Journal of International Women's Studies

Incarcerated women are among the most vulnerable and perhaps the least studied populations in the US. Significant proportions of female inmates are substance users, and many living in unstable housing conditions or being homeless. Female inmates are often at high risk of engaging in sex exchange for drugs or housing needs. While a disproportionate number of incarcerated women have experienced childhood household adversities and maltreatments, the effects of these childhood experiences on psychosocial and behavioral outcomes of this population in later life. We apply a life course perspective to examine these pathways in a sample of incarcerated women in Cook County, Illinois. Findings demonstrated lasting, but differential, effects of household adversities and childhood abuse on subsequent life risks and opportunities among these women.

No This article draws on my personal experience, and on the separate experiences of 'leaving heterosexuality' and of 'being disabled'. I have attempted to find common ground for action between these two groups by interrogating the experience of being sexual. I argue that heterosexuality functions as a social matrix, with exclusionary practices that operate in similar ways towards both groups. Mechanisms may be different, but the experience of exclusion is similar, and is based on similar practices. This article focuses on specific points in the exclusionary process, and illustrates similarities.

This article explores the role of the local non-governmental association 'Mothers of Srebrenica' in the complex transitional justice processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The association gathers women who survived the Srebrenica genocide in July 1995 and creates an important public space for the crying out of their grievances and lobbing for their goals. The 'Mothers of Srebrenica' also create a space for widows and displaced women to share their concerns and support each other. While the 'Mothers of Srebrenica' use the rhetoric of victimhood and motherhood whenever they speak out, I argue that they, in fact, challenge the notion of passive victims by the actions they have tirelessly undertaken over the last 13 years. With their resilience and activities, the 'Mothers of Srebrenica' have become known worldwide. Their existence and actions have generated a mixture of feelings: respect, regret and shame among not only those accountable for the crimes in Srebrenica, but also the wider international community. Yet, although 'Mothers of Srebrenica' use a variety of approaches to address past atrocities, it appears that their emphasis is on punitive justice which, they believe, is the only means to bring the peace that they have long yearned to their souls. Yes Yes

The subject of menstruation is filled with powerful socio-cultural implications involving language, religion and gender relations. Yet, the topic is often relegated to silence, considered taboo, and strongly associated with impurity and shame. This schism between the natural reality of menstruation and its socio-cultural damnation highlights the marginal and oppressed condition of women who are considered inferior and impure in many cultures and religions for the mere fact of menstruating, despite ancient practices that validated and celebrated women's menarche. The multimedia project 13 lunas 13/13 moons 13 allows for the interactive exploration of these themes while reflecting upon the patriarchal foundations of the taboo of menstruation. This essay examines primarily the video 13 lunas 13, a video of testimonies by thirteen Spanish women from different generations and social backgrounds. Fear, shame, lack of sexual agency, are some of the common experiences expressed by the women interviewed, particularly among older generations. Along with these testimonies on sexuality and menstruation, this project seeks to collect and reveal euphemisms, myths and cultural practices that are being erased by global practices, while pointing to new technologies and attitudes towards menstruation. Other variables of this project include art installations, poetry, and an interface that allows the collection of testimonies via the Internet, reaching out to new generations of men and women wishing to expose an experience intrinsically related to their lives.

Tunisia is widely considered to be the country in which the current round of major upheavals in North Africa and the Middle East began. This paper explores the most prominent instances of women's activism which have taken place in Tunisia in the time which has followed the revolution of 2011. Through analysis of the principal literature related to the subject and the information gathered as a result of fieldwork conducted in the capital city of Tunis in February 2013, the paper examines the most significant transformations which have arisen from the active participation of women in the uprising. The involvement of women in the demand for changes in Tunisia questions whether women's political engagement can be seen as an essential asset within Tunisian civil society organizations, and, if it can, this prompts us to go on to consider the implications of this also for the role of international aid funding (with specific reference to the European Union). Overall, the Tunisian uprising can be represented in terms of a remarkable case in which civil society, including the women's organizations, has played a useful and effective role at a political and social level, ensuring the emergence of a feasible alternative pathway.

Tunisia has a unique set of family law codes that continue to operate from 1956 to the present day. The 1956 Code of Personal Status deals with crucial issues such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, alimony, child custody and adoption. The enactment of this code and Tunisian women's emancipation and its uniqueness in the Arab Muslim world can be attributed to a combination of various historical, political and social factors: the country's 'so-called' homogeneity, its particular colonial experience, and above all the country's modernization policy implemented by Tunisia's first president Habib Bourguiba. This article focuses on the early years of independence and the role played by Tunisia's first president in implementing those laws benefitting women and the society at large. It examines the Code, its prominence for the modern independent Tunisian society and the historical trajectory which led to its enactment. This article also focuses on the role played by early Tunisian intellectuals and social reformers who paved the way for the significant amendment of Islamic family laws, the enactment of the Code of Personal Status (The CPS) and the later construction of the post-colonial modern nation-state. The article investigates the radical attempt to modernize and reinterpret the Sharia jurisdiction through a rereading of this new set of laws as they came in Majallat Al-Ahwal Al Shakhsiya (The CPS) in an attempt to better understand the context in which it was promulgated and the reasons accounting for its success. The article utilizes a few secondary sources which document and scrutinize the roots of Tunisia's trajectory towards the advancement of women's causes. Throughout the analysis, I re-examine the code itself to better comprehend the newly promulgated civic rights and obligations granted to women by this revolutionary legal document.

Unmediated representations of women's everyday subjective experiences of historical events are difficult to find in discourses about masculinity and femininity. Discussions often centre on normative expressions of sexual difference, explaining the ways in which patriarchy was reconstituted rather than focusing on women's experiences. Late nineteenth century strands of nationalist thought in the Bengal relied on gendered ideas about the nation, self, and society in their representations of womanhood, which served as a symbol of the nation. Various historians have explored the idealised versions of women that these discourses presented, but often these studies fail to examine portrayals of the subjective experiences of women who might have confronted these gendered ideological standpoints. This paper suggests that using film as an archive to explore depictions of female subjectivity can be useful, especially to feminist and gender researchers who are searching for new ways of conceptualising the everyday experience of women in the past. It raises questions about how, if ever, experience can be used as evidence in history, how portrayals of articulations of difference and resistance are helpful for writing gender history, and why film is a fruitful archive in which to imagine how women might have experienced and expressed their dissatisfaction with gender-normative roles within the patriarchal family setting. It discusses ideas about speaking and articulation in scholarship on women in the past, to posit that film is a useful place to imagine women's articulations of difference from the Other that patriarchal discourses would cast them as.

Witchcraft accusations have led to the killings of elderly women in many parts of sub- Saharan Africa. For many years, the violence has had major effects on people's health. Witchcraft accusations have been the source of people's loss of limbs and deaths among elderly women in Africa. Although these problems have had effects on elderly women, there has been very little reconstruction of their history in Tanzania. Thus, the aim of this article is to rewrite the history of the vulnerability of the elderly women to witchcraft accusations among the Fipa of Sumbawanga district of Tanzania. This article focuses on the theme of the vulnerability of elderly women to witchcraft accusations in the context of Tanzanian women's history. The article examines conditions that led to the vulnerability of elderly women to witchcraft accusations among the Fipa. It also investigates the efficacy of the methods employed by the Tanzanian government in the suppression of witchcraft accusations in Sumbawanga. The data for this article were collected from primary and secondary sources. Primary data were accessed at the library of the University of Dar es Salaam, where Tanganyika Provincial Commissioners' Reports were gathered. Other primary sources were accessed at Tanganyika National Archive, where files and letters written by officials were consulted. I also obtained data through the use of interview. I interviewed government officials, missionaries and ordinary people who served in Sumbawanga district. These people had a lot of experience with the vulnerability of elderly women to witchcraft accusations in the area over time.

This paper examines the under-researched and undervalued area of American women's prison zines. It discusses three publications created at the California Institute for Women, Frontera, during the 1970s, placing them in the wider contexts of prison reform and the women's movement. Through close analysis, it demonstrates the influences of, and connections to, the feminist print culture at the time and how groups such as the Santa Cruz Women's Prison Project enabled their publication and influenced their ideology. Examining women's prison zines can contribute to conversations about women's liberation by offering new perspectives on what I call 'collective autobiography', and giving voice to an obscured and forgotten community of women.

This article presents a summary of the qualitative data from research carried out in post-conflict Liberia by Isis-WICCE, a women's international non-government organisation, in conjunction with the Ministry of Gender and Development of Liberia and Women in Peace-building Network, WIPNET. Analysis of research findings detail women's experiences of conflict and the serious effects of sexual violence and torture on their physical and psychological health. The paper also describes the omission of women from justice and rehabilitation processes. In support of women participants' views, the authors' recommend that funding is urgently required for the provision of holistic and sustainable, gender- sensitive services. Additional recommendations are made with respect to health, justice and policy changes in line with enhancing women survivor's roles and utilising their skills and resilience.

Employing a feminist lens that places emphasis on women's agency South African feminists have challenged the dominant narrative of hapless women who need external saviours to climb out of poverty. In particular, black South African feminists have drawn attention to the appropriation and deployment of both indigenous and other concepts and practices by women to fight poverty. This article employs these perspectives to interpret the importance of rotating saving schemes in South Africa. It explores the debate about women's economic, communityparticipation and entrepreneurship strategies with reference to the Stokvel and other rotating saving-schemes (e.g. mashonisa) to improve the status of women. It argues that most African women and their independence-found access to economic opportunities and wealth status enabled them to transcend post-Apartheid economic deprivation and carry through their battle for economic recognition and survival through overt and covert agency symptomatic of their Apartheid-era liberation war strategies. South African women living in poverty sought to help themselves, and how they did that brings out novel ways to survive, and illustrates that they are quite 'bankable' as they can save, borrow, invest in their own enterprises, use micro-finance and other schemes to repay their loans and meet immediate needs (e.g. school fees, healthcare). Their effort to address poverty is important because it helps avoid a stereotype picture that Africans are just poor and cannot change or anticipate their situation themselves. The paper finds that whilst most South African women were poor, they saw themselves 'on the verge of conquering poverty'. African women epitomized the confidence in this economic rhetoric when they embarked on Stokvel activities to ensure their 'triumph over poverty'.

The aim of this paper is to examine how a language of 'women's rights' entered into foreign policy discourses of the Bush Administration in the period of 2001-2004. Through a discursive analysis of speeches, press releases, interviews and written documents, I find that feminist-inspired language and concepts entered into the mainstream discourse on numerous occasions throughout this period, though usually in the service of other foreign policy objectives. In this analysis, I identify three primary 'dialogical frames' in which such references appear, labelling these: 'Us vs. Them', 'The Active Leader', and 'The Moral Community'. Many feminists have argued that these kinds of references are disingenuous 'gender decoys'. While politically motivated calculation clearly played a role in this discourse, I argue that ideology and identity must also be taken into account as influencing factors. In conclusion, while problematic, the use of such language by the Bush Administration (or any government for that matter) also presents a discursive opening through which more substantive change may be achieved.

The following discussion is based on an extensive survey of UK mainstream television news reports broadcast between September and December 2001 during the military attacks on Afghanistan, known as Operation Enduring Freedom. Also conducted was a survey of British radio and print media published and produced within the specified period. I argue that the 2001 news media coverage of Afghanistan was an important precursor to current debates about Muslim women in Europe and the United States since it highlights many of the contradictions and hypocrisies housed within western public discourses on women's rights. Detailing numerous examples, I contend that the prevalent theme of women's liberation on international news agendas did nothing to alter the prevailing norm of news media coverage, which denied Afghan women access to media spaces throughout Operation Enduring Freedom. Afghan women were invariably the subjects rather than the agents of such debates. Moreover, regardless of their gender, the vast majority of journalists reporting the 2001 conflict failed to recognise and confront the co-option of women's rights for the purpose of justifying military aggression on humanitarian grounds. I argue that this has grave implications, not merely for future reporting on Afghan women, but for the widespread practice by mainstream politicians and their associates of co-opting the discourse of women's rights to justify military conflict.

This article examines the victimization and role of Syrian children in the Syrian Revolution 2011. The study explores the victimization of Syrian children at the hands of both the regime and the rebels. I claim that through engaging in competing performances and representations of the nation, both the regime and the opposition victimize Syrian children. Nevertheless, the art projects undertaken by nonviolence activists have proven to help children heal and to cope with their predicaments brought on by the crisis. The poetry, paintings, drawings, and songs produced by these children is the best means they have of representing their victimization and their role in the revolution, and communicating their perspectives on the Syrian nation today. I argue that by producing art that conveys their perception of the revolution, Syrianchildren reclaim their identities as citizens of Syria.

The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 aims to provide for mental health care and services for persons with mental illness in India and to protect, promote and fulfill the rights of such persons during delivery of mental health care and services. Chapter V of the Act enumerates the rights of persons with mental illness, including the right to equality, right to confidentiality, the right to protection from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in any mental health establishment (which includes the right to proper clothing so as to protect such person from exposure of his/her body to maintain his/her dignity, and the right to be protected from all forms of physical, verbal, emotional and sexual abuse), right to community living, etc. This paper analyses the provisions of the Act from the perspective of rights of women with mental illness in need of mental health care, and draws a comparison with the relevant provisions of the United Nation Convention of Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Comparison is also made with the existent reality reported in legal literature, the media and the field work undertaken by the author in India.

This work focuses on the process by which two Black women with little resources and education contributed to the development of community. These women were born in the mid- 20th century and their narratives are included in the Black Women Oral History Project. Discovered here is that there was a path to community development that these women followed which involved their desire to help, the recognition and use of churches and other community organizations to implement change in their communities.

Costa Rica is regarded as the "top democracy" in Latin America, exceeding basic developmental standards in most categories. The nation's achievement is evidenced by women's strong enrollment and retention rates within the nation's education system. However, Costa Rica's overwhelming gender disparity in the labor force reveals significant developmental deficiencies and contradicts fundamental democratic ideals. The pervasion of an "electric fence" mentality stunts women's socio-economic engagement by restraining them to traditionally prescribed gender roles. To better understand women's economic detachment, special attention must be paid to those institutional practices that perpetuate cultural norms and discriminatory tendencies. Costa Rica's education system has a historic proclivity toward social conditioning, having undergone substantial reform to embed democratic allegiance into its national discourse. Socialized norms, imbedded in the education system, have discouraged women's economic aspirations and fostered gender disparity. The following essay integrates observational fieldwork and research to analyze trends in Costa Rican women's socio-economic engagement.

The role of women in the Arab Spring uprisings requires special attention. Indeed, women participated alongside men in recent political movements and were actively involved in shaping the outcomes of these processes. The case of Bahrain is especially interesting. Even though the Bahraini "Day of Rage" movement was ultimately marginalized at large, it had unlikely consequences for Bahraini women. As female empowerment has been a high priority on the government's agenda, participation of women in the public sphere serves important functions and in the aftermath of Bahraini uprising it got an additional boost. The aim of this paper is to assess how the role of Bahraini women has been interwoven with political liberalization reforms in the first decade on the 21st century and assess its importance for the Bahraini authorities. Secondly, it aims at analyzing the outcomes of Arab Spring uprising for Bahraini women. It asserts that as the pro-government and anti-government movements took to the streets, social divisions of Bahrainis deepened and equally, affected female activists. Ultimately, the article ends with a discussion over the prospects of female empowerment by pro-democracy movements in the Middle East.

Women's leadership significantly contributes to building high-performing organizations. However, challenges with balancing work and family responsibilities are inhibiting them from exerting their fullest potential towards this end. This study aims at investigating the challenges women leaders in Addis Ababa face in balancing the demands of their organizations with that of their families. A sample of eight women leaders of positions from large and middle scale organizations were taken using a purposive sampling technique. In-depth interviews were used to gather information for the study, and a phenomenological qualitative study was applied to analyze the data. The study identified some organizational, societal, and individual factors that challenge women leaders in balancing their work and family responsibilities. Work overload, cultural and social norms, family responsibilities, and upbringing related behaviors of the interviewees themselves were among the major challenges in maintaining their work-family balance. This study contributes insights into work-family balance theory and practice, by presenting women leaders' voices about their work-life challenges as expressed in their own words, from their own testimonies. It indicates that much needs to be done on the part of organizations, society, family, and women themselves for women leaders to have the desired level of work-family balance.

This article examines the religious and architectural history of the Royal Abbey of Fontevrault, in the French province of Anjou, investigating the active and deliberate role women played in shaping the physical and symbolic space of this female monastic community. Founded in the early 12 th century and active until the French Revolution, the abbey was a rare institution in which administrative power was in the hands of women, enabling them to exert almost complete control over the built environment. The nature and impact of this control is examined by tracing the development of the abbey from an initial settlement of rough dwellings into a large monastic complex comprising five distinct communities. By exploring the planning and building of Fontevrault in the context of typical monastic design as well as contemporaneous Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque architecture, the article reveals the extent and significance of this gendered construction of space.

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 postcolonial African societies, who, in the space of the films as in real life, are the double-colonized subject.

Feminist strategising on abortion has been dominated by a "pro-choice" frame. Increasingly, however, pro-choice discourse is being viewed as inadequate to meet contemporary and complex feminist aims and analyses, in particular due to the individualising ontological framework upon which it appears to be based. The work of Judith Butler is one location where such concerns have been explored and an alternative approach based upon a renewed analysis of the concept of "life" has been asserted. Foregrounding the fundamental precariousness of intersubjective life and opening the socio-political conditions sustaining precarious life to democratic public engagement carries significant implications for feminist strategising for Butler, and envisages a reconceptualisation of debate on abortion. In this article Butler's work on life will be combined with her theoretical tool of the frame to explore space which may exist within pro-choice strategising to potentially work towards such a renewed approach to life in social debate on abortion. This space may be used to rethink feminist strategising on abortion beyond pro-choice discourse, and presents an accessible starting point from which to do so. In carrying out this analysis insights will be drawn from feminist advocacy and activism in the contingent location of Northern Ireland where recent employment of a health frame and a rights frame demonstrate instances of pro-choice strategising which may be reiterated to shift feminist activism towards more radical engagement with life as a precarious social process demanding critical attention.

Do forces that impacted feminist beliefs in the past, such as gender and generation, impact feminist beliefs today within the context of abortion policy support? While the abortion rights issue was framed during the feminist movement era as a feminist issue, it is now clearly framed along partisan and ideological lines. Public opinion on issues that percolated through the feminist movement and identified as feminist issues in the past may no longer be viewed as feminist issues today. The abortion rights issue was chosen because of the oft-held perception that it is solely a women's issue. The strong association of abortion rights with the feminist movement makes opinion on abortion rights an appropriate domain in which to analyze the relative impact of gender, generation and feminist beliefs on policy support. Data from the 2004 American National Election Study showed that neither gender nor generation achieved a significant impact on feminist beliefs. Men's and women's exposure to the feminist movement, the ideals that the movement sought, and certain policies advanced by the movement, such as abortion rights, achieve disparate impact across generations among women and among men. These findings are critical when one questions how feminist policy questions will be approached and responded to by the public and political elites in the future as feminist beliefs may be a less meaningful precursor to both feminist policy support and issues framed in feminist terms than they have been in the past.