Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

The Global Impact Of Quotas: On The Fast Track To Increased Female Legislative Representation, Aili Mari Tripp, Alice J. Kang

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Quotas have become an important mechanism through which women today are entering legislatures worldwide. This study shows that the introduction of quotas has helped overcome constraints on women’s representation posed by economic underdevelopment, cultural influences, and even electoral systems. This study also demonstrates that the introduction of quotas offers the most explanatory power for women’s representation today, together with electoral systems that allow for greater candidate turnover (i.e., party-list proportional representation systems). The majority of studies explaining women’s legislative representation prior to 2000 focused on electoral systems, cultural considerations, and the strength of leftist political parties. Since the mid-1990s, however, …

Women And Technology: Reversing The Trends Of Attrition And Obtaining A Balance, Gondy Leroy, Kristin M. Tolle, Linda Perkins

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Many reports and technical news bulletins presented by organizations such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) highlight that few female and minority college students are choosing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields of study or careers. For those who choose STEM fields, attrition both during education and in the workplace is pervasive. NSF reports in its 2006 Science Indicators that women account for only 27% of the bachelor’s degrees in computer sciences. And although the …

Pond-Women Revelations: The Subaltern Registers In Maithil Women's Expressive Forms, Coralynn V. Davis

Faculty Journal Articles

Ponds are ubiquitous in the Maithil region of Nepal, and they figure prominently in folk narratives and ceremonial paintings produced by women there. I argue that in Maithil women's folktales, as in their paintings, the trope of ponds shifts the imaginative register toward women's perspectives and the importance of women's knowledge and influence in shaping Maithil society, even as this register shift occurs within plots featuring male protagonists. I argue further that in the absence of a habit of exegesis in their expressive arts, and given the cross-referential, dialogic nature of expressive practices, a methodology that draws into interpretive conversation …

Living Past Your Expiration Date: A Phenomenological Study Of Living With Stage Iv Cancer Longer Than Expected, Cynthia Levine

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

More treatment options exist today for persons diagnosed with terminal cancerextending lives longer than expected though there is little known about the psychosocial needs or resources for these individuals. This study describes the experience of living past the expiration date and still living with Stage IV cancer. A transcendental phenomenological approach was used to elucidate vivid expressions of this experience in a sample population of five Caucasian women. The women survived beyond their prognoses of an earlier expiration are not close to imminent death and are still living with incurable breast cancer metastases. The aim of this phenomenological inquiry is …

The Leadership Self-Identity Of Women College Presidents, Robbie Hertneky Phd

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this research study was to explore the concept of leadership self-identity in a particular population of formal leaders—women college presidents. Using narrative inquiry, the research examined the following: how these women describe and define themselves as leaders, what personal attributes they believe allow them to be leaders, their past and future career intentions, how their relationships with others influence their leadership self-identity, and the stories they tell about themselves and leadership. Participants were asked questions designed to reflect their core identity and personal narrative, and to describe their career and relationships. Common themes that emerge include: how …

Bent Familia De Nouri Bouzid : Enjeux De L’Amitié, De La Clairvoyance Féminine Et Du Questionnement, Hélène Tissières

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Bent Familia by the Tunisian filmmaker Nouri Bouzid breaks down silences by questioning norms and power structures, including patriarchal authority. Centered on an exceptional friendship between three women and examining their preoccupations as well as their needs, the film reveals the empowering forces of sharing, insightfulness and engagement. Through the character of Aïda and the intertwinement of arts – in particular music and painting – the film dismantles absolutes and illusions. It encourages deep questioning in order to trace new paths, valuing the clear-sighted contributions of women in a continuously changing society.

Gender Disparities In Living Arrangements Of Older People In Ghana: Evidence From The 2003 Ghana Demographic And Health Survey, Chuks J. Mba

Journal of International Women's Studies

In this study, the living arrangements of persons aged 60 years and older in Ghana are examined. The data for the study emanate from the household roster component of the most recent nationally representative sample survey, the 2003 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey. The focus is on socio-economic and demographic characteristics, as well as co-residential patterns, of the elderly persons. Additionally, use is made of the 1960-2000 census results of Ghana in order to through light on the emerging phenomenon of population ageing in the country. The results show that the proportion of persons aged 60 years or older in …

Can Developing Women Create Primitive Art? And Other Questions Of Value, Meaning And Identity In The Circulation Of Janakpur Art, Coralynn V. Davis

Faculty Journal Articles

In this article, I examine the values and meanings that adhere to objects made by Maithil women at a development project in Janakpur, Nepal – objects collectors have called ‘Janakpur Art’. I seek to explain how and why changes in pictorial content in Janakpur Art – shifts that took place over a period of five or six years in the 1990s – occurred, and what such a change might indicate about the link between Maithil women’s lives, development, and tourism. As I will demonstrate, part of the appeal for consumers of Janakpur Art has been that it is produced at …

Secrets And Hiding Places: The Worth Of Women In Nicholas Nickleby, Elizabeth Redmond

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

In early Victorian England, married women were denied the legal right to own property, and social convention remanded them to ostracism if they chose to remain single. Likewise, jobs that were available to women failed to pay a living wage, so women were placed under tremendous economic and social pressure to marry. In Charles Dickens' novel, Nicholas Nickleby, he depicts how marriage becomes manipulated within the working and middle classes as a means to acquire wealth. Dickens also compares the repression of women to the abuse suffered by school children in the Yorkshire schools, which had a reputation for neglecting …

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 …

Liberated Jokes: Sexual Humor In All-Female Groups, Janet Bing

English Faculty Publications

Females have formerly been under-represented in jokes. Many scholars have claimed that joke making is primarily a male activity, particularly in the domain of sexual jokes. In this paper, I discuss sexual jokes that women share with each other both in all-female groups and by e-mail. After reviewing some widely held assumptions about women and jokes, I explore liberated women's jokes, including their structure, use of stereotypes, and subversive ideas. Finally, I discuss why humor theory is incomplete without the inclusion of a female perspective and suggest that women should tell more jokes.

Unbending Gender Narratives In African Literature, Charles C. Fonchingong

Journal of International Women's Studies

The last century has witnessed an upsurge in literature triggered by the feminist movement. This unprecedented event has transformed the various literary genres that are being deconstructed to suit the changing times. African literature has not been spared by the universalized world order. The paper attempts a re-analysis of gender inequality from the pre-colonial to post-colonial period from the lenses of literary narratives. Male writers like Chinua Achebe, Elechi Amadi, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, and Cyprain Ekwensi in their literary mass are accused of condoning patriarchy, are deeply entrenched in a macho conviviality and a one dimensional and minimalised …

Young Activists And The New 'No Wave': Two Anthologies For A Feminist Future, Alycia Sellie

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Gender Mainstreaming And Integration Of Women In Decision- Making: The Case Of Water Management In Samari-Nkwanta, Ghana, Nana Ama Serwah Poku Sam

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Water, as a natural resource, is a basic necessity of life. In recent years, it has been recognized that community participation, especially by women, is essential to the success of water and sanitation projects in poor communities of developing countries. This research therefore focused on an assessment of how the conscious consideration of gender issues has affected the outcomes of the Samari-Nkwanta Water and Sanitation Project (SWSP) in the South-western part of Ghana.The study revealed that the involvement of women and men from the initial stages of project to the end helps to enhance more equitable participation and responsibility sharing.

A Gender Perspective On Water Resources And Sanitation, Marcia Brewster

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Women are closely connected to and affected by use of, access to and control over water resources, including water supply and sanitation facilities. Drawing on case studies from Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia, this article: analyses the central role women play in providing, managing and safeguarding water resources and sanitation services; examines the issues of concern to be addressed in order to implement a gender-sensitive approach to water management and sanitation; and makes recommendations for strategies to mainstream gender perspectives in the field of water resources and sanitation management.

“The Place Of Cool Waters”: Women And Water In The Slums Of Nairobi, Kenya, Chi-Chi Undie, Johannes John-Langba, Elizabeth Kimani

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

n this paper, we explore how women and young girls in two informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya, are affected by water in its various forms. We analyze sixteen focus group discussions with women, girls in school, and girls out of school, focusing on their unique water experiences and concerns. Drawing on the strengths of qualitative data, we thickly describe how women navigate the water challenges prevalent in the urban slum context.

Narcissuses, Medusas, Ophelias… Water Imagery And Femininity In The Texts By Two Decadent Women Writers, Viola Parente-Capkova

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

My concern is the way in which women writers whose work can be characterized as Decadent and/or Symbolist used the figures of Narcissus, Medusa and Ophelia, as well as the imagery of femininity and water. When analyzing this aspect of their work, I am looking at the ways in which these writers created and co-created the Decadent imagery, what strategies they adopted in their representations of woman and the construction of female subjectivity.

The Heart Of Undine: The Im/Possibility To Love Under Water, Ulrike Hugo

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

This short story plays upon the myth of the water nymph, who out of love for a man gives up her previous existence and becomes mortal. Traumatized women, especially, often experience love in this tension of devotion and self-sacrifice. The text plays with a metaphorical language bordering lyricism and kitsch, it plays with exaggerated notions of love and projections and culminates in an ending which is predictable yet deviates from the myth.

Images Of Water And Woman In The Arts, Zdenka Kalnicka

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Archetypal connection of woman and water is ambiguous: it includes the connection of water and woman with life as well as with death. The paper explores the ways, how two sides of this connection were depicted in the artworks created by women and men artists, focusing on their gender differentiated approach (Albín Brunovsk_ and Germaine Richier, Edward Burne-Jones and Edith Rimmington). As an inspiration for reconsideration of the relationship between Life and Death, the potential of old symbol of the frog as the symbol of birth, death and re-birth is examined (Susan Makov).

The Ladies Of The Water: Iemanjá, Oxum, Oiá And A Living Faith, Cláudia Cerqueira Do Rosario

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

The orishas Iemanjá , Oxum and Oiá are related to the forces of salt and fresh waters, and to the storms, and are objects of living worship not only in Brazil but also in parts of Africa - where they came from - and Americas. Based on their archetypal representations, this paper will be a reflection on the archetypes of the relationship woman/water and its symbolic implications, both in “sacred” and “profane” ways, still alive in contemporary culture.

The Changing Role Of Women In Watermanagement: Myths And Realities, Nandita Singh

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Women and water are linked in several ways, an important pragmatic linkage being their role in water management. Several continuous efforts at positively transforming this role have been made during the last three decades, ranging from their improved role as domestic water managers to eliciting their greater participation in water management initiatives at community level. Studies tend to indicate that the anticipated ends of such exercises are universally achievable, in isolation of the prevailing social and cultural contexts where the women are placed. This paper seeks to unfold the realities underlying the universalistic claims regarding a transformed role for women …

How Beneficial Has Water Technology Been For Rural Nepalese Women?, Bhawana Upadhya

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

This paper aims to explore the effect of irrigation technology on women of rural Nepalese terai communities. This is done by looking at the effect of technological change on rural women of three different classes in terms of their absolute and relative access to income, food consumption and workload. The article also explores how technology adoption helps enhance rural women's bargaining power and how division of labor is gendered. Case study approach together with other participatory rural appraisal techniques had been used to gather field information.. The study reveals that even in a small social setting, gender identities prevail over …

Women, Water And The Reclamation Of The Feminine, Colleen Kattau

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

This paper examines the relationship between water and women particularly in terms of representative cultural expressions that underlie women's recovery of water as a fundamental human right, and explores how deep knowledge and trust of earth's bounty sustains viable and effective social change campaigns such as the right to water movement. Drawing principally upon the sociocultural analysis of ecofeminist thinkers such as Vandana Shiva and Carolyn Merchant, as well as William Marks's work on water, I critique the nature-culture dichotomy underlying approaches to water as a 'resource', and try to undermine the accepted hierarchy of 'power over nature' which by …

Symbols Of Water And Woman On Selected Examples Of Modern Bengali Literature In The Context Of Mythological Tradition, Blanka Knotkova-Capkova

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Woman-water homology appears in modern Bengali literature (namely poetry) in various aspects: as the archetypal symbol of creation and destruction, symbol of the womb as the beginning and end of life and rebirth (connoting both physical womb and eternal womb), and also of the womb as dark mysteriousness; a symbol of the continuation, preservation of life, symbol of transience and elusiveness, traditional male written poetic symbol of charm and beauty. In the demystifying, subversive (not only female) poetic imagination, it may also construct the symbol of eternal unity with the female principle, articulate a specific concept of female identity.

Shifting Experiences: The Changing Roles Of Women In The Italian, Lowland, And German Regions Of Western Europe From The Middle Ages To The Early Modern Period, Susan Papino

Senior Honors Projects

As the culture of the Middle Ages declined and Early Modern period characterized by a revival of humanistic ideals of the Renaissance commenced, the society of Western Europe underwent many changes. Different attitudes emerged concerning cultural values, and the medieval feudal way of life that has often been interpreted as being antiquated and obsolete gave way to more modern political, economic, and social systems. The question still remains, however, of exactly how women, an often underrepresented part of society, were affected by these so-called modernizing changes. The scope of this research is to basically address this question and examine the …

Cultural Analysis Of The Indian Women's Festival Of Karvachauth, Puja Sahney

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The festival of Karvachauth is celebrated by upper class married women of North India and occurs in the month of October or early November. On this day married women fast to ensure the long lives of their husbands. They wake up before dawn and eat a meal. After sunrise they do not drink water or eat any food until they see the moon at night. The moon is watched through a sieve and prayed to before breaking the fast. An important part of Karvachauth is a ritual that is performed by women in the afternoon. This ritual is hosted by …

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 …

The (No) Work And (No) Leisure World Of Women In Assi, Banaras, Nita Kumar

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

In the riverside neighborhood (mohalla) of Assi, in the south of Banaras, families of the following professions are to be found: the preparation and retail of foods such as: milk, sweets, tea, paan, peanuts and snacks; clerical work in offices or shops; private professional work, such as priesthood, teaching, boating, cleaning toilets; and crafts, such as masonry, weaving, making and maintaining jacquard machines, carpentry, and goldsmithy. All this work is done by men in the public sphere. In Banaras, the observable and articulated sphere of activity called "work" (kam) largely exists for men only. Men are …

The Americanization Of Tsuru Aoki: Orientalism, Melodrama, Star Image, And The New Woman, Sara Ross

Communication, Media & The Arts Faculty Publications

This article contextualizes issues of race and Orientalism in the career of Japanese actress Tsuru Aoki within changing representational strategies and ongoing cultural struggles over the public and domestic roles of women in the modern age. According to the author, Aoki's persona blurred the boundaries between Japanese and U.S. identities.

Women And Homelessness In Massachusetts, Michelle Kahan

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

Ninety percent of the 1,100 families who utilize the state's shelter system annually are headed by women, as are approximately 20% of the 19,000-29,000 individuals who stay in Massachusetts emergency shelters each year. In total, a minimum of 5,000 women and 2,000 children annually stay in Massachusetts homeless shelters.

These figures do not include over 3,000 women in domestic violence shelter (60% of whom enter shelter with their children), not the 50% of families seeking emergency shelter who are turned away each year. Over a period of three years, women also make up a quarter of Boston's 1,400 street dwellers: …