Feminist Framework Research Articles

Esther reimagined: feminist essence in Sara Joseph’s narrative

Gynocentric approaches to biblical women uncover narratives of liberation and empowerment. These perspectives highlight the gaps and omissions in the representation of women within the overarching metanarrative of the Bible. Sara Joseph’s novel, Esther, serves as a feminist reimagining of the biblical story of Esther, offering a pluralistic lens through which to examine the experiences and lives of women against the backdrop of patriarchy. This paper utilises the feminist hermeneutic method to critically engage with the narrative, drawing on the feminist frameworks established by scholars such as Elizabeth Fiorenza and Esther Fuchs. It argues that biblical women can be reinterpreted as positive role models, saviours, heroines, and vital contributors to an extraordinary narrative of survival and redemption.

"Come to us first": Centering Community Organizations in Artificial Intelligence for Social Good Partnerships

Artificial Intelligence for Social Good (AI4SG) has emerged as a growing body of research and practice exploring the potential of AI technologies to tackle social issues. This area emphasizes interdisciplinary partnerships with community organizations, such as non-profits and government agencies. However, amidst excitement about new advances in AI and their potential impact, the needs, expectations, and aspirations of these community organizations--and whether they are being met--are not well understood. Understanding these factors is important to ensure that the considerable efforts by AI teams and community organizations can actually achieve the positive social impact they strive for. Drawing on the Data Feminism framework, we explored the perspectives of community organization members on their partnerships with AI teams through 16 semi-structured interviews. Our study highlights the pervasive influence of funding agendas and the optimism surrounding AI's potential. Despite the significant intellectual contributions and labor provided by community organization members, their goals were frequently sidelined in favor of other stakeholders, including AI teams. While many community organization members expected tangible project deployment, only two out of 14 projects we studied reached the deployment stage. However, community organization members sustained their belief in the potential of the projects, still seeing diminished goals as valuable. To enhance the efficacy of future collaborations, our participants shared their aspirations for success, calling for co-leadership starting from the early stages of projects. We propose data co-liberation as a grounding principle for approaching AI4SG moving forward, positing that community organizations' co-leadership is essential for fostering more effective, sustainable, and ethical development of AI.

Understanding Transnational Technical Communication in Technical and Professional Communication: What Do You Mean When You Use the Word “Transnational”?

ABSTRACT This article explores the usage and implications of the term “transnational” in research articles published in the prominent journal of Technical Communication from 2013 to 2023. Employing content analysis techniques, metasynthesis, and transrhetorical reading as self-reflective methods, this research reveals the diverse ways in which transnational is employed. The findings of this study suggest the adoption of transnational feminist frameworks to advance the goal of social justice in Technical and Professional Communication (TPC).

The Femme Fatale in Text and Image: Analyzing Gender, Power, and Representation in Rudyard Kipling’s “The Vampire” and Philip Burne-Jones’s Painting

This paper examines the connection between Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The Vampire” (1897) and Philip Burne-Jones’s painting of the same title, focusing on their portrayal of femininity and the interaction between text and image. Kipling’s poem, often viewed as a response to Burne-Jones’s depiction of actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell, presents a warning about the destructive allure of female beauty, highlighting themes of male disillusionment and betrayal. Burne-Jones’s painting emphasizes the femme fatale figure, portraying a sexually dominant woman overpowering a helpless man. Both works suggest that beauty conceals danger, leading to male ruin. Using Foucauldian and feminist frameworks, the paper critiques the politics of representation, arguing that the portrayal of women often reflects patriarchal anxieties, reducing them to passive objects in male-dominated visual culture. Critics like Linda Nochlin and Griselda Pollock are cited to challenge these depictions. The paper concludes that the female vampire theme reflects cultural fantasies rather than truths about femininity, contributing to ongoing discussions on how art and literature shape gender perceptions.

Breastfeeding, Folklore, and Nature

This article focuses on depictions of breastfeeding that move beyond idealization and/or realistic depictions of breastfeeding, and do not necessarily elicit an empathic, personal connection with the reader, but rather, I argue that it is via their engagement with Japanese folklore and nature, that they create the necessary distance to critically explore the question of breastfeeding within a feminist framework. I analyze the fantastical treatment of breastfeeding through its fictional representation in two short stories: “Higanbana” (彼岸花 Spider Lilies, 2014; trans. 2014) by Oyamada Hiroko, and “Enoki no isshо̄” (エノキの一生 Enoki, 2019; trans. 2020) by Matsuda Aoko. One of the representative features of the writing of both Oyamada and Matsuda is how they bring together fantastic events within realistic settings, blending realism and science fiction, the human and the non-human, the ordinary and the extraordinary. In the selected stories, both authors play with traditional beliefs and popular stories passed by word of mouth as well as feature personification and imagery of plants, flowers, and trees. This literary quality—problematizing “nature” and folklore while blending fantasy and reality—can be read as a subversive strategy for potential feminist critique. Hence, I read their depiction of breastfeeding in terms of it being fantasy grounded in reality, focusing on unraveling affects of shame and disgust, often associated to breastfeeding, and moving towards a reproductive justice framework.

COVID-19 pandemic and women transitioning from incarceration: a study of online health information seeking among underserved and marginalized women

ABSTRACT Based on interviews with 118 women recently released from incarceration in the U.S. Midwest, this study examines changes in their online health information consumptions and evaluations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2022). Findings show that women transitioning from incarceration, who are often marginalized at the intersection of gender, socioeconomic status, and race, faced challenges navigating and assessing online health information during the pandemic. We use a feminist framework in analyzing online health information seeking and assessments among women recently released from incarceration while acknowledging intersectional marginality experienced by this population. Given the limited existing research on reentry programs focusing specifically on justice-involved women, our study contributes to developing and improving health and information literacy programs for this underserved and marginalized population.

Fugitive Care: The Politics of Care Enacted by Afro-Caribbean Women Teachers

The future of teaching will increasingly rely on overseas-trained teachers (OTTs) to address teacher shortages. While research on OTTs in the United States is expanding, studies focusing on Afro-Caribbean teachers are emerging. Despite the growing call for more teachers of color, Afro-Caribbean OTTs’ contributions are often overlooked due to their immigrant status. We propose the concepts of “radical transparency” and “fugitive care” to articulate how these teachers’ classroom practices offer alternative possibilities for schooling, making the learning process both explicit and equitable for all students. Drawing on a Transnational Black Feminist Framework (TBF), we highlight the unique politics of care practiced by these teachers, revealing gaps in our cultural understanding and underscoring their vital, yet understudied, contributions to education.

Educational capitalisation: a co-formational feminist framework for conceptualising investment in for-profit education within the racialised and gendered political economy

ABSTRACT This paper examines the processes through which education becomes valued as capital within the racialised and gendered political economy. Using the empirical case of venture capital (VC) investment in for-profit education companies, principally education technology companies and for-profit school chains, it puts forward the concept of educational capitalisation. We conceptualise it as the set of uneven processes, practices, and socio-spatial relationships through which value is extracted from educational processes and practices, and, thus, education is valued in terms of expected monetary return on investment. While our conceptualisation focuses on VC investment, this framework could be used to outline other processes of extraction and valuation in education, including private equity, investment banking, venture philanthropy, and public-private partnerships. We conclude with a co-formational feminist framework for guiding future research, policymaking, and educational decision making that considers the financial, socio-technological, learning & teaching, and political-legal aspects of educational capitalisation, with ethical considerations embedded within each of these domains.

Police Responses to Rape in Metropolitan India

Much of the published research on police responses to rape is located in the West. This study conducted in-depth interviews with three adult victim-survivors and 15 police personnel to explore police responses to rape in the metropolitan city of Kolkata, India. Using an intersectional feminist framework, a reflexive thematic analysis indicated both sensitive and insensitive responses and showed that police responses were often based on discretion rather than being guided by the law. Police responses were also shaped by occupational culture, the socio-political environment, the police–criminal nexus and media coverage. The research sheds light on the unique cultural context of policing rape in metropolitan India. It adds to discussions regarding women’s police stations and changes in policing to address sexual violence.

HE in FE mature students’ experiences of labour, learning and lockdowns: a feminist narrative inquiry

ABSTRACT A significant proportion of mature undergraduates study at further education colleges (HE in FE) in England. This inquiry builds on research which explores the effect of paid work or unpaid care work on mature students’ learning but offers a new perspective by considering the interaction of both forms of labour on learning in the home during COVID-19 lockdowns. The study broadens theoretical perspectives on this group by using Gouthro’s critical feminist theory of the homeplace. The research makes an original contribution by arguing that the key lenses through which we understand mature students’ experiences of learning at home are labour and relationships. Online life history interviews with 15 HE in FE mature students and a research diary were analysed using a feminist framework, The Listening Guide. Findings indicate individual further education college staff played a major role in supporting students; however, the thesis recommends that colleges recognise unpaid work as a legitimate contributor to HE learning. To enhance social justice and gender equity, a reimagination of work-based learning which develops students’ capacity to critique structural inequality at work is needed. The study recommends that colleges work on new narratives for and about mature students which counter deficit perspectives.

Contemporary Indian museums as “feminist” spaces of care

ABSTRACT Discussions about renegotiating the museum space have tended – thus far – to come from the Global North. By applying a feminist framework to examine the exhibits of three different Indian museums, I extend the purview of such discussions to the Global South. Until recently, women and their stories – along with those of other marginalized groups – have largely remained underrepresented in the Indian museum space. In the latter part of the twentieth century, however, Indian curatorial activism helped to subvert hegemonic museological narratives – embodied in a non-personalized curatorial approach. An underlying characteristic that connects the contemporary museums, on the other hand, is a sustained curatorial focus on “silenced” stories, articulated via narratives or materialized through object displays. By evoking the feminist framework, I emphasize curatorial care – whether for past stories, people, sociopolitical issues, the future, or museological displays - as the overarching feature of a remedied Indian museum space.

“It Will Always Feel Worse Because it Comes with That Added ‘Betrayal’”: Intersectionality Praxis and Black Young Women Survivors’ Perspectives on Cultural Betrayal Trauma Theory

ABSTRACT Because of interlocking oppressions of racism and sexism (e.g. intersectionality), Black women’s experiences of high rates of sexual violence are often ignored. A critical Black feminist framework, cultural betrayal trauma theory (CBTT) examines within-group violence in the Black community, which has compounding harm due to inequality. Though quantitative research has found support for CBTT, Black young women survivors’ perspectives have not been examined. Therefore, the purpose of the current exploratory study was to engage in intersectionality praxis to qualitatively examine Black young women survivors’ perspectives on CBTT through structured thematic analysis and coding based on theory. Respondents (N = 37; 18–30 years), provided their thoughts on CBTT following participating in a quantitative study. With most survivors in agreement that cultural betrayal in trauma is harmful, a key theme was community orientation in understanding both the harm and healing of cultural betrayal trauma. Black young women survivors’ resonance with CBTT, as well as their recommendations for community-level solidarity and healing have important implications.

Expanding the Boundaries of Feminist Understanding of Art in the Posthumanist Era: Art and Care

In this article, the characteristics that make a work of art feminist in the posthumanist period will be analysed through artworks in which artists show a specific ort his both the materials of their medium and non-human living and non-living things. In addition, a discussion will be carried out about the fact that when the medium and the material become the work itself in a way that reveals different content and expression potentials, it can be characterised as feminist. This discussion will be addressed through the complex relationship between instrumental reason, which can be defined as the determination of the most effective and efficient means to sustain one’s life and for the benefit of one's material interests, and the concept of patriarchy, which expresses the domination of men over women in the axis of education, employment, domestic labour, wages and care. For this reason, firstly, the positions in feminist art debates, then the conditions of attribution of care to women and the struggles initiated against this, and finally the place of artworks that are shaped within the framework of feminism, care and notions of imagination and that are interested in revealing the autonomy of the material in posthumanism discussions will be explained.

Psychosocial health of migrant careworkers from Southeast Asian countries in Israel: A mixed methods study

BackgroundIn 2018, 66,859 migrant careworkers were in Israel, most of whom originated from Southeast Asian countries and 81 % of whom are women. Stringent regulations combined with social invisibility creates vulnerabilities that may contribute to emotional distress. This study aimed to assess psychosocial status and determine mechanisms of emotional distress and resilience in this population. MethodsMixed methods were used in this cross-section study. An online survey measured demographic variables, psychosocial wellbeing using the HSCL-25 questionnaire, general health, perceived social support, cultural identity, and perceived othering. Based on the survey's results, interviews were conducted with a subpopulation of respondents (n = 15) to further understand the mechanisms of emotional distress and resilience, and were analyzed using a postcolonial feminist framework and grounded theory. Data collection took place during 2018–2019. ResultsIn total, 263 careworkers completed the survey and 15 careworkers were interviewed. The overall prevalence of emotional distress according to the HSCL-25 was 36.8 %, 22.6 % on the anxiety subscale, and 41.8 % on the depression subscale. Emotional distress was associated with female sex, not being parents, poorer general health, high perceived othering, and low perceived social support. Interviews revealed that Israeli policy, and relationships with family in their country of origin and with Israeli employers and their families can either contribute to or mitigate emotional stressors. ConclusionsSymptoms of emotional distress among Southeast Asian migrant careworkers in Israel are frequently reported, and may indicate rates of anxiety and depression higher than in careworkers’ countries of origin and host country. Increased monitoring to protect careworkers’ rights and including mental health services as part of their health insurance plan are warranted.

“It is like a curse”. The lived experiences of the intersection of intergenerational violence, pregnancy, and intimate partner violence among urban Wisconsin Indigenous women

BackgroundIntimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a significant public health concern that disproportionately impacts Indigenous American women more than any other ethnic/racial group in the United States. PurposeThis study aims to inform the work of nurses and allied health professionals by providing insight into the lived realities of Indigenous women in urban areas and how IPV manifests in the lives of Indigenous women. MethodsPostcolonial and Indigenous feminist frameworks informed this qualitative study. Using thematic analysis, we analyzed data from semi-structured individual interviews with 34 Indigenous women in large urban areas in the upper Midwest. FindingsThis manuscript discusses one broad theme: experiences of IPV during pregnancy and the devastating impacts on women and their children in the form of intergenerational trauma. Under this broad theme, we identified two sub-themes: impacts of IPV on individual pregnancy experiences and linkages to adverse pregnancy-related outcomes related to physical IPV during the childbearing years. ConclusionThis Indigenous-led study informs the development of effective Indigenous-specific interventions to minimize barriers to accessing prenatal care and help-seeking when experiencing IPV to reduce the devastating consequences for Indigenous women and their families.

Raising Awareness of Gender Discrimination Against Indigenous Australian Women of the Stolen Generation Through Doris Kartinyeri’s Kick The Tin

In contemporary society, the persistent manifestation of gender discrimination continues to impede the advancement of women in their pursuit of gender equality. Within the historical context of the assimilation program, Indigenous Australian women confronted systemic gender disparities. This scholarly investigation endeavors to elucidate the nuanced facets of gender discrimination experienced by Indigenous Australian women affiliated with the stolen generation, as discerned through the lens of Doris Kartinyeri's seminal work, "Kick the Tin." Employing a qualitative research paradigm, this study uses a liberal feminist framework to scrutinize the gathered data meticulously. The findings underscore that Kartinyeri's "Kick the Tin" unveils the entrenched gender discrimination endured by Indigenous Australian women during the assimilation era, delineating their prescribed roles as domestic laborers within the prevailing white societal framework, thereby perpetuating the marginalization of this demographic. In its essence, the narrative challenges the systemic marginalization of Indigenous Australian women, concurrently advocating for their empowerment as a catalyst for fostering an equitable societal milieu. Consequently, this research augments scholarly discourse, serves as a poignant catalyst for heightened social consciousness, and catalyzes imperative shifts toward mitigating the pervasive impacts of gender discrimination on a broader scale.

Swipe Right for Tradition: Decoding Gender Constructs in Modern Indian Matrimony through Media Representations

This paper examines the portrayal of arranged marriages in India as depicted in mainstream media with a special focus on Netflix’s Indian Matchmaking. It utilises an intersectional feminism framework to explore themes of colourism, casteism, and gender discrimination within the context of Indian matrimony. Methodologically, the study employs a qualitative content analysis of specific episodes and character interactions within the documentary-style format of Indian Matchmaking. By analysing these depictions, the paper aims to uncover how mainstream media reflects and perpetuates societal norms and discriminatory practices inherent in the Indian matrimonial tradition. Through detailed examination, the findings highlight the ways in which the Netflix series perpetuates entrenched patriarchal structures and regressive value systems, illustrating the complexities of identity negotiation within the marriage market. The analysis demonstrates that while the series provides a platform for cross-cultural exploration, it simultaneously reinforces harmful ideologies and existing power dynamics. The paper concludes by discussing the broader implications of media representation for social discourses on gender equality and social justice, emphasising the dual potential of popular culture to both perpetuate and subvert dominant narratives.

Hiding in plain sight: Black women speak on racist patriarchy and Black patriarchy in unmarked and marked spaces on campus

Black undergraduate women who attend a HPWI are impacted by racist patriarchy and Black patriarchy. To examine patriarchies across campus, I explored unmarked spaces on campus which are generic, white spaces; and racially marked spaces, such as the Black Student Center. To better understand how racist patriarchy and Black patriarchy shape Black women’s college experiences, I utilized qualitative methods and an ethnography to center their experiences of discrimination and marginalization. Using a critical race feminism framework, I interviewed 25 Black undergraduate women who attended a state-flagship university in the Mid-Southern region of the US and conducted ethnographic fieldwork on campus. The findings show that Black women experienced overt racial hostility from white males in unmarked spaces on campus, while also experiencing objectification and social subordination from Black men in marked spaces. My findings demonstrate that HPWI’s are patriarchal structures that create gendered racial violence against Black women.

‘Reimagining’ gender equality in media coverage?: feminist frameworks in European and Olympic portrayal guidelines

European entities (such as the European Union, European Commission, Council of Europe, and the European Broadcasting Union) published several reports between 2019 and 2022 that addressed gender representation in sports media. Drawing on multiple types of sources, including peer-reviewed research, the reports make recommendations for gender balance and gender equality in media coverage pertaining to national-level and international sports. This study analyzes four such documents to identify how research informs recommendations. First, the study examines citation practices in terms of authors’ location and data scope to observe that the guidelines draw primarily on research based in the United States, while omitting data from several regions of Europe. Then, guided by feminist storytelling as a framework, we analyse which feminist concepts circulate in media guidelines. The guidelines use systematic reviews to address gender inequalities in coverage, draw on intersectionality without specific references to theory, and recommend a gender-mainstreaming approach in production practice. We highlight studies that would address asymmetrical citation practices and epistemological gaps in portrayal guidelines and propose future directions for feminist sport media studies and sociology of sport research. A transnational feminist approach would be useful in avoiding universal recommendations while making connections between local particularities and global patterns.

Afterword: queering beyond queer theory

My comment addresses a theme in several of the papers in this collection that gestures to the limits of queer theory, as a body of scholarship developed mainly from within Euro-American feminist frameworks. I will ask if perhaps groundedness in place and historical specificity might suggest registers of ‘queerness’ that exceed the potentials of queer theory. Particularly considering precarity - a sense of embodied vulnerability to each other - this piece will examine the potentials of frameworks that are rooted in place-based ideas about reciprocity, kinship, and intimacy as integral to understanding queer precarities. Indeed, such a view might suggest that what is ‘queer’ is often framed through a normatively modern and often colonial rendering of binary gender, and sexuality as fixed in sexual identity. It will ask what an archive of queer precarity might look like, and what geographies it might suggest if we decentred queer theory. Simultaneously, the essay will ask how forms of reciprocity, indebtedness, kinship, and homemaking that exceed the limits of coloniality might open up registers for queerness.