History of Gender Commons^™

The Heart Of Undine: The Im/Possibility To Love Under Water, Ulrike Hugo

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

This short story plays upon the myth of the water nymph, who out of love for a man gives up her previous existence and becomes mortal. Traumatized women, especially, often experience love in this tension of devotion and self-sacrifice. The text plays with a metaphorical language bordering lyricism and kitsch, it plays with exaggerated notions of love and projections and culminates in an ending which is predictable yet deviates from the myth.

Images Of Water And Woman In The Arts, Zdenka Kalnicka

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Archetypal connection of woman and water is ambiguous: it includes the connection of water and woman with life as well as with death. The paper explores the ways, how two sides of this connection were depicted in the artworks created by women and men artists, focusing on their gender differentiated approach (Albín Brunovsk_ and Germaine Richier, Edward Burne-Jones and Edith Rimmington). As an inspiration for reconsideration of the relationship between Life and Death, the potential of old symbol of the frog as the symbol of birth, death and re-birth is examined (Susan Makov).

The Ladies Of The Water: Iemanjá, Oxum, Oiá And A Living Faith, Cláudia Cerqueira Do Rosario

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

The orishas Iemanjá , Oxum and Oiá are related to the forces of salt and fresh waters, and to the storms, and are objects of living worship not only in Brazil but also in parts of Africa - where they came from - and Americas. Based on their archetypal representations, this paper will be a reflection on the archetypes of the relationship woman/water and its symbolic implications, both in “sacred” and “profane” ways, still alive in contemporary culture.

The Changing Role Of Women In Watermanagement: Myths And Realities, Nandita Singh

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Women and water are linked in several ways, an important pragmatic linkage being their role in water management. Several continuous efforts at positively transforming this role have been made during the last three decades, ranging from their improved role as domestic water managers to eliciting their greater participation in water management initiatives at community level. Studies tend to indicate that the anticipated ends of such exercises are universally achievable, in isolation of the prevailing social and cultural contexts where the women are placed. This paper seeks to unfold the realities underlying the universalistic claims regarding a transformed role for women …

How Beneficial Has Water Technology Been For Rural Nepalese Women?, Bhawana Upadhya

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

This paper aims to explore the effect of irrigation technology on women of rural Nepalese terai communities. This is done by looking at the effect of technological change on rural women of three different classes in terms of their absolute and relative access to income, food consumption and workload. The article also explores how technology adoption helps enhance rural women's bargaining power and how division of labor is gendered. Case study approach together with other participatory rural appraisal techniques had been used to gather field information.. The study reveals that even in a small social setting, gender identities prevail over …

Mmatshilo Motsei, Hearing Visions Seeing Voices, 2004, Jacanamedia, South Africa. Isbn 1-919931-51-1, R139.95, Pp. 189., Mechthild Nagel

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

No abstract provided.

Women, Water And The Reclamation Of The Feminine, Colleen Kattau

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

This paper examines the relationship between water and women particularly in terms of representative cultural expressions that underlie women's recovery of water as a fundamental human right, and explores how deep knowledge and trust of earth's bounty sustains viable and effective social change campaigns such as the right to water movement. Drawing principally upon the sociocultural analysis of ecofeminist thinkers such as Vandana Shiva and Carolyn Merchant, as well as William Marks's work on water, I critique the nature-culture dichotomy underlying approaches to water as a 'resource', and try to undermine the accepted hierarchy of 'power over nature' which by …

Symbols Of Water And Woman On Selected Examples Of Modern Bengali Literature In The Context Of Mythological Tradition, Blanka Knotkova-Capkova

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Woman-water homology appears in modern Bengali literature (namely poetry) in various aspects: as the archetypal symbol of creation and destruction, symbol of the womb as the beginning and end of life and rebirth (connoting both physical womb and eternal womb), and also of the womb as dark mysteriousness; a symbol of the continuation, preservation of life, symbol of transience and elusiveness, traditional male written poetic symbol of charm and beauty. In the demystifying, subversive (not only female) poetic imagination, it may also construct the symbol of eternal unity with the female principle, articulate a specific concept of female identity.

Review Of Silvia Federici Caliban And The Witch: Women,The Body And Primitive Accumulation (2005, Autonomedia,Nyc), Ann Fergusun

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

No abstract provided.

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.

Gendered Approaches To Environmental Justice: An Historical Sampling, Nancy Unger

History

While race and class are regularly addressed in environmental justice studies, scant attention has been paid to gender. The environmental justice movement formally recognized in the 1980s in no way, however, marks the beginning of the central role played by women in the long history of its concerns.' Abuses based in gender as well as race and class have subjected women to a variety of environmental injustices. However, women's responses to the ever-shifting responsibilities prescribed to their gender, as well as to their particular race and class, have consistently shaped their abilities to affect the environment in positive ways. Especially …

To Waken Fond Memory: Moments In The History Of Gettysburg College, Anna Jane Moyer

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Between 1975 and 1989 Anna Jane Moyer produced a series of essays for the Gettysburg College alumni magazine capturing “moments” on campus and in the town of Gettysburg since 1832. Treating people, places, and notable events over the course of the College’s first 150 years, Moyer’s sketches reached an appreciative audience at the time. But with the Gettysburg College 175th anniversary approaching, it seemed appropriate to make her writing more readily available to alumni, friends of the College, students, and scholars.

The sketches now republished in To Waken Fond Memory remind readers that the culture of a liberal arts college …

De La Mujer Invisible Al Feminismo Ineludible: Política Y Antropología En La Historiografía De La Mujer, Robert H. Holden

History Faculty Publications

La historiografía de la mujer, desde el comienzo de su etapa contemporánea en los años setenta del siglo pasado, es analizada en dos vertientes relacionadas: Una, su politización al servicio del movimiento social que aboga por la extensión de los derechos de la mujer y que dió luz a dicha historiografía; dos, el papel central que ha jugado la pregunta antropológica, ‘¿Qué es la mujer’?, y la variedad de respuestas que esta pregunta ha generado. El autor sostiene que tanto la intensa politización como el desarrollo de una antropología cada vez más materialista, como tendencias interdependientes, han llegado a caracterizar …

Challenges Documenting Early Era Regional Leaders, Danelle L. Moon

Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

What’S So Special About Women’S History; Next Steps Facing Historians And Archivist Documenting Regional Women’S History, Danelle L. Moon

Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Can Women's Voices Be Recovered From The Past? Grappling With The Absence Of Women Voices In Pre-Colonial History Of Zimbabwe, Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

The question of whether women’s voices can be recovered from the past may sound very old-fashioned to some people, but in the Zimbabwean academic situation, it is still pertinent even after all the advances made in researching women history elsewhere. This is because there is no attempt by historians to grapple with the absence of women voices in mainstream narratives of pre-colonial history of Zimbabwe. Invisibility of women has been maintained even in the latest historical works on pre-colonial history of Zimbabwe. This means that the existing histories neglected the activities of half of the population of the pre-colonial Zimbabwean …

Environmental Justice And Women's Rights: A Tribute To Wangari Maathai, Mechthild Nagel

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

The United Nations Millenium Development Goals (MDG) focus on key social, economic and political issues; gender and environment are just some of the areas noted. What are the lessons learnt from Kenya’s Green Belt Movement (GBM), spearheaded by Wangari Maathai? MDG analysts might benefit from understanding an NGO’s strategies, like GBM. It will be argued that GBM’s consensus movement mobilized urban and rural women around tree planting income-generating activities, consciousness raising, women’s rights, and political empowerment. GBM’s harambee spirit has the potential of replication across the continent.

Rethinking Gender Within The Context Of The Global Hiv/Aids Epidemic, Gwen Lesetedi

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

No abstract provided.

Review: The Power Of Women's Informal Networks, Rosa De Jorio

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

No abstract provided.

Gender Issues In Hiv/Aids Epidemiology In Sub-Saharan Africa., Ben E. Wodi

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

"The patriarchal nature of African societies continues to shape women’s sexual behavior in the region. This in turn accounts for the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS among women in sub-Saharan Africa. Of the several factors implicated in the unequal prevalence of the disease among women in Africa, economic dependency/feminization of poverty, unequal distribution of sexual power (sexual violence and coercion), limited educational opportunities and lack of political will continue to dominate the literature (Robinson, 2004; Dunkle, et al., 2004; Martin and Curtis, 2004; Eaton, et al., 2003; Mill and Anarfi, 2002). While programmatic and financial initiatives have increased significantly in the …

Transnational Health Promotion: Social Well-Being Across Borders And Immigrant Women's Subjectivities., Denise Gastaldo, Amoaba Gooden, Notisha Massaquoi

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

In this article, the authors use two qualitative studies to address transnationalism in the intersection of migration, gender and health promotion studies. The experiences of women who have recently (less than 3 years ago) immigrated to Canada are examined focusing on their transnational health promotion activities. Despite the invisibility of women’s unpaid work in transnational and migration studies, we argue that the well-being of families, communities and nations is currently being produced in local, national, and international networks of health promotion and care giving and by the wealth generated by women’s labour. Our contribution is to bring together gendered health …

Unsettling Experiences: Transnational Dialogues Of Necessity In Journal, Nationalité: Immigré(E) And Paletitas De Guayaba, Tim Gerhard

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

In this paper, I examine the transnational stories of two women --one born in France of Algerian descent and the other born in the United States of Mexican descent-- whose lives are interrupted by the inability to understand their status as ethnic women in the country of their birth. By analyzing their works in the proper socio-historical context and by defining how they fit into a relatively new mode of expression --the autoethnography-- I establish a transnational dialogue between the works of these two women. Transnational stories such as these challenge the superiority of the transnational identities established by the …

Getting Connected? The Politics Of Mobilizing A Transnational Feminist Response To The War On Terror, Krista Hunt

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

This paper examines the essential role that the Internet has played in mobilizing a transnational feminist response to the war on terror. The use of the Internet by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) and feminists opposed to the war on terror exemplify the power of this technology to give voice to women who have in many different ways been silenced off-line. This timely case study illustrates how crucial the Internet can be to gain international attention regarding human rights abuses, to solicit transnational support, and to provide an international forum for those who are politically disenfranchised. …

Review: The Global Political Economy Of Sex, Silvia Federici

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

No abstract provided.

Women In A Global Environment, Kassim Kone

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

No abstract provided.

Naccs 32nd Annual Conference, National Association For Chicana And Chicano Studies

NACCS Conference Programs

Visión: Articulating, Imagining, and Contextualizing Chicana/o Spaces
April 13-17
Hyatt Regency

Mom Or Manager?: How Social Factors And Personal Choice Affect The Work/Family Balance In The United States, Japan And Germany, Christine E. Mueller

Honors Theses

This report investigates the work/family balance based on two factors: social influence and personal choice. The first factor is significant because society dictates and enforces the prescribed roles for women. The degree of career progression a woman can achieve is partly bound by restrictions of society. The other factor, personal choice, is the factor that only each woman can determine for herself. A woman can only progress as far as her personal goals determine. In addition to the relationship between society and personal choice, this report examines the barriers to pursuit of a management career inherent in these factors.

En-Gendering Critical Spatial Literacy: Migrant Asante Women And The Politics Of Urban Space., Epifania Adoo-Adare

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

The power of spatial configurations in our everyday social practices and ideological constructions of place and identity cannot be denied. As an architect and an Asante woman who has always lived in African and diasporic cities, I am particularly interested in how Black women’s socioeconomic lives have been constituted, situated, and enacted in western urban spatiality. I believe that Black women the world over are disproportionately represented in unsuitable and inadequate urban spaces and are also underrepresented in urban development decision-making processes. Also, as a Black female architect intent on imagining and constructing radical architectural counter-narratives within hegemonic spatial politics, …

Reviews: Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity And Race, Ethnicity, And Sexuality: Intimate Intersections, Forbidden Frontiers, Mechthild Nagel

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

No abstract provided.

A Requiem For Voicelessness: Pakistanis And Muslims In The Us., Asma Barlas

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

In this essay, I discuss the attack on the civil liberties of Muslims, some challenges I face as a Muslim-Pakistani-American in the present political milieu, and the psychology of racism. This was delivered as a 15-minute talk and is in the nature of some reflections and not a systematic analysis.