Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

“Nowadays Who Wants Many Children?”: Balancing Tradition And Modernity In Narratives Surrounding Contraception Use Among Poorer Women In West Bengal, India, Devalina Mookerjee

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper investigates how poorer women in West Bengal, India balance the ideas of modernization and tradition in their choices to use birth control. Ideologically, Indian women have traditionally been placed within the context of the home and valued principally as wives and mothers. Children, therefore, are tremendously important for women within this framework. In contrast, the ideology of the relatively well structured and very large family planning program asks especially poorer women to have fewer children for the good of the family and the nation.

How do poorer, predominantly illiterate women balance these two oppositional ideas in an area …

Women’S Role In The German Democratic Republic And The State’S Policy Toward Women, Susanne Kranz

Journal of International Women's Studies

According to the theories of Marx, Engels, Bebel, and the political leaders of the GDR, the emancipation of women would be accomplished when the emancipation of the working class was realized. They further clarify the general view toward women in a socialist society; these ideas characterized the GDR and the general perception of women. The women’s question was incorporated into the social question and the class struggle, and not distinguished as an individual aspect of gender relations. The question is how much equality women in the GDR had achieved and how emancipated the society, truly, was. My main focus is …

Configurations: Encountering Ancient Athenian Spaces Of Rhetoric, Democracy, And Woman, Mari Lee Mifsud, Jane S. Sutton, Lindsey Fox

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay encounters configurations of “woman” in the space of rhetoric and democracy. By “configuration” we mean how a woman is postured and positioned in this space. We deal in ancient Athens recognizing that an ancient conceptual space called rhetoric, an art or techne of civic discourse, is embedded in the contemporary lived space of American civic discourse always constructing the rhetorical figure of woman and continuously under construction. We explore this conceptual space rhetorically, that is, not to articulate the feelings or meanings the space would have had for the ancient Athenians, but rather to articulate how this conceptual …

Extent And Causes Of Gender And Poverty In India: A Case Study Of Rural Hayana, Santosh Nandal

Journal of International Women's Studies

In spite of the enshrining anti-poverty programs and objectives of the poverty eradication programs contained in India’s five year plans, women’s poverty in India, even after 58 years of independence, is glaring. This paper, based on a field survey, addresses the issues of economic constraints and the denial of women’s access to productive assets in the form of land ownership and human capital such as education, skill-training. The article contributes to the overall picture of female poverty at the national level. The author finds an exaggerated emphasis being placed on women laborers and inadequate economic opportunities among them as the …

To See Her Face, To Hear Her Voice: Profiling The Place Of Women In Early Upper East Tennessee, 1773-1810., Sσndra Lee Allen Henson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Following the Proclamation Act of 1763 growing numbers of colonists arrived in upper East Tennessee to settle and build wherever they could make arrangements with local groups of Cherokee. While these first families were occupied with survival, the British colonies continued to thrive. Concurrent with growing prosperity was the increasing determination of colonists to exercise control over their property and economic interests. Frontier exigencies affected family strategies for dividing labor and creating economic endeavors. A commonly held view asserts that where women were scarce and needed, rigid sex-role distinctions could not prevail. This thesis will present research of the earliest …

The Communal Apartment In The Works Of Irina Grekova And Nina Sadur, Erin Collopy

Journal of International Women's Studies

While a good deal of recent scholarly attention has been paid to the Soviet communal apartment, the current literature has not specifically addressed how women are affected by living in such a space. Russian women have a complicated relationship to the domestic sphere. While the domestic sphere is the center and source of women’s power, cultural and social demands require that women bear almost the entire burden of domestic responsibilities. The present work provides a brief history of the Soviet communal apartment and Russian women’s relationship to the domestic space. The focus then turns to the literary representation of women’s …

The View From The Street: La Goutte D’Or, Mary Ellen Wolf

Journal of International Women's Studies

This photo essay is about a multiethnic urban immigrant neighborhood in central Paris called the Goutte d’Or. The text and the selection of photographs foreground the author’s exploration of women’s spaces in the neighborhood and the difficulties which women face in everyday life: housing, illiteracy, cultural differences, and poverty.

Whatever Happened To Lisa Simpson? An Exploration Of Female Adolescent Development Through Problem Based Learning, Amy Perrault

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

As a teacher for the past six years in a girls’ school, I have met and had the chance to interact with hundreds of adolescent girls. Over time I have come to realize how much adolescence seems to have changed since I was in their shoes. The media inundates them with messages about what is cool, hip, and acceptable—music videos, fashion, and the internet provide the frame of reference against which today’s young woman compares her own self worth. While girls have always looked to society’s standards to help them develop as individuals, at no time in history have the …

The Travels Of Our Bodies, Ourselves, Jane Pincus

New England Journal of Public Policy

The women’s health book, Our Bodies, Ourselves: A Book by and for Women, was first printed in 1970 by the small, radical New England Free Press. Published by the group of women soon too become the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, it was advertised solely by word of mouth. Successive newsprint editions reached a quarter of a million people in the United States through colleges and an extensive network of “underground” bookstores. The book placed female sexuality firmly within the framework of women’s health and combined vividly experienced medical encounters with available health and medical information. It critiqued prevailing cultural …

Lessons About Reform From “A Very Dangerous Woman”, Sherry H. Penney, James Livingston

New England Journal of Public Policy

We discuss reform in antebellum America through the life of Martha Coffin Wright, an activist in the abolition and early women’s rights movements. Consideration of her motivations for reform; the obstacles faced by these movements; their methods, successes, and failures, may offer guidelines for reformers of today.

Some Dumb Girl Syndrome: Challenging And Subverting Destructive Stereotypes Of Female Attorneys, Ann Bartow

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Essay considers ways in which female attorneys confront sexism and stereotyping in the legal profession and in life, and strongly endorses embracing feminism, and wearing comfortable shoes.

Women In The Web Of Secondary Copyright Liability And Internet Filtering, Ann Bartow

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Essay suggests possible explanations for why there is not very much legal scholarship devoted to gender issues on the Internet; and it asserts that there is a powerful need for Internet legal theorists and activists to pay substantially more attention to the gender-based differences in communicative style and substance that have been imported from real space to cyberspace. Information portals, such as libraries and web logs, are "gendered" in ways that may not be facially apparent. Women are creating and experiencing social solidarity online in ways that male scholars and commentators do not seem to either recognize or deem …

Beyond The Pale: Women, Cultural Contagion, And Narrative Hysteria In Kipling, Orwell, And Forster, Alan Blackstock

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

'Listen, Rama’S Wife!’: Maithil Women’S Perspectives And Practices In The Festival Of Sāmā-Cakevā, Coralynn V. Davis

Faculty Journal Articles

As a female-only festival in a significantly gender-segregated society, sāmā cakevā provides a window into Maithil women’s understandings of their society and the sacred, cultural subjectivities, moral frameworks, and projects of self-construction. The festival reminds us that to read male-female relations under patriarchal social formations as a dichotomy between the empowered and the disempowered ignores the porous boundaries between the two in which negotiations and tradeoffs create a symbiotic reliance. Specifically, the festival names two oppositional camps—the male world of law and the female world of relationships—and then creates a male character, the brother, who moves between the two, loyal …

Women's Participation In Disaster Relief And Recovery, Ayse Yonder, Sengul Akcar, Prema Gopalan

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Too little attention has been given to the gender-differentiated effects of natural disasters, that is, women’s losses relative to men’s, how women’s work time and conditions change (both in terms of care-giving and income-generating work), or how disaster-related aid and entitlement programs include or marginalize affected women. The detailed case studies from three earthquake-stricken areas in India and Turkey that are contained in this issue of SEEDS help fill this information gap. They provide examples of how low-income women who have lost everything can form groups and become active participants in the relief and recovery process. Readers learn how women …

Miradas Desencadenantes : Los Estudios De Género En La República Dominicana Al Inicio Del Tercer Milenio, Ginetta Candelario

Sociology: Faculty Books

No abstract provided.

Zines Straight From The Stacks: Self-Published Tracts From Library Workers, Alycia Sellie

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Institutionalized Powerlessness In Context: The Static And Dynamic Nature Of Women’S Status In Rural Bangladesh, Akiko Nosaka, Bradford W. Andrews

Journal of International Women's Studies

Understanding the institutional structures surrounding the social status of women is an important topic in studies of gender and inter-generational relationships. This article uses exchange theory to examine the status and familial interactions of women in rural Bangladesh throughout their lives. Overall, their status today remains low but it does fluctuate according to a highly institutionalized pattern of family-based social expectations. Furthermore, this article shows that although the institutions defining a woman’s status appear to be stable, they are also changing because of the society’s exposure to recent worldwide advances in family planning and health care.

Social Influences On The Female In The Novels Of Thomas Hardy., Jessica D. Notgrass

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many female characters in Thomas Hardy’s novels clearly illustrate one of the Victorian stereotypes of women: the proper, submissive housewife or the rebellious, independent dreamer. Hardy does not demonstrate how women should be, but rather how society pressures women to conform to the accepted image. Hardy progresses from subtly criticizing society, as seen in The Return of the Native and The Woodlanders, to overtly condemning gender roles and marriage in Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. The characters of Thomasin, Mrs. Yeobright, and Grace Melbury illustrate those who submit to society’s expectations; and Eustacia Vye, Felice Charmond, Tess …

Motivation To Manage And Status Of Women In Library And Information Science: A Comparative Study Among The United States, India, Singapore And Thailand, Sarla R. Murgai

The Southeastern Librarian

In most non-western societies, the self-system (personal standards of judging and guiding one’s actions) is much more inter-dependent on family and society, whereas in western societies, especially in the U.S., it is dependent on the individual self. Cross-cultural studies suggest that a person’s behavior should be understood in the context of their social experience and social roles. In all the cultures and countries studied, however, the status of women is universally lower than men; consequently there is a need to explore the causes. Professional women have made some strides in penetrating managerial ranks in the library and information science profession, …

The Rhetoric Of The Frontier And The Frontier Of Rhetoric, Carly Kay Paul

Theses and Dissertations

The definition of rhetoric has recently been expanded to include elements of experience, particularly the experiences that landscape provides. One landscape that has rhetorical significance is the American frontier, both in Colonial times and in the nineteenth century. The frontier had a rhetorical impact on women, in particular, giving them freedom to change their roles and achieve economic, political, and social success. Because of the tremendous significance of the frontier in women's lives, a new definition of frontiers emphasizes conditions such as opportunity for change, a dangerous and uncertain atmosphere, a freedom of thought and action, and an ability to …

An Illimitable Field: A Practice-Based Investigation Into The Writing Process, Julie Mellor

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay will be presented in two parts. The first part contains the opening chapter of my novel, Cork Dolls. This novel, as yet unpublished, has been written as part of a practice-based PhD looking at contemporary women’s fiction. Cork Dolls is set in Sicily and focuses on the psychological tensions between Rachel, an English au pair, and Susan, a Filipino housekeeper. Both women are employed by the wealthy Bruni family. As background to the first chapter, it is helpful to know that Rachel has recently had an abortion, while Susan left her daughter, Reetha, in the Philippines some years …

In Quest Of True Equality: A Study Of The Climate For Women At Gettysburg Since 1975, Sara Gustafson

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

In 2003, the election of Katherine Haley Will as Gettysburg College’s thirteenth president began a new era for women on campus. Will will be the first female president in the history of the college, and her election signifies the tremendous legal and psychological changes that have shaken both the college and the nation over the past quarter century. Federal legislation, the slowly-broadening vision of the school’s administration, and the proactive stance taken by women themselves have contributed to making Gettysburg College a place of seemingly strong gender equality.

The Exploitation Of Women In Mexico's Maquiladoras, Jennifer Gibbs

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Maquiladora factories, created in 1965 as part of Mexico's Border Industrialization Program, have become the backbone of economic progress along the United StateslMexico boundary. These factories, largely owned by foreign investors, have drawn thousands ofwomen from Mexico's interiors to work in the area. As a result, globalization and increased foreign investment have created cultural, environmental, and occupational hardships and hazards for female Mexican laborers despite the monetary gains that have resulted from Mexican and United States government programs.

John Fox Jr.'S Commentary On The Roles Of Women In The Progressive Era., Heather Mac Sykes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

John Fox, Jr. provides commentary on the changing roles of Progressive Era women in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, “A Cumberland Vendetta,” and “The Pardon of Becky Day.” Fox’s portrayals provide evidence that although he recognized the changes in his society with women spearheading reform, he did not entirely approve of these changes or of women taking an aggressive role in advocating change.

This thesis provides textual examples and analysis demonstrating Fox’s beliefs. Chapter two focuses on the stories of “The Pardon of Becky Day” and “A Cumberland Vendetta.” Chapter three analyzes The …

A Body Of Her Own: Cultural Constructions Of The Female Body In A.S. Byatt's Strange Stories, Sabine Coelsch-Foisner

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Byatt's short fiction, from her first collection Sugar and Other Stories (1987) to Elementals (1998) is marked by a continuous preoccupation with the body: the body as the product of social signifying practices, the body as the site of desires, fears, and anxieties, the body as the source of experience, the body as creator and created. In brief, the body is treated as the centre of existence, consciousness and identity. Yet, these are constantly called into doubt in Byatt's stories, which depict heroines trapped between asserting their identity and submitting to cultural dictates of beauty and behavior. In …

Women At Rutgers College: Remembering 1970-1977, Nancy Topping Bazin

Women's & Gender Studies Faculty Publications

My story is about developing women’s studies from 1970 to 1977 at Rutgers College, which was then one of the five separate colleges that made up Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Rutgers College was all-male, but it did not stay that way long. Because it was part of a state university, the Board of Governors decided that the college had to go co-ed the following year to avoid being sued for discrimination. In order not to displace male students, the integration would proceed very slowly by adding a few females to each freshman class. After four years of …

The Self Is Not Gendered: Sulabha's Debate With King Janaka, Ruth Vanita

Global Humanities and Religions Faculty Publications

This essay highlights the debate on women and gender in ancient Indian texts. Neither the popular nor the scholarly debate in modern India has paid sufficient attention to unmarried learned women in ancient Hindu texts. I examine the recurrent figure of Sulabha, a single woman and an intellectual-renunciant; I focus on her debate with philosopher-king Janaka in the epic Mahabharata. When Janaka uses anti-women arguments to critique Sulabha’s unconventional behavior, Sulabha successfully establishes, on the basis of Hindu philosophical principles, that there is no essential difference between a man and a woman; she also demonstrates by her own example that …

“Word Made Flesh”: Czech Women’S Writing From Communism To Post-Communism, Madelaine Hron

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article explores the changes in Czech women’s fiction from communism to post- communism, focusing in particular on Czech women writers’ relationship to literary discourse and feminism. It contends that women writers’ rapport to ideological discourse and literary production under communism is a determining factor in women’s relationship to both writing and feminism. It examines this literary legacy in terms of post-communism, surveying the differences between a totalitarian socialist regime and that of a materialist, capitalist economy, as exemplified in Czech women’s literature. The article offers a survey the major post-communist women writers, including Hodrová, Boučková, Kriseová, as well as …

Situation Of Women In Cuba’S Prisons, Maritza Lugo Fernández

Institute for Cuban & Cuban-American Studies Occasional Papers

No abstract provided.