Feminist Critical Analysis Research Articles

Zainab BatulNaqvi, Polygamy, Policy and Postcolonialism in English Marriage Law; A Critical Feminist Analysis, Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2023, 239 pp, hb £85.00

Zainab BatulNaqvi, Polygamy, Policy and Postcolonialism in English Marriage Law; A Critical Feminist Analysis, Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2023, 239 pp, hb £85.00

Equity zombies in Canada’s blue economy: a critical feminist analysis for equitable policy implementation

IntroductionOcean equity is a key aim of blue economy frameworks globally and is a pillar of the international High Level Panel for A Sustainable Ocean Economy. However, the Panel offers only a general definition of ocean equity, with limited guidance for countries. Canada, as a party to the High Level Panel’s blue economy agenda, is developing its own blue economy strategy, seeking to reshape its ocean-based industries and advocate for new ones. How equity will be incorporated across scales is not yet known but has implications for how countries like Canada will develop their ocean-based industries. This raises important questions, including what are Canada’s equity commitments in relation to its blue economy and how will they be met? Currently, the industries identified in Canada’s emerging blue economy narratives are governed through both federal and provincial legislation and policies. These will shape how equity is implemented at different scales.MethodsIn this paper, we examine how the term equity is defined in relevant federal and provincial legislation and look to how understandings of equity found in critical feminist, environmental justice, and climate justice scholarship could inform policy and its implementation within Canada’s blue economy. We focus on two industries that are important for Canada’s blue economy: offshore oil and marine salmon aquaculture in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. We investigate how existing legislation and policy shapes the characterization, incorporation, and implementation of equity in these industries.Results and discussionOur analysis highlights how a cohesive approach to ocean equity across the scales of legislation and policy is needed to ensure more robust engagement with social and environmental equity issues in blue economy discourse and implementation.

Internalized Sexism And Androcentric Ideologies: A Critical Study Of Uzma Aslam Khan’s Novels

This study attempts to explore the issue of internalized sexism in The Story of Noble Rot (2001) and Geometry of God (2009) by Uzma Aslam Khan. It identifies the linguistic tools used by certain characters in the selected discourses (novels) to endorse gender discrimination. The current study utilizes feminist critical discourse views as conceptual framework, and critical stylistics as methodical framework to provide a feminist political critique of the selected discourses. A feminist critical analysis of the selected novels highlights that linguistic tools, such as choice of nouns, choice of verbs, equating and contrasting, prioritizing, assuming, modality, negation, direct and indirect speech, deictic elements and speech acts, are used by various older female characters to reinforce androcentric ideologies on younger female characters. Language is used as a tool to devalue their work, trap them in marriages, abuse their power in relationships, deny their authority to make decisions and maintain hierarchy over them in all situations.

A Feminist Critical Analysis of Public Toilets and Gender: A Systematic Review

This systematic review explores how the provision and experience of public toilets in urban spaces are gendered in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. A search of 4 bibliographic databases resulted in 19 articles for inclusion. Data were analyzed using a feminist critical perspective and the United Nations (UN) framework on standards to assess the provision of sanitation in public spaces. The framework criteria include availability; accessibility; affordability; quality and safety; and acceptability, privacy, and dignity. This review demonstrates that more public toilets that consider the needs of all genders are needed, and it offers guidance to policymakers, planners, and funders on what to consider when planning and building them.

“Why Don't You Just Take it Off?”

Abstract Through collaborative autoethnography, a mother and a daughter with shared and diverging identities examine the hijab as a radical practice of feminist resistance in our lives. Our lived experiences as Indo-Caribbean social workers and university educators at a predominantly white institution offer a unique point of departure from normative narratives of hijabi girls and women. Using a critical feminist analysis, we chronicle our journey through more than 60 years of patriarchal oppression and white supremacy. Our stories reveal a complicated relationship with the hijab as an important faith practice which also functions as a marker of otherness that signals unbelonging in all spheres of our lives including the academy and social work practice.

Book Review: Polygamy, Policy and Postcolonialism in English Marriage Law: A Critical Feminist Analysis

Book Review: Polygamy, Policy and Postcolonialism in English Marriage Law: A Critical Feminist Analysis

Anti-doping sciences, abjection and women's sport as a protected category.

In this article we explore the relationships amongst anti-doping sciences, 'abjection,' and the protection of 'women's' sport. We introduce three novel concepts: 'abjection bias,' 'abjection potential,' and 'intersectional abjection,' as tools with the potential to provide greater nuance to understanding the context for these contentious issues in contemporary sport. The debate concerning participation in women's sport-especially elite sport-of people who do not fit within traditional definition of 'women' is increasingly fraught with acrimony with anti-doping sciences often recruited as arbitrator. With access to opportunities such as participation at the Olympic Games at stake, emotions run high in arguments that typically centre on inclusion of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) athletes on the one hand and protection of the women's category on the other. While sport theorists have begun the important work of identifying the roots of these problems deep within the structure of modern sport and society itself, they have hitherto paid little attention to the philosophical underpinnings of that structure. Through the lens of feminist critical analysis, we seek, in this paper, to understand the complex role of 'abjection' in framing the current debate in sport and in related anti-doping sciences. From a clear definition of abjection as a perceived existential threat due to violation of the status quo, we introduce the new concepts of 'abjection bias,' 'abjection potential,' and 'intersectional abjection' in order to understand and explain what in common parlance we might call 'gut reaction.' By looking at the few notable previous treatments of sport abjection and highlighting the historical connections between anti-doping sciences and efforts to protect the women's category, we demonstrate that this co-development is, in part, more easily understood in the context of 'abjection.' We conclude that the clarity gained can also help to shed light on current policy decision-making in relation to the question of protecting the women's sport category.

Performance Art and Feminism: Bodies of Care and Patience

This paper examines the concepts of “care” and “patience” under capitalism and in relation to social reproduction theory through performative works of art. The idea that reproduction is not about creating life but instead the creation of new workers has preoccupied a new wave of feminist theorists and activists who wish to explore women’s place and labour in and outside the sphere of production and explain the relationship between oppression and exploitation. Although working class women have been carrying the burden of the extra physical, mental and emotional labour generated by the Coronavirus disease of 2019, social reproduction theorists and survey data show that women have been performing a disproportionate amount of unpaid care and housework long before the pandemic. The feminisation and devaluation of care labour that patriarchal capitalism promotes can only lead to women’s systematic subjugation. Through the critical feminist analysis of performative works by Chrysi Tsiota, Fotini Kalle and Angeliki Avgitidou that draws on the writings of Silvia Federici, Tithi Bhattacharya and Emma Dowling among others, and the theorisation of “patience” by philosophers Slavoj Žižek and Alain Badiou this paper interconnects the notions of care and patience to expose women’s economic and sexist exploitation and deepen our understanding of everyday life in neoliberal capitalism. Arguing that despite the intense engagement of Greek women artists with issues around reproductive labour, the lack of a feminist art history and theory in Greece has led to the marginalisation of such discussions, this paper aims to bring in light important works of performance art and the necessity for such issues to be addressed within the Greek borders.

Affected by and affecting forest fires in Sweden and Spain: A critical feminist analysis of vulnerability to fire

AbstractUsually, vulnerability is equated to weakness and resistance to strength. Drawing on a feminist critique of this conceptualisation, this article aims to discuss how vulnerability to forest fires and local action are mutually and contradictorily related. I analyse the ways in which people in two rural communities surrounded by tree monocultures in Sweden and Spain think, feel and act after being exposed to acute forest fires in 2018 and 2017, respectively. Attentively listening to the experiences of vulnerability during and after the fire in the two cases helps to explain vulnerability to forest fires as an emotional, care‐related process that opens up contradictory and transformative interconnections between peoples, nature and the state. Also, looking at the two cases together, this article shows how vulnerability to fire is mediated through unequal expectations across Europe's North–South divide. By re‐signifying the implications of vulnerability, disasters such as those analysed here can be seen as facilitators of radical transformations towards new rural futures in Europe's forests.

‘Fit for Purpose in Today's Society?’: Reflecting on Provocation Pleas in Modern Scotland

Provocation has been the subject of long-term, international scrutiny and is currently under consideration by the Scottish Law Commission as part of their review of homicide and defences to murder. This article reflects on how provocation is used in practice in Scottish courts and considers two aspects of potential reform in particular: where the basis of the plea is infidelity and where the plea is used in the context of someone killing an abuser. It is recognised that reform of the plea now appears inevitable (and required) but this article cautions against complete abolition or expansion of the plea. The discussion is informed by critical feminist analysis of both reported and unreported cases and seeks to better illuminate how the plea is currently operating in practice.

Antirodni diskurs u medijima u Srbiji

Main goal of the text is a feminist critical analysis of anti-gender discourses in 843 media texts published in Serbia, in the period from January 1, 2019 to October 31, 2022. The media base that includes the largest part of the mainstream media on the territory of Serbia was selected. The analysis was done on a targeted sample by searching for several key terms, characteristic of anti-gender discourses: "gender ideology", "family values" and "traditional values". The research showed that the discourse of the anti-gender movement in Serbia corresponds to the discursive framework and wider action of the international anti-gender movement, confronting feminism, the action of LGBTIQ+ movement and, in general, progressive movements. As in the case of the international anti-gender movement, relying on an essentialist and biological understanding of gender and sexuality and insisting on a traditionalist family structure, based on gender asymmetry and social hierarchies, is part of a broader rejection of ideas and practices of social and human equality. Only in this context it becomes more clear why ideas about the social conditioning of gender and the fluidity of human identities, as well as the equality of different manifestations of sexuality are considered so subversive.

Towards a transformative vision for gender and Canadian international policy: The role and impact of ‘feminist inside activists’

In this paper, we consider the role of “feminist inside activists” in shaping the Canadian international policy landscape and provide examples of how government employees have actively promoted feminist and gender equality priorities. Specifically, this paper advances our understanding of how policy translates into action, and the transformative potential of agents of change in gender equality and feminist policy-making within Canada’s international policy machinery. Building on studies that identify the significant contributions of mid-level government employees who fight to keep gender equality a priority in government programming, we explore these contributions in the context of inside activism, documenting the significance of the work of both senior and mid-level government officials in advancing feminist policies and priorities. As an agency-focused analysis, this study complements and builds on critical feminist analyses of structural and systemic inequality.

“It Helped Me Open My Eyes”: Incorporating Lived Experience Perspectives in Social Work Education

Working from a trauma informed lens is increasingly recognized as a vital component of social work practice, as is learning from and incorporating lived experience into one's approach to practice. Further, the critical and feminist informed interrogation of dominant ideas around professional power and expertise within social work practice is necessary in learning and teaching about trauma. This conceptual article describes an integrated approach to teaching fourth year Australian social work students in the area of violence, abuse, and trauma. The intentionally immersive learning and teaching framework presents and incorporates praxis as involving educator lived experience, theoretical knowledge, and practice experience. The approach aims to create transformative and embodied learning opportunities which destabilize dominant constructions of social work identities, use of professional power and different practice approaches. While honoring the valuable contributions of trauma informed practice, we seek to push students beyond this model, prompting critical feminist analysis of the socio-political complexity of trauma experiences. We describe our work, ambitions, challenges, and learnings as feminist educators, sharing these ideas in order to provoke dialogue on possibilities for pedagogical innovation, within the context of power, expertise, social work education, and lived experience.

Women and self-defence: an empirical and doctrinal analysis

AbstractThe problem of women's access to self-defence has been internationally recognised. This paper presents original empirical data on women's use of self-defence in practice alongside critical feminist analysis of the requirements of self-defence under Scots law. The empirical findings confirm that women are rarely successful with self-defence at trial level and the doctrinal analysis further demonstrates that self-defence does not adequately reflect women's experience of violence, especially sexual violence, and instead continues to reflect male experiences of (public) violence. It is intended that this research will form part of a larger developing evidence base, the type of which has been called for (Fitz-Gibbon and Vannier, 2017) and can be used to support reform in this area. As such, it represents a significant contribution to socio-legal work that has considered the issue of women's access to criminal defences.

Subversion of Cultural Disparities against African Women: a Feminist critical analysis of Malatji’s short fiction

It is axiomatic that African women have been compromised by patriarchy for centuries, with culture used as a subterfuge. This paper, therefore, strives to subvert existing cultural adversities meted out against African women for African development. These unsavoury patriarchal tendencies are used to subjugate women by stifling their potential to make a meaningful contribution to Africa’s growth. The paper is, furthermore, based on a critical analysis of the dilemmas of women in Malatji’s short fiction from her text Love Interrupted (2012). It is underscored by African Feminism which is a transformative theory that seeks to popularise the emancipation of women from socio-cultural deprivation. directed by the qualitative research approach. Purposive sampling was employed to select the short stories from other short stories by the same author, and textually analyse them. The paper recommends that for Africa to flourish, she should empower women for equal participation in socio-cultural engagements.

Expanding feminist affective atmospheres

Atmospheres are increasingly used as a metaphor for thinking about worldly relations and the life-making projects contained therein. Picking up on this phenomenon, geographer Ben Anderson helpfully develops the term “affective atmospheres” into a tool for mapping affectively charged spaces (Anderson, 2009). While Anderson's affective atmosphere is useful for examining the ways in which the excessive nature of affective atmospheres create space and time, this paper seeks to expand on the critical implications of the term and embed feminist considerations of how atmospheres are felt unevenly. Taking advantage of the porous ontology of the body, affective atmospheres have the potential to reinforce social inequity or build coalitions of resistance. The histories we carry with us mingle with the material composition of atmosphere in ways that we need critical feminist analysis to grapple with. Building from existing literature on breath, breathing, and atmosphere, I blend Anderson's formulation of affective atmospheres with ongoing debates within feminist theories of affect in order to produce an account of how affective atmospheres can help us navigate political worlds.

Critical feminist analysis of STEM mentoring programs: A meta‐synthesis of the existing literature

AbstractWe conducted a meta‐synthesis review of existing literature on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) mentoring programs for women. Critical feminist theory (CFT) was used to understand how mentoring programs support retention and occupational advancement of women in traditionally male‐dominated STEM fields. Four primary strands of CFT were explored: gender, oppression/patriarchy, social institutions, and systemic change. Traditional models of mentoring encompass varied approaches, including institutionally enforced programs, formal and informal programs, paired peer grouping, as well as face‐to‐face and online forums. However, low levels of retention and self‐stated lack of professional satisfaction for women in STEM fields continue to plague those professions. This study reviews the literature on mentoring programs that have been implemented to support women in STEM, thus adding to the epistemology of mentoring women in STEM through feminist discourse.

Hoping for a Hail Mary: A Critical Feminist Analysis of the NFL’s Post-Rice Tactics

Hoping for a Hail Mary: A Critical Feminist Analysis of the NFL’s Post-Rice Tactics

The gendering of Ethiopia's agricultural policies: A critical feminist analysis

This paper provides a critical feminist analysis of seven policies relating to gender equality in the agriculture sector of Ethiopia. A review of 22 major documents that outline legislation and policy frame the feminist analysis. Despite the strong commitment of the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) toward gender equality and gender mainstreaming, many of the policies analyzed do not integrate gender equality as a priority for the growth and development of the country and do not adequately mainstream gender. At best, there is an emphasis on increasing women's participation and integration, but few solid gender targets are set. Moreover, gender-specific policies have regressed since the 2006 National Action Plan on Gender Equality (NAP-GE) that proposed important gender-sensitive measures. This represents the paradox of gender relationships in Ethiopia, whereby the gains made are reverted as the government tried to hold onto power by suppressing human rights. Nevertheless, agriculture-related policies have significantly improved in gender-sensitivity over the same time, culminating with the approval of the Gender Equality Strategy for Ethiopia's Agricultural Sector (GESEA) in 2017. This paper explores some of the reasons why this change may have occurred and what can be learned from it.

It’s “vile” but is it violence? A case study analysis of news media representations of non-consensual sexual image-sharing

ABSTRACT Late in 2016, a news story broke of a “porn-sharing site” on which over 2000 sexual images of Australian teen girls, from over 70 high schools, were uploaded without their consent. News media characterised the website as “vile” and “depraved”. However, the extent to which the actions of the site-users constituted a form of sexual violence remained opaque in the reporting. This paper examines the coverage of this news story as a case study to explore the ways expanding scholarly and activist understandings of sexual violence in the digital age are—and are not—reflected in news reporting on this case. Applying a critical feminist and Foucauldian-inspired discourse analysis to news coverage, it is argued that the discursive construction of non-consensual sexual image-sharing is evolving and contested. Feminist insights into the gendered, cultural and systemic quality of these practices are making tentative in-roads into news coverage. At the same time, assumptions surrounding digital sexual self-expression for teens continue to elide considerations of consent, and the violence of these acts is discursively minimised.