Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Book Review: Women In The New Millennium: The Global Revolution, Kristin Blakely

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Women in the New Millennium: The Global Revolution by Anne R. Breneman and Rebecca A. Mbuh

Book Review: Victims As Offenders: The Paradox Of Women’S Violence In Relationships, Rachel Kalish

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Victims as Offenders: The Paradox of Women’s Violence in Relationships by Susan L. Miller

Rocking The Cradle To Rocking The World: The Role Of Muslim Female Fighters, Farhana Ali

Journal of International Women's Studies

Attacks by the mujahidaat are arguably more deadly than those conducted by male fighters and could motivate other Muslim women to adopt suicide as the tactic of choice. The use of Muslim women to conduct martyrdom, or suicide, operations by male-dominated terrorist groups could have implications on the jihadi mindset, challenging more conservative groups such as Al Qaeda, to reconsider the utility of the Muslim woman on the front lines of jihad. These terrorist groups will likely exploit women to conduct operations on their behalf to advance their goals and achieve tactical gain.

Muslim women are increasingly joining the global …

Ahmadi Women Reconciling Faith With Vulnerable Reality Through Education, Huma Ahmed-Ghosh

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper presents the perceptions, attitudes and views of a group of Ahmadi women in Southern California through the eyes of their local leader. The specific focus is on ways in which Ahmadi women engage in cultural/religious community building within a racially and ethnically hostile environment since 9/11. Of particular concern are ways in which gender norms are reflected in Ahmadi women’s push toward formal and cultural education in their efforts to maintain their faith, culture and sense of community as they interface with the broader U.S. society. Given the current anti-Islamic climate in the U.S., the Ahmadis offer an …

Arab Women’S Education And Gender Perceptions: An Insider Analysis, Amani Hamdan

Journal of International Women's Studies

Studies focusing exclusively on the connection between Arab Muslim women’s educational pursuits and their gender perceptions, and how their gender perceptions may have changed as a result of living in two different cultures, are rarely conducted. Additionally, the factors that may influence an Arab Muslim woman’s educational pursuits seem seldom investigated. This article is highlighting some factors that may influence Arab Muslim women’s gender perceptions. In researching Arab Muslim women’s experiences, I considered the diversity and multiplicity of their race, ethnicity, class, and experience. How Arab Muslim women construct the gender aspect of their identities and how these identities may …

The Jamaican Female Skills Surplus And Earnings Deficit: A Holistic Explanation, Dawn Richards Elliott

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper addresses the poor socio-economic performance of Jamaican females despite superior human capital. A holistic explanation exploring female lifestyle choices is advanced since discipline-specific theories fail to explain occupational clustering and the resulting earnings gap. It is hypothesized that both reflect lifestyle constraints, which may be linked to characteristics of the social environment. Since these constraints affect different groups of women differently, then policies designed to reduce occupational dis-similarity and female-male earnings gap must adapt a dis-aggregated analysis. Catherine Hakim’s model of female dis-aggregation and data from the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Survey, LSMS, are used to advance …

A Gender-Based Analysis Of Performance Of Small And Medium Printing Firms In Metro Manila, Milagros F. Malaya

Journal of International Women's Studies

The objective of the paper is to present a comparative analysis of the performance of men-owned and women-owned businesses. The study uses a multidimensional framework of entrepreneurial success, where the indicators refer to the financial, non-financial and personal goals indicated in literature as being important to entrepreneurs. Economic performance was measured as change in sales and profitability for a period of one year and over three years. Data were obtained from printing firms based in Metro Manila, Philippines, a country in Southeast Asia. That no variations attributed to gender were found in firm performance on the short-term scale further support …

Interaction Between Objective And Subjective Occupational Conditions Affecting Physical Health Of Women Workers, Jinky Leilanie Lu

Journal of International Women's Studies

This is an investigation on the interaction between the subjective and objective occupational conditions in affecting the overall health of women workers in industries that have accommodated information technology. The sample consisted of 23 establishments and 630 women respondents. Results show that the most prevalent issues among workers in the electronics industry included the need to upgrade skills, repetitive and fast paced work, pressure at work, and work that entailed both physically and mentally demanding tasks. It was found that the overall good physical health of the workers was affected by these factors: overtime, mental work, close monitoring, medium industries, …

Myopic Feminist Individualism In A.S. Byatt’S Arabian Nights’ Tale: ‘The Djinn In The Nightingale’S Eye’, Kathleen Williams Renk

Journal of International Women's Studies

I take as my point of departure Jane Campbell’s view that Byatt’s “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye” “exposes the gaps … between the worlds in which twentieth-century women live,” as I situate Byatt’s story within its literary, political, and feminist framework. Viewing “The Djinn” as a condensed pastiche of what Byatt terms “the greatest story ever told,” One Thousand and One Nights, rather than a fairy or wonder tale, I read this tale in relation to Chilla Bulbeck’s insights in Re-orienting Western Feminisms: Women’s Diversity in a Postcolonial World. I argue that in her Arabian Nights’ Tale, …

“A Sea Captain In Her Own Right”: Navigating The Feminist Thought Of Huda Shaarawi, Rula B. Quawas

Journal of International Women's Studies

Huda Shaarawi was one of the first Egyptian women who argued for women’s liberation, starting with education which would lead to full participation in the social and cultural reform and result in social usefulness and in legal and civic equality. A socialist feminist, Shaarawi promoted a successful program for social change not only from within the existing social and political order but also from within the framework of Islam and its value system. She came to be a speaking subject of feminist politics and a feminist living text for the women of her own generation. She was, and still is, …

Women, Words And War: Explaining 9/11 And Justifying U.S. Military Action In Afghanistan And Iraq, Nancy W. Jabbra

Journal of International Women's Studies

Texts and images in the print media, outdoor advertisements, and on the Internet form the primary source material for this article. The Bush administration and the American media, drawing upon well-worn traditions of representation, contrasted American women and Muslim/Middle Eastern women, American and Middle Eastern male sexuality, and the moral qualities (good versus evil) of American and Middle Eastern people. They used those contrasts to explain 9/11 and legitimize war in Afghanistan and Iraq. 9/11 was simply explained through a contrast between American innocence and Muslim savagery. For Afghanistan, the predominant trope was liberating Afghan women from the Taliban, or …

Verbal And Visual Rhetorics Of Cancer: Defying Silence In Margaret Edson, Audre Lorde And Jo Spence’S Works, Catalina Florina Florescu

Journal of International Women's Studies

In this essay I offer some powerful verbal and visual examples of the rhetorics of cancer in an attempt to bring to our attention the experiences and reflections of those who felt more like medical cases than persons-patients while facing and eventually dying because of cancer. My essay is a critical “travelogue” through the pain of the other, more specifically as it is presented in Margaret Edson’s play Wit (2000), Audre Lorde’s memoir The Cancer Journals (1992), and Jo Spence verbal and visual memoirs Putting Myself in the Picture: A Political, Personal, and Photographic Autobiography (1988) and Cultural Snipping: The …

Book Review: Workable Sisterhood: The Political Journey Of Stigmatized Women With Hiv/Aids, Deborah H. Charbonneau

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Workable Sisterhood: The Political Journey of Stigmatized Women with HIV/AIDS by Michele Tracy Berger

Book Review: Women In The Superintendency: Discarded Leadership, Rebekah Buchanan

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Women in the Superintendency: Discarded Leadership by Joyce A. Dana and Diana M. Bourisaw

Book Review: Body Work: The Social Construction Of Women’S Body Image, S. M. Belcher

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Body Work: The Social Construction of Women’s Body Image by Sylvia K. Blood

Hidden Overburden Of Female-Headed Households In Guar Bean Production: Zimbabwean Experience, Innocent W. Nyakudya, V. J. Murewa, M. J. Mutenje, M. Moyo, T. J. Chikuvire, R. Foti

Journal of International Women's Studies

The study was done on a guar bean-growing project in Makachi area, Zimbabwe. The study objectives were to determine ownership of resources, time spent on production and access to information by male-headed and female-headed households. Data collection and analysis were based on the FAO Gender Analysis Framework. Results showed that male-headed households had more ownership of resources and spent less time on production; access to information was equal; female-headed households allocated a greater proportion of their land to guar bean production and matched their male counterparts in the mean yield. While inter-household exchanges helped female-headed households access draft power and …

Midwifery Education In Jordan: History, Challenges And Proposed Solutions, Lubna Abushaikha

Journal of International Women's Studies

The purpose of this paper is to provide a historical overview of midwifery education in Jordan during the past fifty years with an emphasis on the first bachelor of midwifery program in Jordan. Nine challenges of midwifery education that include expanding midwifery educational needs, accreditation of programs, recruiting qualified faculty members, clinical training, midwifery preceptorship, exit examinations, continuing midwifery education, recognition of midwifery graduates, and lack of graduate midwifery programs are presented. Proposed solutions for these challenges are discussed.

‘And Not Destroyed By The Destruction Of The Body’: Documenting Incarceration: Joya Mitra’S Killing Days, Tutun Mukherjee

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper discusses an unusual and disturbing narrative of a young student who is incarcerated for four years in Indian jails for participating in an ideological battle with a state government that steadily escalated in violence and brought students like her in direct confrontation with the state machinery. In prison, she is categorized as a ‘political detainee’ and must await her trial which is not allowed to happen until the political dispensation changes. Killing Days is a prison memoir – not of Mitra alone but of all the women she meets and shares pain and anguish with through the period …

Book Review: The Curious Feminist: Searching For Women In A New Age Of Empire, Secil Dagtas

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire by Cynthia Enloe

Book Review: Sex And Manners: Female Emancipation In The West 1890-2000, Andrea Powell Jenkins

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Sex and Manners: Female Emancipation in the West 1890-2000 by Cas Wouters

Madam President: Progress, Problems, And Prospects For 2008, Robert P. Watson

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women have made great progress in electoral politics both in the United States and around the world, and at all levels of public office. However, although a number of women have led their countries in the modern era and a growing number of women are winning gubernatorial, senatorial, and congressional races, the United States has yet to elect a female president, nor has anyone come close. This paper considers the prospects for electing a woman president in 2008 and the challenges facing Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice—potential frontrunners from both major parties&nmash;given the historical experiences of women who pursued the …

Gender, Romance Novels And Plastic Sexuality In The United States: A Focus On Female College Students, Huei-Hsia Wu

Journal of International Women's Studies

This analysis gauges gender difference in time spent reading romance novels and sexuality. Respondents were 770 white American college students, including 436 females and 334 males, age 17–49. Males are viewed as a reference group. Drawing upon the “plastic sexuality” thesis and feminist theory, this study hypothesizes that female readers of romance novels have higher levels of interest in sexuality (at least in the attitudes) than male readers, and non-readers but such a sexual interest is not necessarily converted into a more active sexual behavior. Most romance novels promote deeply constraining patriarchal values, reading romance novels plays a role in …

An Analysis Of The Economic Status Of Women In Cameroon, Stella Nana-Fabu

Journal of International Women's Studies

The Cameroon woman has for long been the economic backbone of the nation, yet she remains largely marginalized in society generally and in the economic sector in particular. The cumulative effects of the interplay of gender discrimination of traditional African and Western colonial as well as neo-colonial systems on the general status of the Cameroon woman has been enormous. As this paper reveals, in modern times, more Cameroon women have become more dependent on men economically than in pre-colonial or traditional times.

It is true that modernization has wrought some good for Cameroon women, but this article shows that the …

Book Review: American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life Of Anne Hutchinson, The Woman Who Defied The Puritans, Marla Kohlman

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans by Eve LaPlante

Restorative Justice For The Girl Child In Post-Conflict Rwanda, Clara Chapdelaine Feliciati

Journal of International Women's Studies

The girl child suffers from both sexism and “childism” for she is at the intersection of women’s rights and children’s rights. The question of her fate in post-conflict Rwanda is particularly crucial for during the Rwandan genocide in 1994, she suffered egregious sexual violence based on gender regardless of her age. Not only were two-year old girls raped, but there was a clear intention to make women and girls suffer differently from men and boys: while the latter were killed rapidly with a single shot or machete stroke, girl children and women were mutilated, tortured and left to die slowly. …

Perceptions And Reflections On Sexual Harassment In Jamaica, Jimmy Tindigarukayo

Journal of International Women's Studies

Within the context of gender inequality that pertains to the Caribbean region generally, this study examines and analyzes two surveys on sexual harassment in Jamaica. The first survey was conducted in June/July 1999 by the Committee against Sexual Harassment at the Workplace, intended to solicit information from public sector employees on their perception and opinions on sexual harassment at work place. The second survey was conducted among 44 organization in Jamaica during the month of January 2005 by the author, in association with the Bureau of Women’s Affairs of the Government of Jamaica, intended to attain three objectives: to ascertain …

Surviving The Doctoral Dissertation Experience: The N.W. Sisters’ Study, Patricia J. Mcilveen, Monica R. George, Sharon L. Voss, Ada Laguardia

Journal of International Women's Studies

The purpose of this year-long study was to examine and describe both the individual and shared experiences of a group of four women as they went through their Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) program. The main research question was: What do you perceive as the factors that were integral to your achieving success in the doctoral program? Data from this qualitative case study were gathered through group interview sessions. Subsequent analysis of interview transcripts revealed the following factors that were integral to achieving success: sense of humor, family values, empathy, perseverance, spirituality, accountability to the group, collaboration, good advisors, ability to …

To Marry A Dog, June Leavitt

Journal of International Women's Studies

I was the photographer/ journalist on an international medical education team, sponsored by The Center for Asian and International Bioethics of Ben Gurion University of the Negev that went to Kadalur, in Tamil Nadu, India to teach rural Untouchable women basic mother and child health care. Two violations of human rights which came to my attention, one an Untouchable child’s, and one an Untouchable widow’s are the focus of this documented photographic essay which explores the historical, social and religious roots of the repression of the Untouchables of India today.

Though male Untouchables are certainly victims of this oppression, female …

Gender Dynamics Of Missionary Work In India And Its Impact On Women’S Education: Isabella Thoburn (1840- 1901) - A Case Study, Marthal Nalini

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article is a cross-cultural study of the work of the first North American single woman missionary educator Isabella Thoburn who was sent overseas by the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The objective of this article is to examine the motives of Isabella, her career in India, and the impact of her work on women’s education. It also highlights the facts that Isabella was an extra-ordinary woman and carved spaces for herself as professional, administrator, mentor, and matriarchs, first in her parent society and then in cross-cultural contexts, for which there was no precedent. The early …

Tactics Against Sexual Harassment: The Role Of Backfire, Greg Scott, Brian Martin

Journal of International Women's Studies

To oppose sexual harassment, it is useful to understand tactics commonly used by perpetrators. A useful approach to tactics is through the concept of backfire: if an action is perceived as unjust and information about it is communicated to receptive audiences, it has the capacity to cause outrage and consequently backfire on the perpetrator. Perpetrators regularly use five types of tactics to inhibit outrage: (1) cover-up of the action; (2) devaluation of the target; (3) reinterpretation of the events; (4) use of official channels to give the appearance of justice; and (5) intimidation and bribery of targets, witnesses and others. …