Women's Studies Commons^™

Violence Against Women In Northern Uganda: The Neglected Health Consequences Of War, Helen Liebling-Kalifani, Ruth Ojiambo-Ochieng, Angela Marshall, Juliet Were-Oguttu, Seggane Musisi, Eugene Kinyanda

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article presents a summary of research intervention work carried out in war-affected Northern Uganda by Isis-WICCE, a women’s international non-government organisation, in conjunction with the Ugandan Medical Association and funded by Medica Mondiale, a German-based foundation. The findings of this research demonstrate the serious effects of sexual violence and torture experienced on women’s physical and psychological health. However, this paper also describes women’s key role in trying to bring peace to this region, as well as their resistance and survival strategies. It is recommended that funding is urgently required for the provision of sustainable, gender sensitive physical and psychological …

Male Identity And Female Space In The Fiction Of Ugandan Women Writers, Abasi Kiyimba

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article focuses on the voices of protest by Uganda women writers against age-old discriminative habits, and on the rebuttal made by women on questions of social and political power. The article particularly assesses the way women writers approach generally assumed positions on the power relations between men and women, a theme that runs through all the writing by Ugandan women. As part of the discussion, the paper inevitably pays particular attention to the presentation of male characters, and on the prominence given to issues of male dominance, injustice and discrimination against women, which take place at several levels of …

In Two Different Worlds: How Malawian Girls Experience Schooling, Margaret Asalele Mbilizi

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper reports on a qualitative case study of how Malawian girls experience schooling in single-sex versus coeducational institutions. It is a qualitative narrative depicting the socializing and learning processes which affect girls’ potential to succeed in mathematics and science subjects and careers. Further I use critical reflection to describe my own experiences as a student, teacher, and researcher at one of the single-sex boarding schools.

The results confirm other research findings that single-sex school environments are effective in building high expectations and aspirations for higher education among girls. In single-sex schools, girls held higher educational expectations and occupational aspirations …

More Than Books: A Study Of Women’S Participation In Community Libraries In Rural Nepal, Kirsty Martin, Sita Adhikari

Journal of International Women's Studies

In Nepal there are clear gender roles and accompanying expectations about male and female behavior in social spaces. Based on these expectations and traditions there are key obstacles to local women’s opportunities to be active participants in social life. The creation of two community libraries in village Nepal in 1999 and 2001 has created opportunities for women’s involvement in community-based activities and programs. Through their involvement in library activities, women gain access to education, information and communication and the opportunity to learn about financial matters. This paper explores the impact that women’s involvement in the library has on their overall …

Urban Women’S Participation In The Construction Industry: An Analysis Of Experiences From Zimbabwe, Edward Mutandwa, Noah Sigauke, Charles P. Muganiwa

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper analyzed the impact of urban women’s participation in the construction business on income generation, gender roles and responsibilities, family and societal perceptions in Zimbabwe. Problems and constraints affecting women’s participation in the sector were also identified. A total of 130 respondents were purposively selected from four urban cities namely Chitungwiza, Marondera, Norton and Rusape. Structured questionnaires and focus group discussions were used as the main data collection instruments. The findings of the study showed that women’s businesses in construction were profitable and constituted an important source of family income. However, business growth was negatively affected by limited access …

Appropriate Technology For Cassava Processing In Nigeria: User’S Point Of View, Stella O. Odebode

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study examined appropriate agricultural extension technological needs of users in cassava processing activities in Nigeria. Purposive sampling technique was used in selecting 160 participating and non-participating users making a total of 320 users in Oyo state. Data was collected with Interview Schedule and analysed using chi-square and t-test. (58%) of women (users) use traditional processing equipments in cassava processing. Improved processing technologies used include vibrating sieve, abrasive peeler, motorised grater, drum drier, and screw-jack. Processed cassava products include “gari,” “lafun,” starch, and “fufu.” Significant relationships exist between the use of improved technologies for processing and age (X2 = 6.15, …

Law, Women And Health In Nigeria, Philomena I. Ozo-Eson

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper attempts to analyse sexual inequality as it affects the health of women in Nigeria. Various theories that inform the study of women are briefly discussed along with specific areas of women’s health concerns. These include: female genital mutilation, violence against women, sexual harassment, and widowhood practices. Other areas of discourse involve women and law, and here, we emphasised the need to re-examine both the customary and statutory laws to reflect justice, dignity and fair play for all members of the society irrespective of their gender. Also, special attention should be paid to some laws that encourage the brutality …

A Call To Political And Social Activism: The Jeremiadic Discourse Of Maria Miller Stewart, 1831-1833, Willie J. Harrell Jr.

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay identifies the rhetorical strategies of Maria Miller Stewart’s Boston anti-slavery discourse as jeremiads that connected her religious, moral, political and social lamentations of the American democratic system and called her audiences to aid in the desensitizing of slavery and America prejudice. When she attempted to establish a common ground, the aim of Stewart’s jeremiads was to make her audiences conscious of the numerous social and political grievances within the African-American community. Stewart’s jeremiadic discourse called for the deterioration of American racism and sexism and provided an agency that constituted a form of resistance.

A Tour To A Site Of Genocide: Mothers, Bones And Borders, Olivera Simic

Journal of International Women's Studies

In this personal narrative I aim to describe internal struggles I endure for one day in Srebrenica on my visit to a mass exhumation site. The narrative discusses and raises a series of questions related to human motivations, actions and disturbing traumatic experiences. In an attempt to bring attention and value to our personal experiences, my essay is a critical reflection on some common concerns facing all post conflict societies; that is, making sense of the past horrors and the ways we pay tribute to them. This essay intends to talk about the things and feelings often left unspoken, and, …

Meanings Of Weighing Female Patients And Their Clinical Implications, Zenobia C. Y. Chan

Journal of International Women's Studies

Severe weight loss is the chief characteristic of anorexia nervosa. Weight is also one of the important indicators for evaluating a client’s recovery. I weighed all clients at their pre-treatment interview, the beginning of every family session, and at the termination session, and kept records based on follow-up telephone calls after family treatment ended. I found the process of weighing to be noteworthy not only as an instrumental task, but also as a reciprocal learning experience between the clients and myself. Also, my role as the “weigher” of the clients had unexpected effects on my peers, my family and myself. …

Book Review: The Hidden Giants, Maluka D. Muñoz

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of The Hidden Giants by Sethanne Howard

Book Review: Hijab, Meaning, Identity, Otherization And Politics: British Muslim Women, Alyssa Beall

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Hijab, Meaning, Identity, Otherization and Politics: British Muslim Women by Saied R. Ameli and Arzu Merali

Book Review: Different Wavelengths: Studies Of The Contemporary Women’S Movement, Anna Feigenbaum

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Different Wavelengths: Studies of the Contemporary Women’s Movement, edited by Jo Reger

Book Review: When Sex Became Gender, Catherine R. Mintler

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of When Sex Became Gender by Shira Tarrant

Book Review: Feminism, Aditi Mitra

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Feminism by June Hannam

Book Review: Making Sex Work: A Failed Experiment In Legalized Prostitution, Nnenna Lynn Okeke

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Making Sex Work: A Failed Experiment in Legalized Prostitution by Mary Lucille Sullivan

Book Review: Unraveling The Garment Industry: Transnational Organizing And Women’S Work, Joanne Kilgour Dowdy

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Unraveling the Garment Industry: Transnational Organizing and Women’s Work by Ethel C. Brooks

Book Review: Colonize This! Young Women Of Color On Today’S Feminism, Susan Harper-Bisso

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism, edited by Daisy Hernandez and Bushra Rehman

Book Review: Trans/Forming Feminisms: Trans-Feminist Voices Speak Out, Dan Irving

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Trans/Forming Feminisms: Trans-Feminist Voices Speak Out, edited by Krista Scott-Dixon

Reply To Stacy Lockerbie (Review Of Conception Diary: Thinking About Pregnancy And Motherhood By Susan Hogan), Susan Hogan

Journal of International Women's Studies

Reply by the author regarding the following book review: Stacy Lockerbie, JIWS, Vol. 9. No. 1. November 2007. pp. 319-321. Review of Conception Diary: Thinking About Pregnancy and Motherhood. Susan Hogan.

La Pérdida De La Tierra Y El Activismo De Las Mujeres Garífunas En La Costa Norte De Honduras, Keri Vacanti Brondo

Journal of International Women's Studies

El presente artículo fue publicado originalmente en inglés en el Vol. 9 # 1 de noviembre de 2007. Se volvió a imprimir en español como respuesta a la solicitud que me hizo la Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña (OFRANEH), cuyos integrantes desean incluirlo en la petición que hacen a la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) respecto a su lucha por recuperar su territorio ancestral.

El artículo trata sobre los impactos de género que tiene la legislación agrarian neoliberal de Honduras dentro del contexto del desarrollo turístico. En el artículo se recurre a la investigación etnográfica con la población afro-indígena garífuna, …

Sources On Lesbian Subjectivities For The Production Of Lesbian Of Color Identity Formation Through Literature, Art, Film, Or Documentation: An Annotatated Bibliography, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz

Publications and Research

Historically, coming out as a lesbian and then forming an identity of a "lesbian of color" includes seeking out like voices and stories. Librarians who hold an understanding of the lesbian of color coming out process as well as the fluidity of language in Queer Studies will be better equipped to service lesbian of color patrons. This paper holds three tools for reference librarians: A literature review outlining the history of lesbian of color identity formation, secondly, a bibliography with interdisciplinary humanities reference annotations that source lesbians of color in literature, film, performance art, and identity, and thirdly, a model …

Peace-Weavers And The Soldiers Who Court Them: The Sexual Development Of Women In Shakespear's Plays, Sara Ben-David

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This paper moves beyond current psychoanalytic readings of the women in Shakespeare's plays as either Mother or Other to consider instead the extent to which their sexual development from girlhood into womanhood rehearses what Jacques Lacan describes as man's progression out of the Mirror Stage, through the acquisition of language and the recognition of sexual difference, and into a unified subjectivity. The author argues that Shakespeare's own understanding of sexual difference is predicated, in the case of femininity, upon the model of the feminine peace-weaver which he would have found in Greek mythology, particularly in Ovid's Heroides. It is with …

The Changing Role Of Women In Spain, Julie Laconte

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Spain has experienced the powerful force and changing effects of globalization, especially after the death of Francisco Franco's and the demise of his regime. Spanish women especially have embraced the changing social environment in Spain by enrolling in institutions of higher education in greater numbers and entering the work force by developing careers in business and other fields.

Joan Of Arc Swaps Scissors For A Sword, Kimberly J. Reynolds

Gender & Women's Studies Annual Writing Contest

No abstract provided.

From June To September, Brent A. Fisk

Gender & Women's Studies Annual Writing Contest

No abstract provided.

Brazen (Spring 2008), Hollins University

Brazen - Gender & Women's Studies Department Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Sometimes It’S A Child And A Choice: Toward An Embodied Abortion Praxis, Jeannie Ludlow

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Feminist analyses of recent abortion politics in the United States note that the “abortion debate” has settled into a system of dichotomies, such as the dichotomy between women’s autonomy on the abortion rights side and the value of unborn life on the anti-abortion side. This article posits that these dichotomizations contribute to the erosion of women’s access and rights to abortion through loss of credibility for abortion rights discourse and loss of access to abortion praxis that can handle more complex situations. Maintenance of the dichotomies requires denial or erasure of more complicated situations, like late-second-trimester abortion and situations in …

Good Girl, Erika C. Navarrete Anderson

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

I have always had a narrative sensibility, drawing from memory, stories, and personal experience. Perhaps it was the abundance of story telling and gossip I absorbed growing up. The dominance of women in my family had a profound influence on how I created narratives in my earlier work. They remain core influences, and through them I have developed further, reaching out past linear narrative and specific story to focus on the psychology of internal and external experience.

When I began my MF A it was the first time in two years I was 'getting intensive feedback on my work. What …

Review: Romancing God: Evangelical Women And Inspirational Fiction, Kate Farley

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the non-fiction book "Romancing God: Evangelical Women and Inspirational Fiction," by Lynn S. Neal.