Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Ezidi Women’S Forced Migration To Germany, Seyedehbehnaz Hosseini

Journal of International Women's Studies

Sinjar became the center of the world’s attention when one of the most horrifying cases of genocide took place, and also due to women who suffered from acts of violence, psychological trauma, and torture. A year after the Ezidi genocide in Iraq, many women to fleed from ISIS. Each of the women who managed to escape has a different history of persecution. This research was conducted to examine the problems which these women faced on a daily basis—problems occurring after experiencing sexual violence, persecution, and forced migration to Europe. The costs of forced migration, which is the consequence of the …

Maroon Indigenous Women Circle, Jamaica: Historical Recurrences From Indigenous Women’S Perspectives, Gaama Gloria "Mama G" Simms

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Feminist Voice In The Works Of Indonesian Early Woman Writers: Reading Novels And Short Stories By Suwarsih Djojopuspito, Aquarini Priyatna

Journal of International Women's Studies

Suwarsih Djojopuspito is among the most important early Indonesian women/feminist writers. This research intends to emphasize her rightful position among the first Indonesian feminist writers. Focusing on her very important novel Manusia Bebas (published originally in Dutch as Buiten het Gareelin 1940), one collection of short stories, Empat Serangkai (1954), and a novel written in Sundanese, Marjanah (1959), I argue that feminist spirits and ideas have actually been existing and elaborated in works by women writers in the era prior to the Indonesian New Order (1966-1998) as exemplified by Suwarsih’s works. What is important in these works is that …

Lost In Translation: The Male Gaze And The (In)Visible Bodies Of Muslim Women - A Response Article, Ewa Glapka

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article explores women’s relationship with the patriarchal surveillance of their bodies – ‘the male gaze’. Going beyond the scholarly tradition of solely critiquing the patriarchal discourse of the female body, the study examines the processes in which individuals relate to the male gaze by means of socio-culturally available meaning-making resources. The analysis is based on interviews with Muslim women in South Africa who talk about their hijab practices and thus position themselves to the patriarchal discourses of Islam and West. The article advances a theoretical and analytical framework in which concepts of ‘hybridity’ and ‘difference’ are harnessed to examine …

Young Women's Civic Awareness And Public Engagement: A Challenge In A Bahraini Context, Fatima H. Eid

Journal of International Women's Studies

In recent years, growing attention to cultivate civic participation among young citizens has been mounting. In Bahrain, young women receive some attention via their participation in civic, political and public engagement initiatives. This paper presents the theoretical and conceptual background for a field study that intends to examine whether young Bahraini women are equipped with the civic knowledge and understanding necessary to participate effectively in community. It also presents their conception of citizenship, their perception of their identity, their political awareness, and their concern about their community issues.

Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, this paper analyses the ways in …

Marxist Feminism Meets Postcolonial Feminism In Organizational Theorizing: Issues, Implications And Responses, Prajna Seneviratne

Journal of International Women's Studies

In this paper I discuss the issues and implications of simultaneously drawing upon Marxist and Postcolonial feminist approaches to organizational theorizing in developing a theoretical/analytical framework for exploring the multiple interactions of productive and reproductive labour roles of female plantation and apparel workers of Sri Lanka. The paper aims firstly to look at different feminist perspectives to organizational theorizing—laying special empathies on Marxist and Postcolonial approaches—their origins, epistemological and methodological positions, contributions and shortcomings. Secondly it aims to compare and contrast the feminist theoretical approaches of Marxism and Post colonialism along each of these aspects with a view to identifying …

Dimensions Of Couples’ Decision-Making At Home: The Ghanian Experience, Ellen Mabel Osei-Tutu, Ernest Ampadu

Journal of International Women's Studies

The ability of women to be final decision makers at home to a large extent is dependent on their background characteristics. The aim of this paper is to ascertain who these women are. Data from the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey was used to analyze women’s decision-making at home. The five household decision-making variables identified include who decides how to spend respondent’s earnings and the person who usually decides on respondent’s health care. The rest are the person who usually decides on large household purchases, person who usually decides on visits to family or relatives and person who usually …

Women Nationalists In Nineteenth And Twentieth Century Ghana And Zimbabwe: Case Studies Of Charwe Nehanda Nyakasikana And Yaa Asentewaa, Abdul Kuba

Journal of International Women's Studies

Nation and nationalism have been associated with masculinity. Nations and states are often envisioned through heroic narratives. According to these narratives, nations are formed through the blood and toil of fore-fathers not fore-mothers. Women’s roles in nation-building are regarded as supportive, relegating them to the background as supporters of their male counterparts. Heroines receive little or no attention in the historiography of national struggles. Pedagogically, heroines are understudied in most African school systems. It is easier for one to encounter names of nationalists like Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Nelson Mandela (South Africa), Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Thomas Sankara (Burkina Faso) among other …

The Challenges Of Women Leaders Of Business Organizations In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, In Balancing Work-Family Responsibilities, Bruktawit Bahiru, Abeba Beyene Mengistu

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women’s leadership significantly contributes to building high-performing organizations. However, challenges with balancing work and family responsibilities are inhibiting them from exerting their fullest potential towards this end. This study aims at investigating the challenges women leaders in Addis Ababa face in balancing the demands of their organizations with that of their families. A sample of eight women leaders of positions from large and middle scale organizations were taken using a purposive sampling technique. In-depth interviews were used to gather information for the study, and a phenomenological qualitative study was applied to analyze the data. The study identified some organizational, societal, …

Of Struggles, Truces And Persistence: Everyday Experiences Of Women Engineers In Sri Lanka, Deborah Menezes

Journal of International Women's Studies

There are more women engineers in road development today then there were two decades ago. This recognition, however, does not necessarily translate into palpable qualitative experiences for women engineers in the sector. Additionally, any problem of discrimination and sexism is hardly acknowledged in the face of numerical justifications. In this paper, the author writes a story about women in road planning and building by developing the importance of their everyday lived experiences. This paper takes as its focus women engineers involved in road development in Sri Lanka. Data used in this paper was gathered through field observations and in-depth interviews …

Study Of Gender As Social Practice And Tokenism In An Indian It Company, Geetanjali Kaushik, Alison Pullen

Journal of International Women's Studies

This systematic study is focused on examining the women’s gendered identity work in an Indian IT company. The research builds a body of work that explores female tokenism at senior positions and highlights tension in practicing gender. Research was conducted through semi-structured interviews with twenty two women employees utilizing the case study approach. A patriarchal Indian society and social construction of IT as feminine and rewarding for women is responsible for an increase of women participation in it. However, there is evidence of exclusion at all levels of hierarchy in the firm on accounts of gendering and social practices. There …

Sexual Violence And The Limits Of Laws’ Powers To Alter Behaviour: The Case Of South Africa, Tameshnie Deane

Journal of International Women's Studies

Despite having one of the most inclusive and progressive constitutions in the world, South Africa (SA) has one of the highest rates of sexual offences globally. This article measures the extent of sexual violence, causes, developments and challenges in research, policy and practice in relation to sexual violence against women. It analyses the causes and responses to sexual violence in a largely South African context. Through different reports and literature reviews this paper will analyze the role that social traditions and norms play in the commission of sexual violence. By analyzing a prominent rape case, the author will deliberate on …

A Space Of Their Own: Arab Women Artists In Israel: Identity Of A ‘Double-Minority’, Shahar Marnin-Distelfeld

Journal of International Women's Studies

This research paper focuses on the art of three women artists—Fatima Abu-Roomi, Samah Shihadi and Fatma Shanan. The research paper focuses on the work of three women artists who are ‘double-minority’—Fatima Abu-Roomi, Samah Shihadi, and Fatma Shanan. Their ‘double-minority’ status comes from being Arab women, raised in patriarchal communities as Muslims (Abu-Roomi and Shihadi), or Druze (Shanan), who live and work among a Jewish majority in the Western-based environment of Israel. The objectives of this research are to point out the significance of their art as an innovative and unique voice within the Israeli art scene that reflect the conditions …

Persistence And Resistance Of Harmful Traditional Practices (Htps) Perpetuated Against Girls In Africa And Asia, Jennifer Glover, Helen Liebling, Simon Goodman, Hazel Barrett

Journal of International Women's Studies

Background:Harmful traditional practices (HTPs) are deeply entrenched behaviours or actions that violate the human rights of affected individuals. They have negative consequences on the physical and psychological health, social rights and political equality of affected individuals and their communities. Despite legislation making HTPs illegal in many countries, these practices continue today, causing considerable health risks to women and girls. Whilst studies have sought to understand factors perpetuating different HTPs, a paucity of reviews synthesises these findings. Aims: The aim of this review is to consider son preference, female genital mutilation, and child marriage in relation to their persistence, …

Women Confronting Death: War Widows’ Experiences In The South Caucasus, Nona Shahnazarian, Ulrike Ziemer

Journal of International Women's Studies

Widowhood is an under-recognized, albeit significant, aspect of life all over the world. The scant literature on contemporary narratives of widowhood among women as a consequence of conflicts indicates that this aspect of lived experience is relatively underexplored. Although loss is integral to life in the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the South Caucasus, it has been overlooked because of the unsettled politics in the region. Since the end of the full-scale war in 1994, the self-declared, internationally unrecognized republic has been locked in a protracted conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. This longstanding conflict has had severe consequences for society in this …

Queer Motherhood: Challenging Heteronormative Rules Beyond The Assimilationist/Radical Binary, Luciana Moreira

Journal of International Women's Studies

In Spain, same sex marriage and adoption was legalized in 2005, and in 2006 the Law of Assisted Reproduction made this available to every woman regardless of their sexual orientation or marital status. Drawing on interviews carried out in Madrid about assisted conception and lesbian parenting, as well as on previous contributions advanced by queer and gender scholars, this article questions to what extent the assumptions of assimilation to a normative system adequately apply to queer families. Some activists and academics characterize lesbian, gay and/or bisexual partnering and parenting as (hetero)normative, at the same time as the very same forms …

Women In Turkey In The Context Of Being Deprived Of Capabilities And Feasibilities, Senem Kurt Topuz, Hülya Erkanli

Journal of International Women's Studies

The concept of poverty, defined as deprivation of capabilities and feasibilities, in the context of Amartya Sen’s “The Capability Approach” is explained through ideas of “what people can or cannot do” and “what they can be or cannot be” rather than through their income or expense tendencies. In this study, conducted to understand the poverty conditions of women living in Turkey, the participants were asked “what are the things they want to do but cannot do?”, “what do they want to be but cannot be?”, both from the perspective of being deprived of capabilities. The answers given were evaluated from …

English Women At Home During The Second World War: Anderson Shelters As Domestic Spaces, Stephanie Butler

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article examines representations of Anderson shelters in English women’s Second World War epistolary correspondence, arguing that both the adaptation of shelters and the representation of these changes—as depicted in women’s correspondence—evidences wartime resilience. The article argues that the domestication of these spaces designed for protection, rather than comfort, resonates with pervasive wartime discourses articulating the cultural value of the home.

Sexual Subjectivities Within Neoliberalism: Can Queer And Crip Engagements Offer An Alternative Praxis?, Robyn Long

Journal of International Women's Studies

Neoliberal processes have been wrought on the body, and have formed an effective oppression against ‘deviant’ bodies that do not, or cannot, maintain the idealised, heterosexual and able-bodied, neoliberal figure. By engaging with feminist, queer, and crip theoretical framings of the body, and the impact of neoliberal governmentality on non-normative sexuality, I find varied sites where queer, crip, or crip-queer bodies can challenge dominant discourses of heteronormativity and compulsory able-bodiedness. These challenges are crucial to creating counter-publics and counter-discourses to undermine the neoliberal-neoconservative complex. Exploring theorisings of the body and agency further, I look toward a crip/queer alterity, suggesting areas …

Honour And Dignity: Trauma Recovery And International Law In The Issue Of The Comfort Women Of South Korea, Gudrun Getz

Journal of International Women's Studies

Despite the decades of work undertaken by the international legal community to attain full and satisfactory reparation for the consequences of Japan’s actions during World War II, the emotionally-charged bilateral dispute between Japan and South Korea over the issue of the so-called ‘comfort women’ continues to this day. This paper is focused on analysis of the discourses surrounding the issue through the lens of a psychoanalytic methodological framework. Based upon the therapeutic work of one of the world’s leading sexual trauma specialists Judith Herman and her text Trauma and Recovery (1992), the paper examines the issues at stake in the …

Bengali Art House Cinema, Women’S Subjectivity, And History: Satyajit Ray’S Use Of Silence In Charulata (1964) And Devi (1960), Lakshmi Quigley

Journal of International Women's Studies

Unmediated representations of women’s everyday subjective experiences of historical events are difficult to find in discourses about masculinity and femininity. Discussions often centre on normative expressions of sexual difference, explaining the ways in which patriarchy was reconstituted rather than focusing on women’s experiences. Late nineteenth century strands of nationalist thought in the Bengal relied on gendered ideas about the nation, self, and society in their representations of womanhood, which served as a symbol of the nation. Various historians have explored the idealised versions of women that these discourses presented, but often these studies fail to examine portrayals of the subjective …

Reconceptualising Foreign Policy As Gendered, Sexualised And Racialised: Towards A Postcolonial Feminist Foreign Policy (Analysis), Columba Achilleos-Sarll

Journal of International Women's Studies

How can we theorise more effectively the relationship among gender, sexuality, race and foreign policy? To explore this question, and to contribute to the nascent field of feminist foreign policy (analysis), this paper brings together two bodies of international relations (IR) literature: postcolonial feminism and post-positivist foreign policy analysis (FPA). This paper contributes a fundamental critique of both ‘conventional’ and ‘unconventional’ (namely post-positivist) FPA to demonstrate the lack of attention paid to postcolonial and feminist theories within FPA. In turn, this exposes the ways in which FPA marginalises, and renders inconsequential, the gendered, sexualised and racialised dimensions underwriting foreign policy …

The Merits And Limits Of A Gendered Epistemology: Muslim Women And The Politics Of Knowledge Production, Farhana Rahman

Journal of International Women's Studies

At their essence, feminist epistemologies argue that traditional male epistemologies have systematically removed the voice of women from knowledge production, effectively barring women from being “knowers”. How does the gendering of knowledge affect those with a particular perspective of viewing the world? This article explores the merits and limitations of a gendered epistemology by employing standpoint theory as a tool of analysis. Through the lens and context of the intersection of religion, gender, and Western academia, I trace the politics of knowledge production as it relates to Muslim women working within an Islamic paradigm. This article first explores gender as …

‘Freedom In Her Mind’: Women’S Prison Zines And Feminist Writing In The 1970s, Olivia Wright

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper examines the under-researched and undervalued area of American women’s prison zines. It discusses three publications created at the California Institute for Women, Frontera, during the 1970s, placing them in the wider contexts of prison reform and the women’s movement. Through close analysis, it demonstrates the influences of, and connections to, the feminist print culture at the time and how groups such as the Santa Cruz Women’s Prison Project enabled their publication and influenced their ideology. Examining women’s prison zines can contribute to conversations about women’s liberation by offering new perspectives on what I call ‘collective autobiography’, and giving …

Introduction: New Writings In Feminist And Women’S Studies, Laura Clancy, Sarah Burton

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Resisting Marriage: Defying Expectations In Three Lesbian Novels, Jennifer Jordan

Honors Program Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Women Migrant Workers: Ethical, Political And Legal Problems, Todd C. Harris

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Women Migrant Workers: Ethical, Political and Legal Problems, edited by Zahra Meghani. Routledge, 2016.

Book Review: Valued Daughters, First Generation Career Women, Madhavi Venkatesan

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Valued Daughters, First Generation Career Women, by Alice W. Clark. Sage Publishing India. 2016.

Book Review: Intersectionality: Origins, Contestations, Horizons, Wendy Wright

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Intersectionality: Origins, Contestations, Horizons, Anna Carastathis. University of Nebraska Press, 2016.

Book Review: Gender Shrapnel In The Academic Workplace, Lisa M. Litterio

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Gender Shrapnel in the Academic Workplace, by Ellen Mayock. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.