Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Far From The Factory? Investigating How Women Travel To Work In Rural Cote D’Ivoire, Rijak Grover

Journal of International Women's Studies

Sociologists have long argued that spatial mismatch, or costs for workers associated with the distance from home to work, determines the extensive margin of labour supply of urban areas in developed countries (Kain 1968; Wilson, 1987). But what about in rural contexts where labour supply vastly exceeds demand? Using data from fieldwork in Findon, Cote d’Ivoire, this article examines an unexplored aspect of spatial mismatch theory, namely, its application to a rural context in the developing world. Sociological research has suggested the best way to correct spatial mismatch is by either bringing people to jobs or jobs to people. The …

Cartographers Of Disrupted Belonging: Sudanese Mothers Drawing Maps Of Portsmouth (Uk), Charlotte Sanders

Journal of International Women's Studies

Map-making is an everyday practice for Sudanese women in Portsmouth. Arriving to the city within the last twenty-five years, women continue to work hard to reconfigure their sense of place, to reorient themselves in urban space, and to relearn the landmarks of everyday life so as to produce comfortable homes and lives for their families. Through the methodology of ‘mental mapping’, in which women sketch the city from memory, their practices of everyday cartography are revealed. This invests women’s mundane movements in unfamiliar – and frequently hostile – urban spaces with agential power. At the same time, these visual articulations …

"New Writings In Feminist And Women’S Studies Winning And Short-Listed Entries From The 2018 Feminist And Women’S Studies Association’S (Fwsa) Annual Student Essay Competition", Laura Clancy, Irralie Doel

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

An Insight To Women In Construction For Fostering Female Careers In Sri Lankan Construction Industry, Srivishagan Vijayaragunathan, Thalpage Rasanthi

Journal of International Women's Studies

The construction industry is one of the largest sectors in Sri Lanka. Since, there is rapid growth of new technologies in today’s global market, there is a need to foster human skills and knowledge related to employment in the sector. However, the Sri Lankan construction industry is facing technical and managerial skill shortages as well as worker capacity issues. Further, the industry is facing industrial issues such as delivering timely project completion, within budget and for desired quality. ‘Women in construction’ has been a topic of concern by many nations, for many years. Given the rapid growth and demand in …

Lifestyle Change Of Female Farmers Through Cpec’S Coal Power Plant Project Initiative, Komal Niazi, Guoqiang He, Shakir Ullah

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper focuses on the impact to women engaged in agriculture specific to the construction of Sahiwal Coal Power Plant project in Qadirabad, Punjab, Pakistan. The power plant was developed in relation to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) initiative. This plant was built on private [agricultural] lands. This study, relies on data collected via a field survey, judgmental sampling, and case study methods. Observations and data collected surface the changing occupational roles of women, who prior to the development of the coal plant had been employed primarily as agricultural workers. A noted adjustment of female labor to domestic service and …

Roll Up Your Sleeves: Why Is It Important To Highlight Gender In Agriculture?, Mariela Mamaril, Jinky Leilanie Lu

Journal of International Women's Studies

Gender and poverty combine to put a burden on the status of women farm workers. On top of that, women’s contribution in agriculture, albeit important to the overall agricultural chain, is commonly overlooked. This study looked into the time-use of women in agriculture, relative to men in the largest rice producing community in the Philippines. The methodology included key informant interviews of nine women, a survey questionnaire to a total of 159 individuals form the farming household, and a time-motion study of women’s work in raising livestock during a whole day. The data revealed that women are involved in all …

Pluralizing Discourses: Multinationals And Gender Equality, Marianna Leite

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article investigates the impact of multinational corporations with respect to the concept of gender equality. According to legal pluralism theory, in every society, two or more legal systems not belonging to a single ‘system’ coexist. It is, however, unknown to what extent non-state actors contribute to the ‘bending and breaking’ of rules in legal systems that are inherently pluralistic in the juristic sense. Although, the use of the language of rights has grown rapidly amongst development policy and practice, the rhetoric of formal rights as advocated by international development bodies has not always improved the everyday reality. This is …

Focus On Domestic Violence In Bangladesh: A Study From Criminological Perspectives, Khandaker Farzana Rahman

Journal of International Women's Studies

Bangladesh is a patriarchal society where powerlessness and vulnerability are associated with women’s lives, as they are often found in positions where they are dominated and subjugated by men. Women are often controlled by their father, husband and son at different phases of their lives, and due to this reason a woman commonly has risk of experiencing domestic violence within her family. Though Bangladesh is experiencing a relatively high level of gender equality for South Asia, it is still not very surprising that a husband is more likely to assault and/or batter his educated/financially solvent wife if she fails to …

Early Marriage In Nepal: Prospects For Schoolgirls, Nub Raj Bhandari

Journal of International Women's Studies

Nepal has one of the highest child marriage rates in the world; the prevalence is even higher in Terai region. There has been an observable correlation between marriage and education leading to the general assumption that girls attending school are less likely to be married at an early age compared with counterparts that have either dropped out of school or have not been in school. This paper assesses the causality between school attendance and likelihood of marriage. The study relies on a qualitative assessment conducted at 5 schools in Dhanusha, a district in Province 2 of Nepal. Participants in the …

The Taboo Of Sex Within Gender Based Violence Prevention: Localising The Gender And Development Paradigm In Cambodia, Elena Robertson

Journal of International Women's Studies

The Gender and Development (GAD) paradigm emerged out of decades of concerted effort by theorists, practitioners and feminists. GAD has attempted to bring women as individuals into the development institution and while this has no doubt contributed to considerable advances in women’s access to education, health care and employment, it has yet to greatly affect gender-based violence (GBV). GBV continues to plague development despite GAD’s best efforts. Recent research suggests that this may be linked to the paradigm’s inability to address female sexuality in and of itself. Female sex and sexuality continue to be taboo at global and local levels …

Deconstructing Theory-Practice: Re-Thinking Methodology, Swarnima Kriti

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper is based on an ‘action research’ work (in Mardapoti, a largely Gond Adivasi village in Chhattisgarh, India) on the ‘gender-labor continuum in household spaces’, where I, along with a group of young women and men (who are within the age group of sixteen to twenty-two) re-thought research as ‘co-research with community’ (and not on community) and methodology (as actioning research and researching action) in the context of transforming the extant structure of the sexual division of labor in the village and the household. Together, we worked towards a deconstructive relation with the problem of the scarcity of water …

Widows And Concubines: Tradition And Deviance In The Women Of Raja Rao’S Kanthapura, M. E. P. Ranmuthugala

Journal of International Women's Studies

Raja Rao’s 1938 novel Kanthapura depicts the impact of Gandhian thought on women and men, and this research focuses on the novel’s fashioning of female identities in terms of nationalism as espoused by Mahatma Gandhi. This analytical research paper hypothesises that although women constitute a considerable part of the narrative and have political agency, their identity is moulded by men to serve men’s nationalist interests: The paper contends that women must undergo transformation and refashioning of their identities for nationalism. The novel provides a strong argument for Mahatma Gandhi’s political ethic of empowering people and engages with diverse issues such …

Sacks Of Mutilated Breasts: Violence And Body Politics In South Asian Partition Literature, Antonia Navarro-Tejero

Journal of International Women's Studies

The partition narratives of South Asian authors are testimony to the fact that women of all ethnic and religious backgrounds were the greatest victims of the newly created border between India and Pakistan in 1947. Women’s bodies were abducted, stripped naked, raped, mutilated (their breasts cut off), carved with religious symbols and murdered to be sent in train wagons to the “other” side of the border. Taking Bapsi Sidhwa’s novel Ice Candy Man/Cracking India (1988) as a narrative example of the importance of women’s point of view and as central figures of the violent conflict, we will examine the symbol …

Violence As A Site Of Women’S Agency In War: The Representation Of Female Militants In Sri Lanka’S Post-War Literature, T. N. K. Meegaswatta

Journal of International Women's Studies

The increasing visibility of armed women in violent conflicts in the modern world has unsettled conventional beliefs of inferiority, weakness, innocence, and the resultant fragility and victimhood of women. Although in theory it is possible to conceptualize armed woman and violence as empowerment, in practice, the temporal realities that inevitably haunt any discussion of ‘terrorism’ and ‘terrorists’ in conflict ridden polarized societies severely curtail the terminology available to frame militancy in general and the ‘terror’ it generates as ‘liberatory’. However, fictional and non-fictional literary work that were published in the aftermath of Sri Lanka’s war (1983-2009) between the state forces …

Monster To Monster: Masculinity As An Invisible Major Theme In Hunter’S Run, Petra Fišerová

Journal of International Women's Studies

Taken for granted, normalized as a non-category, and thus invisible, masculinity is a topic that largely escaped public and much academic attention until the birth of men and masculinity studies. It is my belief that this discipline will play an important part in the future of gender studies, which is why my paper doubles as an appeal for more scholars to join me and learn more about this lesser known side of gender theory. In my analysis of Hunter’s Run (2007), an American sci-fi novel for mature audiences authored by George R. R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, and Daniel Abraham, I …

Representations Of Women’S Role In Pakistan: A Critical Analysis Through Drama Serials, Anam Fatima

Journal of International Women's Studies

The concept of honour and the resulting discourses have always affected women’s lives in Pakistan. This paper will utilize Butler’s theory of performativity and insights from feminist film theory and women’s history in Pakistan to critique and evaluate women’s representation in Pakistani popular cultural texts, and thus engage with the politics of gender in Pakistan. The methodological tools of content analysis and discourse analysis will be used to investigate the central research question that is: to what extent does the representation of women’s roles in contemporary Pakistani drama serials include traditionalist discourses of honour?’ It will thus examine that ‘how’ …

Introduction: Selected Papers From The 4th, World Conference On Women’S Studies, Colombo, Sri Lanka, May 2018, Madhavi Venkatesan

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Women In Twentieth-Century Africa, Serena J. Rivera

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

“To See Where Her Strength Resides”, Jonathan Shirland

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

The Lives Of H-2b Workers In The Trump Era: An Anthropological Perspective On Immigration, Jade Kluver

Journal of International Women's Studies

The purpose of this ethnographic study is to describe the effects of the Trump Administration’s change in immigration policies on Romanian H-2B workers in South Florida. The effects of administration change on the H-2B program is generally defined within three themes that emerged from my research: The change in the concept of cultural space and how enforcement plays a role in the creation of boundaries; how policy change has an influence on migrant workers’ concept of identity and belonging; and lastly, how the program and outlying forces create a culture of uncertainty and fear. The article is based on three …

Their Stories, Their Voices: The Orphans Of The British Raj, Sayan Dey

Journal of International Women's Studies

The global evolution of the postcolonial era across diverse spatio-temporal zones generated a highly debatable paradigm: did postcoloniality generate a new epistemological and ontological framework that disentangled from the colonial patterns or did these patterns continue with the pre-existing colonial ideologies? With the end of colonization in India, the physically visible colonial empires of patriarchy were replaced by what we can refer to as “metaphysical empires”, which are physically invisible, but which operate ideologically in a very systematic and convincing manner, reproducing many of the hierarchies entrenched during the colonial period. The interpretation of postcolonial histories has been fractured with …

Re-Evaluating Gender Reforms In Non-Western Nations: A Case Study Of Women’S Empowerment In Japan, Maryam Alkubati

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper focuses on Japan, a socioeconomically advanced, developed democracy which has relatively low women’s representation within the national parliament. This case demonstrates the lack of systematic relationships between human development and women’s political participation. Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, since resuming office in 2012, has recognized the under-representation of women in the labor market and has subsequently promoted “Womenomics” as one of the three structural reform policies for reviving the Japanese economy. This study will examine the impact that the prime minister’s Womenomics strategies have had on the representation of women in the national parliament. The author collected and compared …

“All I See Is Through His Gaze!” Female Characters Through A Male Gaze In Modern Persian Fiction, Ronak Karami

Journal of International Women's Studies

Between the late 1960s and 1970s, Iran’s growing contact with the West aroused many contradictions, inner conflicts, and extravagancies. People could not stand the rapid transformations in the society and particularly in women’s situation that arose due to modernization. By this time, male novelists indicated all their inner tensions in the shape of a woman they created in their stories. This paper focuses on a notable modern Persian fiction, Prince Ehtejab by Houshang Golshiri that was first published in 1969. The author aims, at first, demonstrating how Golshiri uses the four female characters to, in effect, introduce the male narrator …

The Strides Of The Saudi Female Workforce: Overcoming Constraints And Contradictions In Transition, Deepanjana Varshney

Journal of International Women's Studies

For years Saudi Arabia has been engulfed by a widespread gender gap, discrimination and inequality; however, the new era has ushered a paradigm shift that has beckoned a rising women’s empowerment process. Today, Saudi women are better educated, more well-informed, and more financially independent as a result of a plethora of changes. Furthermore, their presence in various public spheres and social media is highly visible today. The government’s recent reforms have undisputedly catalyzed their foray into the workforce; however, effective integration is still a significant challenge. Nevertheless, Saudi women have consistently shown grit toward their employment and career amidst various …

Sustainable Women’S Entrepreneurship: A View From Two Brics Nations, Obianuju (Uju) E. Okeke-Uzodike

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women in Africa are poorer, less educated, and enjoy less access to jobs and opportunities than men. While that is true for women around the world, the situation in contemporary Africa appears deeper. Earlier neo-classical economists viewed women as irrational economic agents, but boosted by the intellectual activities of feminist economists that highlighted the gender bias of mainstream economics. The aid and development agencies such as the World Bank and UNDP have committed to poverty reduction by embracing and strengthening the idea of holistic human development to eliminate gender-related inequality. The concept is well spelt out in the national/regional policy …

Women, Metaphors And The Legitimisation Of Gender Bias In Spanish Proverbs, Benedicta Adokarley Lomotey

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper aims at analysing the role of proverbs in the sustenance of gender violence within the Spanish context. As demonstrated by feminist linguistic activities, one of the avenues through which the status quo of both men and women are enacted and sustained is through language. However, given the complex nature of the relationship between gender and language, speakers often overlook the role of discourse on gender relations. The author investigates this inter-connection using a multidimensional approach which includes insights from Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) theory of metaphor and Austin’s (1965) Speech Act theory. This study confirms that quite a …

Beauty Or The Beast? University Academics’ Perceptions Of Women’S Physical Appearance And Academic Achievements, Ladan Rahbari

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article explores perceptions of Iranian academics of the relationship between women’s physical appearance and academic achievements. The research is conducted using interviews with academics working in different universities in the field of social sciences. Results included individual and structural explanations of the relationship between women’s physical appearance and academic achievements. Data showed a significant emphasis by the participants on the importance of beauty for women. Gender differences were observed in participants’ responses as well as in emotional reactions to the interview questions. Most male participants viewed beauty as the primary resource and an asset for marriage marketing for women. …

Performance Of Controlling Rape In India: Efficiency Estimate Across States, Shrabanti Maity

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper addresses the performance of Indian states in controlling sexual assault or rape, on the basis of the data published by National Crime Record Bureau in India, the rape or sexual assault control performances of 28 major Indian states. The relative efficiencies of the states are evaluated by applying stochastic frontier analysis on a two decadal time period, namely, 2001 and 2011. Among the Indian states, although Kerala is recognised as the region where women are very progressive; unfortunately, our findings suggest that the performance of the state in controlling sexual assault is not impressive. On the contrary, Gujarat …

Towards A Politics Of Pain: Building Solidarities, Breaking Silences In Contemporary Chhattisgarh, India, Panchali Ray

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay is based on a series of interviews with Soni Sori, an activist, educationist, and a political figure, who has become the face of adivasi (tribal) resistance to state-corporate acquisition of community land for industry, in Chhattisgarh, India. Soni Sori, who is a prominent figure in the resistance movement against State atrocities on poor adivasi farmers, was accused of Left extremism, and subsequently arrested and sexually tortured in police custody. In her own words, this was to shame her into silence and prevent her from participating in public life, again. In this essay, I ask how does pain enter …

Are “Blessers” A Refuge For Refugee Girls In Tshwane, The Capital City Of South Africa? A Phenomenographic Study, Azwihangwisi Helen Mavhandu-Mudzusi

Journal of International Women's Studies

This phenomenographic study reports on the engagement of refugee girls in sexual relationships with blessers in Tshwane, the capital city of South Africa. Data were collected from 20 refugee girls through open and intense individual interviews guided by a semi-structured interview schedule. The audio-recorded interviews were transcribed and analyzed thematically using Sjöström and Dahlgren’s approach to data analysis. Results indicate that girls engage in the “blesser blessee” relationship in order to escape from poverty, sex work and poor living conditions.

Blessers provide refuge for refugee girls through meeting their basic needs such as food, shelter, clothes and means of communication. …