Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Book Review: Making Sex Work: A Failed Experiment In Legalized Prostitution, Nnenna Lynn Okeke

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Making Sex Work: A Failed Experiment in Legalized Prostitution by Mary Lucille Sullivan

Book Review: Colonize This! Young Women Of Color On Today’S Feminism, Susan Harper-Bisso

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism, edited by Daisy Hernandez and Bushra Rehman

Body And The Text/Body Of The Text In Mina Loy’S Songs To Joannes, Lucia Pietroiusti

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay advances a close reading of Mina Loy’s Songs to Joannes, a sequence of poems dedicated to her failed relationship with the futurist Giovanni Papini and published in 1917. Through a close analysis of the typographical complexities by which Songs to Joannes is characterized, I attempt to draw explicit connections between Loy’s radical approach to physical existence and sexual activity in the poems, and her equally radical departure from the conventions of poetic form. In the systematic tension between form and content, then, I illuminate the ways in which Loy’s poetry redefines the familiar concept of the ‘body …

No Women Allowed: Exclusion And Accountability In Men’S Anti-Rape Groups, Emily Marchese

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper is a discursive analysis of men’s anti-rape organizations that exclude women, either from physically attending meeting or presentations, or representationally, in that women’s perspectives about rape and sexual assault are absent from the material. The discursive framings that result from this exclusion often subvert and preclude helpful anti-rape work. Women’s points of view are often excluded from the material or entirely misrepresented leading to the communication of dangerously inaccurate information. Positive anti-rape work is often derailed in the literature as the organizations become entangled in unreflexive rhetorical battles. By examining the discourses, as well as what the discourses …

The Female Body In Margaret Atwood’S The Edible Woman And Lady Oracle, Sofia Sanchez-Grant

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay examines scholarly discourses about embodiment, and their increasing scholarly currency, in relation to two novels by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. Like many of Atwood’s other works, The Edible Woman (1969) and Lady Oracle (1976) are explicitly concerned with the complexities of body image. More specifically, however, these novels usefully exemplify her attempt to demystify the female form. In the following pages, I investigate Atwood’s treatment of the mind/body dualism and analyse the ways in which she responds to, and resists, its destructive effects. Using contemporary theory, moreover, I show how Atwood deals with the concept of female …

Introduction: Politics, Sexualities, And New Feminist Scholarship: Winning And Short-Listed Entries For The 2006 Feminist And Women’S Studies Association Annual Student Essay Competition, Melanie Waters, Michaela Fay

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Confessing The Secrets Of Others: Pascale Petit’S Poetic Employment Of Latin American Cultures And The Mexican Artist, Frida Kahlo, Zoë Brigley

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay works to review the poetry of the Welsh-French writer Pascale Petit through the lens of recent theoretical scholarship relating to women, violence, and confession. More specifically, through a detailed analysis of two of her collections, The Zoo Father (2001) and The Wounded Deer (2005), I examine the ways in which Petit attempts to extricate confessional poetry from the stereotype of self-indulgent, ‘awful’ femininity outlined by Deryn Rees-Jones in Consorting with Angels (2005). It is my view that by recapitulating stories of women and violence in a variety of new contexts, Petit is able to reconfigure the politics of …

A Transient Transition: The Cultural And Institutional Obstacles Impeding The Northern Ireland Women’S Coalition (Niwc) In Its Progression From Informal To Formal Politics, Cera Murtagh

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women have traditionally occupied a perilous position in Northern Irish politics, ultimately constrained from participating on their own terms by its dominant discourses of nationalism, conflict and realism. Alienated from the formal political structures which enshrine these discourses, many women have alternatively embraced the informal political sphere through extra-institutional grassroots and community networks which constitute the women’s movement. Though this movement has largely conformed to the segmented structure of society, space has continually been harnessed for women of both national communities to converge on various issues and work across differences while remaining rooted within their own distinct national identities and …

‘The Darkness Is The Closet In Which Your Lover Roosts Her Heart’: Lesbians, Desire And The Gothic Genre, Sarah Parker

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper discusses the use of the Gothic genre in two ‘lesbian’ novels: Nightwood by Djuna Barnes (1936) and Affinity by Sarah Waters (1999). The Gothic, I argue, is employed and manipulated in order to counter the repressive effects of ‘lesbian panic’, evident in much women’s fiction (an idea posited by Patricia Smith in Lesbian Panic, 1997).

I begin by constructing a framework for my argument from the disparate yet related scholarship of several theorists, including Terry Castle, Eve Sedgwick, Claude Lévi-Strauss and Gayle Rubin. My argument hinges on the claim that lesbianism threatens cultural order – based upon …

Book Review: Prolife Feminism: Yesterday And Today, Kimberly Kelly

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of ProLife Feminism: Yesterday and Today, edited by Mary Krane Kerr, Rachel MacNair, and Linda Naranjo-Huebel

Book Review: Convent Life In Colonial Mexico: A Tale Of Two Communities, Margaret E. Boyle

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Convent Life in Colonial Mexico: A Tale of Two Communities by Stephanie L. Kirk

Iranian Women And The Civil Rights Movement In Iran: Feminism Interacted, Majid Mohammadi

Journal of International Women's Studies

After presenting a compendium of the structural and ideological gender inequalities in the Iranian society, mostly in post-revolutionary era, this article provides basic information and analysis about Iranian feminists in the civil rights movement framework. It also reviews the relationship between Iranian feminism on the one hand and democratization process and demand for vindication of civil rights of all Iranian citizens as the main issues of this movement on the other. This review will be done in three parts: the essence of Iranian feminism in post-revolutionary Iran including a sustained critique of Iranian feminism, the interactions of women activists and …

Land Loss And Garifuna Women’S Activism On Honduras’ North Coast, Keri Vacanti Brondo

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper reports on the gendered impacts of Honduras’ neoliberal agrarian legislation within the context of tourism development. It draws on ethnographic research with the Afro-indigenous Garifuna to demonstrate how women have been most affected by land privatization on the north coast of Honduras. Garifuna communities are matrifocal and land had historically been passed through matrilineal lines. As the coastal land market expands, Garifuna women have lost their territorial control. The paper also treats Garifuna women’s activism as they resist coastal development strategies and shifts in landholding. While women have been key figures in the Garifuna movement to title and …

Access To Healthcare Vis-À-Vis Women’S Reproductive Health In Cameroon, Michael Soh

Journal of International Women's Studies

All over the world, several million women die each year, and 90% of them in developing countries from pregnancy and childbirth related causes (World Health Organisation Magazine on Women’s Health, 1995). Nearly all of these are preventable, yet in Cameroon, this is far-fetched. This study questions why women die from these causes? Is it due to government neglect, and/or women’s callous attitude toward pregnancy and/or the patriarchal control of women? Are healthcare facilities lacking or rudimentary, inadequately staffed, and/or expensive? This study argues that limited access to healthcare facilities drains women’s reproductive health down the spiral in Munyenge-Cameroon.

Via open-ended …

Gender Responsive Entrepreneurial Economy Of Nigeria: Enabling Women In A Disabling Environment, May Nwoye

Journal of International Women's Studies

Growth and development are among the most exciting subjects in economics, and the application of their principles to developing countries especially the African economies, is both needed and timely. In Nigeria, women have historically been disadvantaged in accessing not only material resources like property and credit, but also have been deprived of resources like education, market information and modern technology. All of these factors have negative implications for the type of enterprises that women are engaged in. This paper highlights the various economic constraints faced by women in Nigeria, as a result of limitations imposed on them by nature and …

Gender Disparities In Living Arrangements Of Older People In Ghana: Evidence From The 2003 Ghana Demographic And Health Survey, Chuks J. Mba

Journal of International Women's Studies

In this study, the living arrangements of persons aged 60 years and older in Ghana are examined. The data for the study emanate from the household roster component of the most recent nationally representative sample survey, the 2003 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey. The focus is on socio-economic and demographic characteristics, as well as co-residential patterns, of the elderly persons. Additionally, use is made of the 1960-2000 census results of Ghana in order to through light on the emerging phenomenon of population ageing in the country. The results show that the proportion of persons aged 60 years or older in …

World Ywca Leaders And The Un Decade For Women, Karen Garner

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay analyzes the contributions of three Young Women’s Christian Association leaders who chaired the nongovernmental organization forum planning committees during the UN Decade for Women (1975-1985). It assesses the effectiveness of their leadership and addresses questions of distribution and uses of power within women’s international NGOs and in relationship to the global feminist community.

Gender Awareness Of Rural Women In Bangladesh, Shahnaj Parveen

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study aims to determine the social status of rural women and their level of gender awareness (GA) in three villages within the Mymensingh district of Bangladesh. Data were collected from 156 respondents through group discussions and personal interviews from December 2002 to April 2003. Women’s social status and GA was determined following the Likert scale method. The study reveals that personal income and physical beauty of rural women are the most important factors determining a higher social status while women with distressed conditions including mental and physical disabilities were found to have a lower social status. Among ten pre-selected …

Economic Empowerment Of Women Through Four Psychotherapies In Two Local Government Areas, Nigeria, J. O. Osiki

Journal of International Women's Studies

There is currently a need for more researches to investigate indicators of voluntary/compulsive non-income generating activities and, or behaviour among adult females. Participants of the study were subjected to the quasi-experimental research design adopting the 5x1x5 matrices and 143 adult females screened through the Work Disposition Scale (WDS) and selected from four locations in two Local Government areas of Edo State, Nigeria. Participants were exposed to 5 weeks of intervention using selected work/career enrichment programmes submerged in four psychotherapies. Participants notably in the four intervention groups (i.e. ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’) except those of ‘E’ showed appreciable Mean-score differences …

Respecting The East, Embracing The West: A Tribute To The Women Of The Maritime Sikh Society, Pavna Sodhi

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article pays homage to the women of the Maritime Sikh Society as they juxtapose values from the western and eastern cultures into one mindset. Their quest to preserve, transmit and share their Punjabi culture is reflective in the cohesiveness of their community and religious congregation. Unfortunately, similar to most immigrants, this population dealt with a variety of obstacles in order to develop a bicultural identity and live comfortably in their third space. A third space represents a safe, mutually respectful, comfortable and authentic environment, which encourages an individual to be proud of his or her ethnic heritage and in …

Book Review: Conception Diary: Thinking About Pregnancy And Motherhood, Stacy Lockerbie

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Conception Diary: Thinking about Pregnancy and Motherhood by Susan Hogan

Gender Differentiation Among Farmers In The Agricultural Sector In Benguet, Philippines, Jinky Leilanie Lu

Journal of International Women's Studies

This is a cross sectional study on gender differences in work distribution, means of production, decision making, illness and hazard exposure among male and female vegetable farmers. Personal interviews were conducted among 39 vegetable growers in Benguet. Bivariate analysis showed that the husband’s control over income is associated with decision making power in regard household expenditures, except food (p=.050). The illness data showed that the most common illness among the wives involves the respiratory tract, such as cough (7.7%) and asthma (5.1%). Among the husbands, the most common was back pain (10.3%) followed by hypertension, blurred vision and cough (7.7% …

Birds Of Freedom? Perspectives On Female Emancipation And Sri Lanka’S Liberation Tigers Of Tamil Eelam, Kim Jordan, Myriam Denov

Journal of International Women's Studies

Over the last decade, females have been an integral part of fighting forces in both international conflicts and in armed struggle in at least 38 internal conflicts. While some scholars argue that recent wars have thrust women into new roles, enabling them to transform their social situations, identities and destinies, others question whether females achieve ‘emancipation’ through active participation in warfare. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka that has been engaged in conflict with the Sri Lankan government since 1983, and actively recruits female cadres, provides an interesting context to explore issues of female empowerment in …

Reflections On Islamic Identity, Citizenship Rights And Women’S Struggle For Gender Justice: Illustration From India, Sabiha Hussain

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women’s rights face an uncertain future throughout much of the Islamic world. The fate of women’s rights throughout the Islamic world crucially hinges upon the outcome of debates on reforms of family and penal codes including new understandings of Islamic law and teaching. It requires mention that there is no monolithic trend of women’s struggle for gender justice even in Islamic countries. It varies with the cultural setting, the political structure of the state and the location of the community. In the Islamic world, the question of gender justice often becomes a struggle to be fought at two levels: against …

The Social World Of Prostitutes And Devadasis: A Study Of The Social Structure And Its Politics In Early Modern India, Karuna Sharma

Journal of International Women's Studies

This research paper discusses two groups of professional women who had a distinct place in the sexual economy of the period under review. By analyzing the actions and situations of prostitutes and the devadasis (literally meaning servants of God) in terms of a broader context of relationships, I consider the sexual-services and the entertainment provided by them as a meaningful labor, which got integrated at both the social and cultural levels. I have looked at how and to whom the prostitutes and the devadasis sold their labor, and how they related to other women, to men, and to various social …

Book Review: Sons Of The Movement: Ftms Risking Incoherence On A Post-Queer Cultural Landscape, Hae Yeon Choo

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Sons of the Movement: FtMs Risking Incoherence on a Post-Queer Cultural Landscape by Jean Bobby Noble

Book Review: Champions For Peace: Women Winners Of The Nobel Peace Prize, Karen E. Weekes

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Champions for Peace: Women Winners of the Nobel Peace Prize by Judith Hicks Stiehm

The Land Of Lalla-Ded: Politicization Of Kashmir And Construction Of The Kashmiri Woman, Nyla Ali Khan

Journal of International Women's Studies

Over the years, tremendous political and social turmoil has been generated in the state of Jammu and Kashmir by the forces of religious fundamentalism and by an exclusionary nationalism that seeks to erode the cultural syncretism that is part of the ethos of Kashmir. Kashmiri women are now suffering from some of the more predictable afflictions of women caught in conflict situations: psychological trauma, destitution, and acute poverty that put them at increased risk of trafficking. The ethnographic field research, which I undertook, was a method of seeking reconnection sans condescension by simultaneously belonging to and resisting the discursive community …

Beyond Caliban’S Curses: The Decolonial Feminist Literacy Of Sycorax, Irene Lara

Journal of International Women's Studies

Working from the perspective of decolonial feminism, this essay critiques works that view Caliban in Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1611) as a symbol of resistance to eurocentrism, as represented in the character of Prospero. I focus on the literary figure Sycorax, the racialized, sexualized and witched mother of Caliban, because the celebration of Caliban as a symbol of subaltern resistance in Latin American/Latino studies has led to her discursive erasure or marginalization. I critically trace appropriations of Caliban, as well as Miranda (Prospero’s daughter), that silence Sycorax. Fundamentally urging the construction of a “literacy of Sycorax,” this essay explores the eurocentric …

Gender Discrimination: Beliefs And Experiences: A Comparative Perspective Of Women And Men In The Delhi Police, Punam Sahgal

Journal of International Women's Studies

Gender roles are learnt through the socialization process and subsequently extend to the work context where women and men are believed to have different characteristics and are therefore treated differently. The pervasiveness of workplace gender differences influence hiring practices, salaries and career growth opportunities for women. Gender-based work behavior differences are perceived to be much greater in male dominated professions like the police. While research suggests that there is no evidence that policewomen perform differently from their male counterparts in their day-to-day activities of police, negative male attitudes towards women in police significantly obstruct the advancement of policewomen. Induction of …