Women's Studies Commons^™

Chicana/Latina Feminist Critical Qualitative Inquiry Meditations On Global Solidarity, Spirituality, And The Land, Cinthya M. Saavedra, Michelle Salazar Perez

Mexican American Studies Faculty Publications

In this article we take a journey into using Chicana/Latina feminisms as one way to unearth new possibilities for critical qualitative inquiry (CQI). We start by offering a brief overview of Gloria Anzaldua’s influence on Chicana/Latina feminism, focusing on how she has inspired researching and writing from within rather than about as a decolonial turn (Keating, 2015). We then venture into new imaginaries to pose questions that would lead us to ponder about global feminista solidarity, the spirit, and the land. Our hope is that these contemplations lead us on a path of conocimiento where we can put the broken …

Dehumanization: A Case Study, Regina Varthi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The capstone “Dehumanization” is divided into three main parts.

The first part contains a brief presentation on the UN family (or UN system), showing its role through its organizational and managerial structures. All data are derived from UN corresponding websites.

The second part, “Homelessness,” focuses on the SDG 11 of the 2030 GA Agenda. In 2014 the United Nations Human Rights Council appointed Leilani Farha Special Rapporteur on adequate housing in order to conduct research on the subject of homelessness as a violation of human rights. In her report, presented at the Human Rights Council in March 2016, Farha claims …

Mónica Mayer: Translocality And The Development Of Feminist Art In Contemporary Mexico, Alberto Mckelligan Hernandez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation focuses on Mónica Mayer (b. Mexico City, 1954), analyzing her work to understand the role played by the artistic and activist exchanges between feminists from Mexico City and Los Angeles in the development of feminist art in Mexico from the 1970s to the present. While scholars and curators are increasingly drawing attention to Mayer’s large body of work, which includes prints, drawings, installations, and public art interventions, the available literature emphasizes her connections to other artists working in her home country, positioning her artistic production within narratives of contemporary Mexican art.[1] In contrast, this dissertation foregrounds Mayer’s …

The Fat Female Bodies Of Saturday Night Live: Uncovering The Normative Cultural Power Of A Countercultural Comedy Institution, Katharine Cacace

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Despite its reputation as one of the most countercultural and anti-establishment voices in mainstream television comedy, Saturday Night Live helps produce and reproduces cultural norms. Using weight and gender as a lens, this paper investigates Saturday Night Live’s methods of creating, imitating, and evoking the fat female body in order to limit female agency and police unruly female power. It contends that even the inclusion of nonnormative female bodies—fat bodies, queer bodies, and bodies of color—is merely a reiteration of the techniques of neoliberal multiculturalism for the television audience.

Queering Addiction, Tararose Macuch

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Much has been written about the subject of addiction, but very little has been written from a queer feminist standpoint. Most of the work available concerning addiction is aimed primarily at a clinical audience, those interested in treating people with addictions. Most non-clinical work is aimed predominantly at people who are either suffering from addiction themselves or close to someone dealing with addiction. In pursuing this thesis project, I want to add the queer feminist discourse as well as a disability discourse to the larger public dialogue on the addict’s embodied identity. I am proposing that the addict’s perspective is …

By Beauty Damned: Millennial Feminism And The Exploitation Of Women's Empowerment In Pop Culture And Corporate Advertising, Maria L. Carreon

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Feminism has become a trendy cultural identity, leaving it open to exploitation by capitalists. Notions relating to “women’s empowerment” are used by capitalists to sell products to women, and yet many of those capitalists fund political campaigns that directly seek to quash or inhibit the advancement of women’s rights. With a little effort, any consumer can find out who their big purveyors are supporting politically. For example, Procter Gamble, who makes many products bought by women, gives the majority of its political contributions to republicans who oppose women’s reproductive rights. The same is true of McAndrews & Forbes, the parent …

Book Review: Elder Northfield's Home Or, Sacrificed On The Mormon Altar: A Story Of The Blighting Curse Of Polygamy, Pamela Hayes-Bohanan

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Elder Northfield’s Home or, Sacrificed on the Mormon Altar: A Story of the Blighting Curse of Polygamy, by A. Jennie Bartlett. University of Nebraska Press, 2015

Book Review: Feminist Edges Of The Qur'an, Merna Aboul-Ezz

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Feminist Edges of the Qur'an, by Aysha A. Hidayatullah. Oxford University Press, 2014

Book Review: Survival On The Edge: Seawomen Of Iceland, Wendy K. Rockne

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Survival on the Edge: Seawomen of Iceland, by Margaret Willson. University of Washington, 2016

Book Review: Science, Gender, And History: The Fantastic In Mary Shelley And Margaret Atwood, William Tringali

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Science, Gender, and History: The Fantastic in Mary Shelley and Margaret Atwood, by Suparna Banerjee. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014

Book Review: Questioning The 'Muslim Woman': Identity And Insecurity In An Urban Indian Locality, Aatina N. Malik

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Questioning the ‘Muslim Woman’: Identity and Insecurity in an Urban Indian Locality, by Nida Kirmani. Routledge, 2013

Book Review: Virginia Woolf: Essays On The Self, Margarita Esther Sánchez Cuervo

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Virginia Woolf: Essays on the Self, by Joanna Kavenna. Notting Hill Editions, 2014

Book Review: Women And The City, Women In The City: A Gendered Perspective On Ottoman Urban History, Deniz Zeynep Leuenberger

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Women and the City, Women in the City: A Gendered Perspective on Ottoman Urban History, by Nazan Maksudya. Berghahn Books, 2014

Book Review: Making Change - Nordic Examples Of Working Towards Gender Equality In The Media, Meghan Murphy

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Making Change – Nordic Examples of Working Towards Gender Equality in the Media, edited by Maria Edström & Ragnhild Mølster. Nordicom, 2014

Overcoming Obstacles To Educational Access For Kenyan Girls: A Qualitative Study, Norah Mwakio

Journal of International Women's Studies

Despite the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations Millennium Project, having its third goal as promoting gender equality and empowering women, and even with all new progress in equality, Kenya is still lagging behind when comparing the educational opportunities of boys and girls. In most cases where cultural beliefs are involved, the girl-child falls victim to violation of her rights, including her rights to education and freedom of expression. Many girls are forced into early marriages, experience Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and sexual exploitation, among many other concerns and at some point they all lead to her inability to …

'Better Off Dead' - Sasha's Story Of Living With Vaginal Fistula, Glory Joy Gatwiri, Helen Jaqueline Mclaren

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper draws on the narrative of a Samburu woman, whom we call Sasha, from northern Kenya. She has been living with recto- and vesico-vaginal fistula for more than ten years. Her homeland is characterized by abject poverty, patriarchy and traditional practices involving witchcraft, which is intertwined with the teachings of Christian evangelist missionaries that traverse the last two centuries. Sasha’s research interview offered representations of the broader social and political aspects affecting women with vaginal fistula and how this influences their lived experiences. We suggest that this condition is more than a biomedical issue, which we explain through our …

Aids Awareness Interventions For Women: The Role Of Voluntary Organizations In The Secunderabad And Hyderabad Region Of Southwestern India, G.S. Chayadevi, Bindu A. Bambah

Journal of International Women's Studies

In this paper, we examine the role of Voluntary organizations (VO’s) in combating the incidence of HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases among Female Sex Workers in Hyderabad and Secundrabad. These are twin cities in the newly formed state of Telangana state in the southwestern region of India, called the Deccan Plateau. We trace the evolution of VO’s towards becoming agents of information and prevention of AIDS in the region. Our focus is on how VOs’ interventions impact the prevention of HIV among female sex workers. The activities that contribute towards this aim are sexual health, counseling, medication and continuous health …

Sexual Identity And Disturbed Intellectual Female Terrain In J. M. Coetzee's Foe And Jabra Ibrahim Jabra's The Ship: An Ecofeminist Reading, Jihan Zakarriya

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper examines the representation of mental and cultural subjugation in J. M. Coetzee’s Foe (1986) and Jabra Ibrahim Jabra’s The Ship (1970) from an ecofeminist perspective. Central to the ecofeminist theory is the deconstruction of the systematic ways within which cultural and political forces act, and which do not merely buttress gender inequality, but also produce oppressive patriarchal and hierarchal social, spatial and environmental systems. This paper specifically relates the psychological effects of sexism and discrimination on the female characters in the two novels to both the workings of the social laws in their societies and the cultural and …

A Comparative Study In The Mena Region Within Gender Equality Perspective, Rania F. Al-Rabadi, Anas N. Al-Rabadi

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article presents key findings of basic research in the MENA region via a comparative perspective of active citizenship and gender equality. The article discusses the pre-existing inequality in the family and presents a significant issue in Bahrain, for there is a Sunni-Shi’ite division, which Jordan does not have. This is relevant to citizenship and gender equality for how family codes have an effect on women’s political participation in both countries. The political participation will be analysed via women constitutional rights. Whether this right is really exercised in Jordan and Bahrain remains arguable. Other important issues are the state machinery …

The Maternal Lineage: Orality And Language In Natalia Ginzburg's Family Sayings, Veruska Cantelli

Journal of International Women's Studies

As its title, Family Sayings, suggests, it is through a body of sayings, stories, poems and songs, recalled by her mother, that the author Natalia Ginzburg tells the story of her family before, during and after WWII. Within the turmoil and chaos of the fascist regime and the war, there is a language, a lexicon, capable of establishing a comforting and familiar zone for the members of the family. Through repetitions of sayings and sketches, Natalia Ginzburg will present a work, partly oral and partly written, blurring the relationship between author/reader and storyteller/listener. In a time when consumerism is rampant …

Can My Wife Be Virtual-Adulterous? An Experiential Study On Facebook, Emotional Infidelity And Self-Disclosure, Okorie Nelson, Abiodun Salawu

Journal of International Women's Studies

Emotional infidelity is a perennial concern and negatively affects marriages in many modern societies. The advent of social media networks has heightened the alarming rate of emotional infidelity across the globe. This study examines the influence of Facebook on emotional infidelity and self-disclosure among married women. The study uses the media dependency theory, which stipulates that social media platforms, such as Facebook, serve as a potent channel for self-disclosure and emotional infidelity among individuals. The survey method was adopted in the study and a questionnaire used as an instrument to collect data. Two null hypotheses were tested with Pearson product …

Women, Serpent And Devil: Female Devilry In Hindu And Biblical Myth And Its Cultural Representation: A Comparative Study, Suman Chakraborty

Journal of International Women's Studies

Association of Women with Serpent and Devil or evil is common in today’s popular movies and literature. A large number of movies have been made on serpent woman, or Nagin-Kanya, both in India and the West in the last century. But the root of this popular trend lies in Genesis of the Bible, and its interpretations by the theologians and the church fathers. In India, this motif came with British literary and cultural products through colonization. Though we get references of figures (Ulupi in the Mahabharata, myth of snake-goddess Manasa) similar to the western serpent women in pre-colonial Indian …

Enemies Of The State: Curbing Women Activists Advocating Rape Reform In Sudan, Liv Tønnessen

Journal of International Women's Studies

Sudanese women activists launched a legal campaign in 2009 calling attention to how the country’s Sharia-based Criminal Act of 1991 produced impunity for sexual assault in the Darfur conflict. After years of mobilization, Sudan enacted rape reform in 2015. While on the surface a success story, extensive interviews conducted in Khartoum suggest that this regime-controlled rape reform is more about the struggle of an authoritarian state to keep an emerging independent women’s movement under control, rather than the protection of rape victims in Darfur. By situating the reform within the broader political dynamics of the International Criminal Courts’ (ICC) arrest …

Parental Educational Aspiration And Gender Inequality Of Rural Children In Bangladesh: The Role Of Parental Attitudes Of Traditional Gender Role, Gender Biased Capability, And Gender, Shahidul Islam Sarker, A.H.M. Zehadul Karim, Samrat Mohammad Abu Suffiun

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study investigates how gender inequality in higher education is produced by the attitudes of parents in rural Bangladesh. To this end we examine (i) parental traditional gender role attitude, (ii) parental attitude toward girls’ capability and (iii) parental gender biased investment attitude as three types of parental attitudes based on the responses of 435 rural parents in which 52.05% were parents of boys and 56.25% of girls. We conduct logistic regression analysis to determine whether the observe variables (these three types of attitudes) significantly predict the odds of parental aspiration for higher education and whether the effects of these …

Women's Rights And Voice In The Ready-Made Garments Sector Of Bangladesh: Evidence From Theory And Practice, Dilruba Shoma Chowdhury

Journal of International Women's Studies

Since the 1980s, the ready–made garments (RMG) sector has opened up the door that allowed poor people, particularly women, to potentially lead a better life in Bangladesh. Economic globalisation has led to the growth of more employment opportunities for those women who are from the most disadvantaged sector of the society and the greatest beneficiaries of employment in the RMG sector as they have gained the power to earn. However, these women workers are also the most vulnerable to the weak legal provisions and compliance enforcement of this sector. Given the situation, the intention of the study is to highlight …

Women In Management: Challenges And Gaps In Public Institutions In Ethiopia, Worku Mekonnen Tadesse

Journal of International Women's Studies

The major purpose of this study is to investigate the challenges and gaps as related to executive women in public institutions in Ethiopia. A survey and analytical study approach was employed to investigate the case. The respondents were selected from all 23 ministerial head offices located in Addis Ababa. A sample of forty-nine executive women was identified to assess the challenges and gaps of women who hold managerial positions in their respective organizations with an availability sampling technique. Results indicate that the executive’s family related issues did not impact women’s career progress; however, the study also revealed that socio-cultural factors …

Exploring The Relationship Between Gender And Acceptance Of Authority At An Arab School In Israel, Nohad A’Li, Rima'a Da'as

Journal of International Women's Studies

The purpose of this paper to fill a gap in the literature on “leadership” in Arab schools, which are part of a patriarchal society, specifically on the issues of principal gender and acceptance of his or her authority. Previous studies have argued that attitudes toward the school principal's role are related to culture and social structure. However, those studies did not take into account the effects of employee gender on acceptance of a male or female principal's authority. Teachers (N = 240) from 10 Arab elementary schools in northern Israel participated in this study. The Analysis of Variance-ANOVA revealed differences …

Globalization As A Racial Project: Implications For Human Trafficking, Sarah Hupp Williamson

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay considers the potential impact of viewing globalization as a racial project in relation to human trafficking. Through an examination of a wide variety of scholarly sources and the work of Omi and Winant (2015), this essay presents the argument that globalization itself is a racial project by tracing how race is interwoven with the processes of globalization. It then asserts the implications this conceptualization of globalization has for human trafficking, and particularly anti-trafficking efforts. Finally, it argues for the power of using such a conceptual framework and suggests the incorporation of a critical globalization perspective for future studies …

Islamic Values In Elderly Care In Finland: The Perspective Of Muslim Women Caregivers, Shahnaj Begum, Marjaana Seppänen

Journal of International Women's Studies

In recent decades, care-providing services in Finland have engaged care professionals with diverse cultural backgrounds, including Islamic cultures. Muslim women who adhere strictly to Islamic values in such work sometimes find it difficult to cope with the practices at care service institutions. In this article, we consider the experiences of Muslim women care professionals in such work, an environment that entails multiple interactions at different levels, among themselves and with care receivers.

Challenging Queer As "Neoliberal": The Radical Politics Of South Asian Diasporic Lesbian Representational Culture, Sri Craven

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay contributes to transnational feminist and queer interests in neoliberalism, sexual politics and representational cultures that all circulate globally today. It reads Deepa Mehta’s film, Fire (1996), and Suniti Namjoshi’s literary venture, Goja: An Autobiographical Myth (2000). Each processes the question of lesbian visibility as a question of female labor and class relations among women. By analyzing representations of lesbian life in the context of laboring female bodies, the article challenges the dismissal of queer politics as neoliberal in India. Sexual identity politics, as critics argue, often dovetails with neoliberalism’s project of protecting elite and bourgeois subjects’ interests at …