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Full-Text Articles in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

A Critique Of Anti-Carceral Feminism, Amy Masson May 2020

A Critique Of Anti-Carceral Feminism, Amy Masson

Journal of International Women's Studies

In analysing carceral logics in the context of the ‘unholy alliance’ of neoliberal and neoconservative hegemony, this paper seeks to acknowledge the central place of a distinctly moralistic, authoritarian neoconservative philosophy implicated in the crime control agenda. Thus, it is contended that carceral politics are in fact produced by a fusion of neoliberal and neoconservative ideas. Anti-carceral feminists argue that ‘carceral feminism’ has been co-opted by neoliberalism but fails to recognise and name these neoconservative forces, collapsing them into a confused conceptualisation of neoliberalism, lacking in theoretical clarity. In doing so, they do not see the spaces where their own …


The Communal Violence Bill: Women’S Bodies As Repositories Of Communal Honour, Zara Ismail May 2020

The Communal Violence Bill: Women’S Bodies As Repositories Of Communal Honour, Zara Ismail

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article examines the measures taken under the various iterations of India’s Communal Violence Bill to tackle sexual violence in communally charged areas. It focuses on the 2002 violence in Gujarat to illustrate ‘sexual impunity’ in India, the workings of izzat (honour) within the discourse around communal violence, and to argue that citizens of India are not always equal before the law. Using decolonial, feminist and postcolonial theory, the author builds on a rich history of activism and scholarship to argue that not only are the measures proposed under the government’s draft of the Communal Violence Bill inadequate, but also …


Liminal Space And Minority Communities In Kate O’Brien’S Mary Lavelle (1936), Amy Finlay-Jeffrey May 2020

Liminal Space And Minority Communities In Kate O’Brien’S Mary Lavelle (1936), Amy Finlay-Jeffrey

Journal of International Women's Studies

Despite blatant references to homoerotic desire in Kate O’Brien’s oeuvre — two of her novels Mary Lavelle (1936) and As Music and Splendour (1958) contain lesbian characters, whilst gay male characters appear in Without my Cloak (1931) and The Land of Spices (1941) — it is only in recent years that scholarship has considered O’Brien as a writer of homosexual themes. There are obvious reasons as to why the lesbianism in O’Brien’s work and others who wrote about it during the mid-twentieth century has suffered from such neglect. It is only since second-wave feminism that an academic critique of sexuality …


Postfeminist Hegemony In A Precarious World: Lessons In Neoliberal Survival From Rupaul’S Drag Race, Phoebe Chetwynd May 2020

Postfeminist Hegemony In A Precarious World: Lessons In Neoliberal Survival From Rupaul’S Drag Race, Phoebe Chetwynd

Journal of International Women's Studies

The popularity of the reality television show RuPaul’s Drag Race is often framed as evidence of Western societies’ increasing tolerance towards queer identities. This paper instead considers the ideological cost of this mainstream success, arguing that the show does not successfully challenge dominant heteronormative values. In light of Rosalind Gill’s work on postfeminism, it will be argued that the show’s format calls upon contestants (and viewers) to conform to a postfeminist ideal that valorises normative femininity and reaffirms the gender binary. Through its analysis of RuPaul’s Drag Race, I further intend to develop our understanding of the relationship between neoliberalism …


Unending And Uncertain: Thinking Through A Phenomenological Consideration Of Self-Harm Towards A Feminist Understanding Of Embodied Agency, Veronica Heney May 2020

Unending And Uncertain: Thinking Through A Phenomenological Consideration Of Self-Harm Towards A Feminist Understanding Of Embodied Agency, Veronica Heney

Journal of International Women's Studies

Agency has been much discussed in both popular and academic feminist discourse, particularly in the context of empowerment and sexual practices. Following a third-wave emphasis on women’s ability to respect women’s choices and ability to exercise agency free from domination, postmodern feminist scholars have critiqued such a view as thoroughly implicated in discourses of neoliberal individualism and compulsory self-discipline. However, these critiques have not entirely succeeded in providing convincing alternative approaches for incorporating concepts and experiences of change and intentionality within frameworks which emphasise the governmentality of discourses of empowerment. Thus, this essay explores the benefits of shifting the frame …


Feminist Comforts And Considerations Amidst A Global Pandemic: New Writings In Feminist And Women’S Studies—Winning And Short-Listed Entries From The 2019 Feminist Studies Association’S (Fsa) Annual Student Essay Competition, Carli Rowell May 2020

Feminist Comforts And Considerations Amidst A Global Pandemic: New Writings In Feminist And Women’S Studies—Winning And Short-Listed Entries From The 2019 Feminist Studies Association’S (Fsa) Annual Student Essay Competition, Carli Rowell

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.


Writing A Global And Southern Sisterhood Between Indonesia And Australia: The Possibilities Of “Difference” And Collaborative Autoethnography, Siti Muflichah, Elizabeth Mackinlay Apr 2020

Writing A Global And Southern Sisterhood Between Indonesia And Australia: The Possibilities Of “Difference” And Collaborative Autoethnography, Siti Muflichah, Elizabeth Mackinlay

Journal of International Women's Studies

The concept of feminist “sisterhood” holds an uneasy historical and contemporary relationship with difference; indeed, new ways of knowing and doing research across, within, through and between the boundaries of race, class and religion are needed disrupt the sedentary monologism of “white-supremacist-capitalist-imperialist-patriarchy” (after hooks, 1994). Collaborative autoethnography presents itself as one such possibility for doing the work of difference “differently”, and in this paper, we share the sameness and differences of our “southern-ness” as feminist academics to explore this potential. As two female academics from Indonesia and Australia, we draw upon the postcolonial feminist work of Mohanty and the poststructural, …


Waking Up The Dissident: Transforming Lives (And Society) With Feminist Counseling, Donna F. Johnson Apr 2020

Waking Up The Dissident: Transforming Lives (And Society) With Feminist Counseling, Donna F. Johnson

Journal of International Women's Studies

When I was a student in the 70’s I took a year off to travel the world with a friend. Despite taking every precaution, I was sexually assaulted twice. The incidents changed the course of my life. I completed my studies and began working in a refuge for battered women. There I bore witness, not only to unimaginable cruelty, but to widespread institutional indifference to women’s suffering. Decades later, police, judicial and child welfare responses remain inadequate in Canada (as everywhere), and mental health practitioners continue to routinely blame and pathologize women. As a counselor, first at the shelter, later …


Borderless A Study Of Violence Against Women In Universities: Brazil, Portugal, And The U.K., Fafate Costa Apr 2020

Borderless A Study Of Violence Against Women In Universities: Brazil, Portugal, And The U.K., Fafate Costa

Journal of International Women's Studies

Brazilian university students report cases of rape on campus. In Portugal, young women experience humiliation and sexism when they enter university. In the UK, protests in an academic context put to the test policies for women. These narratives are present in a postdoctoral research project that will discuss violence against women in universities. One of the products resulting from this work will be a documentary that attempts to deal with the subjective perceptions of teachers, technicians, and students about gender violence in the Academy. Focusing on feminist epistemology that values experience as a way of knowing, this research has women …


Voicing Their Stories: A Discourse On The Relationship Between Education And The Social Position Of Indian Women In The Mid-Twentieth Century, Shivani Singh Apr 2020

Voicing Their Stories: A Discourse On The Relationship Between Education And The Social Position Of Indian Women In The Mid-Twentieth Century, Shivani Singh

Journal of International Women's Studies

Indian women in the early twentieth century stood at the threshold of changing times. A social reform movement for women’s education came into focus at this time. However, despite efforts to promote higher education by Christian missionaries, the Indian intelligentsia, social reformers, and the British colonial government, there were disparities in its spread. It was still beyond the reach of women in general. Women’s education was not pervasive but reserved mainly for those coming from educationally enlightened families, where their parents and other relatives supported the reforms, offering them access to higher education. Feminist researchers, writing about this period, hold …


Making Organisations Gender Equal—A Long Journey: Experience From A Non-Profit In India, Dibyendu Chaudhuri, Parijat Ghosh Apr 2020

Making Organisations Gender Equal—A Long Journey: Experience From A Non-Profit In India, Dibyendu Chaudhuri, Parijat Ghosh

Journal of International Women's Studies

Organisational leadership plays a key role in shaping the workspace. The collectively held beliefs, assumptions, and values which constitute the culture of an organisation are mostly influenced by its leadership. Monogamous patriarchal family structures—evolved based on male ownership and women’s subjugation—have led to the deep-seated idea of male supremacy. Organisations, including value-based non-profits, show the same pattern. Within organisations, patriarchal leadership exhibits sexism in order to maintain the status quo. The deep culture of gender inequality in organisations is apparently maintained as a means of maintaining male supremacy. This article demonstrates how, in two consecutive gender audits, Professional Assistance for …


#Me Too In Bangladesh: Can You Change?, Shampa Iftakhar Apr 2020

#Me Too In Bangladesh: Can You Change?, Shampa Iftakhar

Journal of International Women's Studies

With the global rise of the #Me Too movement and hashtag, sexual harassment has become a buzzword. The term “sexual harassment” was initially used to refer to a workplace phenomenon (Farley 1978, Mackinnon 1989). However, since the pioneering work on the issue, it has become clear that sexual harassment is inclusive of public space, educational institutions, and the home. It has been defined as “unwanted sexual advances, request for sexual favors and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature” by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (1980). Two types of harassment are identified: the first is a “quid …


Female Combatants And The Post-Conflict Process In Sierra Leone, Laura C. Cullen Apr 2020

Female Combatants And The Post-Conflict Process In Sierra Leone, Laura C. Cullen

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women and girls had a specific and gendered experience of the civil war in Sierra Leone. They filled the role of combatants, ‘bush wives’, child soldiers, and sexual slaves. As a result of these roles, women are often described as having dual identities of both perpetrators and victims of violence. This duality resulted in the complex question of how to help these women both reintegrate into society and also address the crimes which they are alleged to have committed during the war. In this paper, I argue that these women and girls should be treated as victims due to the …


The Impact Of Non-Government Organizations On Women’S Mobility In Public Life: An Empirical Study In Rural Bangladesh, Faraha Nawaz Apr 2020

The Impact Of Non-Government Organizations On Women’S Mobility In Public Life: An Empirical Study In Rural Bangladesh, Faraha Nawaz

Journal of International Women's Studies

The article aims to analyse the impact of Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) on Bangladeshi rural women’s mobility in the public domain, since this is an area that is generally only frequented by men whilst women are confined to their own home and neighbourhood. In other words, the author explored how and to what extent, NGOs have brought changes to women’s freedom of movement in the public sphere. The author was influenced by the existing literature that portrays Bangladesh as a country that is characterized by poverty, patriarchy and inequality, where there is no tradition of rural women participating in the labour …


Nepali Women In Politics: Success And Challenges, Bishnu R. Upreti, Drishti Upreti, Yamuna Ghale Apr 2020

Nepali Women In Politics: Success And Challenges, Bishnu R. Upreti, Drishti Upreti, Yamuna Ghale

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper is based on an extensive three-year research project employing qualitative methods. In this paper we will discuss women's struggle for equality in Nepal, their current successes in the political process, and remaining underlying challenges. The aim of this paper is to share with a wider audience that establishing equality and equity is hard but not impossible if and when constant efforts are made in a concerted way by bringing all likeminded people (men and women, politicians and parliamentarians), together. Nepal has been undergoing tremendous socio-political transformations over the past two decades, from civil war to negotiated peace, unitary …


In Perennial Oppression: Internalized Ideologies Of The Devadasis, K A. Geetha Apr 2020

In Perennial Oppression: Internalized Ideologies Of The Devadasis, K A. Geetha

Journal of International Women's Studies

The Madras Anti-Devadasi Act was passed in 1947 with the primary objective of liberating women from the oppressive norms of the Devadasi system. Sanctioned by religion, the institutionalization of the Devadasi system within the Hindu community legitimated women from certain caste groups to become ‘servants of god’. Through ritualistic norms, the Devadasis were wedded to God and the caste Hindu patriarchs were authorized to control the sexuality of the Devadasis. Given their vulnerable status in terms of caste, class, and gender, women from the castes lower in hierarchy were forced into the system. Despite the legislative intervention of the Anti-Devdasi …


Moroccan Women’S Writings: Rethinking Their Female Body And Sexuality, Hanane El Aissi Apr 2020

Moroccan Women’S Writings: Rethinking Their Female Body And Sexuality, Hanane El Aissi

Journal of International Women's Studies

The nineteen eighties and nineties marked a turning point in Moroccan women’s campaign against gender discrimination and patriarchal hegemony. During this period, Moroccan women’s writings moved beyond the archaic subjects that had been dominating the literary scene during the sixties, such as the call for women’s education, women’s work in the public sphere and women’s domesticity issues, having as a goal to start addressing some of what was considered taboo issues such as the question of the female body, sexuality, and teenage pregnancy. The emergence of such writings heralded an awakening of a feminist consciousness that reflected new and revolutionary …


Beyond A Black Sea Of Sheilas And Abayas: Do Emirati Women Students Have A Space Of Their Own?, Gergana Alzeer, Omnia Amin Apr 2020

Beyond A Black Sea Of Sheilas And Abayas: Do Emirati Women Students Have A Space Of Their Own?, Gergana Alzeer, Omnia Amin

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper is concerned with Emirati women students’ spaces of inclusion and exclusion with specific focus on both their physical bodies and the places they occupy, and the mental space of their creative work where they forge a space for themselves. The paper employs ethnographic research at a women’s federal university campus in the UAE using several levels of data gathering and interviews while utilizing thematic and contextual analysis of the data sets. The work is backed up by the theoretical framework of feminist theory and Lefebvre’s perceived and conceived space. Lefebvre’s perceived space is represented through the physical presence …


Making Women’S Unpaid Care Work Visible In India: Importance And Challenges, Gulfam Tasnim Apr 2020

Making Women’S Unpaid Care Work Visible In India: Importance And Challenges, Gulfam Tasnim

Journal of International Women's Studies

From the 1970s onward, the work performed by women within the household was critically examined, and a feminist critique of Marx emerged. The critique was first developed in the Campaign for Wages for Housework, founded in 1972, by Mariarosa Dalla Costa, Selma James and other renowned feminists. A major contribution of this critique was to highlight women’s domestic labor in the process of capital accumulation, an issue which Marx did not address. This movement therefore sought to make visible women’s work which was naturalized into nonexistence by capitalism. This problem of visibility exists all over the world, and women continue …


Sherley Anne Williams's Dessa Rose: An American Sisterhood In Black And White, Ahmed N. Bensedik Apr 2020

Sherley Anne Williams's Dessa Rose: An American Sisterhood In Black And White, Ahmed N. Bensedik

Journal of International Women's Studies

In light of the theme of the 5th World Conference on Women's Studies 2019, 'Activism, Solidarity and Diversity: Feminist Movements Toward Global Sisterhood', this article contends that Sherley Anne Williams's Dessa Rose (1986) is an appeal for an American bond of sisterhood between feminists and womanists. In the process, it examines the relationship between the novel's two Black and White heroines, Dessa Rose and Ruth Sutton respectively, through the lens of Bonnie Thornton Dill's definition of sisterhood in her seminal work, Race, Class, and Gender: Prospects for an All-Inclusive Sisterhood. While discomfort and distrust encircle their first encounter in the …


A Room, A Chair, And A Desk: Founding Voices Of Women’S And Gender Studies In Uganda, Adrianna L. Ernstberger Apr 2020

A Room, A Chair, And A Desk: Founding Voices Of Women’S And Gender Studies In Uganda, Adrianna L. Ernstberger

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper studies the birth and development of women’s and gender studies in Uganda. I conducted this research as part of a doctoral thesis on the history of women’s and gender studies in the Global South. Using feminist and standpoint theories, much of the research includes oral histories gathered over the course of three years of field work in Uganda. From the moment I heard my professor say, “I learned to be a feminist from Ugandan women,” I knew that I wanted to understand the history of women’s and gender studies in the country. In sub-Saharan Africa, the discipline of …


Introduction To The Special Issue: Activism, Solidarity, And Diversity: Feminist Movements Towards Global Sisterhood And The 5th, World Conference On Women’S Studies, Bangkok, Thailand, April 25-27, 2019, Omnia Amin Apr 2020

Introduction To The Special Issue: Activism, Solidarity, And Diversity: Feminist Movements Towards Global Sisterhood And The 5th, World Conference On Women’S Studies, Bangkok, Thailand, April 25-27, 2019, Omnia Amin

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.


Book Review: Women In Britain. Voices And Perspective From Twentieth Century History, Shivani Singh Feb 2020

Book Review: Women In Britain. Voices And Perspective From Twentieth Century History, Shivani Singh

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.


Book Review: Federici, Sylvia. Re-Enchanting The World: Feminism And The Politics Of The Commons. Kairos, Pm Press, 2018. 227 Pages., Zebadiah Kraft Feb 2020

Book Review: Federici, Sylvia. Re-Enchanting The World: Feminism And The Politics Of The Commons. Kairos, Pm Press, 2018. 227 Pages., Zebadiah Kraft

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.


Book Review: Radical On The Road: Internationalism, Orientalism, And Feminism During The Vietnam Era. Judy Tzu-Chun Wu: Cornell University Press, New York: 2013, 346 Pages., Thuy T. Do Feb 2020

Book Review: Radical On The Road: Internationalism, Orientalism, And Feminism During The Vietnam Era. Judy Tzu-Chun Wu: Cornell University Press, New York: 2013, 346 Pages., Thuy T. Do

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.


Book Review: The Biopolitics Of Feeling: Race, Sex, And Science In The Nineteenth Century. Kyla Schuller: Duke University Press, Durham And London: 2018, 296 Pages., Rosemary Onyango Feb 2020

Book Review: The Biopolitics Of Feeling: Race, Sex, And Science In The Nineteenth Century. Kyla Schuller: Duke University Press, Durham And London: 2018, 296 Pages., Rosemary Onyango

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.


Mr. Hashemi And Family Dynamics In Iran, Ronak Karami Feb 2020

Mr. Hashemi And Family Dynamics In Iran, Ronak Karami

Journal of International Women's Studies

The 1979 Revolution in Iran exploded aggressively because of the pressures that the Shah enforced on Iranian society; however, similar to the Shah, the Islamic regime imposed strict rules and regulations on Iranians in different ways to control society (especially women) via Islamic values. Hoping to create an obedient society, the state focused on educating children and youngsters on the ideologies of the 1979 Revolution. It emphasized gender discrimination in order to create a new generation who would follow the traditional model of mother-at-home and father-at-work because it needed women inside the house who can give birth and raise their …


Gender Bias In Persian Literature Textbooks, Ronak Karami Feb 2020

Gender Bias In Persian Literature Textbooks, Ronak Karami

Journal of International Women's Studies

Even though Iranian women had a strong presence in the 1979 Revolution in Iran, the Islamic regime imposed new strict rules and regulations on them. Encouraging women to pursue education and take part in society did not improve women’s social position since job opportunities were limited for them. The investment in women’s education was to benefit society and the new regime because the state needed educated mothers at home whose children would ensure the nation’s prosperity. Accordingly, the educational system would be the most efficient way to strengthen traditional sex roles so that at least half of the population would …


“Men Should Stay Out And Women Should Pack The Bags At Home” : The City Of Mice And Gender Practice In Iran, Ronak Karami Feb 2020

“Men Should Stay Out And Women Should Pack The Bags At Home” : The City Of Mice And Gender Practice In Iran, Ronak Karami

Journal of International Women's Studies

The 1979 Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War that began in 1980 have played an effective role in reconstructing contemporary Iranian culture, history, and politics. The war was beneficial to Ayatollah Khomeini and his new regime in defining themselves and their ideas and suppressing opposition, so he refused to end the war for eight years until 1988. However, by the end of the war, neither Iran nor Iraq had achieved their aims: Iraq's attempts to bring down the revolutionary government in Iran failed, and Iran could not provoke a revolution in Iraq. The Islamic Revolution and the war imposed new kinds …


Autobiographical Reflections: My Story, Ronak Karami Feb 2020

Autobiographical Reflections: My Story, Ronak Karami

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.