Female Emancipation Research Articles

Phenomenon and Concept of EMANCIPATION

The study of the conceptual sphere is a field of linguistics which is closely related to the study of culture, the mentality of a particular linguistic personality or society of a certain epoch, the people as a carrier of mentality. Research in this area is important not only in synchrony, but also in diachrony, due to the historical variability of cultural codes, the volume and content of language resources as the means of representation of concepts, the evolution of the social substratum of language in the developing world. This determines the relevance of addressing the phenomenon of emancipation, since it is associated with shifts in social (primarily legal) relations of various kinds, in culture, rightly regarded by science as having humanitarian value. The aim of the study is to characterize from a linguistic point of view the content features of the concept of EMANCIPATION, which are determined by social trends, the passionarity of the epoch, the intentions of individuals evaluating the phenomenon, taking into account the noticeable stability of the core of Abstract semantics of its most important representative - the word emancipation. The research is carried out from anthropocentric positions, in synchronous-diachronic terms, using a set of methods: descriptiveanalytical, elements of component analysis, comparative analysis, synthesis, methods of cognitive linguistics, sociolinguistic (survey). The main material was the data of the National Corpus of the Russian Language (Ruscorpora), namely, the contexts of a sample of documents presented in it from different eras with the word emancipation in various grammatical forms. The research has shown that the word emancipation in the Russian conceptual sphere is consistently represented primarily by the concept, the semantic dominant of which is formed by ‘woman’ ( the phenomenon of women’s emancipation, female emancipation ), so that we can talk about its prominence in the Russian culture with this name: EMANCIPATION. Artistic and journalistic works of Russian writers, including “women’s prose”, contributed to the isulation of this concept. The word emancipation, used with other pragmatic attitudes, performs the function of one of the verbalizers of the concepts of related spheres: INDEPENDENCE, FREEDOM of CREATIVITY. The practical application of this material can be associated with its use in university linguistic courses, in the study of terminology, in lexicography, in literary studies, in explaining the scope of the term emancipation in the official business style, modern legal discourse.

“My Dear Mute Foundling with Those Telling Eyes of Yours”

The article explores the disabled female gaze through the titular character in Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Little Mermaid” (1837), arguing that sight is a strategy of empowerment that challenges the able-bodied male gaze. Andersen’s fairy tale—and its accompanying visual forms, including sculpture and illustration—is placed in dialogue with Literary Disability Studies, examining how the little mermaid is depicted as an objectified spectacle. Throughout the narrative, she contends with gendered constraints and bodily impairment as a result of her transition from mermaid to human. However, the article also suggests that the little mermaid’s gaze is an implicit, interrogative device for female emancipation because she challenges the able-bodied male gaze. Existing scholarship has considered gender and disability in “The Little Mermaid,” but the gaze is yet to be addressed in relation to these arguments. Examining the intersections between femininity, disability, and the gaze disrupts and reimagines critical traditions of the gaze, and Andersen’s representation of the little mermaid character does in part uphold feminine and ableist norms. However, this representation also offers a tantalising glimpse into how new approaches toward the female disabled gaze (in contrast to the highly theorized male gaze) can be derived from nineteenth-century children’s literature.

Рецепция образа Оленьки в рассказе «Душечка» А. П. Чехова в Китае

The aim of the study is to determine the features of interpretation of Olenka’s image in Chinese literary criticism from 1907 to the present day. The article shows the dynamics of perception of Chekhov’s heroine image in various socio-historical conditions in China. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that the article is the first systematic analysis of the reception of Olenka’s image in China and provides new material in this regard; the opposite points of view of the Chinese critics on the image of the woman depicted by A. P. Chekhov are indicated; parallels are drawn between the interpretations of the image of the heroine from the story “The Darling” by the Russian and Chinese literary critics and writers, in particular, common points in critical perceptions of Olenka between the Chinese researchers and contemporaries of A. P. Chekhov (L. N. Tolstoy, M. Gorky) are determined. As a result, it is proved that the image of the considered heroine of Chekhov’s work has been and is currently being severely criticized in China in connection with the peculiarities of the Chinese society development and the process of female emancipation, but there are also positive opinions about the heroine, emphasizing her virtue, ability to exalted feelings, devotion love.

Zeit als kategorische Erfahrung im modernen Individualtourismus

The road trip to Afghanistan and the Near East of Swiss novelist, photographer and freelance journalist Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908-1842) in 1939/40 was an attempt to resolve a number of personal crises: her existence as an unconventional artist, lesbian and antifascist created conflicts with her conservative family and the political and social conservatism in Swiss society; running in the same circles as Klaus and Erika Mann, she also struggled with morphine addiction. Drawing on Schwarzenbach’s articles and stories of her journey to Afghanistan, the paper explores the specific modes of perception (of time, self and other) the journey by car affords the troubled writer. The paper argues that her road trip can be read as a form of self-therapy. Schwarzenbach experiences her self-determined mobility as an early auto-mobilist as challenging but also empowering. The theme of female mobility reappears in Schwarzenbach’s depictions of Afghan women (e.g. in their perceived restricted mobility, the covering of their bodies with the chador). These depictions, the paper argues, problematize concepts like enlightenment, progress, and emancipation. Keywords: Annemarie Schwarzenbach, automobility, road trip, therapy, female emancipation, religious traditions

Zeit als kategorische Erfahrung im modernen Individualtourismus

The road trip to Afghanistan and the Near East of Swiss novelist, photographer and freelance journalist Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908-1842) in 1939/40 was an attempt to resolve a number of personal crises: her existence as an unconventional artist, lesbian and antifascist created conflicts with her conservative family and the political and social conservatism in Swiss society; running in the same circles as Klaus and Erika Mann, she also struggled with morphine addiction. Drawing on Schwarzenbach’s articles and stories of her journey to Afghanistan, the paper explores the specific modes of perception (of time, self and other) the journey by car affords the troubled writer. The paper argues that her road trip can be read as a form of self-therapy. Schwarzenbach experiences her self-determined mobility as an early auto-mobilist as challenging but also empowering. The theme of female mobility reappears in Schwarzenbach’s depictions of Afghan women (e.g. in their perceived restricted mobility, the covering of their bodies with the chador). These depictions, the paper argues, problematize concepts like enlightenment, progress, and emancipation. Keywords: Annemarie Schwarzenbach, automobility, road trip, therapy, female emancipation, religious traditions

Girls build! Female architects who shaped the modern history of Novi Sad

The recovery from the Second World War brought significant changes and the implementation of socialist ideology in Yugoslavia that went in parallel with the emancipation of women. This is particularly noticeable in the rise of women with university education and their enrolment in various occupations, such as construction engineering and architecture. The increased interest in pursuing architectural education among women has been rising since the 1950s, when they already represented 46% of total students at Belgrade University. The rebuilding of the country meant great urbanistic and architectural projects, with radical reconstruction and reconceptualization of cities and public spaces. Young female architects embraced an opportunity to be equally involved and active in urban development. Their roles and impacts were diverse: they held positions within planning institutes, architectural bureaus, and public offices in urbanism and construction; furthermore, they were responsible engineers at the construction sites; and they became teachers and educators for the new generations of architects and civil engineers. They worked individually, in pairs, and in teams, demonstrating the ability to be actively and equally involved in the profession in every possible aspect and domain. The research positions their roles and contributions within the broader framework of the process of female emancipation in socialist Yugoslavia, focusing on three remarkable architects engaged in the postwar reconstruction of Novi Sad: Julka Majtan, Tatjana Vanjifatov Savic, and Milena Djordjevic.

Female Images of French Comics (Bande Dessinée)

The article analyzes the history of female characters of French comics (bande dessinée). The study covers the period from the beginning of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century, from the creation of albums telling about the history of Bécassina to the albums devoted to the adventures of Laureline. Analyzing the history of the development of female characters, the authors noted that the feminization of the French bande dessinée coincides with the chronology of the three stages of development of feminism. This circumstance is reflected in the specifics of female characters of comics, their nature, manner of action and gender relations. Moreover, the stories of female characters in the bande dessinée were a reflection of the social and cultural situation of a certain time, the change in the legal and civil status of a woman, the transformation of her role in society and the desire for real equality. The Bécassina’s character, although it fits into the framework of traditional gender relations and the social role of women in France at the beginning of the 20th century, at the same time reflects the beginning of a “rebellion”, an attempt to go beyond the assigned role, to know the outside world. The image of Lili in this context is more modern and more reflective of the post-war spirit of the “beautiful era” marked by the process of female emancipation. In any case, both characters have a choice to play a social role reserved for them by society, or to go beyond the patriarchal framework. In fact, this is the first bright characters bande dessinée, embarked on the path of emancipation. The second wave of feminism contributes to the evolution of female characters bande dessinée. The heroines of the comic books of the 1960—1970s reflect the results of the sexual emancipation of the post-war decades. This can be seen in the Barbarella way, but also in the behavior and lifestyle of Adèle (despite placing her in a completely different historical context). Unlike Bécassina and Lili, they are no longer constrained by the framework of traditional patriarchal relations, social and cultural conformism, expressing a desire to change the world. Finally, to the period of the third wave of feminism, we can attribute two albums telling about the adventures of Isa and the cosmic adventures of Laureline. As in the case of Adèle, the modern character of Isa, transferred to the context of the 18th century, introduces a modern interpretation of the issues of slavery, sexism and male domination. In the albums of the series “Valerian and Laureline”, the female character Laureline first becomes the central figure of the series, which allows us to speak about the end of the feminization of bande dessinée.

Emotional Violence from the Page to the Screen: Moral Abuse and Psychological Manipulation in The Age of Innocence from Edith Wharton to Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese declared that The Age of Innocence is the most violent film he ever made. This contribution aims to examine Scorsese’s representation of emotional violence on screen as opposed to Wharton’s illustration of psychological and emotional abuse in the novel. The essay aims to explore violence in The Age of Innocence, represented both in the novel and in the film as a subtle and crucial theme, so as to examine how Scorsese’s adaptation contrasts with Wharton’s narrative. As such, this interpretation aims to prove how The Age of Innocence stands apart, because of its significance in Scorsese’s career, and how both novel and film go way beyond the conventions of romance by illustrating female emancipation through an exquisite display of moral abuse and psychological manipulation, which Scorsese re-elaborates on screen through a devastating sense of moral frustration. Charting parallels between the novel and the film, the analysis will show how Scorsese re-elaborates a non-graphic form of violence, earlier outlined in the novel by Wharton, through a devastating visual tension. Ultimately, this analysis seeks to offer a reinterpretation of Wharton’s novel through Scorsese’s film adaptation.

Women in Shashi Deshpande's The Dark Holds No Terrors and Roots and Shadows: A Critical Study

Patriarchal domination and female submissiveness are common phenomena in almost all societies and cultures. Shashi Deshpande, an Indian female novelist, describes all kinds of visible and invisible physical, psychological, and ideological oppression caused by patriarchy in microscopic details in her novels The Dark Holds No Terrors and Roots and Shadows. Deshpande celebrates the freedom of women by creating two strong female characters, Sarita and Indu, who pay attention to their inner consciences, celebrating female emancipation and feminine identity. The patriarchy controls a notable proportion of female characters in English literature who remain silent, passive, and inactive. William Shakespeare's Desdemona, Ophelia, Thomas Hardy's Tess, Emily Bronte's Catherine, Isabella, Charlotte Bronte's Bertha Mason, and D. H. Lawrence's Miriam are all depicted as being helpless, frail, and feeble at the hands of patriarchy. Deshpande, on the other hand, is successful in showing how her female protagonists transform and become more aware of their place in society. Through these two selected novels, she depicts patriarchal dominance and the frustration that women encounter in marital relationships. Therefore, the general objective of this paper is to portray the lifelong struggle of women to find their genuine identities and a position for themselves in families, societies, and cultures. This study attempts to unravel the true nature of patriarchy, which persists in society in different shapes and forms to confine women by despising their inner strength and individuality.

The University Students' Concerns about Terrorism, Resilience, and Coping Strategies

Background: Current research inspects the concerns of students of the university about terrorism and their capacity to bounce back, and the coping strategies they are using to deal with it. A cross-sectional study research design is employed in the current study.
 Methodology: The sample is comprised of 387 students collected from faculties of Karachi University (1) Faculties of Social Sciences, Islamic Studies, Education, Law, and Administrative Sciences and (2) Faculties of Science, Engineering, Pharmacy, and Medicine. A consent form, demographic sheet, Students' concerns about terrorism scale, Brief resilience scale, and COPE inventory were administered to students. 
 Results: Demonstrated significant positive relationship among Anti-Terrorism, Peace, and Female emancipation. Further linear regression analysis shows that peace scores explain a 21.8% variance and female Emancipation score explains an 18.4% variance in the Anti-terrorism score. Multivariate analysis of variance shows a significant difference between gender in scores of Anti-terrorism, peace, female emancipation, and coping strategies (self-destruction, substance use, and positive reframing). 
 Conclusion: Participants' resilience was found to be in the normal range. A significant positive relationship was found between Anti-Terrorism, Peace, and Female emancipation. Those who had anti-terrorist views were in favor of peace and Female emancipation.

The roots of female emancipation: Initializing role of Cool Water

The Cool Water condition is a climatic configuration that combines periodically frosty winters with mildly warm summers under the ubiquitous accessibility of fresh water. Historically, it embodied opportunity endowments that weakened fertility pressures, resulting in household formation patterns that empowered women and reduced gender inequality. Reviewing the literature on the deep historic roots of gender inequality, this paper theorizes and provides evidence for a trajectory that (1) originates in the Cool Water climatic configuration, (2) leads to late female marriages in preindustrial times, and (3) eventually paves the way for various gender-egalitarian patterns of the present.

Naturens Amfiteater. Kunstens natur

Abstract Friederike Brun, née: Münter (1765–1835) became a famous writer in the German-speaking areas of Europe around 1800. She published collections of poems and travelogues in German, brought up as she was in the German and cosmopolitan circle in Copenhagen around Klopstock, Gerstenberg, her father, court chaplain Balthasar Münter, and others. Not least the writings of Ossian (MacPherson), Shakespeare, Gray and Richardson influenced her together with J. J. Rousseau. This contribution focuses on her early writings from 1782 until 1790. They have so far been neglected in research, being the products of a young woman, but they show the wide horizon of her circle, her father’s education of her, his introduction of her to the German intellectual elite of the time and her talent as a writer in a sentimental and enlightened-romantic tradition inspired by Schiller and Herder. She is interested in the aesthetics of nature and the relations between nature and culture and can in this respect be seen as an early ecocritical writer. Furthermore, she demonstrates female emancipation around 1800 and a cosmopolitical consciousness in a Europe heading towards national boundaries as well as language and gender barriers.

Did the Arab Spring change female emancipation perceptions?

Purpose This study aims to investigate whether perceptions about female workplace participation in a number of Arab countries has changed during or after the Arab Spring. Design/methodology/approach Data are from the representative harmonized cross-sectional World Values Survey. Descriptive measures and regression approaches are applied. Different dimensions of perceptions about female emancipation are presented, while also a composite index derived from these dimensions is analysed. Findings There was some change for the better (job and education gender equality), but not uniformly across countries, e.g. generally good development in Egypt and Iraq, but a standstill in Jordan, and backsliding was seen in Morocco. Applying the composite index of female emancipation using regressions confirm these results – even when male and female respondents are analysed separately. Research limitations/implications More Arab nations in the study would have been good such that the extent and consequences for an even larger part of the Arab world could be presented. Unfortunately, these data are not available. This implies that the representativeness of the results for the whole of the Arab world is perhaps reduced. Practical implications The results can inform policymakers and non-governmental organizations, etc., regarding areas where more focus is needed such that women’s rights will not merely be statements on paper but also mean that females are also emancipated in practice. Originality/value New evidence is presented based on comparable data for Arab nations analysing the possible effects of the Arab Spring on perceptions about female emancipation.

Negotiating Power: Olive Schreiner and Racial Exclusion in New Woman Fiction

This article examines the contentious relationship between New Woman literature and the British empire. Olive Schreiner’s novella, Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland (1897), and The Story of an African Farm (1883) demonstrate how New Women writers adopted exclusionary imperialist ideologies in order to promote their agenda of female emancipation in fin-de-siècle Britain.

ВЕДЕКИНД VS ИБСЕН: ОПЫТ КОМПАРАТИВНОГО АНАЛИЗА

The author studies the influence of Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) on Frank Wedekind’s (1864–1918) dramatic work. The analysis involves Wedekind’s diary entries, as well as two essays (“Dramatic Art” and “The Writer Ibsen and the Builder Solness”) devoted to Ibsen’s work, evaluation of his artistic methods, techniques and role in the history of German theater. A comparative analysis of several dramatic works by both authors (plays “Love’s Comedy”, “A Doll’s House” by Ibsen and Wedekind’s play “The Awakening of the Spring”) is carried out. Analyzing the dramatic works of both writers, the author demonstrates the transformation of Ibsen’s concepts and images in Wedekind’s work. Using the results of the analysis the author formulates the basic ideas of Wedekind’s philosophic and creative conception. The features of the author’s interpretation of the problem of family and marriage, female emancipation and personal freedom in Wedekind’s plays and their differences from Ibsen’s interpretations are revealed. On the basis of the analysis, the specificity of the author’s concept of Wedekind is determined, reflecting the main provisions of gender discourse characteristic for Western European literature at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries.

Hungarian Works and Research on the History of Women’s Education Until the Middle of the 20th Century

In Hungary, as early as in the 19th century several works were published that had a retrospective view and surveyed the earlier attempts in the field of female education, at the same time, although, a number of works have been published on the subject. In this article the author presents an overview of thematic works written mostly in the 19th until the middle of 20th centuries in Hungary. It shows that the exploration of the history of women’s education is an eminent area among the numerous topics of educational and women’s history often researched in previous centuries. Long and short monographs, collection of papers, readers, articles and essays were analyzed about the Hungarian history of girls’ and women’s education, along with some summaries dealing with overall female emancipation from various perspectives.

Neoliberal feminism in old age: Femininity, work, and retirement in the aftermath of the Great Recession

AbstractThis article employs a Foucauldian discourse analysis of UK social policy on work and retirement from the austerity measures of 2010 to 2019, to explore the emergence of older femininity as a key site to articulate and justify a neoliberal governmentality in old age, in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Feminist Cultural Studies' scholarship has remarked and critiqued the centrality of work in contemporary cultural discourses of female emancipation and empowerment, highlighting how the celebration of female workplace success has been employed to sustain the social, cultural, and economic project of neoliberalism. However, this academic field has focused predominantly on young women and women up to childbearing age, failing to account for the way older femininity is being increasingly included in neoliberal discourses through the encouragement to work in old age. Through the dialogic relationship between ‘entrepreneurialism’ and―what I call―‘gendered anti‐welfarism’ in old age, the UK social policy draws on a feminist vocabulary to offer ‘the older entrepreneurial woman’ as its ideal subject, characterized by capacity and willingness to work, personal and job‐market flexibility, responsibilization and individualization of risk, and―but only for the more privileged few―choice. Ultimately, the article illustrates how contemporary cultural discourses that place work as central to female empowerment and emancipation are not limited to younger women, but extend to older femininity through the normalization of the figure of the older entrepreneurial woman, with the articulation of a ‘neoliberal feminism in old age’.

Marian Devotion among the Roma in Slovakia: A Post-Modern Religious Response to Marginality

Marian Devotion among the Roma in Slovakia: A Post-Modern Religious Response to Marginality

Woman, War, and the Politics of Emancipation in Afghanistan

During the twenty years of war in Afghanistan much attention was focussed on the issue of female human rights. The emancipation of women from the rule and legacies of the Taliban was a core objective of Western states. This article traces the resistance within communities and regions to these liberal endeavours and highlights the challenges of imposing rather than embedding values. We note that the Afghan state has always struggled to provide basic human rights for its population, especially for its women. Until those needs are addressed, full emancipation through education and representation of women in society is unlikely. As a case study the country provides an understanding of feminism from a female Afghan perspective as well as an opportunity to explore the human rights context for women generally. Hence, we explain how this war allowed females in Western military forces to operate with greater gender equality on the frontline. Further research has the potential to reveal useful lessons in how female emancipation may be facilitated through an improved understanding of cultural contexts and an appreciation of how basic human rights such as the right to life and security are a prerequisite for female emancipation.

The Status of Women in Kurdish Society and the Extent of Their Interactions in Public Realm

Apart from the traditional Kurdish gender regime, which originates from the Kurdish tribal structure and which to some extent restricts the visibility of women in society, the status of Kurdish women is considered to be relatively high in comparison with that of their neighbors, since Kurdish women enjoy relative tolerance in society. This includes the possibility of reaching high professional positions, their presence in public spaces, and entertaining guests in the absence of their husbands. Certain socio-economic and political transformations took place in recent decades, which improved Kurdish women’s social standing, turning it into a symbol representing fundamental change in the gender role model in the Middle East. Although there are some studies on the status of Kurdish women in different individual Kurdish regions throughout the Middle East, not many reviews have compared the four parts of Kurdistan simultaneously, and there are hardly any specific analyses dealing with Kurdish women’s interactions in public spaces. This review aims to investigate the status of women in Kurdish society in different Kurdish regions according to a comparative approach. Although the path of Kurdish female emancipation was initiated first in the region of Rojhalat in 1946 and the Kurdish region of Iraq was granted some opportunities toward national liberation in 1991, the Bakur in Turkey can be considered a successful movement, establishing a sustained approach to the liberation of Kurdish women from patriarchal structures. During the Rojava Revolution in northern Syria, this movement proved itself able to build an indigenous alternative to Western-type egalitarian societies.