Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Confronting Discrimination And Structural Inequalities: Professional Nigerian Women’S Experiences Of Negotiating The Uk Labour Market, Joy Ogbemudia

Journal of International Women's Studies

The line between hypervisibility and invisibility appears to be blurred for Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women in the workplace due to their race and gendered status (Lander and Santoro 2017). The intersection of race and gender exposes many BAME women to discrimination, structural inequalities, and the dynamics of tokenism, which can be a cause of intense job dissatisfaction (Stroshine and Brandl 2011).

It is often the case that discussions on the economic integration of immigrants focus mainly on how the socio-economic dynamics of the host country can limit them to certain labour market sectors. While this is a key …

Introduction To The Special Issue: Overcoming Women’S Subordination: Socialisation, Law And Structural Inequalities. The 6th World Conference On Women’S Studies, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 29-31 May 2020, Aleisha Ebrahimi

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

The Development And Validation Of Covid-19 Prevention Behaviour Scale On Female Hungarian Population, Kinga Kalcza-Janosi, Susana Jancso-Farcas, Kinga Szabo, Ibolya Kotta, Eszter E. Marschalkó

Journal of International Women's Studies

In the emergency situation of an ongoing global pandemic, disease prevention behaviour is essential. The majority of studies assess preventive behaviour through relevant unidimensional questions, but this approach is not necessarily the best way to conceptualize prevention, as health maintenance guidelines cover several different areas of possible individual precautionary and preventive practices. The aim of the study is the development and validation of a multidimensional COVID-19 prevention behaviour scale for the Hungarian speaking population (Covid-19-PBS). The items address major aspects related to preventive behaviour towards COVID-19 inspired by preliminary pandemic studies and the WHO prevention recommendations. 612 eligible female individuals …

The Moderation Effect Of Generation On The Relationship Between Psychological Flexibility And Covid-19 Preventive Behaviour Among Females, Ibolya Kotta, Kinga Szabo, Eszter E. Marschalkó, Susana Jancso-Farcas, Kinga Kalcza-Janosi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Disease prevention behaviour is essential during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. How people respond to information and regulations to control this infectious disease can be influenced by their age and generational identity. An individual with an optimal level of psychological flexibility can adapt to challenging situations more efficiently. Hence, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the moderating effect of generation on the relationship between psychological flexibility and COVID-19 preventive behaviour among different generational cohorts of women (baby boomers, X, Y, and Z). This relationship was rarely addressed in the literature, which is what inspired this study. Data were …

Psychological Resilience And Perceived Social Support Among Women Exposed To Traumatic Events Of Saptari District, (Kanchanrup Municipality), Rakshya Karki, Sharad Rayamajhi, Kabita Khati

Journal of International Women's Studies

Saptari is the smallest district in Nepal; it lies in the country’s eastern development region. There have been limited studies conducted about Maithali women's status and domestic violence they face, however, no studies were conducted about the psychological resilience and social support they receive to overcome these adversities specifically in the Saptari district. The position of Madhesi women is worse because of analphabetism, and political, religious, and superstitious beliefs. The study's primary objective is to examine the relationship between resilience and social support among women facing traumatic events in life. A descriptive cross-sectional study consisted of 200 respondents from the …

Sex Disaggregated Gender-Based Labor Differentiation Among The Elected Barangay Officials In The First District Of Cavite, Victoriano N. Rodil, Maria Ciella S. Buena, Frinze Al A. Bernal, Annabee G. Pedregosa, Seuz Rey R. Cantela, Sharmaine "K.C." B. Dela Cruz

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study was conducted from July 2018 to December 2019 to determine gender role differentiation among elected Barangay (smallest administrative division in the Philippines) officials in the 1st district of Cavite in the Philippines. We used a purposive incidental technique, focusing on 137 samples of male and female Barangay officials. The first district of Cavite Province, consisting of the city of Cavite and municipalities of Noveleta, Kawit, and Rosario, has 134 Barangays with 1,072 elected Barangay seats; of these seats, women occupied 298 (27.8%). In reproductive, productive, community managing, and leisure-related activities, both the female and male elected officials were …

Anxiety As A Source Of Motivation: A Critical Study Of The Select Novels Of Bapsi Sidhwa, Shraddha Dhal

Journal of International Women's Studies

The Parsi community in India is currently threatened by extinction due to diverse factors including low birth rate, fecundity, strict laws against religious conversion, and extreme urbanization. This small ethno minority forms a well-defined community by following an inveterate way of living; they only breed among community members, which is an outcome of their long-established allegiance. This closed way of living directs the collateral emergence of ethnic anxiety in its members about the prospect of their survival in the next century. This dwindling community has survived through adapting to centuries of social and cultural cataclysms in pre- and post-partition India. …

Exploring Female Identity In And Through Art In Pakistan: Experiencing De-Colonial Feminism, Sadia P. Kamran

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study looks into the identity of brown female artists living in the post-colonial society of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan today. It examines the role, status, and ideals of a handful of women artists and educators from the '80s, mostly members of the Women Action Forum, who have helped define the current identity of Pakistani women by initiating feminist debates. The concept of feminism in post-colonial society is multidimensional and needs to be explored to combat the misconstrued and imposed identity of Pakistani women as miserable, second-grade citizens of the third world. Dominant religions and cultural practices in this …

Feminist Activism Through The Arts In Late 19th Century And Early 20th Century. A Diachronic Comparative Study Between Portugal And Brazil, Isabel C. Carvalho, Heemann Christiane, Oliveira Teresa

Journal of International Women's Studies

Brazil and Portugal are two countries that, although geographically located on different continents, share a history (from 1500 to 1822 when Brazil was a Portuguese colony) and the same language (Portuguese), and both have very high rates of domestic violence and situations of gender inequality. Growing fundamentalist and ultraconservative parties around the world are threatening gender equality and women’s conquest for rights. In Portugal and Brazil, new parties with extremist discourses and ideologies that perpetuate patriarchal societies are also growing. It is crucial to continue breaking paradigms and remembering history, particularly the moments marked by the struggle for human rights. …

Settling In A Foreign Land: Women’S Experiences In Exile In Latvian Writer Irma Grebzde’S Prose Fiction, Ingrīda Kupšāne, Sandra Meškova

Journal of International Women's Studies

Exile is a central motif of 20th century European culture, and literature was often tied to historical events throughout this century, especially during World War II. In Latvian literature, this motif was partially the result of the emigration of a great part of the population in 1944; many were fleeing direct warfare and the return of the Soviet army, escaping from Latvia. This paper examines the peculiarities of women’s experiences in exile in the prose fiction of Latvian émigré writer Irma Grebzde (1912–2000). Grebzde was among those 250,000 Latvians who fled as fugitives in 1944 for Sweden and Germany and …

How “Offensive” Is Offensive? A Closer Look At Controversial Advertisements, Iwona Desouza, Suparna Naresh

Journal of International Women's Studies

We live in a world inundated with messages that seek to promote products varied and eclectic in their feel and purpose. Capitalism has rooted itself in many societies; corporate enterprises enthusiastically advertise their products around the world. Over the years we have had countless advertisements bombard us through our TV sets, newspapers, billboards and now through our smartphones. While attention-grabbing, these advertisements are unfortunately often considered questionable. Rising competition among advertisers for consumer attention has led to the production of advertisements that are increasingly risqué and frequently downright offensive. There have been growing concerns about the increasingly low standards of …

National Identity Attachment And Its Variables, Tri Windari

Journal of International Women's Studies

National identity and nationalism have continued to influence economic, social, and political behavior despite their fluidity in a globalized and modernized world. Drawing on Benedict Anderson’s concept of “imagined communities” and the Social Identity Theory by Henri Tajfel and John Turner, national identity as a part of social identity is dynamic and plastic. It is relatively influenced by external and internal factors of individuals, including time and space. This fluid trait makes national identity difficult to explain and measure. This study utilizes a qualitative method based on secondary sources to analyze national identity attachment variables that affect it by focusing …

Societal Security Of Iranian Women: A Challenge Of Subjectivity Vs. Objectivity, Hamid Sajadi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Critical theories in the field of security have revealed the incompatibility of government-based approaches to security studies and the nature of domination and repression structures in society. The Copenhagen and Welsh Schools of security studies have made many attempts to reconceive the concept of security and security studies by criticizing the neglect of domestic security issues and the ignorance of the community and individuals. The formation of the concept of societal security, and in particular women's security, is one of the achievements of these theoretical developments. Assuming that the acceptance of new approaches in developing societies is strongly influenced by …

Quest For Selfhood: Women Artists In The South Asian Visual Arts, Prachi Priyanka

Journal of International Women's Studies

There has been a recent increase in country-focused publications on women artists in Southeast Asia that highlight the newfound interest in feminist-inspired discourses and histories of women artists. India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh have shared a common history and culture for millennia. The socio-economic cultural patterns in these three countries are very similar, particularly when it comes to the status of women. Notwithstanding the difference in religions followed and practiced in these countries, the women here more-or-less experience similar challenges in their advancement. These three countries have traditionally suffered from poverty, illiteracy, health and infrastructure issues, and are bracketed as third …

Feasibility Of Off-Grid Solar Energy Enabling Sustainable Development Of Women In Rural Kenya, Laura Hellqvist

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper examines the attempts of the government of Kenya and international development agenda to achieve the objective of providing energy access for all and facilitate empowerment and poverty reduction to the rural areas within the framework of sustainable development goals. Energy has been recognised as the key enabler of economic and social development, however, the efforts to bring energy access to women within rural communities are falling short. The policy tools and economic instruments prescribed to address energy deficiency are not designed according to the local socio-economic conditions, which will be examined through empirical evidence produced from an energy …

‘Angry Young Women’ Disrupting The Canon In Late Soviet Latvian Literature: Andra Neiburga’S Early Prose Fiction, Sandra Meškova

Journal of International Women's Studies

In the late phase of ‘developed socialism’, shortly before Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms of perestroika or reconstruction in the Soviet Union in 1985 had reached Latvian cultural establishment, a young generation of poets, writers, playwrights, journalists, musicians, cinema and theatre artists throughout the socialist bloc countries and the Soviet Union initiated new trends in culture. In Soviet Latvia, the new trends in prose fiction produced by young writers were labelled the ‘new wave’. Among them emerged a group of women writers called ‘angry young women’ who challenged the established canon of socialist realism by addressing new themes including the negative sides …

Demi Bride Trafficking: A Unique Trend Of Human Trafficking From South-East Asia To China, Laetitia Lhomme, Siren Zhong, Billie Du

Journal of International Women's Studies

Every year, hundreds of thousands of women and girls from Southeast Asia are forced or tricked into marrying Chinese men who exploit them for sex and childbearing. Although an emerging body of research and reports has revealed the scale and living conditions of the trafficked brides, there have not yet been systematic studies that would help stakeholders understand the real needs of the victims. Bride trafficking victims are generally defined as those who are deprived of their rights and married against their will. However, our investigation found that in China, cases which involve seemingly willing victims are barely covered by …

Iraqi Women’S Leadership And State-Building, Batool H. Alwan, Sana K. Qati, Inass A. Ali

Journal of International Women's Studies

After 2003, Iraq witnessed radical changes in its political system. These changes occurred after many wars, multiple sanctions, and an external occupation during which its infrastructure and institutions were destroyed until it became one of the failed states from which the most serious problems that affect international security and stability emanate. It has also become an environment of conflict and multiple renewed crises, the most important of which is a crisis of leadership and state-building, which has become a necessity to discuss. This research focuses on the topic of the leadership crisis in Iraq and we look to women as …

Effect Of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs When The Head Of The Household Is Female In Mexico, Yaura Yong Rubio-Sanchez, Eduardo Rodríguez-Juárez, Sergio Demetrio Polo Jiménez

Journal of International Women's Studies

The objective of this article is to examine the impact of the OPORTUNIDADES-PROSPERA conditional cash transfer program on women heads of household in Mexico. The target of the empowerment of women household heads in the program is predominantly focused on developing human capital, shown by the increase of children in the school by the women household heads. The database was based on the data gathered through the Survey unique questionnaire of socio-economic information (CUIS) realized by the Social Development Secretariat (SEDESOL), through the PROSPERA National Coordination, which operate the OPORTUNIDADES-PROSPERA Program. The database that was analyzed consisted of 3,762 families …

Women's Studies: The Possibility Of Rethinking And Designing The Foundations Of Modern Culture, Hamid Sajadi

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge’S Fleabag(S): Direct Address And Narrative Control From Stage To Small Screen, Jessica Beaumont

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay explores the television comedy Fleabag (BBC 2016-2019) which was adapted from a theatrical monologue and owes its mode of direct address to this dramatic past. The original one-woman show, written by and starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge, was first performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2013, and, like the BBC Three television adaptation that followed in 2016, follows the story of a sexually promiscuous young woman, known to the audience only as ‘Fleabag,’ struggling with the death of her closest friend. The essay is concerned with the application of auteur theory, which becomes relevant to a discussion of the …

How Should An Understanding Of Gender Shape Our Approach To The Production Of Knowledge?, Alice R. Dunn

Journal of International Women's Studies

For feminists, the question of what it means to take a feminist approach to the knowledge production process itself is of paramount importance. Drawing on postcolonial and intersectional thought and embedded in a discussion of the realities of the academic research process, this paper questions how an understanding of gender should shape such an approach. Ultimately, it argues the importance of moving beyond self-reflexivity alone and towards an understanding of research as a process of representation.

Starting from the intuition that feminist normative theorising should be grounded in women’s experiences, I first consider how the starting point and end point …

Salvation As Violence: Anti-Trafficking And The Rehabilitation Of Rescued Filipino Women Into Moral Subjects, Sharmila Parmanand

Journal of International Women's Studies

Philippine anti-trafficking and women’s rights legislation constructs sex work as victimhood. This understanding of prostitution positions interventions such as raids, rescue operations, and rehabilitation programs as core strategies for “protecting” and “empowering” all sex workers, regardless of their individual circumstances. Rehabilitation in this context refers to a range of psychosocial, medical, education, legal, protective custody, and economic services that help those designated as victims recover and reintegrate into society. There is a glaring lack of data on whether the socio-economic situations of rehabilitated women have improved and the current spaces for political advocacy by “survivors” are controlled by their rescuers. …

What Does It Mean To ‘Decolonise’ Gender Studies?: Theorising The Decolonial Capacities Of Gender Performativity And Intersectionality, Julianne Mcshane

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper argues for an understanding of Judith Butler’s concept of gender performativity and Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality as decolonial methodologies, alternative epistemologies, and forms of political praxis within gender studies, specifically focusing on the field’s institutionalisation within Western universities, given both their historic complicity in naturalising imperialist ideas and my own lived experience studying within them. I argue that gender performativity and intersectionality act as decolonial methodologies by revealing the respective erasures of constructedness and situatedness within certain dysconscious, imperialist conceptions of ‘gender’ grounded in Whiteness, as well as how these erasures remain otherwise hidden and/or naturalised (to …

Polymorph: Female Embodiment In Louise Bourgeois’S Sculptures, Cécile Huber

Journal of International Women's Studies

Artistic works provide unique ways of understanding the gendered and sexual subject. Bringing together a feminist psychoanalytic materialist approach inspired by Rosi Braidotti with the work of the artist Louise Bourgeois, this essay highlights how sculpture in particular can show the polymorphy of female embodiment. It thereby moves beyond previous interpretations of Bourgeois, which mainly drew on Freud’s and Klein’s psychoanalytic theory. Focusing on three works by Bourgeois, Torso/Self-Portrait (1963–64), Janus Fleuri (1968), and Maman (1999), I argue that these sculptures show amorph, ambiguous, and hybrid modes of embodiment. All three examples thus illustrate the lived polymorphy of the subject’s …

Social Reproduction Theory: On Regulating Reproduction, Understanding Oppression And As A Lens On Forced Sterilisation, Lydia Glover

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper considers Marxist feminism’s two main schools of thought – ‘dual systems theory’ and ‘social reproduction theory’ - and brings those theoretical perspectives into dialogue with a topic that is often neglected in feminist discussions of reproductive rights: forced sterilisation. The two material examples explored here are the historical forced sterilisation of Black (cisgender) women in the USA and the current coercive sterilisation of transgender men and women in the USA.

Looking first to the theoretical understandings of oppression, social reproduction theory will be distinguished from the dual systems approach. The dual systems reading of Marx understands gender and …

Intimate Partner Femicide In The Serbian Mainstream Media: Maintaining The Patriarchal Narrative Through Online Newspaper Readers’ Comments, Jovana Čvorić

Journal of International Women's Studies

Femicide represents the most extreme form of male violence against women (MVAW) and a growing problem in contemporary Serbian society. Despite the long-term struggle of the feminist movement to turn (lethal) MVAW into a political issue, it has remained in a private domain, out of the public eye. Due to the lack of official statistics on cases of femicide, news reports are the only source of information on this phenomenon. However, media reporting on this topic is problematic. From a feminist standpoint, this paper seeks to show how the maintenance of the patriarchal narrative about MVAW in the Serbian media …

Queering History With Sarah Waters: Tipping The Velvet, Lesbian Erotic Reading And The Queer Historical Novel, Naoise Murphy

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay outlines how Sarah Waters’ Tipping the Velvet (1998) illuminates the challenges involved in doing queer history. Waters’ lesbian historical novel queries the ‘official’ historical record and reflects on a fundamental tension in queer historical research; the distinction drawn between social constructedness and essentialism, alterity and continuity. Through playful re-enactment of the work of the academic researcher, the novel protests against being read as an authentic depiction of Victorian lesbian sexuality. Instead, it offers a postmodern metafictional response to the field of queer history, which broadens the questions we ask of the discipline. By enacting the process of historical …

The Post Pandemic University, Possibilities, Practices And Pedagogies: And New Writings In Feminist And Women’S Studies—Winning And Short-Listed Entries From The 2020 Feminist Studies Association’S (Fsa) Annual Student Essay Competition, Carli Rowell

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

A Study Of The Effects Of Work-Family Conflict, Family-Work Conflict, And Work-Life Balance On Saudi Female Teachers’ Performance In The Public Education Sector With Job Satisfaction As A Moderator, Adel Ismail Al-Alawi, Eman Al-Saffar, Zahra H. Almohammedsaleh, Hessa Alotaibi, Ebtesam I. Al-Alawi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Purpose: The main objective of this paper is to investigate the effects of work-family conflict, family-work conflict, and work-life balance on female teachers in the public education sector in Saudi Arabia as well as to analyze the impact of job satisfaction as a moderator for the independent variables.

Methodology: This paper is based on quantitative research methods that included a survey of employees. The constructs of work-family conflict, family-work conflict, and work-life balance were formed using the bivariate and correlation analysis done in SPSS. A scatterplot was used to identify the relationships between the moderating factor of job …