Women's Studies Commons^™

Nawal Al Saadawi And Hanan Al Shaykh's Authorship: Between Arab And Western Reception, Diana M. Obeid

Institute for the Humanities Theses

When Lebanese author Layla Baalbaki wrote her novel A Space Ship of Tenderness to the Moon in 1964 about a woman's defiance to her husband's wishes and his way of maintaining societal customs and traditions, an avalanche of criticism was directed against her. She was accused of obscenity and was put on trial before a Lebanese Prosecutor. Baalbaki's experiences are symbolic of the paradoxical and contradictory reception many Arab female authors have received in the East and the West. In this thesis, I discuss this discrepancy of reception in the works of Nawal Al Saadawi and Hanan Al Shaykh, two …

Perceptions Of Beauty Among Female Chinese Students In The United States And China, Carly R. Staley, Ginny Qin Zhan

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

This pilot study compared the perceptions of beauty among Chinese women who were exchange students in the United States with Chinese women who were students in their homeland. We interviewed 19 women in China and 19 women in the United States to determine differences in responses. In accordance with the sociocultural approach and the social comparison approach, we expected Chinese women in the United States to have a be more acculturate, more frequently conclude that American women were more beautiful than Chinese women, be more likely than those studying in China to report body dissatisfaction, be more likely to dislike …

Indigent Women And Access To Prenatal Care, Zoe Ann Zelazny

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

One aspect of America's health care system that illustrates the great need for health care reform, but receives little attention, is prenatal care. The United States has the second worst newborn mortality rate in the developed world. Adequate prenatal care results in healthier babies, more full-term babies delivered, and a decrease in other serious problems related to pregnancy and health care costs. The purpose of this study is to examine the history of prenatal policy and how it has developed into what it is today, to understand why medically indigent women are not receiving adequate prenatal care, and to highlight …

Postmodern Subjects And The Nation: Contemporary Arab Women Writers' Reconfigurations Of Home And Belonging, Ghadir Khalil Zannoun

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A lot has been said about the declining status of national paradigms. Most recently, the forces of change have been located in the transnational and global phenomenon. Contemporary Arabic literature, however, identifies globalism as only one among many factors undermining the existing national formations in the Arab countries. Among these factors is the postcolonial condition, and in the case of Palestine, the struggle against the continuing military occupation of Palestinian lands, wholesale and unsystematized modernization, and complex internal Social, cultural, religious and racial differences exacerbated by neo-colonialism. The contemporary Arab women writers' fiction analyzed in this dissertation posits yet another …

Wait Six Months, Cynthia N. Malone

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Ua41 University College Connection, Dennis K. George, Dean, Wendi Kelley

UC Publications

No abstract provided.

Book Review: No Stones: Women Redeemed From Sexual Addiction By Marnie C. Ferree (Intervarsity, 2010), Margaret English De Alminana

Selected Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of Women’S Participation In Peace Negotiations; 1992 - 2010, Tuohy Ahern

Capstone Collection

This paper will present an analysis of several women’s peacebuilding movements and describe their efforts to participate in formal peace negotiations. This analysis includes the design, development and implementation of the female and community-based initiatives as well as the strategies, tactics and approaches used by these women throughout the peace negotiation process. It is important to consider the central role women’s organizations have played in ensuring women’s involvement when examining peace negotiations. Despite a lack of formal invitations to participate in negotiations, many female community-based initiatives have gained entry through efforts outside the political realm.

To provide a framework on …

Meaning Of Hijab According To Urban Egyptian And Yemeni Muslim Women, Kenneth E. Jackson

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Meanings of hijab held by urban Egyptian and Yemeni Muslim women were the focus of this study. In addition to the meanings held of hijab, the study also explored the relationships between demographic variables and perceptions of hijab. Three null hypotheses led the analyses pertaining to the differences between Egyptian and Yemeni respondents in their perceptions of hijab, demographic differences between those that wore a hijab and those that wore a niqab, and the demographic differences between those that wore a hijab and those that did not wear a hijab. Data analysis was based on the …

"When Love Is Born In A Cage Not Of Lts Own Building ": The New Woman And Fiction Of Kate Chopin, Jennifer Battistoni

All Student Theses and Dissertations

This project explores the New Woman as developed and defined through the literature of Kate Chopin.

Looking Beyond The Medical Model Of Sexuality: Social Factors In Women's Sexual Satisfaction, Cristalle Rae Pronier

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Since the explosive profit of Viagra in 1998, the pharmaceutical giants have been scrambling to develop a similar drug to treat Sexual Dysfunction in women. Female Sexual Dysfunction became an official disorder in 1999 shortly after the release of Viagra. This relatively new disorder has emerged as a prominent example of the medicalization of female sexuality whereby problems are defined, conceptualized, and solved in medical terms.

The inherent problem in medicalization is the denial of social, cultural, and psychological factors in women's sexual issues and concerns. To address this disconnect between the medical and social models of sexuality this study …

The Effects Of Rumination, Hostility, And Distraction On Cardiovascular Reactivity And Recovery From Anger Recall In Healthy Women, Meghan K. Mclain

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Cardiovascular reactivity and recovery following an emotional stressor may play a crucial role in mediating the relation between psychosocial factors (e.g. hostility and anger) and cardiovascular disease. Hostility has been associated with trait rumination. Trait rumination, a tendency to focus attention on negative thoughts and emotions and be prone to feelings of revenge, is not adequately captured in current measures of hostility. The current study examined whether trait rumination, indexed by the Dissipation-Rumination Scale, has an independent effect of increasing cardiovascular reactivity and prolonging cardiovascular recovery from angry events above and beyond hostility as measured by the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale. …

Security Through Solidarity: Honduran Women’S Post-Coup Strategies Of Support And Survival, Christine Gervais, Betsy Estevez

Journal of International Women's Studies

As a follow up to the article “From Discovery to Dissidence: Honduran Women’s Conceptions and Claims of Human Rights,” published in this journal in May 2010 (Vol. 11, #4), this paper examines forty-eight Honduran women’s experiences of state-based insecurity and feminist-based solidarity following the June 2009 coup d’État. The authors reflect on the ethical implications of the participant-centered and solidarity-oriented qualitative methodological approaches constrained by state repression. The women’s testimonies shed light on the potential of a solidarity-security symbiosis.

Oral History And “Girls’ Voices”: The Young Women’S Studies Club As A Site Of Empowerment, Susan Cayleff, Melissann Herron, Chelsea Cormier, Sarah Wheeler, Alicia Chávez-Arteaga, Jessica Spain, Cristina Dominguez

Journal of International Women's Studies

Girls’ Voices is a collaborative research project involving multi-tiered community-and university-based mentorship and a Young Women’s Studies Club (YWSC) at Hoover High School in San Diego, California. Since its inception 15 years ago, the Club meets weekly and engages in activities that address the life circumstances and coming-of-age issues faced by its membership. Thirty-five to 45 students (95% female) attend weekly. They are a widely diverse population: new immigrants from various parts of the globe, and mostly lower-socioeconomic status Southern Californians of color (Mexican, Asian, and African-American). English is not the first language for several of the members.

Girls’ Voices …

Homing Desire, Cultural Citizenship, And Diasporic Imaginings, Anh Hua

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article examines the relationship between homing desire, cultural citizenship and diaspora communities. I begin by examining how citizenship is a deeply gendered concept. From there, I will explore how citizenship practices, although promising enfranchisement and equality, sometimes socially exclude certain gendered and racialized individuals and communities as inauthentic citizens, non-citizens, or denizens. Finally, I will analyze the concept of cultural citizenship and how it is being used in various diaspora communities as ways to imagine multiple modes of belonging within and beyond the coherence of national boundaries. I argue that to fully comprehend the lived experience of migratory and …

(Not) Higher, Stronger Or Swifter: Representation Of Female Olympic Athletes In The Israeli Press, Yair Galily, Nadav Cohen, Moshe Levy

Journal of International Women's Studies

Despite the IOC declaration of intent for gender equality in sport and in light of the fact that a greater number of women are participating in the Olympic Games covert connotations are hidden behind the distorted and biased image presented of female athletes in the press. The current study asks whether the size and extent of coverage really matter; does more extensive coverage necessarily mean equal and true representation of women in sport, or are we getting more of the same? The findings in this study indicate two parallel processes in terms of article content: First, the greater the number …

Teaching Aberrance: Cinema As A Site For African Feminism, Corinna Mcleod

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article examines the influence of colonialist instructional cinema on modern African cinema production. The four films – Neria, Everyone’s Child, Wend Kuuni, and Taafe Fanga – differ in national origin, thematic approaches, and cinematic technique, but they share in displaying an element of instructional cinema. The instructional nature of the films asserts the value of women in post-colonial African societies, who, in the space of the films as in real life, are the double-colonized subject.

Gender Imbalance: The Case Of Women’S Political Participation In Turkey, Aytül Kasapoglu, Necmettin Özerkmen

Journal of International Women's Studies

The primary aim of this paper is to show the links between women’s demographic characteristics and their political participation. Focusing on low female participation in politics, we carried out a survey with 408 women living in Ankara, Turkey. The paper attempts to answer the following questions: What is the level of female political participation? What are the obstacles preventing female political participation? What is the level of female participation in political parties and Non-Governmental Organizations? What kind of links can be made between women’s demographic characteristics and their political attitudes and behaviors? What suggestions could be made to increase female …

Relations Of Feminization Of Agriculture And Women’S Occupational Health: The Case Of Women Farmers In The Philippines, Jinky Leilanie Lu

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study on women in the Philippines, particularly in Benguet which is the largest vegetable producer in the country, was undertaken in order to provide a wider interpretation of the contribution of women farmers to agricultural productivity, as well as to look into the relations between feminization of agriculture, and women’s occupational health. Methods employed in this study included personal interviews to look into the knowledge, involvement, and contribution of women in agricultural farming as well as a survey to look into women’s perceived occupational health issues and healthcare provision by the local government. The study showed that women play …

Gender Dimensions Of The Global Crises And Their Impact On Poverty, Santosh Nandal

Journal of International Women's Studies

The crisis in the global economy continues to affect many men and women living in poverty, but it brings different meaning for both men and women. However, the concept of gender equality gives women and men the same entitlement to all aspects of human development including economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights; the same level of respect, the same opportunities to make choices; and the same level of power to shape the outcome of these choices. But the ground realities are totally different. Pre-existing inequalities, which include under representation of women at all level of property rights, economic decision …

Women And Post-Conflict Society In Sierra Leone, Hazel M. Mcferson

Journal of International Women's Studies

Gender inequality in Sierra Leone, after colonialism among the worst in Sub-Saharan Africa, has been heightened further by the civil war of 1992-2002--which was related in part to the struggle for control of “blood diamonds” but also to long-standing social and regional disparities, and to collapse of formal institutions and widespread corruption. Sierra Leonean women are today among the most marginalized in the world, socially, economically and politically. However, there are differences among three groups: the better educated, comparatively richer “Krios” (descendants of the original freed slaves); relatively enlightened tribes; and the more traditional patriarchal tribes. The main route to …

Shifts In Treatment Of Women’S Rights In Egyptian Media, Aliaa Dawoud

Journal of International Women's Studies

Egyptian media’s treatment of introducing the khula law which gave Egyptian women unprecedented divorce rights was overwhelmingly negative. However, the treatment of other more recent legal changes that granted women more rights has on the contrary been overwhelmingly positive. This paper analyzes this change and considers whether it can be explained using the theory that media’s criticism of government policy is in reality a consequence of and reflects divisions within the political elite regarding the issue at stake. It also analyzes the discourse utilized by feminists to call for women’s rights and argues that Egyptian feminists are drastically shifting the …

Book Review: Refiguring Women, Colonialism, And Modernity In Burma, Maurice Oscar Dassah

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Refiguring women, colonialism, and modernity in Burma by Chie Ikeya

Book Review: Understanding South Korean Economic Growth Through The Eyes Of Militarism, Sex Work And Migrant Labour, George Opendjuru

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Understanding South Korean Economic Growth through the eyes of Militarism, Sex Work and Migrant Labour by Jin-Kyung Lee

Book Review: Citizen, Invert, Queer: Lesbianism And War In Early Twentieth Century Britain, Sanya Osha

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Citizen, Invert, Queer: Lesbianism and War in Early Twentieth Century Britain by Deborah Cohler

Book Review: Recognizing Transsexuals: Personal, Political And Medicolegal Embodiment, Desire Chilwane

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Recognizing Transsexuals: Personal, Political and Medicolegal Embodiment by Zowie Davy

Book Review: Gender And The Economic Crisis, Betty C. Mubangizi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Gender and the Economic Crisis, edited by Ruth Pearson and Caroline Sweetman

Book Review: Women In Leadership: Contextual Dynamics And Boundaries, Faith Rakate

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Women in Leadership: Contextual Dynamics and Boundaries, edited by Karin Klenke

Book Review: Tanu Women: Gender And Culture In The Making Of Tanganyikan Nationalism, 1955- 1965, Estella Musiiwa

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of TANU Women: Gender and Culture in the Making of Tanganyikan Nationalism, 1955- 1965 by Susan Geiger

Book Review: Just A Dropped Stitch, Stafford Osuri Osuri

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Just a Dropped Stitch by Laurie Levinger