Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Contemporary Temporary Marriage: A Blog-Analysis Of First-Hand Experiences, Sammy Z. Badran, Brian Turnbull

Journal of International Women's Studies

Within Islam, a temporary marriage generally implies a short-term marriage between a man and a woman that does not come with a long-term commitment and may or may not have an explicit, pre-established timeline or endpoint. The partial religious legitimation of temporary marriage via Islamic fatwas has recently revived the institution. Some suggest that the rising popularity is an attempt by individuals to fulfill sexual desires within the confines of a religiously-legitimized institution; while others argue that it can lead to exploitation and perhaps slavery of women and girls. Conclusions supporting both the positive and negative aspects of temporary marriage …

The Priming Of Arab-Israeli Stereotypes: How News Stories May Enhance Or Inhibit Audience Stereotypes, Erika Katherine Johnson

Journal of International Women's Studies

The goal of this study was to understand how news stories about Arab and Israeli women prime stereotypes in Americans, extending research on priming and ethnic media representation. A 2 (female target ethnicity: Arab and Israeli) x 3 (depiction type: prototypical, non-prototypical, and control) x 3 (multiple messages) mixed factorial design was conducted to examine how depiction and ethnicity in news story stimuli would interact with stereotype activation and accuracy (N = 107). Results showed that participants exhibited higher stereotyping after reading prototypical stories about Arab women and after they were not primed by stories. Also, participants who read non-prototypical …

Attitudes Toward Women In Palestine: A Quantitative Survey, Erni Gustafsson, Nabil Alawi, Per Normann Andersen

Journal of International Women's Studies

The survey’s aim is to address whether or not the practice placement of Norwegian social work students over six consecutive years in the Balata Refugee Camp in Nablus, Palestine, has had any impact on the attitudes toward women among the population in the Camp. To achieve this, two groups, one experimental and one control, of a total 261 respondents, have been exposed to the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (AWS) that is translated from English to Arabic for this purpose. Another research was to see if there are statistical differences between male and female respondents, and if there is an association …

A Contemporary Palestinian Reading Of Gender Politics In Margaret Cavendish’S The Unnatural Tragedy, Bilal Tawfiq Hamamra

Journal of International Women's Studies

Margaret Cavendish’s The Unnatural Tragedy (1650) is both tribute to and critique of Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore (1633). I argue that The Unnatural Tragedy undermines the masculine ideology on female speech and silence, linking male figures’ voices with treachery and incest and female voice, conventionally sexualized, with truth and honesty. The main thrust of The Unnatural Tragedy is against the passive feminine virtues embodied by Madame Bonit and Soeur whose adherence to the feminine virtues of silence and obedience and the masculine ideology of honour lead to their loss of control over their lives. In contrast to silence, …

“Grey Chicken”: Female Students As Exploitation Victims In The Commercial Sex Industry, Bagong Suyanto

Journal of International Women's Studies

“Grey chicken” is a term used to describe female students involved in prostitution practices. The number and distribution of students who double as prostitutes are increasing in urban areas, thus requiring immediate attention. This study found a number of reasons why female students fall into prostitution. In addition to the pressures of poverty and dysfunctional families, other factors that encourage prostitution include the influence of destructive peer-groups and being date-rape victims by their romantic partners. Female student prostitutes are not only victims of economic exploitation, but also psychological exploitation in forms of inhumane treatment from their customers, as well as …

Gcc Labor Market, Education And Generation Y Females: A Match Or Mismatch?, Cameron Mirza, Magdalena Karolak

Journal of International Women's Studies

The aim of this paper is to analyze the convergence between the current state of education, labor markets’’ preparedness, and expectations of Generation Y females taking Bahrain as a case study. Generation Y is defined as the group of people aged 30 years and under. Although Generation Y is a worldwide phenomenon and members of this generational group share certain characteristics globally, in Gulf Cooperation Council countries [GCC] they display strong pressure to succeed, a need of gaining a high salary but also to acquire knowledge and expertise; and a preference for a strong work-life balance. In addition, in the …

Estranged Labour On The Global Assembly Line? ‘Sewing Girls’ Of Post-Colonial Garment Factories In Sri Lanka, Prajna Seneviratne

Journal of International Women's Studies

Inspired by the Marxian conceptualization of ‘estranged labour’, this paper seeks to explore the phenomenon of ‘sewing girls’ of global garment factories in Sri Lanka leaving waged work after a relatively short span of time, drawing on this trend of thought. Even though issues surrounding female labour in the global garment industry are widely researched, there is little or no evidence of existing literature attempting to place the empirical issues within a Marxist conceptual framework. It is in this context that this paper, which takes on a methodological approach of ethnography from a feminist perspective attempts to narrate the ‘stories’ …

The Trade And Gender Nexus In Pakistan, Maryam Tanwir, Richard Sidebottom

Journal of International Women's Studies

Contemporary trade policy has been driven by an apparent consensus regarding the employment-related benefits of economic openness and export-led growth that often ignores their dispersion by sector and gender. Whilst trade may be an enabling mechanism for the most capable workers in formal sectors, it may also exclude or relegate others to less visible informal workplaces.

To appreciate the processes and perceptions underlying these differential outcomes, this research paper investigates the stories of Pakistani women as workers, farmers and entrepreneurs across a range of economic sectors. Through this lens we supplement the literature that focuses on the structure of trade …

Test Of A South Asian Model Of Childhood Experiences, Gender Role Attitudes, And Behaviors, Faiz M. M. T. Marikar

Journal of International Women's Studies

The social status of males and females is an important concept for cross-cultural research. In addressing this issue, a cultural insider can be recognized as a strength that allows the researcher to take part in the everyday lives of local people. In addressing the achievements of the Sri Lankan State’s administrative sector, researchers have paid minimal attention to both gender equity and the influence of equality on hiring rates. This study mainly focuses on the impact of gender in personal development, which may be influenced by research participants decision-making processes. Data were collected from newly-recruited Sri Lankan administrative sector employees. …

The Impact Of State Religious Policies On Christian Women’S Leadership Status In Vietnam: The Case Of The Evangelical Church Of Vietnam Since 1975, Le Ngoc Bich Ly

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper contributes to a feminist critique of multiculturalism by presenting the complexity of the relationship among the state, religion and women in the context of Vietnam. By taking the Evangelical Church of Vietnam—South as a case study, and based on both primary and secondary data obtained from in-depth interviews with 38 Vietnamese female and male church leaders in 2014–2016, and four months of fieldwork in southern Vietnam between February and May 2016, the paper argues that the assumption of equal rights and citizenship status for all women in the wider society according to the liberal model of multiculturalism cannot …

Socio-Demographic Predictors Of Political Participation Among Women In Nigeria: Insights From Afrobarometer 2015 Data, Emeka Eugene Dim, Joseph Yaw Asomah

Journal of International Women's Studies

Despite the important role that women generally play in development processes, they are disproportionally underrepresented in politics and leadership positions compared to men, as exemplified in the case of Nigeria. Using the Afrobarometer data of 2015, this study seeks to examine the socio-economic factors that predict women’s political participation in Nigeria. The study shows that education, religion, place of residence, party affiliation, and geo-political zone predict political participation. Based on the beta values generated from the multivariate linear regression analysis, post-secondary education, South-Eastern geo-political zone, and party affiliation are the most significant predictors of women’s political participation. The study particularly …

Sexism And Gender Profiling: Two Decades Of Stereotypical Portrayal Of Women In Nollywood Films, Kevin Uwaecheghi Onyenankeya, Oluwayemisi Mary Onyenankeya, Oluyinka Osunkunle

Journal of International Women's Studies

Critics of Nollywood especially gender activists, have challenged its predominant, if not exclusive portrayal of women for its narrowly traditional occupational and domestic roles and images. This paper seeks to examine various ways women are depicted in Nollywood films, including physical appearance, domestic and family life, occupational life and interpersonal relationships over a 20 year period spanning the video film era. The research employed a quantitative content method to analyse 10 films while the coding sheet that contained established content categories served as the data gathering instrument. A multistage sampling technique was used to draw the sample. The findings revealed …

Pornography And Objectification Of Women In Nollywood Films: A Study Of Nigerian Actresses’ Perception Of Acting Sex And Nudity Scenes, Floribert Patrick C Endong

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Matrifocality And Collective Solidarity In Practicing Agency: Marriage Negotiation Among The Bimanese Muslim Women In Eastern Indonesia, Atun Wardatun

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article demonstrates how matrifocality (centrality of women) as a cultural value of the kinship system forms collective solidarity as a main way of enacting agency (capacity to act) among the Bimanese Muslims in eastern Indonesia. It aims to argue that the context and method of performing agency are interdependent such that the first is a cause while the latter is a consequence. Scholars tend to focus on the link between source and goal of agency as the motivation of doing agency determining the goal people conceive. Although some scholars have turned their attention to the interconnection of context and …

Gender Inequality In Unpaid Domestic Housework And Childcare Activities And Its Consequences On Childbearing Decisions: Evidence From Iran, Mahmoud Ghazi Tabatabaei, Nader Mehri

Journal of International Women's Studies

The present study addressed gender inequality in unpaid domestic housework and childcare activities and its presumed impact on childbearing decisions in Iran. We used the second Iran’s Time Use Study (2014-2015), representing the urban population to investigate how the number of small children (aged seven and lower) affected the time devoted to unpaid domestic housework as well as childcare activities of urban employed couples in Iran.

The univariate analysis provided sufficient evidence of increasing workload with the number of small children for employed women, while men’s workload remained almost unchanged across all parities. The results indicated that an increase in …

Feminist Media Studies Across Borders: Re-Visiting Studies Within The Brazilian National Context, Carolina Matos

Journal of International Women's Studies

Feminist media studies in the US and the UK have built a strong tradition of research, which has aimed to look at the correlation between structural gender inequalities in society and how these have been played out in the media. These range from classic studies on soap operas to debates on the sexualization of culture and the construction of forms of femininity within a post-feminist context (i.e. Gill, 2006; McNair, 2002; Ang, 1985; Tuchman at el, 1978). Research on the relationship between gender and the media has arguably become an important arena of inquiry in Latin America. Feminist media studies …

Autonomous Women's Movement In Kerala: Historiography, Maya Subrahmanian

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper traces the historical evolution of the women’s movement in the southernmost Indian state of Kerala and explores the related social contexts. It also compares the women’s movement in Kerala with its North Indian and international counterparts. An attempt is made to understand how feminist activities on the local level differ from the larger scenario with regard to their nature, causes, and success. Mainstream history writing has long neglected women’s history, just as women have been denied authority in the process of knowledge production. The Kerala Model and the politically triggered society of the state, with its strong Marxist …

Limiting Queer Reproduction In Hungary, Judit Takács

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article discusses several limiting factors that affect queer reproduction desires and practices in present-day Hungary, including distorting media representations, legislative frameworks, and social inequalities. It draws on relevant legal developments and results from previous research studies. The article focuses on how Hungarian LGBTQI people can resist the social norms and policies of heteronormatively prescribed childlessness resulting from normative expectations that non-heteronormative reproduction must be limited as much as possible, and highlights that better-off couples and individuals have more chance to realize their fertility plans through adoption, surrogacy or accessing ART than those in a more disadvantageous situation. In this …

Negotiating Access To Assisted Reproduction Technologies In A Post-Socialist Heteronormative Context, Hana Hašková, Zdeněk Sloboda

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article centres on the impact of heteronormativity on the ways in which parental desires, intentions and practices of lesbian, gay, or trans people in Czechia are subjected to barriers. It explores heteronormativity by analysing how access to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) for non-straight couples (including single women) has been negotiated. We discuss discrimination against, and the statistical marginalisation of, homoparental families; the fact that same-sex Czech couples are not yet allowed to marry and that instead a new legal institution, the civil union, was introduced exclusively for them, explicitly prohibiting them from forming parental couples; the political disregard of …

Unfit For Parenthood? Compulsory Sterilization And Transgender Reproductive Justice In Finland, Julian Honkasalo

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article examines the rationale of the continuing Finnish transgender sterilization requirement against the background of reproductive justice. I examine how and why the Finnish public debate on removing the sterilization clause from the Trans Act does not include an equal demand to 1) include a parental law reform and 2) a legislation on accessible, affordable and just reproductive health care for transgender persons and (cis)women alike. I will argue that since the citizens’ initiative of the marriage equality legislation in Finland was followed by another citizens’ initiative to reform the Maternity Act to include lesbian couples, transgender reproductive justice …

Unlearning Cisnormativity In The Clinic: Enacting Transgender Reproductive Rights In Everyday Patient Encounters, Theo Erbenius, Jenny Gunnarsson Payne

Journal of International Women's Studies

In recent years, transgender reproduction has become increasingly visible in public debates in Sweden. Heated debates and years of activism and advocacy ultimately led to a change in law in 2013. In the new law, the previously controversial demands for patients to be unmarried and sterile had been removed from the legal framework. As a consequence, transgender patients also became entitled to fertility preservation through assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). This gave rise to a new patient group of fertility patients with specific medical and psychosocial needs.

Drawing on qualitative in-depth interviews with healthcare professionals in a Stockholm clinic for reproductive …

Queer And Trans Access To Assisted Reproductive Technologies: A Comparison Of Three Eu-States, Poland, Spain And Sweden, Doris Leibetseder

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article is about the legal challenges and difficulties of queer and trans reproduction with ART in three purposely selected European states: Sweden, Poland and Spain, representing the north, east and west of Europe. Isabell Engeli and Christine Rothmayr Allison’s (2017) continuum model of classifying countries according to their permissive, intermediate or restrictive regulations for ART access serves as an example how a national comparative analysis on ART policies is established. However, this framework needs to be adjusted to address the regulations pertaining to queer and trans people’s reproductive, parenthood, and partnership opportunities. Thus, the queer and trans model I …

Introduction: Queer And Trans Reproduction With Assisted Reproductive Technologies (Art), In Europe, Doris Leibetseder, Gabriele Griffin

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Film Review: Women In Iranian Cinema: Moving Beyond Conventional Legends, Bahar Davary

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of the film Under the Smoky Roof; Pouran Derakhshandeh (director). 2017

Book Review: Women And Death In Film, Television, And News, Jarice Hanson

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Women and Death in Film, Television, and News by Joanne Clarke Dillman.

Book Review: Women In Twentieth-Century Africa, Serena J. Rivera

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Women in Twentieth-Century Africa, by Iris Berger. Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Book Review: Gender (In)Equality And Gender Politics In Southeastern Europe: A Question Of Justice, Meltem Ince-Yenilmez

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Gender (In)equality and Gender Politics in Southeastern Europe: A Question of Justice, edited by Christine Hassenstab & Sabrina P. Ramet. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

Book Review: Balzac’S Cane, Randi M. Rezendes

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Balzac’s Cane by Delphine de Girardin. Peter Lang, 2017

Epistemology Revisited: A Feminist Critique, Anupam Yadav

Journal of International Women's Studies

The Platonic legacy of Western epistemology has been severely attacked for its dominant exclusivist and coercive rationality in the discourses of anti-foundationalism and anti-representationalism, which have also given rise to several alternative epistemologies. The feminist discourse challenges the exclusivist and appropriationist logic of Western epistemology, or science, for being highly gender-biased and oppressive. Weininger’s remark that ‘No woman is really interested in science, she may deceive herself and many good men, but bad psychologists, by thinking so’ is one of such silencing masculine diktats that have deeper roots in the sexist, racist and classist biases. The feminists’ revolts against the …

Inequality Analyses Of Gendering Jordanian Citizenship And Legislative Rights, Rania F. Al-Rabadi, Anas N. Al-Rabadi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Awareness has been recently increased about gender-based rights and citizenship in Jordan. Many of the issues concerning gender equality arise in the private sphere. Therefore, focusing on the politics of family law is important with regards to women’s rights in particular. Family law is the law related to matters such as polygamy, divorce, inheritance, child custody, guardianship and obedience. The effects are observed especially when Jordanian women try to exercise their granted constitutional political rights. It is the family (personal status) law that runs individual affairs within the private sphere in a patriarchal society where it affects also on exercising …