Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

The Joyous Yoni: An Exploration Of Yogic Perspectives Toward Sexual Empowerment For Women, F. M. Shroff

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper explores yogic approaches to women’s sexuality. Acknowledging that sexualized violence against women is a harsh and pernicious reality for women all over the world, the paper adopts an inclusive perspective on women’s sexuality that focuses on pleasure. A basic introduction to yoga prefaces a discussion of prana (life force) and concepts of unity and oneness. These concepts provide a framework for yogic concepts of the body, with an emphasis on sexuality. Specific breathing exercises, meditations, poses, locks and seals are mentioned. The experience of one of Canada’s most accomplished yoga teachers is also depicted. The paper concludes by …

Experiences Of Women War-Torture Survivors In Uganda: Implications For Health And Human Rights, Helen Liebling-Kalifani, Angela Marshall, Ruth Ojiambo-Ochieng, Nassozi Margaret Kakembo

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper will describe the resulting long-term health needs of women war-torture survivors of the civil war years in Luwero District, Uganda. To do this sections of case studies from interviews carried out in Kikamulo Sub-County, Luwero, are utilised. The effects of gender-based violence and torture and its long term, severe and enduring impact on women’s health will be highlighted. In 1994, the Centre for Health and Human rights at Harvard University led the first international conference on health and human rights. This recognised that human rights are an essential pre-condition for physical and mental health. Women’s resulting health needs …

The Task Of Being Content: Expatriate Wives In Beijing, Emotional Work And Patriarchal Bargain, Daniella Arieli

Journal of International Women's Studies

Based upon an ethnographic study of western expatriate (expat) wives in Beijing, this paper describes these women’s ‘patriarchal bargain’ and the emotional labor it involves. Relocation entails pressures to support the husbands’ careers in various ways, interruption of their working and social life, and increased economic and social dependency. At the same time, however, it also allows them to enjoy leisure and prestige, and to conduct a privileged life style. This bargain demands an emotional labor on the women’s part: an ongoing effort to feel good with their life in Beijing. The study focuses on the strategies the women use …

Integration, Clarification, Substantiation: Sex, Gender, Ethnicity And Migration As Social Determinants Of Women’S Health, Bilkis Vissandjee, Ilene Hyman, Denise L. Spitzer, Alisha Apale, Nahar Kamrun

Journal of International Women's Studies

The aim of this paper was to examine, via a scoping review, how the literature focusing on immigrant women’s health, based on selected criteria, has been able to capture not only sex and gender differences but also the other socially grounded determinants of health. Using selected health databases as well as a diversity of keywords, a final sample of 59 was obtained after a number of steps to increase validity and credibility of the process were taken. Since “women” was one of the main keywords, all of the studies included women either by themselves (n=20/59) or along with men (n=39/59). …

Gender Bias After Death: The Case Of The Clergical Cemetery, St. John’S Orphanage, Thurgoona, Nsw, Australia, Dirk H. R. Spennemann

Journal of International Women's Studies

Cemeteries are commonly seen as reflective of the historic environment in which they were created and therefore form a unique interpretive tool for the cultural heritage manager. As this case study of clergical cemetery documents, physical heritage of a cemetery may well reflect the power hierarchy at the time, but it does not accurately reflect the historic reality. The effective manipulation of the tangible evidence left behind for future generations has effectively enshrined a gender bias in perpetuity.

Pathologizing The Female Body: Phallocentrism In Western Science, Stephanie E. Libbon

Journal of International Women's Studies

In his well-known work Making Sex, Thomas Laqueur contends that the conception of human sexuality evolved from the ancient Greeks’ one-sex model to modernity’s two-sex model as events surrounding the French Revolution prompted a desire to see difference and therefore a need to create difference. In particular, Laqueur argues that it was the struggle for power between those advocating enfranchisement for women and those opposed to this which led to the reconstitution of the human body and in particular the female body. Extrapolating on Laqueur’s assertion that the female was conceived as an inferior version of the male in Antiquity …

Economic Empowerment Of Women Through Information Technology: A Case Study From An Indian State, P. N. Prasad, V. Sreedevi

Journal of International Women's Studies

It is universally accepted that Information Communication Technologies (ICT) offer immense opportunities for the comprehensive social and economic development of the people all over the world. Without its adoption, there is little chance for countries or regions to develop. However, the potential of ICT as a technology for promoting micro-enterprises by poor women is still unused in many countries. This article discusses the success story of a government project for poverty eradication using ICT. The case study on ‘ICT micro-enterprises by self-help group of poor women’ describes the story of a self-help group, which uses potential of ICT for poverty …

The Fortunes And Misfortunes Of Women Rice Producers In Ndop, Cameroon And The Implications For Gender Roles, Lotsmart N. Fonjong, Mbah Fongkimeh Athanasia

Journal of International Women's Studies

In most communities in Cameroon, traditional norms mandate that rural women fulfill the reproductive roles of child bearing, home management and food provision for the family. Thus, these women are unable to exercise any influential economic voice- they can hardly earn income. Cash agriculture like rice production provides a possible outlet for the empowerment of these women in rice producing areas. However, this agricultural work would solve one problem for the women and create another. Any attempt to encourage these women to work outside their homes may increase their workload. This paper examines the situation of female rice farmers in …

Male Gender Roles And Sexuality: Implications For University Girls’ Hiv/Aids Awareness In A Nigerian University, S. O. Momoh, Chinedum Godson Asagwara, Ugiomoh Maria Meriamu

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study was conducted to examine the implications of male gender roles and sexuality for University girls’ HIV/AIDS awareness. Information was elicited from 2399 randomly selected undergraduate students, from the nine faculties of the University of Lagos, Nigeria. Results indicate moderate levels of HIV/AIDS awareness and that of the hypothesis testing showed a no significant difference at p> 0.05, as a result of male gender roles. The paper draws the conclusion that the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS was on the increase, and that University undergraduate girls are more vulnerable because of high risks of sexual behaviour for monetary gains. The …

About My Sisters 1996-2006, Ellie Brown

Journal of International Women's Studies

This is a photographic essay depicting my sisters and our quest for identity during adolescence.

Book Review: Black Women In The Ivory Tower, 1850-1954. An Intellectual History, Kathleen Sterling

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Black Women in the Ivory Tower, 1850-1954. An Intellectual History by Stephanie Y. Evans

Women And Informal Credit: Lessons From Moretele, South Africa, M. Kongolo

Journal of International Women's Studies

Informal credit plays an important role in the development of rural and urban areas in South Africa. It is about giving the disadvantaged poor people and women access to needed financial services to increase their earning opportunities, to meet their needs and to deal with emergencies. The findings suggest that informal credit impacts positively on the lives of the majority of women in the study area, to the extent of enabling them to become self-employed through self-chosen economic activities. It has also assisted them both in accumulating resources and protecting them from further lack of incomes in times of stress.

Book Review: Check It While I Wreck It: Black Womanhood, Hip-Hop Culture, And The Public Sphere, Matthew W. Hughey

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Check It While I Wreck It: Black Womanhood, Hip-Hop Culture, and the Public Sphere by Gwendolyn D. Pough

Book Review: Cut Loose: (Mostly) Older Women Talk About The End Of (Mostly) Long-Term Relationships, Barbara R. Bergmann

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Cut Loose: (Mostly) Older Women Talk About the End of (Mostly) Long-Term Relationships, edited by Nan Bauer-Maglin

Book Review: Pomegranate Hearts, Emily Regan Wills

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Pomegranate Hearts by Rouhi Shafii

Book Review: Daughters Of Kerala: 25 Short Stories By Award-Winning Authors, Marie Varghese

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Daughters of Kerala: 25 Short Stories by Award-Winning Authors, translated by Achamma C. Chandersekaran

Book Review: Sex Trafficking: The Global Market In Women And Children, Moshoula Capous Desyllas

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Sex trafficking: The global market in women and children by Kathryn Farr

Book Review: Betty Ford: Candor And Courage In The White House, Jessica Burstrem

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Betty Ford: Candor and Courage in the White House by John Robert Greene

Book Review: The Capacity To Care: Gender And Ethical Subjectivity, Maureen P. Hogan

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of The Capacity to Care: Gender and Ethical Subjectivity by Wendy Hollway

Two Poems, Mary O’Donoghue

Journal of International Women's Studies

Two Poems by Mary O’Donoghue:

• Thanksgiving in Florida
• Manatee

Naked Protest: Memories Of Bodies And Resistance At The World Social Forum, Barbara Sutton

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article draws on memories from the 2003 World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil in order to examine the role of naked bodies in relation to politics. Focusing on a specific moment within the flurry of (embodied) activities at the World Social Forum, this piece explores the tensions, contradictions, and opportunities arising from the use of nakedness as a political tool. The naked body is examined as a subject of political resistance and as an object of repression, highlighting how the meanings of nakedness are marked by gender and connected systems of social inequality. The analysis shows that while …

Introduction To Women’S Bodies, Gender Analysis, Feminist Politics At The LFórum Social Mundial, Laura Roskos, Patricia Willis

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Feminism In The Space Of The World Social Forum, Ara Wilson

Journal of International Women's Studies

Despite clear affinities, the integration of feminism into the World Social Forum remains uneven, in ways reminiscent of well-known histories of women’s movements with various lefts. This essay draws on observations of the 2005 WSF at Porto Alegre, Brazil and the 2006 African Social Forum in Bamako, Mali, as well as secondary literature, to explore the articulation of transnational feminism and the World Social Forum. Using concrete practices, texts, and spaces, I discuss different dimensions of the interaction of feminism with the WSF, including political norms, political geography, and historical trajectories. The relation between feminism and the WSF hinges not …

Ways Of Being: Feminist Activism And Theorizing At The Global Feminist Dialogues In Porte Alegre, Brazil, 2005, Amanda Gouws

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article attempts to capture some reflections by an African feminist scholar and activist on the activism and academic debate at the Global Feminist Dialogues (FD) in Porte Alegre, Brazil in January 2005. The activism and the space for dialogue is a feminist space that includes different types of feminism, but is also a space that attempts to build a movement within diverse feminist networks. This form of activism is contrasted with the depoliticization of activism caused by gender mainstreaming in Africa. The academic debate at the FD takes place in the intersections between activism and theorizing and opens a …

Social Fora: Representing Resistance And Alternatives? Critique And Alternative Interpretation From A Feminist Perspective, Magdalena Freudenschuss

Journal of International Women's Studies

The World Social Forum is only one in the worldwide process of social fora, which mark a new phase in the era of globalisation. This critical form of globalisation from below challenges neoliberal hegemony and sets up a space to develop alternatives symbolised by the Forum’s motto, “Another World is Possible.” Collectively, the fora make up a part of the forces of global resistance, but in a more concrete way, opinions on resulting strategies and aims diverge concerning the foras’ character and function. At the same time, criticism is formulated inside the fora, leading to heavy debates. Among these critiques …

Transnational Feminisms And The World Social Forum: Encounters And Transformations In Anti-Globalization Spaces, Janet Conway

Journal of International Women's Studies

What would it mean to place feminism(s) – as movement(s), politics and ethics – at the centre of our understandings of the World Social Forum? The author argues that transnational feminisms have been among the significant forces constituting the WSF, although this has been uneven across different time-spaces and scales of the WSF. She further asserts that transnational feminisms, understood as movement(s), politics and ethics, are making particular and irreducible contributions to contemporary emancipatory movements in and beyond the WSF. This study historicizes and analyzes some major expressions of transnational feminism at the WSF with implications for understanding the inter-relationality …

Is ‘Another’ Public Sphere Actually Possible? The Case Of “Women Without” In The European Social Forum Process As A Critical Test For Deliberative Democracy, Nicole Doerr

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper presents results of a cross-national comparative research project on the case of democracy in the European Social Forums (ESFs) process over the period from 2003 to 2005. The various progressive social movements engaged in the European Social Forums process try to construct “another world” and “another public sphere” internally within their own practices of participatory and deliberative democracy in public forums. This includes fighting discriminations against women in general and women from non-western European parts of the world in particular. I take as my point of departure the case of “women without,” that is women activists who lack …

Parallel Or Integrated ‘Other Worlds’: Possibilities For Alliance-Building For Sexual And Reproductive Rights, Barbara Klugman

Journal of International Women's Studies

The author proposes that the paradigms within which struggles for reproductive and sexual rights are waged fail to engage with those dimensions of sexuality and reproduction that are inscribed into the broader organization of social and economic life nationally and globally. In the case of reproductive rights she argues that the possibility of delivering quality reproductive health services is determined not only by ideological struggles regarding people’s right to control their sexual and reproductive selves but also by the extent of the state’s commitment to delivery of services as well as global factors influencing state capacity, such as debt, or …

The Silences Between: Are Lesbians Irrelevant? World Social Forum, Mumbai, India, 16-21 January, Susan Hawthorne

Journal of International Women's Studies

In this essay, I reflect on my experience at the Mumbai World Social Forum in 2004. I begin with a discussion of silence as methodology in research with, by and about lesbians. I examine the silence around lesbian politics as well as the silences between lesbian activists and those they encounter in discussion, political activism and research settings. I explore some of the differences and similarities between Australia and India both within the mainstream culture and in the freedoms or otherwise of lesbians. I then go on to describe the workshop I organized for the Mumbai World Social Forum on …

India Sutra, Susan Hawthorne

Journal of International Women's Studies

The complete “India Sutra” appears in The Butterfly Effect by Susan Hawthorne (Spinifex Press, 2005).