Women's Studies Commons^™

Lottiamo Ancora: Reviewing One Hundred And Fifty Years Of Italian Feminism, Miguel Malagreca

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay examines the struggle of Italian feminism for transforming long rooted beliefs and gender roles in Italy since the late nineteenth century. I specifically focus on the legal, political and symbolic levels. First, I describe the historical formation of Italian feminism and its relation with literature and politics. Next, I examine the emergence of new feminist groups, and their involvement with the late 1960s protests. I then briefly explore the issues of divorce, labor and family laws during the 1970s and 1980s. Finally, I summarize the progress of the lesbian and queer movements in their struggle for recognition and …

Perceptions And Reflections On Sexual Harassment In Jamaica, Jimmy Tindigarukayo

Journal of International Women's Studies

Within the context of gender inequality that pertains to the Caribbean region generally, this study examines and analyzes two surveys on sexual harassment in Jamaica. The first survey was conducted in June/July 1999 by the Committee against Sexual Harassment at the Workplace, intended to solicit information from public sector employees on their perception and opinions on sexual harassment at work place. The second survey was conducted among 44 organization in Jamaica during the month of January 2005 by the author, in association with the Bureau of Women’s Affairs of the Government of Jamaica, intended to attain three objectives: to ascertain …

Tactics Against Sexual Harassment: The Role Of Backfire, Greg Scott, Brian Martin

Journal of International Women's Studies

To oppose sexual harassment, it is useful to understand tactics commonly used by perpetrators. A useful approach to tactics is through the concept of backfire: if an action is perceived as unjust and information about it is communicated to receptive audiences, it has the capacity to cause outrage and consequently backfire on the perpetrator. Perpetrators regularly use five types of tactics to inhibit outrage: (1) cover-up of the action; (2) devaluation of the target; (3) reinterpretation of the events; (4) use of official channels to give the appearance of justice; and (5) intimidation and bribery of targets, witnesses and others. …

Generations, Feminist Beliefs And Abortion Rights Support, Terri Susan Fine

Journal of International Women's Studies

Do forces that impacted feminist beliefs in the past, such as gender and generation, impact feminist beliefs today within the context of abortion policy support? While the abortion rights issue was framed during the feminist movement era as a feminist issue, it is now clearly framed along partisan and ideological lines. Public opinion on issues that percolated through the feminist movement and identified as feminist issues in the past may no longer be viewed as feminist issues today. The abortion rights issue was chosen because of the oft-held perception that it is solely a women’s issue. The strong association of …

Blood Vengeance And The Depiction Of Women In La Leyenda De Los Siete Infantes De Lara, The Nibelungenlied And Njal’S Saga, Teresa Camacho

Journal of International Women's Studies

Following a review of the primary sources La leyenda de los siete infantes de Lara, The Nibelungenlied and Njal’s Saga the role of women and their role in exacting blood vengeance within a medieval context will be compared. The analysis is based upon the primary sources as well as some Spanish legal precedents and this is the basis for the comparative study and the roots in Germanic law of some aspects of medieval Spanish law.

On The Asphalt Frontier: American Women’S Road Narratives, Spatiality, And Transgression, Alexandra Ganser

Journal of International Women's Studies

In this article, I am going to analyze the concept of “gendered space” as it appears in select post-1970s US-American road narratives produced by women writers of various ethnic and social backgrounds. Drawing on recent re-mappings in cultural geography, I will cross disciplinary boundaries and argue that for female literary protagonists, the “open road” appears as a dangerous frontier—in which women’s physical and emotional well-being is always at perilous stake—rather than as an adventurous playground. In women’s road stories, the American highway does not maintain its mythical, iconic status, signifying freedom and the heroic quest for identity, which has been …

Surviving The Doctoral Dissertation Experience: The N.W. Sisters’ Study, Patricia J. Mcilveen, Monica R. George, Sharon L. Voss, Ada Laguardia

Journal of International Women's Studies

The purpose of this year-long study was to examine and describe both the individual and shared experiences of a group of four women as they went through their Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) program. The main research question was: What do you perceive as the factors that were integral to your achieving success in the doctoral program? Data from this qualitative case study were gathered through group interview sessions. Subsequent analysis of interview transcripts revealed the following factors that were integral to achieving success: sense of humor, family values, empathy, perseverance, spirituality, accountability to the group, collaboration, good advisors, ability to …

I Prostrate To The Goddess Foe Destroyer – Tibetan Buddhism And The (Mis)Naming Of Venusian Features, Kristine Larsen

Journal of International Women's Studies

Despite the multicultural intent of the IAU’s charge, the serious lack of Eastern representation in the membership of this supposedly international organization has serious repercussions for the naming of Venusian surface features. As this paper will demonstrate, the criteria used in naming eight Venusian features after “Tibetan Buddhist goddesses” is inconsistent and ambiguous at best, and clearly erroneous at worst. The attempt to pigeonhole Tibetan Buddhist iconographic representations of the feminine principle into a Western model fails because of what is posited to be a serious lack of understanding by the WGPSN of Tibetan Buddhist culture and beliefs. It will …

Labor Stress And Nursing Support: How Do They Relate?, Lubna Abushaikha, Eileen P. Sheil

Journal of International Women's Studies

Selected aspects of the phenomenon of labor stress including the relationship between labor stress and nursing support were explored using a correlational design with 85 postpartum women who delivered vaginally and were recruited from a Midwestern general hospital in the United States. The Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire measured labor stress while the Bryanton Adaptation of the Nursing Support in Labor Questionnaire measured nursing support during labor. Significant positive correlations were found between number of labor hours and labor stress (r = .25, p = .020) and number of labor hours and number of labor procedures (r = .23, p = …

Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea: Internally Displaced Women And Girls In Liberia And Uganda And The Role Of The International Community, Cassandra Veney

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article provides a brief background on the civil war in Liberia and the ongoing political violence in Uganda that have left thousands of people internally displaced, especially woman and girls. It analyzes the willing and unwilling roles of women and girls in both conflicts as combatants, wives, and rape survivors, etc. It discusses how women’s bodies became an extension of the battlefield as all participants in the conflict perpetrated gross human rights violations against women and girls in the forms of rapes, gang rapes, torture, and beatings. These violations have forced many women and girls, especially in Liberia to …

La Loca And Manicomio: Representations Of Women Insanity During The Golden Age Of Mexican Films, Andrés Ríos Molina

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay analyzes two films produced during the Golden Age of Mexican Films (1931-1960) in order to explore the social structuring of women’s insanity. Both films deal with the scientific knowledge—the advice of psychiatrists was part of the productions—as well as with the symbolic references pervading Mexican society to understand the causes, symptoms and treatment of women’s insanity. These social imaginaries of women’s psychopathologies were marked by gender references which delimited what a woman should or should not be. In order to know how women’s insanity was taken into the big screen in Mexico during the middle of the Twentieth …

“From Margin To Center”: Processes And Relationships To Participation One Woman’S Ethnographic Journey Mirrored Through Community Research, Melise D. Huggins

Journal of International Women's Studies

In the closing two years of my doctoral degree that spanned ten years of my life, I was asked by a mentor to write a personal essay on my academic experiences at the university. That essay follows and is printed here not without the accompanying editing that marshaled its own questioning, self-reflection and analysis that comes with distance, wisdom, and the editor of a juried journal.

I was concerned to give a revisionist accounting now, another five or six years after the writing of the essay, to explain what my perspective was then as a disaffected African- American ABD (all …

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 …

Gender Dynamics Of Missionary Work In India And Its Impact On Women’S Education: Isabella Thoburn (1840- 1901) - A Case Study, Marthal Nalini

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article is a cross-cultural study of the work of the first North American single woman missionary educator Isabella Thoburn who was sent overseas by the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The objective of this article is to examine the motives of Isabella, her career in India, and the impact of her work on women’s education. It also highlights the facts that Isabella was an extra-ordinary woman and carved spaces for herself as professional, administrator, mentor, and matriarchs, first in her parent society and then in cross-cultural contexts, for which there was no precedent. The early …

Liberation Women, Melise Huggins

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Two Poems, Zenobia Chan

Journal of International Women's Studies

Two Poems by Zenobia Chan

• a bowl of beef balls rice noodle soup
• God please keep my parents alive

How Does Change Happen? Women's Rights And Development Conference, Kaushalya Perera

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

This was the question that was the central focus of the 10th International Forum of the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID). The Forum was held in Bangkok, Thailand from October 27th-30th, 2005. The AWID is an international organization, founded in 1982, and hosts an international forum every three years.

Looking At Lesbian Feminism 1970-2005: Conversations Across Generations, Polly Thistlethwaite

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

What has become of lesbian feminism? Over 100 activists, scholars, and writers convened at the CUNY Graduate Center on Friday, October 28, for intergenerational discussions about lesbian-feminism. Activists from the first 'organized' lesbian movement paired with lesbian activists who came out post-lesbian-feminism to talk about lesbian-feminism and the body, culture, sex, and movement building. Together with a moderator, participants in the four featured discussions shared convictions and experiences about class, race, transgender politics, misogyny, privilege, dating strategies, sexual styles, and liberation struggles.

First Things First: Writing Strategies -- Writers Are Readers, Marilyn L. Grady

Journal of Women in Educational Leadership

The inspiration for writing is reading. By reading a wide range of authors, you enhance your writing craft. Reading is the window to different writing styles, different uses of language, and different means of engaging the reader.

Acclimating To The Professoriate: Perspectives From New Female Faculty Members, Julie Carlson, Janna Frayer

Journal of Women in Educational Leadership

This qualitative focus group study examined the prevailing acclimatization concerns and strategies of 10 new female professors at a mid-sized state university. Emergent themes relative to challenges experienced were, in order of prevalence, not enough time, teaching effectively, health, job expectations, institutional knowledge, and support. Somewhat less solidified were similar themes for strategies, also in order of prevalence, in the areas of using time wisely, teaching effectively, maintaining health, balancing job expectations, seeking support, and getting organized. Implications for universities are: to recognize the obstacles that new faculty members experience and to implement practices that lessen the teaching, advising, and …

Journal Of Women In Educational Leadership, Vol. 4, No. 2-April 2006

Journal of Women in Educational Leadership

No abstract provided.

Leadership Legacies, Marilyn L. Grady

Journal of Women in Educational Leadership

How often do we stop to consider the impact leaders have had in our lives? How often do we consider the impact we have in the lives of others? Certainly educators make a difference in the lives of others every day; however, how often do educators consider their leadership legacies? Recent obituaries and testimonials to Coretta Scott King and Wendy Wasserstein are reminders of the leadership legacies of these women.

Review Of Finding Our Way: Leadership For An Uncertain Time By M. J. Wheatley, Bonnie Mckay Harmer

Journal of Women in Educational Leadership

Readers familiar with Margaret Wheatley's 1992 best-seller, Leadership and the New Science, will discover that her most recent book, Finding Our Way (2005), initially offers similar food for thought, but it is delivered in a more practical, less theoretical manner. Midway through the book, Finding Our Way takes an unpredictable tum in the road, eventually taking readers through Wheatley's personal journey of frustration, fear and hopelessness, finally to resurface in a very different place. Wheatley's writing flows easily with compelling imagery and personal insights that are apt to attract a broad general audience.

Influencing Others: Women Superintendents Speak (Reluctantly) About Power, Susan J. Katz

Journal of Women in Educational Leadership

The public school superintendency is the most powerful position in U.S. schools. Yet research has shown that women who hold the position have difficulty talking about power (Brunner, 2000). I designed a mixed methods study to investigate how women school superintendents viewed their uses of power. A survey was sent to all women superintendents practicing in four Midwestern states during the 2000-2001 school year and nine women in the sample participated in interviews. Results of quantitative data analysis revealed that there were significant differences in participants' age and years of experience in the superintendency and how they perceived their uses …

Lessons From Greece: A Body, Mind, Spirit Odyssey, Linda L. Lyman

Journal of Women in Educational Leadership

Spring Semester 2005 I was a visiting Fulbright professor at Aristotle University in Greece. The purpose of the Fulbright Program is to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of the 150 or so countries that currently participate in the Fulbright Program. Details of the opportunities offered and directions about how to apply can be found at www.cies.org. Aristotle Universityis located in Thessaloniki.a city of a million people in northern Greece. This 2,300 year-old city is a major seaport at the north end of the Aegean Sea. In retrospect, living and teaching in Greece …

Leading Ladies: Women University And College Presidents: What They Say About Effective Leadership, Mimi Wolverton, Beverly L. Bower, Cecilia Maldonado

Journal of Women in Educational Leadership

In this paper, we report the importance five women community college, college, and university presidents place on certain leadership tenets. Interestingly, the advice they offer for other women who aspire to leadership often ties to the perceived importance of certain tenets. We report these data and speculate about implications for future women leaders in higher education.

Voices Of Women In The Field--Can You Top This?, Ramona Miller

Journal of Women in Educational Leadership

Starting school and closing the doors, all within 21 days! Certainly this must be a mistake, but the truth is, it did happen in our school district during September of 2005. Starting school in the fall is always an exciting time for educators and students. The excitement for the staff of 11 was high and the building was ready to welcome the students back to school. By nine o'clock, on the first day of school, there were only two students. Three days later there were four students. Where were the other 70 students who were enrolled in the school in …

Women In History--Marian Wright Edelman: Crusader For Civil And Children's Rights, Shirley J. Mills

Journal of Women in Educational Leadership

Marian Wright Edelman was born June 6, 1939, at a time when prejudice and segregation were the norm. The Wright family lived in a small, southern town of Bennetsville, South Carolina, where Marian was the youngest of five children. Her father, the Reverend Arthur Jerome Wright, was a Baptist preacher, and her mother, Maggie Leola Bowen Wright, was an activist for the rights of women and African-Americans. Her father expected his children to do two things-work hard at getting an education and serve others through community service. Marian Wright was encouraged by her parents, teachers, and church leaders to live …

Supreme Court Rulings On Abortion: Roe V. Wade And Selected Progeny, Donald F. Uerling

Journal of Women in Educational Leadership

Abortion is one of the most controversial and contentious issues of our time. Few topics generate as much public debate or leave as little room for political compromise. This article presents a discussion of selected United States Supreme Court decisions on abortion and the legal reasoning supporting those decisions. It should be noted initially that laws regulating abortion are enacted by either state legislatures or the Congress. Disputes over abortion arise when a statute that regulates abortion in some way is challenged as being in violation of individual constitutional rights. Since 1971, there have been 28 Supreme Court decisions that …

Dutty Wine: Ooman Big Up Or Dis?, Nicole Cruz

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study explores the extent to which females are liberated or oppressed in dancehall in Kingston, Jamaica. Using a qualitative approach and feminist perspective, I explore dancehall culture and the ghetto communities on which it centers. Participant observation allowed me to experience the dynamics of the dancehall space. Using in-depth interviews, I assessed my observations with the opinions of dancehall fans and other community members. Ultimately, it becomes clear in this study that though heterosexual females are liberated with their freedom of sexual expression, dancehall is still has a deeply patriarchal structure. Heterosexual males dominate dancehall by oppressing heterosexual females, …