Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Between The Lens And The Gaze: Reflections Of Femininity In Film, Noureen Sakr

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the male gaze’s construction of femininity through the use of glass and reflective surfaces, particularly mirrors, windows, glasses, and cameras in film. Reflections and depictions of women are recurring motifs in cinema, often symbolizing dynamics of perception and power. This thesis mobilizes related psychoanalytic and feminist conceptions to examine and compare the recurring visual motifs in the following films: Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (1951) and Rear Window (1954), Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct (1992), & Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010). This thesis employs a qualitative, interdisciplinary methodology that integrates psychoanalytic theory, feminist film theory, literary criticism …

A Journey To The Midwest For Migrant Farmwork: Women's Testimonies Examining Their Lived Experiences Using Autoethnography And Plática Research Methodologies, Yesenia G. Alcalá

Theses & Dissertations

A JOURNEY TO THE MIDWEST FOR MIGRANT FARMWORK: WOMEN’S TESTIMONIES EXAMINING THEIR LIVED EXPERIENCES USING AUTOETHNOGRAPHY AND PLÁTICA

RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

Yesenia Garza Alcalá, Master of Business Administration

University of the Incarnate Word 2026

The purpose of my research was to share the stories of five women who experienced a yearly migratory routine from Del Rio, Texas, to work in farms and factories in the Midwest, and how that annual journey shaped and educated us. The women are four of my older sisters and me, all of whom traveled and worked in the Princeville, Illinois, migrant camp, where we experienced the …

Lost In Chaos: The Battle Between Selfcare And Motherhood, Sarah Shahzad

MS Marketing Research Projects/Theses

Motherhood in collectivist societies such as Pakistan is deeply intertwined with caregiving, leaving limited space for women’s self-care or personal well-being. This study explores how young Pakistani mothers negotiate self-care within competing expectations of maternal sacrifice, cultural morality, and structural constraints. Guided by the Institutional Logics Perspective (ILP), it examines how familial norms, religious values, and market forces collectively shape women’s self-care practices, framing self-care not as an autonomous act but as a negotiated process embedded within social and institutional boundaries. This study adopts an interpretive phenomenological approach to explore how Pakistani mothers experience and negotiate self-care within cultural and …

Birthing In A Foreign Land, Sadhiya Saleem

Journal of International Women's Studies

This narrative poem explores the embodied experience of childbirth in a foreign land. Set within the unfamiliar environment of a hospital far from the speaker’s linguistic roots, the poem traces the physical and emotional landscape of labor as one profoundly shaped by displacement and disconnection. Through sensory imagery and fragmented memory, it portrays how giving birth in an unfamiliar context amid the absence of familiar support systems and linguistic comfort creates a profound sense of bodily estrangement. The poem enters broader feminist conversations to reclaim the maternal body, marked by migration and displacement, as a definitive site of memory and …

Film Review: Ajmer 92, Investigative Journalism, And Justice For Rape Survivors, Amit Sharma, Amitabh Srivastava

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Film Review: Education As A Legal Right, Yet A Socially Negotiated Privilege: A Feminist Review Of Sthal (A Match), Ankit Anand, Rajneesh Kumar

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Film Review: Queer Happiness And Family Myth In My Therapist Said, I Am Full Of Sadness, Ni Luh Ayu Sukmawati

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Gender-Based Violence, Legal Protection, And Intersecting Narratives: A Conversation With Flavia Agnes, Barnana Baidya, Partha Bhattacharjee

Journal of International Women's Studies

Flavia Agnes is a leading advocate for gender justice because of her legal expertise in marital law, divorce, and property law and her activism as an Indian women’s rights lawyer. Her scholarly work on systemic and legal gender-based oppression has appeared in the journals Subaltern Studies, Economic and Political Weekly, and Manushi. Her book, My Story...Our Story of Rebuilding Broken Lives, released by her non-profit organization named Majlis, depicts how Agnes battled domestic violence while addressing the law’s restrictive abilities to offer protection. We conducted an interview through Google Meet with Agnes to discuss her work as a legal activist …

Book Review Essay: The Keloid As Episteme—Corporeal Healing And Colonial Afterlives In Sarah Soanirina Ohmer’S The Keloids We Heal, Md Samiul Azim, Farida Parvin

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Reproductive Labor And Innovation: Against The Tech Fix In An Era Of Hype, Lipika Kankaria

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review: All She Lost: The Explosion In Lebanon, The Collapse Of A Nation, And The Women Who Survive, Noor Obeid

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Letters From The Edge: Outrider Conversations, Raeesabegam Usmani

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Artificial Women: Sex Dolls, Robot Caregivers, And More Facsimile Females, Evie Kendal

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review: I Criticize, Therefore I Am A Woman Poet—Sex And Style: Literary Criticism And Gender In Early Modern England, Rizwan Akhtar

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Challenges For Chinese Women In The Early Twenty-First Century, Zakiyah Zakiyah

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Body Politics In Contemporary Irish Women’S Writing: The Literary Legacy Of Mother Ireland, Taylor Follett

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

A Feminist Analysis Of Post-Independence Administrative Reforms In Bihar, Shrey Sharma, Rajeev Kumar Jain, Ashutosh K. Pandey, Shashikant Nishant Sharma

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper critically examines the administrative reforms in Bihar since India’s independence, focusing on the evolution of women’s roles and representation in state governance. Drawing on historiographic and textual analyses of academic scholarship, government reports, reform commission findings, and policy documents, the study uses the case of the Indian state of Bihar to explore how political leadership, bureaucratic structures, and gendered hierarchies intersect in shaping postcolonial governance. Bihar, historically marked by institutional fragility and social inequality, provides an illustrative context for assessing how national-level reforms— such as the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments, civil service modernization, and e governance—have attempted …

The Role Of Tribal And Dalit Women In Water Conservation: A Case Study Of The Western Indian Trans-Himalayan Region, Vivek Kumar, Anuradha Choudhary

Journal of International Women's Studies

Water scarcity and environmental degradation are pressing contemporary issues, and the Himalayan regions are especially at risk. The Trans-Himalayas in particular face severe resource scarcity as water availability is totally dependent on the now dwindling supply of glacial meltwater. Women in the Spiti Valley in the Trans-Himalayan region are particularly exposed to these issues because they spend significant time collecting water and fodder for domestic animals and managing agricultural irrigation. As the primary caregivers and managers of households, women in this region face greater challenges in adapting to and mitigating resource scarcity. This study focuses on the role of Dalit …

Twitter’S Role In Challenging The Marginalisation And Subjugation Of Women In Northern Nigeria, Tioluwalogo Olakunbi-Black

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper aims to examine social media’s role in advocating against the marginalisation and domination of women in Northern Nigeria with a focus on Twitter (X). This study analyses women’s strategies of digital advocacy drawing on feminist theory, specifically difference feminism, intersectional feminism, and post-structuralist feminism, alongside theories of technological determinism. Difference feminism argues that women possess distinctive qualities, experiences, and perspectives that differentiate them from men, and that these differences can be a source of strength rather than a basis for disadvantage. Intersectional feminism foregrounds intersecting identities such as race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality, emphasising the multiplicity of women’s …

Women’S Employment And Intrahousehold Bargaining Power: Evidence From Nigeria, Temitope O. Olalude, Olanrewaju A. Olaniyan

Journal of International Women's Studies

Although women’s participation in paid employment has increased in recent years, the extent to which this improvement correlates with increased intrahousehold bargaining power (IHBP) remains understudied. Women’s intrahousehold bargaining power plays a critical role in achieving a more inclusive and sustainable economy. This study therefore investigates the relationship between women’s employment status and IHBP in Nigeria using data from the 2013 and 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys (NDHS) to evaluate progress over time. We measured women’s employment status and assessed women’s intrahousehold bargaining power using two indices: the direct bargaining power index (DBPI) and the indirect bargaining power index …

The Social Reproduction Of Filipina Migrant Workers Represented In Ten Filipino Films, Elora Francisco, Precious Lois Layas, Karlena Ameina Saturnino, Leo Vicentino

Journal of International Women's Studies

The growing phenomenon of the Philippines’ high labor export has contributed not only to the country’s economy but also to that of countries all over the world who are receiving these migrants. With the demand for labor exports increasing, film narratives concerning overseas Filipino workers offer important insight into the experience of migrants. In particular, Filipina migrant workers (FMWs) face gendered socio-cultural constraints in their pursuit of financially supporting their families. While gender migration has been examined across various disciplines, the representation of the Filipina diaspora in mainstream contemporary Filipino films remains insufficiently explored. Thus, this study aims to determine …

The Making Of A Woman Superstar: An Analysis Of The Superstardom Of Malayalam Actor Manju Warrier, Sangeetha Ps, Jais Merlin P. Augustine

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article examines the construction and development of women’s superstardom in Malayalam cinema, drawing on the example of Manju Warrier, one of few Indian regional actresses to achieve sustained celebrity status that goes beyond youth and glamour. We draw upon Richard Dyer’s star theory, particularly his notion of the star as “structured polysemy,” a constellation of meanings that are produced by film roles, publicity, and audience reception (Dyer, 1998). This article examines how Manju Warrier’s star image is constructed through a productive interplay of film roles, mediated representations, public persona, and audience reception. The discussion also adopts a feminist film …

Brown Women, Cyberspace, And The Scopophilic Male Gaze In Hari Kunzru’S Transmission, Ayesha Perveen

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study draws upon gaze theory to explore the cinema-cyberspace-gender nexus presented in British Indian writer Hari Kunzru’s novel Transmission (2005). While Arjun Mehta is widely considered the protagonist of the novel, I focus instead on the representation of the character Leela Zahir both as an individual and as a virus. Although the virus unleashed by Arjun is the novel’s main source of cyberterrorism, I analyze cyberterrorism in terms of the cyberspace representation of women as scopophilic objects for the male gaze. For this purpose, I discuss the mindset behind the use of the “she” pronoun for the virus as …

Quantitative Comparison Of Writing Styles Among Indonesian Women Novelists: A Corpus Linguistics Approach, Vicno Triwira Dhika Jr, Ermanto Ermanto, Hasanuddin Ws, Ridha Hasnul Ulya, Aditya Rachman, Selfi Mahat Putri

Journal of International Women's Studies

Using the KORTARA Korpus Nusantara application, this study employed a quantitative corpus linguistics approach to examine the lexical density and average sentence length in nine novels by Indonesian women authors. The results indicated that each work differed greatly with respect to average sentence length and lexical density. When lexical density was analyzed through TTR, the results displayed a sufficiently wide range, suggesting the absence of a uniform women’s writing style in terms of vocabulary. For example, Dee Lestari’s Supernova: Roots (2002) achieved the highest TTR of 23.59%, which indicates an extensive and diverse vocabulary. Alaska Bay (2019) by Eka Aryani, …

Narrating Otherwise: Analysing Nancy Spero’S The First Language As Historiographic Metafiction, Ipek Ebru Yildiz, Rifat Sahiner

Journal of International Women's Studies

Through a feminist reading grounded in the framework of historiographic metafiction, this article aims to analyze pioneering feminist U.S. artist Nancy Spero’s The First Language (1981). Throughout the history of Western art, women’s bodies have been predominantly represented through the male gaze, reducing women to passive objects and excluding them from consideration as full subjects in historical and artistic narratives. In response to these modes of representation, Spero constructs a unique visual language that reclaims the female body from historical silence and repositions it as a political and narrative subject. The First Language brings together women figures from different cultures …

Feminist Knowledge Production And Editorial Praxis: A Bibliometric And Qualitative Analysis Of The Journal Of International Women’S Studies (2014–2024), Naresh Prajapati, Rupinder Singh, Mukesh Behera

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study presents a bibliometric and editorial analysis of the Journal of International Women’s Studies (JIWS) from 2014 to 2024, examining its scholarly output, citation impact, and evolving feminist priorities. Drawing on Scopus-indexed data, we analysed 1,255 articles authored by 1,705 contributors using SciVal, Biblioshiny, VOSviewer, and Microsoft Excel. Findings indicate a 7.05% annual growth in publications and a consistent citation rate of 2.84 per article, highlighting the journal’s expanding academic engagement. Single authorship dominates at 48.7% with international co-authorship at 8.1%. The journal’s reach extends widely into the Global South, particularly to India and Indonesia. Our keyword analysis identified …

Editorial Introduction, Diana Fox

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Policy Brief: Closing Egypt’S Boardroom Gender Gap, Auc Egypt Women On Boards Observatory, Dcode Consulting

Faculty Journal Articles

Egypt has more than doubled women’s board representation since 2019, but the pace has slowed to 0.5 percentage points a year, less than half of what is needed to reach 30% by 2030.

Since the Women on Boards indicator was established, Egypt has made measurable progress in women’s board representation, rising from 10.0% in 2019 to 24.8% in 2025. This is a 14.8-percentage-point increase, equivalent to a 148% increase from the 10% baseline. Across the four sectors monitored in the AUC Women on Boards Observatory’s 2025 Annual Monitoring Report (banking, non-bank financial services (NBFS), EGX-listed companies and public enterprises), representation …

Piercing The Veil In Sinners: Theological Insights From The Juke Joint, Antonio D. Sison Cpps

Journal of Religion & Film

Celebrated as a critical and commercial success, Ryan Coogler’s genre-defying opus Sinners has also been considered as one of the most culturally significant films of 2025. It also promises to be one of the most theologically resonant films of the year. This is evinced not only in its thematic and literary bases but, importantly, in its very audiovisual language and grammar, its stylistic strategies qua film. As reasoned in this essay, Coogler’s film is a rich locus theologicus, a nexus for theological discovery and insight.Sinners kindles the hermeneutical impulse to dialogue with African American/Pan-Africa theologies exemplified by the …

On Black Speculative Feminisms: Memory And Liberated Futures In Black Women’S Fiction, Aisha Matthews

Criticism

Black Speculative Feminisms: Memory and Liberated Futures in Black Women’s Fiction by Cassandra L. Jones. Ohio State University Press, 2024. $29.95 paperback