Women's Studies Commons^™

Gender Awareness Of Rural Women In Bangladesh, Shahnaj Parveen

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study aims to determine the social status of rural women and their level of gender awareness (GA) in three villages within the Mymensingh district of Bangladesh. Data were collected from 156 respondents through group discussions and personal interviews from December 2002 to April 2003. Women’s social status and GA was determined following the Likert scale method. The study reveals that personal income and physical beauty of rural women are the most important factors determining a higher social status while women with distressed conditions including mental and physical disabilities were found to have a lower social status. Among ten pre-selected …

Respecting The East, Embracing The West: A Tribute To The Women Of The Maritime Sikh Society, Pavna Sodhi

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article pays homage to the women of the Maritime Sikh Society as they juxtapose values from the western and eastern cultures into one mindset. Their quest to preserve, transmit and share their Punjabi culture is reflective in the cohesiveness of their community and religious congregation. Unfortunately, similar to most immigrants, this population dealt with a variety of obstacles in order to develop a bicultural identity and live comfortably in their third space. A third space represents a safe, mutually respectful, comfortable and authentic environment, which encourages an individual to be proud of his or her ethnic heritage and in …

The Social World Of Prostitutes And Devadasis: A Study Of The Social Structure And Its Politics In Early Modern India, Karuna Sharma

Journal of International Women's Studies

This research paper discusses two groups of professional women who had a distinct place in the sexual economy of the period under review. By analyzing the actions and situations of prostitutes and the devadasis (literally meaning servants of God) in terms of a broader context of relationships, I consider the sexual-services and the entertainment provided by them as a meaningful labor, which got integrated at both the social and cultural levels. I have looked at how and to whom the prostitutes and the devadasis sold their labor, and how they related to other women, to men, and to various social …

Book Review: Sons Of The Movement: Ftms Risking Incoherence On A Post-Queer Cultural Landscape, Hae Yeon Choo

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Sons of the Movement: FtMs Risking Incoherence on a Post-Queer Cultural Landscape by Jean Bobby Noble

Book Review: Prolife Feminism: Yesterday And Today, Kimberly Kelly

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of ProLife Feminism: Yesterday and Today, edited by Mary Krane Kerr, Rachel MacNair, and Linda Naranjo-Huebel

Book Review: Champions For Peace: Women Winners Of The Nobel Peace Prize, Karen E. Weekes

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Champions for Peace: Women Winners of the Nobel Peace Prize by Judith Hicks Stiehm

Book Review: Akron’S “Better Half”: Women’S Clubs And The Humanization Of The City, 1825-1925, Jennifer L. Adams

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Akron’s “Better Half”: Women’s Clubs and the Humanization of the City, 1825-1925 by Kathleen L. Endres

Family Law Reform And The Feminist Debate: Actually-Existing Islamic Feminism In The Maghreb And Malaysia, Brad Archer

Journal of International Women's Studies

For an increasing number of Muslim women and women’s rights activists, the stark disparity between the principles of justice and equality guaranteed by international and domestic legal norms on the one hand, and the oppressive environment of their homes that is legitimated by repressive family laws on the other, has acted as the catalyst for a unified call for reform. In the Maghreb, an influential Islamic feminist movement has successfully lobbied for family law reform, and this movement’s positivist framework has recently been adopted as the model for Malaysia’s increasingly vociferous demands for gender equality. Although secular feminists in the …

Gender, Information Technology And Health: The Case Of Women Workers In Export Zones In The Philippines, Jinky Leilanie Lu

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study tried to look into the intricate relationship between work, gender, health and technology in the micro-organizations and in the context of a globalized economy. The study also showed that technology has intensified work as evident in the results of focus group discussions. The need to cope with the pace of the machines was implicated in the experience and perception of health among workers. The new work arrangements, organizational structure and new technological applications were seen in the study to produce new hazards and new illnesses. The characteristics now of the new workplace are: information technology intensive work, fast …

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 …