Male-dominated Society Research Articles

Patriarchal Restrictions and Maternal Manoeuvres: Igbo Women’s Quest for Land Inheritance Rights

Abstract We examine the nature of maternal manoeuvres practised by Igbo women of Nigeria in negotiating access to resources under the traditional restrictive customary system and the contemporary plural legal framework. While extant feminist scholarship on African patriarchy often highlights discrimination and violations of women’s property rights, it rarely acknowledges the subtle strategies women use to navigate male-dominated societies, especially regarding land rights and inheritance. Among the Igbo, women have instrumentalized certain practices that uphold the patriarchal system for land access, inheritance, and succession. While employing a mix of socio-legal and discourse analysis and collaborative autoethnography, our study explores the traditional phase of silent politics of access, including practices like the female husband or woman-to-woman marriage, traditional single parenthood (nrachi), levirate marriage (nkuchi), and concubinage. We also delve into the modern phase, where women use Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs), child adoption, litigation, and legal instruments for property access. Our findings show that despite patriarchal biases in land rights, women navigate and assert their resource access using both traditional and modern methods.

Exploring the nexus between post-traumatic stress disorder and patriarchy: a gender-based variation

Respected Editor, Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychological disorder resulting from witnessing or experiencing trauma, aggravated by repeated exposure to stress and anxiety. We aim to highlight the underrepresentation of PTSD in a third-world country, its gender-specific variations, and its disproportionate prevalence in women in a male-dominated society. According to recent studies, gender-based differences in PTSD are reported as 2:1, favouring women. Statistics reveal that men face more traumatic incidents, ranging from violence, bloodshed, and natural disasters.1. Yet women are more susceptible to PTSD because men, encountering such occurrences regularly, perceive it as a norm and find it easier to cope with it than their female counterparts, who happen to have a more significant post-trauma recovery time, which may be a result of fluctuating gonadal hormone levels in young females, as hypothesized by recent studies.2 Furthermore, Pimlott-Kubiak’s theory of trauma and PTSD (2003) suggests that patriarchy exacerbates mental health disorders in women as a vast majority of victims of abuse happen to have their spouses as assailants, categorizing as intimate partner violence.3 Being considered a taboo, women who have experienced assault are silenced due to stigmatization. They become a target of victim shaming and are discouraged from discussing the matter. With no therapy, self-blame ensues, along with a wide spectrum of symptoms of PTSD, like borderline personality disorder, flashbacks, eating disorders, disassociation, and depression, forcing the ‘labelled’ women to sever all positive connections and distance themselves from their loved ones due to fear of being judged.4 Complex Chronic PTSD may result from witnessing or experiencing assault since childhood in an abusive household from an aggressive male, which can trigger mental health issues when dealing with life's challenges as adults.5 Failing to find any discussion on this topic in medical research databases including PubMed and PakMediNet, solidifies our point that lack of awareness and research about the adverse effects of patriarchy on the mental health of women living in a developing country leads to a society where negligence prevails, fueling a vicious cycle of psychological disorders, passed on from generation to generation. Being a disorder that haunts victims for life, PTSD should be tackled with awareness, therapies, and emotional support to ensure a healthy life for all women. More research should be conducted to highlight this issue so that people can talk about such concerns more comfortably and the harm caused by PTSD in Pakistani society can be minimized.

A Feminist Approach to the Images of Women in <i>That Long Silence </i>and <i>Palace of Desire (Qasr Al-Shawq)</i>: A Comparative Study

This paper investigates the depiction of women in Shashi Deshpande's That Long Silence and Naguib Mahfouz's Palace of Desire (Qasr Al-Shawq) according to the feminist approach. The study seeks to compare and contrast the way these two novels, which are considered among reputable 20th century fiction, represent female characters and their struggles for asserting their individualities in two types of male-dominated societies. That is to say, Shashi Deshpande, the Indian authoress of That Long Silence fathoms the struggles of women in a traditional Indian society. In this novel, she mirrors the great challenges that women face in such a patriarchal system. Therefore, this research traces the heroines’ experience highlighting how the novelist has tackled misogynism and biased societal prospects. On the other hand, Mahfouz's Palace of Desire sheds light on the stereotyped images of women and feminists attempts to free women within the changing political and societal setting of Egypt then. Aida's personality represents the ambitious woman who reconciles with her desires and does her best to assert herself in a male-dominated society despite all the social constraints trying to limit her aspirations. In this comparative study between the two concerned novels, the researcher seeks to reveal the similarities and differences in the representations of women in two different cultural backgrounds. So, the paper examines how each of these two novelists criticizes the patriarchal structures and advocates feminism in his/ her society exposing the ways through which gender roles and societal norms are presented. The study shows a deep understanding of feminist literary criticism by highlighting the cultural influence of the two societies in which women’s sufferings are revealed. So, the findings of the research offer new insights into the gender roles, misogynism, stereotyped images of women, old traditions and patriarchal systems in literature.

“It’s better to die”: women with disabilities in a male-dominated society in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT Applying qualitative methods and evidence from the field, this paper explores the situation of women with disabilities within Bangladesh’s overall sociocultural, political, and economic contexts. The research found that participating women with disabilities were living in poverty and were disenfranchised. They reported being treated with disregard, and at times with contempt, both within their families and the wider society. In Bangladesh, disability is often regarded as a divine curse. In a patriarchal society where women are often seen as a liability, women with disabilities are particularly resented, and are often abandoned by their family members or are victims of domestic violence and abuse. In a society where sensitivity to the needs of people with disability is yet to take root, provisions for accessing basic services, such as education, are limited or non-existent for women with disabilities. Direct and representational participation of women with disabilities in the policy process is rare and changes relevant to their needs and empowerment are few. This research indicates that the situation of women with disabilities in Bangladesh is different from that of men with disabilities. More focused and gender-sensitive interventions are required at multiple levels – social, cultural and institutional.

Dr. Anandibai Joshi: An Indian Medical Pioneer.

Dr. Anandibai Joshi was the first Indian female physician to complete her studies in Western medicine at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania. A pioneer in medicine, she was a trailblazing Indian woman, who had faced many hurdles during her quest for education. In her short span of life, she faced a lot of emotional, mental, physical, and social turbulence and had to prove herself at every step to the orthodox patriarchal Indian society the need to study medicine. Studying medicine in India was impossible for females during the 19th century. During those days, the females in India were uneducated due to gender differences prevalent in society, so the only option was to pursue medicine in a foreign land. Her life was full of hardships and challenges; she got married at the age of nine and, at the young age of 14, delivered a baby boy who could not survive beyond 10 days due to lack of medical care. This was the turning point in her life, and she was determined to become a physician so that the other women would not suffer the way she had. Thus began her educational journey, to pursue a career in Western medicine. Before Anandibai went to the United States, she gave a motivating speech in a public gathering, expressing the need for female doctors in India and her keenness to pursue medicine in the United States. She challenged all the social norms in those days, whether it was fighting to break gender stereotypes or convincing the male-dominated society to study medicine in the United States. This article is a reflection of Anandibai's accomplishments in her life and medical career and her dedication, determination, and strong commitment to improving the lives of Indian women. Her short life is a reflection of hope, perseverance, determination, and success and an inspiration to many Indian women to pursue education and medicine.

Ömer Seyfettin’s Short Story “The Rainbow”: A Precursor of Transgender Narratives

Ömer Seyfettin, the founder of the modern Turkish short story and a widely read literary figure, published “The Rainbow” (“Eleğimsağma”) in 1917 in a magazine. The story revolves around a ten-year-old girl, Ayşe, and her gender transformation as part of a struggle against masculine hegemony and suppression. Although this transformation takes place through the protagonist’s dream, Seyfettin successfully showcases how gender roles and stereotypes become central in building respectful, acceptable, and powerful personas in society. The story also helps to question the so-called domestic roles of women by juxtaposing the responsibilities of the two genders based on existing cultural norms. To this end, this study aims to investigate how established gender roles in a patriarchal society are called into question and how gender fluidity defies stereotypical understanding of gender representation in a male-dominated society. The analysis of this gender transformation in the story will be made through the concept of performativity which has been introduced by Judith Butler. Though biologically female, Ayşe enjoys activities such as riding, wrestling, shooting, and playing in the streets, which are almost always associated with the male gender. Furthermore, she is subjugated to societal and religious pressure to act like a girl and cover her body. In this respect, Ömer Seyfettin’s “The Rainbow” can be hailed as a leading narration that puts gender performativity in the limelight at the beginning of twentieth-century Turkish literature.

Having a granddaughter and voting for female candidates

Abstract This study examines the influence of grandchildren’s sex on grandparents’ voting behaviour by using independently collected individual-level data. The survey was conducted immediately after the 2016 House of Councillors election in Japan. It was found that individuals who had a granddaughter were more likely to vote for female candidates by a 10 per cent margin compared to those who did not. However, having a daughter did not affect parents’ voting behaviour. Furthermore, having a son or grandson also did not influence grandparents’ voting behaviour. This finding implies that grandparents vote with their granddaughters’ future benefits in mind, because granddaughters may be too young to vote in a male-dominated and ageing society.

Reclaiming Voice and Agency through Resistance in Meena Kandasamy's Poetry

One of the leading voices of Indian English Literature, Meena Kandasamy is a candid activist, fierce poet, critically acclaimed novelist, and noteworthy translator of the current era. As a writer, she excels in the stark portrayal and deconstruction of caste and gender-based violence in contemporary Indian society. Her poetry reflects aggressive resistance towards oppressive hierarchy promoted by the champions of casteism and cultural supremacy. With her unique and raw style, she covers the shocking atrocities engineered against underprivileged beings in her poetic collections like Touch and Ms Militancy. She deftly examines sexual politics and unapologetically questions the norms of a male-dominated society. With blatant rawness, she dissects the power dynamics of patriarchy and challenges certain taboos & stereotypes about femininity. This paper examines how her poetry seeks to reclaim the voice and agency of the silenced and underprivileged women, destined to live on the fringes. It explores the fierce spirit of resistance in her discourse of subversion. It also traces how she reinterprets and dismantles the instruments of colonization and constructed dominance of the female body by the power institutions of patriarchy.

Devaluing and Revaluing Women: A Feminist Approach to Chandra Prakash Baniya's Maharani [Queen

Chandra Prakash Baniya's Maharani [Queen] is a telling tale of women's exploitation and their glass ceiling in a male dominated society. The novel depicts how women are either risen to the pedestal of ‘Goddess’ or devalued to the position of a ‘whore’, but never given a genuine respect. By aggrandizing or derogating the status of women, the patriarchal society has always subordinated, subjugated, and exploited them. The scenario of deprivation of women from attaining their rights is the main concern of the novelist. He suggests that the prevalence of biased treatment for women in every sphere - social, economic, political, literary - is rampant, and from getting secondary position to being thwarted to grow is an unfortunate fate meted out to women in this male-dominated society. Patriarchy, therefore, has become a clog in the route of women's progress. The present paper aims at exploring the pathetic condition of women in the novel, discussing how women become the victim of glass ceiling in a social labyrinth created by males. To address this objective, the study has employed feminism as a tool to examine the condition of women, especially drawing the concept of glass ceiling of women from Judith Butler to interpret the text.

An Analysis of Modern Women in the Novels of Anita Nair

The paper will examine the condition of women in Indian society with the assistance of acclaimed novelist Anita Nair. Women have historically faced discrimination in a male-dominated society where patriarchy plays a pivotal role in sustaining the status quo. In the past, women were expected to be perfect wives and accept the injustices around them, while lacking gender awareness and being confined to their homes. However, modern women have undergone a significant shift in mindset, with the development of their own identities, self-worth, independence, and self-esteem becoming more important than patriarchal values. Nair's novels examine the transformation of women through her female characters. She presents a picture of modern life and the issues faced by women, such as sexual exploitation, gender discrimination, cultural conditioning, and the husband-wife relationship. The paper aims to highlight the resilience of female characters while exploring gender bias against women. Additionally, the paper will showcase feminist female writers who have produced literary works that benefit society. The paper will depict their struggle in a patriarchal system and the dynamics between men and women in the Indian Diaspora.

Alienated Subjectivity in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar

This article has analyzed Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar to explore the resilient personality of Esther Greenwood that exemplifies the image of nonconformist women in the patriarchal society of America. Esther has been prepared to fight against the standards of femininity induced in the personality of general women. She stands out of the crowd for her dignity. The objective of the paper has been to investigate into the characters created to reveal diverse images of women in the American society. The key finding of the research is that Esther during her professional journey undergoes diverse complications primarily created for women to suffer from and imposed upon them by the male-dominated society. She has not experienced any solace of life neither at home has nor she been satisfied in the society at large. Therefore, she feels isolated. Her alienation leads to attempting for suicide as she takes it as the way of relief and mental satisfaction. Her decision of taking her own life implies her desperation and disinterestedness in the world controlled by men. By using the concept of Betty Friedman as expressed in The Feminine Mystique, this paper has been inscribed to reflect on the confused personality of Esther.

Inner Pulchritude is Immortal: Maya Angelou’s Phenomenal Woman

Maya Angelou is the most predominant African American post colonial feminist in the Contemporary era. Angelou’s writing sketch the significance of redefining physical beauty among male-dominated society. She brought massive changes in American Community being a proud soul hearted woman. She always pin points the issues of racism and emancipation of female feelings through her writings. Angelou’s ‘Phenomenal Woman’ is an epoch making poem and have discussed the inner pulchritude of woman. Her inner beauty is more vital and proudly called herself as phenomenally phenomenal woman. Conversely, Angelou condemns the racial imbalance between white and black community in America. This paper vividly depicts that how a woman can be optimistic always in her life.

Workplace bullying and job outcomes: intersectional effects of gender and culture

PurposeThis study explores the under-researched phenomenon of workplace bullying against women in male-dominated Pakistani society, highlighting its severe impacts and bridging the research gap on intersectional effects of gender and cultural dynamics in developing countries.Design/methodology/approachUsing a mixed-method research approach, we conducted two-wave surveys with 308 female workers in Pakistan's educational and health sectors. Data analysis examined relationships between workplace bullying and job outcomes like productivity and satisfaction, complemented by insights from in-depth interviews with 18 female workers.FindingsThe study reveals that workplace bullying significantly undermines job productivity, increases emotional exhaustion mediated by job anxiety and decreases job satisfaction among female workers. Bullying persists due to weak institutions and inadequate law enforcement, with perceived social support found to be an insignificant moderator.Practical implicationsThe study findings underscore the economic implications of workplace bullying, as it drives female workforce attrition, hindering economic development. The study recommends conflict resolution strategies, effective HR policies, national law enforcement and supportive social networks to combat bullying and create a conducive work environment.Social implicationsThis study aligns with the UN's SDG goals #5 (gender equality) and #8 (decent work and economic growth), addressing pertinent issues related to workplace bullying in pursuit of these global objectives.Originality/valueThis study represents a unique attempt to address the intersectional dynamics of gender and culture concerning workplace bullying in Pakistan.

A Study of Floral Images in Chinese-Western Feminist Art Creation

Both in the West and the East, for a long time, the plant “flower” has always been favored by various artists and poets as a metaphor for women, but mostly in a male-dominated society, the relationship between women and flowers was interpreted with a male vision, until the late 1960s, when the rise of feminist art and the awakening of feminist artists brought more attention to the fact that women's perceptions, emotions, and representations of the world were vastly different from those of men. Feminist artists have a strong sense of self, and their individuality often leaves a deep mark on their works. This mark is given a special conceptual language through the imitation of nature and is projected in the formal expression of their works, which becomes the unique style of each artist. Through these floral images, we can discover the artist's style and thus the personality, as well as certain social phenomena, psychological perceptions, and value orientations that characterize the times under the personality level. This article will compare and analyze the different artistic expressions of flowers by feminist artists in the two places, as well as the artworks of the author's perception of flowers.

Unveiling the veil: an examination of gender oppression in Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns

ABSTRACT The Taliban administration (1996–2001) undoubtedly inflicted unimaginable suffering on Afghan women, but the struggle for gender equality in Afghanistan has deep roots. In his novel, ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’, Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini vividly portrays the harrowing experiences of women before, during, and after the war. To scrutinise the oppression of Afghan women as depicted in the novel, this study draws upon Iris Marion Young's theory of oppression. Young contended that women in a society endure oppression when they confront exploitation, marginalisation, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence at the hands of men. This research unveils the physical, mental, and sexual abuse experienced by female characters, examining their inferior status through the lens of Young's ‘Five Faces of Oppression' and connecting it to the actual suffering of women in Afghanistan's male-dominated society. Therefore, it becomes unequivocally clear from this study that the female characters in Hosseini's narrative endure lives of oppression under the relentless dominion of patriarchy. The study further substantiates that Afghan women live lives marked by oppression, shedding light on their subjugation by patriarchal forces in Afghanistan's socio-cultural landscape.

Analysis of Neshani Andreas's The Purple Violet of Oshaantu as a Presentation of the Writer's Liberal African Feminist Thought to the Inequalities of Rural Namibian Women

ABSTRACT: This study examines the plight of women's rights in a Namibian Oshiwambo traditional male-dominated society, a concept that has not been fully explored in Namibian literature. The article uses the liberal African feminist theoretical framework, whose main argument is that men and women are not different and they should be treated equally. These feminists identify the main cause of female oppression as male domination. The aim of this research is to enable the reader to understand the impact of male dominance as the source of gender inequality and injustice against rural women and to erode the belief that women are inferior to men, highlighting Namibian rural women's capability of owning property and becoming self-reliant. Hence, the study uses Neshani Andreas's work to express this concern and seeks to pave the way to challenge all forms of male domination in an attempt for women to regain their voice, identity, and rights.

"Delving İnto The Dichotomy Of Mother Earth and Fatherland in 'The Wanderground' and 'The Cleft”

This study examines the relationship between women and nature in Doris Lessing's The Cleft and Sally Miller Gearhart's The Wanderground through using gender and ecofeminist lenses. Women's oppression is analogous to nature's oppression. Therefore, this article shows how a patriarchal (or male-dominated) society treats both nature and women and how society's standards unfairly dominate both. Both writers Sally Miller Gearhart and Doris Lessing argue that women and the environment, including (animals) are crucial to ecofeminism studies and practice; women may solve gender issues only by utilizing natural materials. The present piece portrays the female characters in both works acquiring an understanding of the underlying reasons behind every instance of misery they encounter in their lives. As a result, women attempt to escape the machismo society and create a nature-filled utopia (devoid of males). Although some women continue to live with men, they always opt for separation. Finally, this work shows how Gearhart's utopia is the outcome and redemption of The Cleft’s dystopia.

A Study on Bias Against Women in Advertisements

In the era of digitalization and globalization, advertising wields an even greater impact on modern society than ever before. While feminism has challenged the male-dominated society for decades, one can still observe the persistence of gender stereotypes, especially sexist discrimination, influencing the representation of women in the media. This paper aims to critically examine several advertisements for daily necessities, analyzing their content and impact to investigate specific patterns of discrimination against women in the modern advertising industry. In terms of structure, this paper will address the following issues: First, it will provide a brief review of recent research on motherhood and the male gaze. Then, it will analyze specific examples of advertisements, discussing the contested female images they portray. In particular, this research will focus on pressures related to gender roles, sex discrimination, and the male gaze as three typical issues. Finally, we will offer suggestions for the advertising industry and content creators. The goal of this paper is to present a clear picture of the persistent gender issues within advertising today and propose ways to address them in the future. By analyzing the framework of advertisements and their cultural implications, this research will shed light on a more comprehensive examination of the misrepresentation of women in the media.

Madness and Resistance under the Flashback and Juxtaposition—Spatial Narration in The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar, the only novel by American poet and writer Sylvia Plath, vividly portrays the marginalized experience of American women in the mid-20th century and depicts the struggles of female intellectuals in constructing their own identities.This paper, by using the concepts of flashback and juxtaposition in spatial narration theory, explores three key aspects: the physical spatial changes in the whole story, the interplay between psychological and physical spaces under flashbacks and juxtaposition, and the protagonist Esther’s resistance against the male-dominated society and her awakening of female consciousness in the bell jar. It analyzes how Esther’s psychological space evolves within the ever-shifting physical spaces, leading to her feelings of helplessness, despair, and madness. Furthermore, it examines how through her rebellious madness, Esther achieves her awakening of female consciousness, constructs her own identity as a female intellectual, and raises her voice in a male-dominated society oppressive at the time.

From the Cradle to the Grave: A Feminist Stylistic Reading of Select Poems from Juka Jabang’s The Phoenix

This study examines the use of poetic artistry as a contribution to social reformation in Juka Jabang’s The Phoenix to highlight the cultural and social tendencies that contribute to the oppression of women in the Gambian context. It draws attention to the oppression of Gambian women not just as a general societal predisposition, but as a phenomenon deeply rooted in the most fundamental unit of the family. Using Sarah Mills’ model of feminist stylistics, the article aims to explore the use of point of view, agency, metaphor, and transitivity to expose the socio-cultural beliefs and practices that perpetuate the oppression of women in Gambian society. The study adopts a qualitative, linguistic-cum-literary analysis based on four poems purposively selected from the collection on the basis of their thematic preoccupation with the plight of women in a male-dominated society. The analysis also pays attention to the literary devices appropriated by the poet in a bid to poeticize the experience of Gambian women at the hands of an unrelenting male hegemony. The analysis reveals that cultural beliefs in the so-called superiority of the male child, the ostensible impurity of uncircumcised women, the submissiveness of women particularly in marriage, and the professed right to multiple wives as major factors that legitimize the oppression of women in Gambian society.