Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Gender-Based Household Compositional Changes And Implications For Poverty In South Africa, Chijioke O. Nwosu, Catherine Ndinda

Journal of International Women's Studies

Poverty is one of the most challenging socio-economic problems in South Africa. Though poverty rates have been substantially reduced in the post-apartheid period, many South Africans remain poor. Available evidence also indicates a substantial gender gradient to the prevalence of poverty in the country. A standard indicator of gendered power structures is the gender of the household head. We examine the effect of transitioning from a male- to a female-headed household over time (relative to remaining in a male-headed household) on changes in the probability of transitioning into poverty from a non-poor state over a two- to six-year period. This …

Preventing The Leaky Pipeline: Teaching Future Female Leaders To Manage Their Careers And Promote Gender Equality In Organizations, Nicole Böhmer, Heike Schinnenburg

Journal of International Women's Studies

The paradox of Indian women’s declining presence in the labor market despite their advancements in higher education leads to questions regarding how this “leaky pipeline” can be patched and (partly) prevented. At the same time, female educational advancement in Western countries, such as Germany, does not equate to significantly more females in leadership positions or changes in gender role expectations. In both the Indian and German contextual setting, women face hurdles in developing their career and the risk of lifelong dependency or poverty.

This paper clarifies the perspectives of young females on leadership careers and success before they enter the …

Gender, Poverty And Inequality In The Aftermath Of Zimbabwe’S Land Reform: A Transformative Social Policy Perspective, Newman Tekwa, Jimi Adesina

Journal of International Women's Studies

Gender equality is re-emerging as an important global and national agenda with emphasis placed on closing the gender gap in terms of women’s representation in public and private decision-making bodies. Though unrelatedly, the period had coincided with the elevation of social protection in the form of cash transfers as the magic bullet in tackling gendered poverty and inequality. Adopting a Transformative Social Policy Framework and land reform as a social policy instrument, the paper questions the efficacy of the current approaches in transforming gendered poverty and inequalities. Land reform is hardly ever assessed as a policy instrument for its redistributive, …

Ideological Inequalities: Khmer Culture And Widows’ Perception Of Remarriage, Susan Hagood Lee

Journal of International Women's Studies

To explain the enduring persistence of gender inequality, structural explanations alone are not sufficient. One must look at the realm of cultural ideas to understand the entrenched nature of female subordination. Ideological inequalities embedded in cultural beliefs and practices sustain and perpetuate structural inequalities. This article explores ideological inequalities in Cambodian culture as an explanation for the reluctance of rural widows to remarry, despite the economic benefits that a new husband would likely bring. Using concepts from the theory of the social construction of reality, two cultural sources for widows' reluctance are considered, the beliefs and practices of Khmer Buddhism …

Gender Justice And Economic Inclusion In South Africa, Rita N. Ozoemena

Journal of International Women's Studies

Gender justice as envisaged in the South African Constitution serves as a transformative project intended to engender an inclusive society. The historical antecedent of the transformation agenda created a situation which systematically excluded people particularly women from being productive members of society. By means of the constitutional principle of substantive equality, the court creates avenue to remedy the injustices of the past. Twenty-four years into democracy, poverty and inequality remain persistent with women bearing the huge adverse impact. The restrictions to economic empowerment faced by women are largely due to cultural practices and a labour market that are insensitive to …

Gender, Poverty And Inequality: Exploration From A Transformative Perspective, Catherine Ndinda, Tidings P. Ndhlovu

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Frustrated And Confused: Mapping The Socio-Political Struggles Of Female Ex-Combatants In Nepal, Bishnu Raj Upreti, Sharmila Shivakoti, Kohinoor Bharati

Journal of International Women's Studies

The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) declared an armed insurrection against the State in February 1996; they began to attack police posts and gradually the insurrection was sparked all over the country, lasting for ten years. Consequently, it caused 17,886 deaths, 79,571 displacements, 1,530 disappearances, 3,142 abductions, 8,935 disabilities, and left 620 children orphaned (MoPR 2016). In the armed conflict 20 percent of Maoist combatants were women. After several rounds of negotiations, the armed conflict ended in November 2006, with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Government of Nepal and the then Communist Party of Nepal …

Gender Dimensions Of Food Security, The Right To Food And Food Sovereignty In Nepal, Yamuna Ghale, Kailash Nath Pyakuryal, Durga Devkota, Krishna Prasad Pant, Netra Prasad Timsina

Journal of International Women's Studies

The right to food is the right to life. Ensuring food security for all the citizens and their food sovereignty is the responsibility of the State. Currently, the need for food security, especially for marginalized and oppressed sections of society, including women in Nepal, is inadequately addressed. In this context, the main objective of this paper is to examine the gender dimensions in food policies and programs in Nepal. The paper explores five dimensions of food security, the right to food and food sovereignty, and analyzes gender inclusivity in food policies and governance in particular, since the advent of the …

Implications Of The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 On The Rights Of Women With Mental Illnesses In India, Kirandeep Kaur

Journal of International Women's Studies

The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 aims to provide for mental health care and services for persons with mental illness in India and to protect, promote and fulfill the rights of such persons during delivery of mental health care and services. Chapter V of the Act enumerates the rights of persons with mental illness, including the right to equality, right to confidentiality, the right to protection from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in any mental health establishment (which includes the right to proper clothing so as to protect such person from exposure of his/her body to maintain his/her dignity, and the …

Introduction To The Second Special Issue Of The World Conference On Women’S Studies, Colombo Sri Lanka Jiws, Madhavi Venkatesan, Diana Fox

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

13 Lunas 13/13 Moons 13: A Video-Project About Sexuality And Menstruation, Tina Escaja

Journal of International Women's Studies

The subject of menstruation is filled with powerful socio-cultural implications involving language, religion and gender relations. Yet, the topic is often relegated to silence, considered taboo, and strongly associated with impurity and shame. This schism between the natural reality of menstruation and its socio-cultural damnation highlights the marginal and oppressed condition of women who are considered inferior and impure in many cultures and religions for the mere fact of menstruating, despite ancient practices that validated and celebrated women’s menarche. The multimedia project 13 lunas 13/13 moons 13 allows for the interactive exploration of these themes while reflecting upon the patriarchal …

A Gender Perspective On Role Performance Of Elected Panchayat Leaders In India, P. Sindhuja, K.R. Murugan

Journal of International Women's Studies

Gender equality is fundamentally related to sustainable development, and globally accepted as a necessity for the promotion of human rights. Gender empowerment is determined by active participation of women and men in social, economic, and political spaces and activities taken in decision-making. In the context of local government, gender equality is critical as women and men face different challenges in full participation, representation and decent work opportunities. Though the constitution provides women the right to be elected in political and public representative institutions, such as parliament and local government bodies, gender inequality, as a collection of interlinked problems existed in …

Changing Equations: Empowerment, Entrepreneurship And The Welfare Of Women, Varsha Raghunandan

Journal of International Women's Studies

The world is a melange of varied cultures and norms. Some are similar, while others are strikingly different from the rest. However, every society has something in common - suppression of their women although the degree and extent may vary. It is not that women are incapable of playing those roles in society which have been dominated by men, but consistent and strategic oppression of the female sex has led many women to consider themselves as weak, powerless and a step below their male counterparts. The waves of feminism and movements to emancipate women have, to a notable extent, changed …

Deliberate Ceiling For Career Progress Of Female Public Service Employees: A Contemporary Transformation Trend In South Africa, Oladapo O. Osituyo

Journal of International Women's Studies

Female employees are rarely found in senior level decision-making roles in the public service sector. Rather they are concentrated in larger number at the lower management levels in the workplace. This study evaluates barriers to female employees’ career progress within the South African public service sector. Prior studies relating to progress of female employees into the senior and top managerial levels within the South African public service sector have revealed an exclusion and inability to climb the decision-making ladder. Employing a questionnaire that included evaluative tools from previous scholarly studies (e.g., the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI), Women as Managers Scale …

Boxed Women In Public Administration - Between Glass Ceilings And Glass Walls: A Study Of Women's Participation In Public Administration In The Arab States, Salma Nasser

Journal of International Women's Studies

Inclusive decision-making is necessary in terms of both legitimacy and good policy outcomes. Recognizing this, closing persistent gender gaps in public life has emerged as a critical policy issue as countries increase their efforts to foster inclusive growth and build trust and confidence in public institutions while working towards the SDGs. The public administration determines the manner in which political and economic decisions are implemented and how budgets are planned and spent. Additionally, it is a primary employer for women in many developing countries – particularly in the Arab world. In some countries, women have in fact surpassed parity in …

A Comparative Study Of Influential Factors Impacting Women’S Activities In Traditional And Modern Neighborhood Spaces In Tehran, Iran, Maryam Mohammadi, Arezoo Rafiee

Journal of International Women's Studies

Neighborhood spaces are regarded as the main arenas for women’s social interactions. Thus, women should be completely comfortable in these spaces. Nonetheless, some studies have indicated that women’s presence and activities in such spaces are both prevented or decreased, and accordingly gendered space is established. Gendered spaces play a significant role in gender identity and roles. Thus, it is necessary to identify the factors which formed various spaces. It seems that physical factors which make spaces non-responsive for women, along with socio-cultural factors such as attitudes and social norms can influence women’s activities and their presence in neighbourhood spaces. To …

Imaging The Woman Through Tanzanian Women’S Maxims, Shani Omari, Fikeni E. M. K. Senkoro

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women’s maxims, as well as other forms of oral literature in Tanzania, are a popular genre. They are verbal arts that can be self-addressed or addressed to a fellow woman among womenfolk. This paper intends to examine the role of these maxims in imaging women in Tanzania. This study was prompted by the findings of previous studies regarding the portrayal of women in Kiswahili literature where, generally, women are depicted as inferior beings compared to men, partly due to the fact that most authors are men. Hence, we found it imperative to investigate women’s maxims that are created and uttered …

The Role Of The Family In Crime Causation: A Comparative Study Of ‘Family Of Orientation’ And ‘Family Of Procreation’ (A Study Of Women Prisoners In The Central Jails Of Rajasthan), Asha Bhandari

Journal of International Women's Studies

Family life and marriage are often considered to be an important lever for criminal desistance, especially among men. The mechanisms that lead to desistance from crime may be general in nature, but men and women do not necessarily respond in a similar way relative to marital status. This paper extends the hypothesis of familial relationships and desistance in crime and provides a perspective to foster understanding of the influence that ‘family of orientation’ and ‘family of procreation’ makes in crime committed by women. For this purpose various factors, including family size, family environment, relationship with family members, gender role …

Writing With Vs. Writing About: Co-Producing Consciousness-Raising Fiction With Young Women From Aid-Supported Communities In Malawi, Emma Makepeace

Journal of International Women's Studies

While some African women have access to education and avenues for writing and publishing their creative work, there remains a gap in accessibility for young African women from aid-supported communities to write and share stories of importance to them. In contrast to their own silencing, these young women are often written about by the aid organizations supporting their communities for fund or awareness raising purposes. The way in which young women from aid-supported communities are written about can present issues of representation, as often the author is from another culture and a position of privilege. Co-producing consciousness-raising fiction with young …

Gender, Race And Justification: The Value Of Critical Discourse Analysis (Cda) In Contemporary Settler Colonial Contexts, Caroline Hodes

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper outlines an approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA) that can be used to examine multiple forms of textual data as part of decolonial practice in any national context that is struggling to acknowledge both its colonial past and its ongoing colonial present. The author provides an explanation of what CDA is followed by a discussion of the methods used in a larger multi-level analysis focused on the impact of the defense witness testimony in a Canadian Pacific salmon fisheries case. The larger project has recently been published in the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice. This paper will …

Narratives Of Agency: Women, Islam, And The Politics Of Economic Participation In Afghanistan, Farhana Rahman

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper analyzes Afghan businesswomen’s experiences and their attempts at engaging in the economic sector, and the manner in which they have navigated political, social, and cultural impediments to build and sustain economic enterprises, to reclaim agency in the post-Taliban era. Through in-depth interviews with three Afghan businesswomen in conjunction with observations of their daily lives, this discussion explores how Afghan businesswomen negotiate between international discourses on women’s employment and work, and hyper-conservative values of Afghan society that prevent women from accessing economic opportunities. The businesswomen highlighted in this paper legitimize their place in economic participation and employment, in many …

The Victimization Of The “Muslim Woman”: The Case Of Amina Filali, Morocco, Nima Mesbahi

Journal of International Women's Studies

In 2012, Amina Filali, a young Moroccan teenager killed herself after a judge had ruled for her to marry her rapist. Drawing from the story of Amina, this paper will contextualize the event in its broader scope analyzing the international and national discourses surrounding the case, reminiscent of orientalist discourses that constantly portray the “Muslim woman” as a victim of Islam. Through a careful reading of the text of law, I will show that the clause 475 of the penal code is in fact a Napoleonic law adopted in verbatim rather than an Islamic tradition. Through an analysis of a …

Examining Agency In Agriculture: The Feminization Debate In Nepal, Hritika Rana, Mahesh Banskota, Sagar Raj Sharma

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper examines the nature of the feminization of agriculture, and factors influencing the phenomenon in citrus producing pocket areas of Sindhuli district in Central Nepal. Presenting the intra-household division of work in agriculture among better-off family members in rural farms, emerging themes from narratives of women farmers’ lived-experience as farmers are discussed. Based on the narratives, this paper explores how household members’ everyday lifestyles regarding agriculture and non-agriculture shape their lives differently. Outlining the problematic of gendered agricultural engagement, three in-depth case analyses of farm families have been presented through data collected from narratives and participant observation as part …

Reinforcing Sexism And Misogyny: Social Media, Symbolic Violence And The Construction Of Femininity-As-Fail, Sue Ann Barratt

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper demonstrates, through content analysis, how online audiences can enforce gender based violence (GBV) as a real threat in the online space through verbally aggressive speech acts that function as symbolic violence. I examine cases emerging out of the context of Trinidad and Tobago, to articulate, how, for example, prejudicial chastising of women is used as a discourse to not only shame and blame but construct femininity-as-fail, however that femininity is embodied. This symbolic violence I read as a spectre, a force that enforces, both in the offline and online, the reassertion of strict respectability and responsibility as …

The Pedagogy Of Difference: Co-Producing Feminist Consciousness Across Borders, Patricia Mohammed

Journal of International Women's Studies

How has a movement built on the consciousness of sisterhood become so fragmented between the end of the 20th and into the second decade of the 21st century? As different political tendencies, widely varying economic conditions and cultural dissimilarities emerged in global struggles to achieve diverse visions of women’s and gender equality, the current feminist movement appears to be characterized by chasms between the east, west, north and south rather than viewed as a movement whose basic tenets are parallel across racial, geographic and social barriers. By looking at lived examples of confrontations, and through a deliberate process of self-reflexive …

Introduction To The Second Special Issue Of The World Conference On Women’S Studies, Colombo Sri Lanka Jiws, Madhavi Venkatesan, Diana Fox

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Famished: On Finishing Hunger By Roxane Gay, Amber Moore

Journal of International Women's Studies

This poem was written in response to Roxane Gay’s extraordinary new memoir Hunger: A memoir of (my) body (2017), which explores her experience(s) with fatness and living with memories of sexual trauma. In reading this memoir, I was struck by Gay’s unflinching confrontation of the violence she endured and current lived experiences, but also, how she uses her vulnerability as a site for resistance. After reading this book in one sitting, I was moved to respond; as such, my offering is the following piece where I aim to capture some of my immediate ruminations after reading the final lines.

Book Review: Gender And Conflict: Embodiments, Discourses And Symbolic Practices, H. Nanjala Nyabola

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Gender and Conflict: Embodiments, Discourses and Symbolic Practices, edited by George Frerks, Annelou Ypei, & Reinhilde Konig. Ashgate Publishing, 2014

Book Review: Women And The Informal Economy In Urban Africa: From The Margins To The Centre, Lomarsh Roopnarine

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Women and the Informal Economy in Urban Africa: From the Margins to the Centre by Mary Njeri Kinyanjui, Zed Books, London, 2014.

Book Review: Haters: Harassment, Abuse And Violence Online, Shelagh Smith

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Haters: Harassment, Abuse and Violence Online by Bailey Poland. Potomac Books. 2016.