Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Book Review: Gender And Globalization In Asia And The Pacific: Method, Practice, Theory, Susan Dewey

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Gender and Globalization in Asia and the Pacific: Method, Practice, Theory, edited by Kathy E. Ferguson and Monique Mironesco

Book Review: We Share Walls: Language, Land, And Gender In Berber Morocco, Damla Isik

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of We Share Walls: Language, Land, and Gender in Berber Morocco by Katherine E. Hoffman

Health Consequences Of Rural Women’S Productive Role In Agriculture In The Philippines And Other Developing Countries, Ma. Elena Chiong-Javier

Journal of International Women's Studies

Agriculture is central to developing countries like the Philippines and rural women contribute a substantial share of the labor that goes into this sector as food producers or agricultural workers. In the wake of numerous studies conducted worldwide about women since the United Nations’ Decade for Women (1976-1984), data appear sparse on the relationship between women’s work and women’s health in the agricultural setting to enable policy makers and program implementors to adequately address their health needs. Thus this study aimed to determine the nature of available information in the gender literature to enable us to understand the link between …

The Role Of Women In Providing And Improving Household Food Security In Sudan: Implications For Reducing Hunger And Malnutrition, Fatma Osman Ibnouf

Journal of International Women's Studies

Relevant and consistent with the recent growing interest to assess the contribution of women to economic activities in Sudan, this study seeks to assess women’s contribution to their household food supply and nutrition status in rural Sudan. As for the contribution of the research, the research is expected to contribute to improve the understanding of the important contribution of women to economic activities and in particular in providing and improving household food security in Sudan and thus valuing the potential role of women in reducing hunger and malnutrition.

Agricultural production (farm and livestock products) with supplemental resources (processed and preserved …

What Remains Of Srebrenica? Motherhood, Transitional Justice And Yearning For The Truth, Olivera Simic

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article explores the role of the local non-governmental association ‘Mothers of Srebrenica’ in the complex transitional justice processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The association gathers women who survived the Srebrenica genocide in July 1995 and creates an important public space for the crying out of their grievances and lobbing for their goals. The ‘Mothers of Srebrenica’ also create a space for widows and displaced women to share their concerns and support each other. While the ‘Mothers of Srebrenica’ use the rhetoric of victimhood and motherhood whenever they speak out, I argue that they, in fact, challenge the notion of …

The Failed Marriage Between Women And The Landless People’S Movement (Mst) In Brazil, Rute Caldeira

Journal of International Women's Studies

The present article examines the processes of inequality reproduced inside the MST-run rural encampments; specifically the ones affecting women the most, and in particular women heads of households. This examination leads to the related consideration of the relationship between the MST, its lideranças, and women settlers. Although women are the ones most affected by these processes of inequality, their disadvantaged position is ignored by the movement, in theory an organisation on the Left. This relationship between the MST and women or ‘women’s issues’ mirrors the old question of the ‘failed marriage’ between women, feminism and the Left in Latin …

Reporting From The Edge Of Reality: Writing As Phantom Limb In Goretti Kyomuhendo’S Fiction, Andrew H. Armstrong

Journal of International Women's Studies

In this paper I have explored the ways in which Ugandan writer Goretti Kyomuhendo writes of the effects of extreme violence in the African Great Lakes Region on female subjectivities by thematizing the dynamics of oppression and submission in post-colonial Africa. I have paid particular attention to the ways that Kyomuhendo’s fiction focalizeds the narrators’/protagonists’ acts of telling by foregrounding the imperiled female within the dangerous masculine spaces of the socially dislocated and displaced societies. The two texts I have focused on narrate extreme violence from the perspectives of displaced female protagonists, highlighting the notion of displaced subjectivity by foregrounding …

Book Review: War And Terror: Feminist Perspectives, Anjali Nath, Melissann Herron, Kirstin Oesterle, Esther Rothblum

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of War and Terror: Feminist Perspectives, edited by Karen Alexander and Mary E. Hawkesworth

Book Review: The Single Woman: A Discursive Investigation, Katherine Lehman

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of The Single Woman: A Discursive Investigation by Jill Reynolds

Book Review: The N Word: Who Can Say It. Who Shouldn’T. And Why, Kimberly Burke, N. Reyes Franco, K. B. Bowman, Esther Rothblum

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of The N Word: Who Can Say It. Who Shouldn’t. And Why by Jabari Asim

Book Review: Homoplot: The Coming-Out Story And Gay, Lesbian And Bisexual Identity, Amber Guthrie, Katie White, Esther Rothblum

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Homoplot: The Coming-Out Story and Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Identity by Esther Saxey

Book Review: Women At The Top: Powerful Leaders Tell Us How To Combine Work And Family, Kristi R. Branham

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Women at the Top: Powerful Leaders Tell Us How to Combine Work and Family by Diane F. Halpern and Fanny M. Cheung

Book Review: Women In Iraq: The Gender Impact Of International Sanctions, Amber Guthrie, Christina Arrington, Kesser Mohammad, Esther Rothblum

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Women In Iraq: The Gender Impact of International Sanctions by Yasmin Husein Al-Jawaheri

A Cross-Cultural, Comparative Analysis Of The Domestic Violence Policies Of Nicaragua And Russia, Jo-Ann Della Giustina

Journal of International Women's Studies

This is a cross-cultural comparative analysis of the domestic violence policies of Nicaragua and Russia. While these two countries have striking differences, they both had socialist revolutions that established workers and farmers governments. The Soviet Union was the main economic and political support for Nicaragua following the 1979 Frente Sandinista Para Liberación Nacional (FSLN - Sandinista Front for National Liberation) revolution.

This article examines the domestic violence policies of post-Soviet Russia and Nicaragua. While both countries have serious domestic violence problems, only Nicaragua is taking an aggressive stance to eradicate the problem. The Russian government barely even acknowledges that there …

Feminism And Multiculturalism: Two Common Foundations For A Vision And A Practice Of Transformative Social Activities And Education In Israel, Roni Reingold, Lea Baratz

Journal of International Women's Studies

The last few years have witnessed the development of a new direction in theoretical feminist thinking which focuses on the quality of the link between feminism and multiculturalism. The discussion of the subject includes several main approaches. The premise of one of these approaches is that the two ideologies share many aspects, especially in their analysis of both social oppression in our world and the transformational goals motivating the two ideologies.

In the current paper we follow a radical-socialist definition of multiculturalism which the main aim of that ideology is endeavoring to empower discriminated minorities (whether ethnic, cultural, and racial …

The Social Grants And Black Women In South Africa: A Case Study Of Bophelong Township In Gauteng, Maria Van Driel

Journal of International Women's Studies

In post Apartheid South Africa 12.4 million people receive a social grant. This paper discusses the significance of the grants, and black women’s role through the prism of the grants. The paper is based on a case study in Bophelong township near Johannesburg. The methodology draws on primary and secondary sources, a small socio-economic survey, indicative interviews with black women grant recipients, and the relevant literature. The principle of ‘triangulation’ is used to validate research findings. For a substantial number of families, especially single women with children, the grant is their sole income. Black women provide the necessary (unpaid) labour …

Virginia Woolf’S Answer To “Women Can’T Paint, Women Can’T Write” In To The Lighthouse, Daniela Munca

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay addresses Virginia Woolf’s personal stand in her answer to “women can’t paint, women can’t write”, a reflection on the Victorian prejudice of the role of women in the family and society shared by both her parents, Leslie and Julia Stephen. By bridging a close textual analysis with the most recent psychological critical analysis, I argue that apart from the political, social and artistic implications, Woolf’s attitude to the Victorian stereotypes related to gender roles carry a deeply personal message, being undeniably influenced and determined by the relationship with her parents and her need to lie to rest some …

Book Review: Diplomats And Dreamers: The Stancioff Family In Bulgarian History, Nameeta Mathur

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Diplomats and Dreamers: The Stancioff Family in Bulgarian History by Mari A. Firkatian

Book Review: Reluctant Bedfellows: Feminism, Activism, And Prostitution In The Philippines, Traci Yoder

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Reluctant Bedfellows: Feminism, Activism, and Prostitution in the Philippines by Meredith Ralston and Edna Keeble

Effect Of Work Intensification And Work Extensification On Women’S Health In The Globalised Labour Market, Jinky Leilanie Lu

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study examined the association between labour intensification due to work intensification and work extensification and ill health in women in certain manufacturing work in the Philippines. Work intensification is defined as more workload for each worker, and work extensification as less deadtime or work rest and more overtime. The sample was 23 establishments and 630 respondents. Workplace environment monitoring showed exposure to hazards such as noise, chemicals, poor ventilation, and poor illumination. The most prevalent illnesses and health problems were headache and coughs and colds. Results of focus group discussions showed adverse work conditions, hazard exposures among women workers, …

Understanding ‘Passion Killings’ In Botswana: An Investigation Of Media Framing, Deinera Exner, Wilfreda E. Thurston

Journal of International Women's Studies

In Botswana, local news media outlets have documented the prevalence of so-called ‘passion killings’; however, no published studies have been conducted that examine these intimate partner homicides. Using ethnographic content analysis informed by a theory of framing, this study investigated the characteristics of these crimes, and societal attitudes, myths and stereotypes regarding intimate partner homicides and passion killings. Articles from four Batswana newspapers were analyzed. The information derived from this analysis is used to develop future directions for the study of intimate partner violence and homicides in Botswana.

Framing Masculinity In The Poetry Of Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, Margaret Garry Burke

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper examines how the contemporary Irish poet, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, is destabilizing traditional notions of the masculine and feminine. Female Irish writers have been suppressed and silenced by a strong patriarchal society and it is interesting to study how Ni Dhomhnaill uses vivid masculine imagery to delineate new boundaries within the institutionalized male/female construction. The two works that I explore, “Nude” and “A God Shows Up,” represent her complex journey toward a strong feminine voice.

Designing A Woman-Friendly Workplace: A Prognosis And Prescription For Institutional Health At The University Of Guam, Helen Thompson, Andrea Sant Hartig, Diane Thurber

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article explores the campus activist and research efforts made possible through a Campus Action Project grant awarded by AAUW (2006-2007) to the University of Guam (UOG). Faculty-student researchers developed a workshop series addressing women’s workplace concerns and conducted research investigating the health of UOG through selected key indicators of a woman-friendly institution. This article focuses on the research findings, the impact of the grant efforts, and recommendations for institutional changes.

Book Review: Shout Out: Women Of Color Respond To Violence, Katie White, Lisa Covington, Jenna Stephenson, Esther Rothblum

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Shout Out: Women of Color Respond to Violence, edited by Maria Ochoa and Barbara K. Ige

Fighting For Subjectivity: Articulations Of Physicality In Girlfight, Katharina Lindner

Journal of International Women's Studies

The analysis of Girlfight (Karyn Kusama, 2000) in this paper is framed by critical discourses surrounding physically active female characters in the action genre, the conventions of the boxing film ‘genre’, the relationship between bodily spectacle and narrative structure, as well as the more general significance of the female boxer’s challenge to normative and binary notions of bodily existence and subjectivity. With a particular focus on the interrelationship between narrative structure and boxing sequences (‘numbers’), this paper explores notions of the (gendered) subjectivity constructed around the film’s female boxing character, Diana (Michelle Rodriguez). I will argue that the boxing ‘numbers’ …

Speaking Of ‘Respect For Women’: Gender And Politics In U.S. Foreign Policy Discourse, 2001-2004, Alletta Brenner

Journal of International Women's Studies

The aim of this paper is to examine how a language of “women’s rights” entered into foreign policy discourses of the Bush Administration in the period of 2001-2004. Through a discursive analysis of speeches, press releases, interviews and written documents, I find that feminist-inspired language and concepts entered into the mainstream discourse on numerous occasions throughout this period, though usually in the service of other foreign policy objectives. In this analysis, I identify three primary “dialogical frames” in which such references appear, labelling these: “Us vs. Them,” “The Active Leader,” and “The Moral Community.” Many feminists have argued that these …

Introduction: Winning And Short-Listed Entries From The 2007 Feminist And Woman’S Studies Association Annual Student Essay Competition, Yvette Taylor, Melanie Waters

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

‘Doesn’T That Make You Laugh?’: Modernist Comedy In Jean Rhys’S After Leaving Mr Mackenzie And Good Morning, Midnight, Laura Wainwright

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay seeks to challenge critical analyses that view Jean Rhys’s early fiction as unrelentingly bleak and melancholic. I propose that in After Leaving Mr Mackenzie and Good Morning, Midnight, Rhys – often through her own distinctive brand of dry humour – experimentally dissolves the boundaries between comedy and tragedy, destabilising the social and cultural stereotypes of the funny man and the humourless, inadvertently comic woman. The image of the humourless woman writer in particular, I go on to suggest, is fundamentally undermined in these texts: I argue that Rhys’s unsettling tragicomedy subtly implicates the reader in the “comic” …

‘A Christal Glasse For Christian Women’: Meditations On Christ’S Passion In The Devotional Literature Of Renaissance Women, Frances James

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay explores the complex relationship between women’s devotional writing in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and the female claim to the authority to represent Christ’s body in textual form. I focus on the literary devices which female authors used to represent Christ in their writing and attempted to establish their own authorial voices within the means of public expression available to them. I advance a reading of Katherine Parr’s The Lamentacion of a synner (1547) and Elizabeth Tudor’s A godly medytacyon of the christen sowle (1548) as early Renaissance attempts to reconcile female authorship with the necessity of …

‘Sometimes The Meaning Of The Text Is Unclear’: Making ‘Sense’ Of The Scum Manifesto In A Contemporary Swedish Context, Katherine Harrison

Journal of International Women's Studies

In 2003 the first Swedish translation of the well-known second-wave feminist manifesto, the SCUM Manifesto by Valerie Solanas, was published. Publication of this text became intricately involved with a number of other contemporary events in Sweden which pose questions about that country’s widely perceived status as one of the most “gender equal” in the world. In this paper, I use the text’s own challenging content, provocative language and complicated history as a way into exploring its disruptive effects on Swedish society. I ask how and why the text retains its power to provoke and challenge some forty years after its …