Women's Studies Commons^™

The Resisting Female Body In India, Nancy Boissel-Cormier

Tête à Tête: Journal of Francophone Studies

No abstract provided.

Rice, Reciprocity, And Generosity: Embedded Ecologies In Hindu Women’S Rituals, Zoe Carlson

CMC Senior Theses

Hindu women’s perspectives of the more-than-human world are illuminated through ritual. Researching ecological actions millions of people of different faiths across the world partake in every day, in the context of the climate crisis of our present time, is a vital project I undertake in this thesis. I look to Hinduism, which has traditionally been called an “ecological” religion, but without a clear definition of what “ecological” means. I use Vijaya Nagarajan’s theories about Hinduism, women, and ecology as a theoretical guide. I apply her theory of “embedded ecologies” to analyze how knowledge about the environment is layered in cultural, …

Virus, Violence And (In)Visible Women: #Lockdownmeinlockup And Embodied Resistance During Covid-19, Ishani Mukherjee

Journal of International Women's Studies

Drawing on the #LockDownMeinLockUp visual campaign against domestic violence, this paper conceptually leverages embodied resistance, performed connectivity, and (in)visibility politics to explore how gender, body, power, affect, celebrity, performance, and injustice are framed by digital media in the context of an unprecedented global health crisis. The forms, forces, and incidences of domestic violence (DV) are rooted in local power relations and unique cultural practices and so should their interventions and representations be. Since the March 2020 lockdown, the pandemic worsened the conditions of DV victims in India. Many women were forced to cohabit with abusive partners and families. Data on …

Dalit Women In History: Struggles, Voices, And Counterpublics, Tarushikha Sarvesh, Rama Shanker Singh, Tehzeeb Alam

Journal of International Women's Studies

History is a projection of realities from the historian's lens and parameters. The popularity and acceptance of historical accounts depend much on hegemonic structures and knowledge. The Dalit community was marginalized within the Indian economic, social, and political historiography. Gradually, with the rise of Dalit consciousness, men—the better-positioned gender of the community—tried to express their vulnerabilities from a masculinist perspective. The literature written also projected women only as extensions of male protagonists. Though the traumas Dalit women have faced due to intersectional realities are separate from that of men, they could not find a place in early literature as complete …

Gendered Spaces In The Public Sphere: A Micro Study Of Bangalore’S Malls, Airport, Railways, And Educational Institutes, Cecilia Juanita, Fatema Kapadia

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study focuses on public spaces and analyses them to reveal their gendered nature. It is organized around the following public spaces: educational institutions, malls, railway stations, and the airport. Architectural designs, facilities provided, and gender-specific organization are some of the aspects of these spaces that are under study. Our study identified The discriminatory patterns in some of these places suggesting that there are long-term effects of discrimination on the human psyche, particularly when these spaces do not accommodate gender diversity. This paper highlights some of the discriminations and their effects on the LGBTQ+, gender-fluid and gender non-conforming communities. We …

Effects Of Violence Against Women On Higher Education In Mizoram, India, Lokanath Mishra

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study is an empirical research aimed at identifying the causes of violence against women in graduate schools in Mizoram, and its effect on higher education. The researcher adopted a mixed approach and used quantitative and qualitative methodologies to analyze the context, dynamics and practices implemented in Mizoram Graduate Schools to minimize violence against women. Four forms of abuse, namely physical, verbal, sexual and psychological violence against women, have been seen in various Mizoram degree colleges. Youth fashion, hostile family environment, pressure of examination, peer group, disabilities of women, influence of drugs and alcohol and computer gadgets are main causes …

Kiss Of Love Campaign: Contesting Public Morality To Counter Collective Violence, Sonia Krishna Kurup Miss

Peace and Conflict Studies

The paper studies the immense opposition to a nonviolent campaign against the practice of moral policing in Kerala to understand the dominant spaces, collective identities, and discourses that give shape to the outrage of public morality in India. The campaign through its politics specifically targeted rightwing and political groups as well as socially embedded familial and institutional structures that exercise control over individuals through patriarchal regimes. The adverse reaction to the campaign revealed that collective aggression or violence can be used to impose majoritarian values and exert social control through the authority of public morality and everyday acts of moral …

“Valli” At The Border: Adivasi Women De-Link From Settler Colonialism Paving Re-Enchantment Of The Forest Commons, Deepa Kozhisseri

Journal of International Women's Studies

The forests of Attappady Hills part of the Western Ghats in Kerala homeland to Adivasi people is a frontier region where a settler population is now predominant. This paper aims to bring the concept of borders as a heuristic device to interpret gender-ecology-indigeneity in Attappady. The conversations among Adivasis, between Adivasis and settlers, between Adivasi women and their children become in media res dialogues of their border subjectivity. This was an empirical study in Attappady in which life experiences, oral history and myths were studied using narrative analysis. The paper discusses four findings: First how land dispossession disproportionately impacted Adivasi …

Shifting Feminist Activisms: Indian Feminism And Critical Events Of Rape, Geetanjali Gangoli, Aisha K. Gill, Martin Rew

Journal of International Women's Studies

Since the gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh Pandey in 2012 India has generated an enormous amount of national and international media attention and a reputation for sexual violence, pointing to the country’s “endemic problem” (Washington Post, 2012). The rape led to widespread protests, by students and wider society, particularly in Delhi. Notwithstanding these recent events, rape has long been, in fact, a catalyst for feminist and social movement responses in India. This paper will focus on three cases of ‘stranger rape’ that have been valourized as pivotal moments for feminist activism on sexual violence within the country. Reformulating …

A Study On The Status Of Women’S Empowerment In Urban Bangalore, India, Sangeetha Menon, Ranjitha M, Shweta Sharma

Journal of International Women's Studies

The urge to empower is a human quality and a multidimensional phenomenon. It allows individuals or groups to participate and prosper in households, communities, and countries through political or development processes. Numerous studies have associated empowerment with many developmental outcomes. In the past decades, significant advances have been made among women in many fields like health, education, and employment. However, increasing incidence of violence against women, under-representation of women in decision-making, discriminatory laws governing marriage, land, property, and inheritance hinder women’s empowerment. It is further blocked by new challenges that have emerged over the last decade, such as tackling HIV/AIDS …

A Study On Women Consumers’ Attitudes Towards Green Marketing, Santhosh V, Raghavendra Babu

Journal of International Women's Studies

Green marketing is the marketing of products that are assumed to be environmentally friendly and environmentally safe. Green marketing incorporates a wide range of actions such as production process, product modification, packaging of products, and modifying advertisements. The green marketing movement is growing rapidly across the world. Consumer awareness and motivational campaigners are needed for the development of the green market. However, the mindset of women consumers has changed in recent times and they prefer green products. Compared to other countries, in India, awareness of green products like organic food and eco-friendly products is low. Indian women consumers have very …

Hinduism As A Political Weapon: Gender Socialization And Disempowerment Of Women In India, Aindrila Haldar

Master's Theses

There is a growing use of religion as a political tool to control Hindu women in India, contributing to a rise in gender inequality. Immediate authoritative patriarchal domains such as household and politics, continuously speak of “protecting” Hindu women by disregarding their voices and needs. Consequently, potentially creating a loss of agency among women. This research will use inductive reasoning to understand the position of Hindu women in modern Indian society. Particularly, through the understanding of the involvement of religion in the political and household sphere. Hindu women are highly influenced by the expectations of what being an ”ideal” woman …

The Communal Violence Bill: Women’S Bodies As Repositories Of Communal Honour, Zara Ismail

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article examines the measures taken under the various iterations of India’s Communal Violence Bill to tackle sexual violence in communally charged areas. It focuses on the 2002 violence in Gujarat to illustrate ‘sexual impunity’ in India, the workings of izzat (honour) within the discourse around communal violence, and to argue that citizens of India are not always equal before the law. Using decolonial, feminist and postcolonial theory, the author builds on a rich history of activism and scholarship to argue that not only are the measures proposed under the government’s draft of the Communal Violence Bill inadequate, but also …

Making Women’S Unpaid Care Work Visible In India: Importance And Challenges, Gulfam Tasnim

Journal of International Women's Studies

From the 1970s onward, the work performed by women within the household was critically examined, and a feminist critique of Marx emerged. The critique was first developed in the Campaign for Wages for Housework, founded in 1972, by Mariarosa Dalla Costa, Selma James and other renowned feminists. A major contribution of this critique was to highlight women’s domestic labor in the process of capital accumulation, an issue which Marx did not address. This movement therefore sought to make visible women’s work which was naturalized into nonexistence by capitalism. This problem of visibility exists all over the world, and women continue …

Performance Of Controlling Rape In India: Efficiency Estimates Across States, Shrabanti Maity

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper addresses the performance of Indian states in controlling sexual assault or rapeon the basis of the data published bythe National Crime Record Bureau in Indiaon the rape or sexual assault control performances of 28 major Indian states. The relative efficiencies of the states are evaluated by applying stochastic frontier analysis on two decadal periods, ending in 2001 and 2011. Among the Indian states, although Kerala is recognised as the region where women are very progressive, our findings suggest that, unfortunately, the performance of the state in controlling sexual assault is not impressive. On the contrary, Gujaratseems to be …

Politics, Protest And Patience: Gendered Rights And Human Security In India And South Korea, Anika Backelin-Harrison

Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies Honors Papers

National security measures are often framed from a masculinist, hegemonic viewpoint, determining that the wellbeing of a state and its citizens is dependent on protection by a patriarchal government. This paper argues that the health and strength of a country and its citizens are better promoted through a focus on human security, defined by the United Nations as the right of all people to live in freedom and dignity, free from poverty and despair. Moreover, a gendered approach to human security is necessary to advance economic development, personal security and freedom from violence. Nonetheless, women all over the world are …

Performance Of Controlling Rape In India: Efficiency Estimate Across States, Shrabanti Maity

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper addresses the performance of Indian states in controlling sexual assault or rape, on the basis of the data published by National Crime Record Bureau in India, the rape or sexual assault control performances of 28 major Indian states. The relative efficiencies of the states are evaluated by applying stochastic frontier analysis on a two decadal time period, namely, 2001 and 2011. Among the Indian states, although Kerala is recognised as the region where women are very progressive; unfortunately, our findings suggest that the performance of the state in controlling sexual assault is not impressive. On the contrary, Gujarat …

Towards A Politics Of Pain: Building Solidarities, Breaking Silences In Contemporary Chhattisgarh, India, Panchali Ray

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay is based on a series of interviews with Soni Sori, an activist, educationist, and a political figure, who has become the face of adivasi (tribal) resistance to state-corporate acquisition of community land for industry, in Chhattisgarh, India. Soni Sori, who is a prominent figure in the resistance movement against State atrocities on poor adivasi farmers, was accused of Left extremism, and subsequently arrested and sexually tortured in police custody. In her own words, this was to shame her into silence and prevent her from participating in public life, again. In this essay, I ask how does pain enter …

Creating Herstory: Female Rebellion In Arundhati Roy’S "The God Of Small Things" And "The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness", Priyanka Tewari

Theses and Dissertations

In The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness novels, the author Arundhati Roy is not only attempting to give feminist weight to the multiplicity of locations in which gender is articulated by recasting her female characters in their quest for selfhood, she is also focusing on women and women-identified characters as agents of history, thereby contributing to an ongoing project of feminist historiography.

Gendered Portrayals Of Domestic Work In Indian Television, Ruby Jain, Surbhi Pareek

Journal of International Women's Studies

Despite the entry of women into the labour force in India, women still participate in paid employment at a low rate; the rate even fell recently from 31% to 24% (ILO, 2013). This represents an alarming need for change in gender roles. The present article focuses on how electronic media content portrays men’s and women’s roles in performing housework. In a study of 30 TV serials that aired from 1990-2016 and 14 old and new TV advertisements, the findings show that mostly women are depicted doing domestic work. Media demonstrates gender disparities between men and women in performing domestic work, …

“[Taking] Responsibility For The Community”: Women Claiming Power And Legitimacy In Technical And Professional Communication In India, 1999-2016, Breeanne Matheson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Though the field of technical and professional communication has long been saturated with the narratives of Euro-Western males, technical and professional communication as a field has a responsibility to expand the lens of study to include the experiences of global and nontraditional practitioners. This study examines the experiences of Indian women working as practitioners, building power and legitimacy in a globalized economy. Drawing from interviews with 49 practitioners as well as an analysis of historical documents, this study examines the methods that Indian practitioners have used to build power and legitimacy by founding professional organizations, leveraging their educational opportunities, and …

Preventing The Leaky Pipeline: Teaching Future Female Leaders To Manage Their Careers And Promote Gender Equality In Organizations, Nicole Böhmer, Heike Schinnenburg

Journal of International Women's Studies

The paradox of Indian women’s declining presence in the labor market despite their advancements in higher education leads to questions regarding how this “leaky pipeline” can be patched and (partly) prevented. At the same time, female educational advancement in Western countries, such as Germany, does not equate to significantly more females in leadership positions or changes in gender role expectations. In both the Indian and German contextual setting, women face hurdles in developing their career and the risk of lifelong dependency or poverty.

This paper clarifies the perspectives of young females on leadership careers and success before they enter the …

A Gender Perspective On Role Performance Of Elected Panchayat Leaders In India, P. Sindhuja, K.R. Murugan

Journal of International Women's Studies

Gender equality is fundamentally related to sustainable development, and globally accepted as a necessity for the promotion of human rights. Gender empowerment is determined by active participation of women and men in social, economic, and political spaces and activities taken in decision-making. In the context of local government, gender equality is critical as women and men face different challenges in full participation, representation and decent work opportunities. Though the constitution provides women the right to be elected in political and public representative institutions, such as parliament and local government bodies, gender inequality, as a collection of interlinked problems existed in …

The Pedagogy Of Difference: Co-Producing Feminist Consciousness Across Borders, Patricia Mohammed

Journal of International Women's Studies

How has a movement built on the consciousness of sisterhood become so fragmented between the end of the 20th and into the second decade of the 21st century? As different political tendencies, widely varying economic conditions and cultural dissimilarities emerged in global struggles to achieve diverse visions of women’s and gender equality, the current feminist movement appears to be characterized by chasms between the east, west, north and south rather than viewed as a movement whose basic tenets are parallel across racial, geographic and social barriers. By looking at lived examples of confrontations, and through a deliberate process of self-reflexive …

The Communal Self: Reading The Autobiographies Of Two Indian Christian Women, Mrinalini Sebastian

Consensus

No abstract provided.

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 …

Social Media Advertising And Public Awareness: Touching The Lgbt Chord!, Gajendra Singh Chauhan, Tanu Shukla

Journal of International Women's Studies

Advertising is a form of persuasive communication with an audience. It is a promotional tool that helps in selling new ideas, products, and services through print, electronic and digital media. Advertising as one of the most influential components of mass communication is also strongly associated with social issues. In recent times, social media has acquired massive influence, providing an attractive and universal platform to every domain of businesses. Social Media has become an instrument to accelerate the process of change where it promotes social awareness and advertising in the society. As advertising mirrors the society, it strongly captures the changing …

Contributors To Indian Catholicism: Interventions And Imaginings, Mathew Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

Contributors to Indian Catholicism: Interventions and Imaginings, the inaugural issue of the Journal of Global Catholicism.

Taking Action: The Desiring Subjects Of Neoliberal Feminism In India, Hemangini Gupta

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper reflects on an emergent brand of feminist activism in India that responds to everyday sexual violence against women in public. I focus specifically on the efforts of middle class women who organize through online media to conduct interventions in urban Indian public spaces. I review these recent feminist interventions and locate them within a historical review of the women’s movement in India to suggest that contemporary feminist organizing embodies and reflects India’s turn to neoliberalism in the 1990s. While neoliberal reforms have been analyzed within the terms of political economy, this paper extends existing research to consider how …

Indian Women’S Uplift Movements And The Dangers Of Cultural Imperialism, Hannah K. Griggs

Audre Lorde Prize

Because women encounter unique geographic, social, political, religious, economic, and temporal conditions, applying the particular agendas of traditional western feminism to countries like India can easily become a form of cultural imperialism or lead to Orientalism. Therefore, in this essay I argue that in order to support the agency of Indian women, western feminists must step back; Indian women and men who seek women's uplift must claim post-patriarchal expressions of traditional Indian culture. Tradition does and should inform modern culture. However, Indian women's uplift movements and western feminism alike must utilize both ancient and modern wisdom in our quest for …