Thai sex tourism in Western mainstream literature.

Four books were analysed for their depiction of Thai prostitutes, with a focus on the plots, themes and characterisations of …

Professional Female Bodybuilding: Self-Determination Theory Approach, Mark T. Suffolk

Journal of International Women's Studies

Female professional bodybuilders have received a substantial amount of scholarly and media attention. However, investigations have largely been conducted from a pathologizing perspective. This exploratory research investigated the female bodybuilding community from a positive development perspective. Thematic analysis was applied to twenty four publicly available online video interviews of female professional bodybuilders ranging in age from 29-49 years to understand the reasons as to why females take up the sport of bodybuilding, and to identify factors that contribute towards continued participation. Identified themes were framed within Self-Determination Theory. The findings indicate that pursuing bodybuilding can provide mechanisms that link the …

Femininities And Masculinities In Brazilian Women's Football: Resistance And Compliance, Jorge Knijnik

Journal of International Women's Studies

Football is not only one of the major cultural manifestations of Brazilian society; it is also the pinnacle of the country’s hegemonic masculinity, a bastion into which women should not be allowed. Despite some progress and several international sporting successes achieved over the last few decades, Brazilian female footballers still endure extreme gender prejudice when playing football in Brazil. Gender discrimination blocks their access to minimal conditions of football training and playing at recreational and competitive levels. This paper aims to discuss gender issues that pervade Brazilian football. The paper applies a multifaceted theoretical background, combining a psychoanalytical view of …

Social Media And The Spiral Of Silence: The Case Of Kuwaiti Female Students Political Discourse On Twitter, Ali A. Dashti, Hamed H. Al-Abdullah, Hasan A. Johar

Journal of International Women's Studies

The theory of the Spiral of Silence (Noelle-Neumann, 1984), explained why the view of a minority is not presented when the majority view dominates the public sphere. For years the theory of the spiral of silence was used to describe the isolation of minority opinions when seeking help from traditional media, which play a significant role in increasing the isolation. The fear of isolation makes many people afraid of exchanging their views face-to-face with others. The main fear comes from identifying the people who hold a minority opinion. However, with the proliferation of social networks people have moved online to …

An Empirical Study Of The Perception Of Undergraduates Of Nigerian Females' Participation In Science, Technology And Mathematics, Lucy Eraikhuemen, I. K. Oteze

Journal of International Women's Studies

Science, Technology and Mathematics (STM) have been identified as the bed rock or foundation of wealth and consequently an imperative for national development. It has also been argued that in this era of globalization only persons with appreciable knowledge, skills and abilities in STM are required in the job market. Female gender discrimination is also said to be evident in the school system of many developing countries. This study was design to investigate the perception of undergraduates of Nigerian females’ participation in STM. The study focused on subjects’ awareness of the problem of under representation of females in STM, expected …

Gender Representation In English And Arabic Foreign Language Textbooks In Iran: A Comparative Approach, Mitra Baghdadi, Ali Rezaei

Journal of International Women's Studies

Female educational attainment in Iran has been increasing since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran. This study investigated whether this female superiority is reflected or supported in Iranian textbooks. The study investigated how gender roles are represented in Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) and AFL (Arabic as a Foreign Language) textbooks. “Criteria for Analysis of the Equality of Gender Representation” by Rifkin, was used for content analysis. These criteria are grouped into two main categories of ‘pictorial’ and ‘verbal’. The results showed that with no exception and in all criteria, males were represented significantly more than …

Exploring The Contribution Of Teaching And Learning Processes: Constructing Students’ Gender Identity In An Early Years Classroom Of A Government Girls Primary School In Pakistan, Amina Bibi Baig

Journal of International Women's Studies

The construction of gender identity is a complex process which begins at a very early formative age. In these formative years, children begin making sense of how men and women are positioned in society. Schools as important institutions play a significant role in this process particularly with reference to students’ understanding of the gender relationships around them. This article reports on a study which explored how gender identity construction takes place in a single sex (girls) classroom for early years. The study investigated the teacher-student interactions and student-student interactions in the real environment of the classroom. Qualitative research guided the …

Book Review: Water, Earth, Air, Fire, And Picket Fences, Eleanor Lerman

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Water, Earth, Air, Fire, and Picket Fences by Carol Smallwood. Lamar University Press. 2014.

Book Review: Governing The Female Body: Gender, Health, And Networks Of Power, Ina Christiane Seethaler

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Governing the Female Body: Gender, Health, and Networks of Power, edited by Lori Reed and Paula Saukko. SUNY Press, 2010.

Book Review: Mirror Of Dew: A Collection Of Poems By Alam-Taj Zhale Qa'em-Maquami (1883-1946), Ahmed Abdelal

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Mirror of Dew: A Collection of Poems by Alam-Taj Zhale Qa’em-Maquami (1883-1946), translated with an introduction by Asghar Sayed-Ghorab. Harvard University Press, 2014.

Book Review: Wombs In Labor: Transnational Commercial Surrogacy In India, Sarah Thomas

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Wombs in Labor: Transnational Commercial Surrogacy in India by Amrita Pande. Columbia University Press, 2014.

Book Review: Modest Fashion: Styling Bodies, Mediating Faith, Katherine Bullock

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Modest Fashion: Styling Bodies, Mediating Faith, edited by Reina Lewis. IB Tauris, 2013.

Book Review: The Heart And Stomach Of A King: Elizabeth I And The Politics Of Sex And Power, Michael Mcclintock

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of The Heart and Stomach of a King: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power by Carole Levin. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014.

'Sisters; Was This What We Struggled For?': The Gendered Rivalry In Power And Politics, Mohamed Haji Ingiriis

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article explores the role of Somali women in the twentieth-century history of modern Somalia. This includes exploring the role of women in the decolonisation and post-colonial movements and gender changes during the military dictatorship. The article examines women’s social movements that made some significant changes in Somalia over the past seventy years, even though these have not paved the way for fruitful results. In demonstrating that the current attempts to position themselves in political circles by Somali women has its roots during the decolonisation and post-colonial successive Somali governments, the article argues that women failed to benefit from their …

Facts Behind The Façade: Is There More To Dieting Than Meets The Eye?, Huda Iqbal Ahmed Qazi

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper extends a previous qualitative research on female yo-yo dieters/weight cyclers in the UK. Out of nine participants in the previous study, this investigation has made use of feminist perspectives to further analyze the data of four participants that was previously derived via thematic analysis. Feminist analysis revealed that initiation of frequent dieting episodes is not merely to lose weight; rather complex control and identity issues as well as negative emotions play a role in triggering yo-yo dieting in some women. Furthermore, the similarity of these manifestations to eating disorders is discussed.

Defining Recent Femicide In Modern Turkey: Revolt Killing, Ihsan Cetin

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper aims to question recent increasing femicides in Turkey through the examination of their reasons and dynamics. Therefore, it starts with analyzing current terms such as “honor killing”, “töre killing” and “crimes of passion”. The article claims that the recent description of the murder of women in Turkey as “honor killings” is misleading. Turkey must employ finer distinctions among types of femicide so as to prevent murderers and the larger society from justifying such actions through claims of honor. This paper thus asserts that the analysis of femicide in Turkey, as a Muslim country, should go far beyond …

You're Trans-Mexi-Fying Right Before Our Eyes: Westernized Bodily Features And Beauty Practices In Ugly Betty, Luz-Maria Tato-Pazo

Journal of International Women's Studies

Makeover narratives are a form of discourse which relies on some type of transformation as a path to success. These narratives mainly target the bodies of white middle-class and middle-aged heterosexual women with the aim of creating more conventionally beautiful feminine subjects. This article explores the beauty practices and rituals present in the US dramedy Ugly Betty. We look in detail at makeover narratives and their close association with contemporary idealized versions of female attractiveness. Closely tied up with the makeover canon, the beauty industry entails processes of disciplining women’s bodies to meet the requirements of an ideal feminine …

Attitudes And Perceptions Of Young Men Towards Gender Equality And Violence In Timor-Leste, Ann Wigglesworth, Sara Niner, Dharmalingam Arunachalam, Abel Boavida Dos Santos, Mateus Tilman

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article examines attitudes and perceptions of young men toward gender relations and gender-based violence in post-conflict Timor-Leste. A high level of domestic violence is reported and a law against domestic violence has been passed in recent years. In 2013, a research team surveyed almost 500 young men using the Gender-Equitable Men (GEM) Scale in both rural and urban contexts. It was found that young men become less gender equitable as they get older, and the environment they grow up in influences their gender attitudes. Existing contradictions and tensions between national government policy and local customary practices are well-known, and …

From Aporia To Identity Formation: The Perilous Passage Of African American Women's Dramatic Discourse, Thallam Sarada

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper analyses the dramatic discourse of two African American women dramatists, Sonia Sanchez and Ntozake Shange. It uses as its critical framework Erik Erikson’s theory of identity formation to examine their discourse, which challenges patriarchy and contemporary Anglo American feminist writings. It analyses the multiple ways in which Sanchez and Shange invent standard American English to present a unique African American women’s perspective. Their discourse, this paper argues, thus challenges the prevailing notions of power, truth, knowledge and ideology to give voice to the previously silent black women.

Women And The Law In Nigeria: A Reappraisal, Eghosa Osa Ekhator

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women in Nigeria face many challenges and discrimination under some extant laws. This paper will focus on some of these laws and their impacts on women in Nigeria. The first section will focus on a brief history of Nigeria as a background to the paper. Nigeria’s unique legal system will be briefly highlighted. The second section of the paper will highlight aspects of Nigerian laws accentuating discrimination against women. Some of these laws will include the Labour Act, the Police Act, customary practices and sexual violence laws amongst others. The third part of the paper will focus on the reforms …

Vulnerability Of Elderly Women To Witchcraft Accusations Among The Fipa Of Sumbawanga, 1961-2010, Hamisi Mathias Machangu

Journal of International Women's Studies

Witchcraft accusations have led to the killings of elderly women in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. For many years, the violence has had major effects on people’s health. Witchcraft accusations have been the source of people’s loss of limbs and deaths among elderly women in Africa. Although these problems have had effects on elderly women, there has been very little reconstruction of their history in Tanzania. Thus, the aim of this article is to rewrite the history of the vulnerability of the elderly women to witchcraft accusations among the Fipa of Sumbawanga district of Tanzania.

This article focuses on the …

Barriers To The Utilisation Of Provisions Of The Zimbabwean Domestic Violence Act Among Abused Christian Women In Zimbabwe, Excellent Chireshe

Journal of International Women's Studies

The Domestic Violence Act of Zimbabwe was enacted in response to an escalation in cases of domestic violence. In spite of the enactment of the Act, domestic violence continues and there is limited utilisation of the provisions of the law. This paper seeks to identify factors that militate against the utilisation of provisions of the Act by victims of domestic violence. Twenty-two Christian women who were abused by their male intimate partners participated in the study on which this paper is based. A qualitative design, influenced by the feminist perspective, was adopted for this study. Purposeful sampling was applied in …

Turning A Savage Eye/I: Writing Survival And Empowerment In Yvonne Vera’S The Stone Virgins, Andrew Armstrong

Journal of International Women's Studies

Yvonne Vera’s The Stone Virgins (2002), both thematically and stylistically, dramatizes a pathological patriarchal system that engages in the oppression of women and their right to normal, happy and productive lives. I argue that, in this novel, she employs the creative imagination and skill of the female I/eye to interrogate a deformed masculinist ideology that has colluded with religion, politics and the class system in the oppression of women, often excluding them from historiography and from public life. In The Stone Virgins, Vera represents a historiography that has marginalized and erased women’s histories from the patriarchal grand narratives of …

A Chronicle Of The Global Movement To Combat Violence Against Women: The Role Of The Second-Wave Feminist Movement And The United Nations: The Perspective Of Bangladesh, Anisur Rahman Khan

Journal of International Women's Studies

Violence against women strikes countless women in epidemic proportions across the globe. At present, it is treated as the most pervasive violation of human rights and a serious impediment for development. Shockingly, for many years, a huge culture of silence was associated with the acts of violence of men against women. The second-wave feminist movement of the late sixties and early seventies brought the issue into public discourse, provided a theoretical foundation to analyse the problem and commenced an all-out campaign to redress the problem. For the second-wave feminist movement, patriarchy or unequal power relations between men and women is …

Gender And Water In Northeast Thailand: Inequalities And Women's Realities, Sari Andajani-Sutjahjo, Siriporn Chirawatkul, Erico Saito

Journal of International Women's Studies

The water world is socially constructed, reflecting continuous global gender inequalities and discrimination by those who hold dominant perspectives on water. While there is a strong global acknowledgement of the roles of women in water management by the United Nations International Water for Life Decade 2005-2015, discourses on gender mainstreaming in water management are still marginalised and under-theorised. The Millennium Development Goal-7 on environmental sustainability, addressing the need of more than one billion people for a significant improvement to accessing safe drinking water and basic sanitation, stagnated without a strong political will to include gender ideology in mainstream water perspectives. …

Natural Woman, Unnatural Mother: The Convergence Of Motherhood And The "Natural" World In Alice Walker’S Meridian, Sampada Chavan

Journal of International Women's Studies

Many cultures around the world equate being womanly to being motherly. However, all women are not physically or psychologically equipped to handle motherhood. What happens to these women who are burdened with motherhood and are unable to deal with it? Alice Walker’s protagonist in her novel Meridian is an otherwise accomplished woman, but she fumbles with the notion of ideal woman-ness. Cultural conventions also dictate that women are closer to nature and that motherhood is a “natural” and expected outcome in a woman’s life. While Meridian is close to nature, she has no interest in motherhood. This duality in her …