Patriarchal Gender Research Articles

The Migrant Mother’s Silence in Her Mother Tongue as a Mothering Strategy

Abstract Historically silenced, literary mothers’ voices are finally now being given their due, but it is noteworthy that migrant mothers’ literary voices are yet to be fully heard. This essay focuses on literary representations of migrant mothers who refuse to speak their own mother tongue to their children. It looks at two texts by women writers originating directly or indirectly from two post-Soviet Baltic states, Estonia and Lithuania. The texts in question are the novel Stalinin lehmät (Stalin’s Cows) (2003) by Sofi Oksanen and the essay “Motinų tylėjimas” (“The Silence of the Mothers”) (2004) by Dalia Staponkutė. Drawing on postcolonial theory, memory studies, and transnational feminist theory, I suggest that the migrant mother’s silence in her own mother tongue connotes several unarticulated realities: the trauma of colonization, the negotiation of post-Soviet migrant femininity, and patriarchal gender regimes. I argue that the migrant mothers represented in both texts withhold their mother tongue as a mothering strategy designed to socialize their children to successfully negotiate the transnational, multilingual spaces they will navigate as adults.

Pengaturan Fungsi Badan Kependudukan dan Keluarga Berencana Nasional Dalam Mengendalikan Laju Pertumbuhan Penduduk

Population growth in Kupang Regency from year to year is increasing, based on the population census data of Kupang Regency the number of residents by gender (soul), the population of Kupang Regency amounted to 372, 777 people with details of 190, 480 people for men and 182, 297 people for women. The density problem that occurred was 63 people per km2. High population growth can be a serious problem if it is not solved immediately, the high and uncontrolled population growth rate will affect the declining level of welfare of the community and family. . The family planning program began in 1968 by preparing LKBN (national family planning institution) which later became the National Population and Family Planning Agency or BKKBN, the national family planning movement aims to control the rate of population growth and also improve the quality of human resources. This research is a normative judicial research supported by an approach that uses primary data and secondary data obtained using interview methods, documentation studies and observations and the data obtained is processed using editing, coding, induction, trigulation and tabulation methods and analyzed in a qualitative descriptive manner. The results of this study show that (1) Regulation regarding the function of the district government in population control by BKKBN in Kupang Regency. In the hierarchy of legislative arrangements from the highest to the lowest level, it gives very full authority or trust to the National Population and Family Planning Agency in controlling the rate of population growth in Kupang Regency (2) In carrying out the functions of the population and family planning agency in organizing population control in Kupang Regency. The Population and Family Planning Agency has provided services and education to the public about the importance of family planning. However, the function of BKKBN has not been running well, this can happen because of the lack of public awareness, socio-cultural constraints, limited access to counter-septic tools, patriarchal gender roles, religious keyness and economic factors that make the function of BKKBN not well in controlling the population in Kupang Regency.

Cinematic Language under the Female Gaze: A Case Study of Li Yu

Abstract: This paper aims to discover the concept of the female gaze in the movie Lost in Beijing by Li Yu. The female gaze is a film theory that is in opposition to the male gaze, which is a way of viewing women as sexual beings and not as complex people. This paper posits that Li Yu uses the female gaze as a post-modernist technique to focus on the emotional and psychological aspects of the female characters, thus overturning the established Patriarchal gender norms and bringing to the fore the issues of gender inequality in contemporary Chinese society. Certain filming approaches, including those that include close ups and reflective shots, affect the experience of the film's main subject, who are women. The research also reviews the variance between the 'male gaze' and the 'female gaze' in movies, pointing out that the former is much more forthright and authentic in its portrayal of women. Lastly, the paper considers the further developments of the concept of the female gaze and possibilities to transform the film industry from the perspective of the female representation.

When patriarchy and individualism collide: experiences of women entrepreneurial leaders

PurposeThrough a feminist lens, the study explores women’s experiences of entrepreneurial leadership in the UK and how the women manage competing and contrary patriarchal and individualism discourses and associated discursive paradox.Design/methodology/approachThis study follows social constructionism and Feminist Standpoint Research approach, providing space for women to voice and contextualise lived experiences from multiple standpoints. The study comprises five cases of women entrepreneurs in IT, law, construction, beauty and childcare, using a two-stage semi-structured interview process analysed through discourse analysis.FindingsThis study provides new insights into the entrenched patriarchal socio-cultural context for women entrepreneurial leaders in the UK. The competing discourses provoke a discursive paradox, which dominates and oppresses women. This is managed through a process of discursive blending, blurring and merging contrary discursive expectations. The women use the individualism discourse to obscure patriarchy’s domination and as a resource to resist patriarchal gender power relations. To blend the discourses, the women use particular tactics: engaging in patriarchal bargains, such as “dressing not to impress”; can sidestep and manoeuvre these bargains and can utilise “patriarchal advantages”, turning gender oppression into benefits by “working it positively”.Originality/valueThis study addresses the lack of research interrogating patriarchy in the Global North and the absence of understandings of how women entrepreneurial leaders manage the competing and contrary discourses of patriarchy and individualism, which actively shape their experiences. The study illuminates the significance and increasing requirement for feminism to disrupt the ever-increasing power of patriarchy in entrepreneurship.

A Portrait of My Father

This work of life writing aims to piece together my late father, Muhammad Iftikhar Butt, who passed away on 20 of September 1996, in Lahore, Pakistan, when I was a teenager. A loss of a parent is a great tragedy and an emotional trauma, but this tragedy and trauma are deeper when the child has not mourned the loss but has erased it from its memory. By pondering father-daughter relationships in patriarchal cultures and gender dynamics in nuclear families, I re-member the forgotten bits of the past not only to mourn my father after more than two decades but also to commemorate the extraordinary phases of his fatherhood. Since my father has left behind no traces of his past life, the only way to bring him back to life is through my words – written words. With the help of shards and scraps of memory – some vivid, some fading – I seek to put the fragments of his life together to understand him long after his death due to my inability to understand him in his life. Indeed, I finally manage to re-collect him and see him as a person rather than a parent.

Seen but not heard: the voice of women at work and the mediating role of culture

While there is now an extensive body of literature on employee voice behaviour in the global North, research evidence from the global South is limited. This has constrained our understanding of the barriers that female workers face in expressing their views and concerns in developing countries such as Nigeria. This article examines the cultural factors that shape female employee voice behaviour in Nigerian workplaces. Using a meta-synthesis of 52 semi-structured interviews and approximately 200 h of non-participant observation, we identify a high-power distance orientation and patriarchal norms as two cultural factors that contribute to gender imbalance in the workplace, making it difficult for female employees to express their opinions, suggestions, ideas, or complaints about important workplace issues. Our findings highlight a system of patriarchal hegemony and gender inequality that makes voice behaviour difficult for female workers. The findings also show that contextualised religious norms and teachings encourage silence among female employees. We provide valuable insights into the cultural norms that inhibit female employee voice behaviour in the Global South context.

Individual empowerment and community norm effects of engaging young husbands in reproductive health in rural India: findings from a pilot study

BackgroundDespite decades of a call to action to engage men in reproductive health, men are often left out of programs and interventions. In India, where half of pregnancies are reported as unintended, patriarchal gender norms and still dominant patterns of arranged marriages make engaging men in family planning and strengthening couples communication critical in increasing reproductive autonomy and helping young couples meet their reproductive goals. This study explores the feasibility and acceptability from the men’s perspective of the pilot of a gender transformative intervention for newly married couples in India.MethodsA pilot study was conducted of TARANG, a 4 month intervention for newly married women, with light touch engagement of husbands (4 sessions). A total of 41 husbands participated in the pilot, and we collected baseline knowledge and endline feasibility and acceptability data from them, along with in depth qualitative interviews with 13 men. The study was conducted in June 2023-January 2024.ResultsMen had low levels of knowledge about biology, family planning, with the majority of men reporting that no one had provided them information about these topics. Most men wanted to delay the first birth by at least 2 years, yet less than a quarter had discussed childbearing plans with their partner or engaged in family planning methods. While all men reported high acceptability (satisfaction and usefulness), feasibility (participation) was low, with only 43% attending 2 or more sessions. Main barriers to participation included commitments due to work and migration. Men reported that the intervention led to improvements in their relationships with their wives, gave them a sense of empowerment, and led them to become resources for other men in their community.ConclusionsMen in these rural communities are not receiving the information that they need to meet their reproductive goals, however, they greatly desire this information and ways to improve relationships with their new wives. Such an intervention appears to have the potential to help change norms and spread information in the community and provide men with positive, life affirming feelings. Providing information through technology could address barriers to in-person engagement.Trial registration clinicaltrials.gov 03/13/24.NCT06320964

Subtler manifestations of patriarchal gender norms on gender relations- A qualitative investigation on Engineering college students

Subtler manifestations of patriarchal gender norms on gender relations- A qualitative investigation on Engineering college students

Geopolitics of Inter-subaltern Colonialism and Gender: Challenging Methodological Dualism through the “Woman, Life, Freedom” Journey from Kurdistan to Iran

By challenging postcolonial theory's “methodological dualism,” this article explores non-Western intersocietal encounters and interactions that facilitated the vanguard role of the Kurdish region of Iran (Rojhelat) in the country's “woman, life, freedom” revolutionary movement. The neglect of inter-subaltern interactions within the framework of methodological dualism has rendered it incapable of explaining the agential entanglement of “inter-subaltern colonialism” and gender in the non-Western nation-building process and its subsequent impact on the affected groups. Addressing this limitation, the author argues that Rojhelat's vanguard position arises from the strategic deployment of patriarchal gender norms in Iran's nation-building process characterized by “inter-subaltern colonialism” before and after the 1979 revolution. Anti-patriarchal tendencies within the left faction of the Kurdish national movement in Rojhelat emerged in response to this context, rendering it receptive to the slogan “woman, life, freedom,” which originally emerged through the Kurdish freedom movement in Turkey and Syria. Furthermore, the centrality of gender in the Islamic Republic of Iran's exceptionalist geopolitical discourses has made the slogan a powerful tool for expressing opposition to the state and mobilizing multiple oppressed groups.

The Gendered Construction of the Japanese Language-Learning Boom in Postcolonial Korea

ABSTRACT This article analyses the print news media’s gendered representation of Japanese language-learners in postcolonial Korea. It focuses on why young women, notably yŏdaesaeng (female college students) and kisaeng (sex workers in the tourism or entertainment industry), were identified as the main learners of Japanese. I argue that male media elites could not respond to the growing demand for learning the Japanese language in terms of the anti-Japanese nationalistic framework, which equated Korean nationalism to anti-Japanese sentiment. Instead, they attributed postcolonial Korea’s failure to create and sustain a monolingual state to female subjects’ sentimental, sexually promiscuous desire to learn Japanese. Throughout the article, I argue that public commentaries by male intellectuals on Korean women’s Japanese language-learning, which were widely circulated in the media, reinscribed language ideologies of women and bilingualism. This perpetuated patriarchal gender relations, as male nationalists sought to manage tensions arising from Japan’s continued economic and cultural influence, despite the ‘official’ normalisation of relations between Korea and the former colonial power.

Unruly Boys and Unemancipated Girls: Football Integration and Gendered Imaginaries of Difference

Sport–and particularly football–is commonly seen as a technology for targeting “at-risk” populations and cultivating happy multicultural communities. Using discourse theoretical analysis, this study explores the intersection of race and gender in the public relations materials for the annual Integration Prize awarded by the German Football Association (DFB) and Mercedes-Benz. In the prize texts, the national sport transcends difference to transform racialized populations, symbolizing the virtues of the national ethos. The prize narratives involve the transformation of disaffected and thus risky populations into happy, liberated, and productive multicultural assets to the national project. The overarching pedagogy focuses on self-discipline, social competency, and hard work. However, they diverge on crucial points across gender. The corpus singles out boys for deviant behaviors like aggression and criminality. Meanwhile, it targets girls for liberation from traditional patriarchal cultures that presumably dominate Muslim communities. Analysis shows that football integration discourse ignores both structural inequality–economic and ethnic–and the patriarchal gender norms that suffuse majority German football culture.

Patriarchy, economic values, and tax morale in Indonesia

This research aims to examine the influence of patriarchal ideology, economic values, age, gender, marital status, education level, employment status, and religion on the tax morale of Indonesian citizens. This cross-sectional research adopts a quantitative approach and utilizes World Value Survey (WVS) VII data collected in 2017. The respondents to WVS VII were 3,200 (three thousand two hundred) Indonesian citizens who were over 17 (seventeen) years old and spread across several provinces. STATA 17 processed the data and used logistic regression techniques for analysis. Researchers found that only patriarchal ideological orientation, education level, and religion had a significant impact on citizens' tax morale. Only patriarchal ideologies have a negative relationship with citizens’ tax morale. Researchers recommend that the government should intensify mass education on gender justice, enhance the quality of education, and support various religious institutions, particularly Islam, to instill religious values in society.

Sport pedagogy and feminism: what is known and what is missing? Findings from a scoping review

ABSTRACT Background Worldwide, to play sports is proclaimed a right. Yet its sexist practices insist on cultivating a hegemonic gender culture to keep ‘others’ away and deprive them from its potential educational benefits. Sport feminisms have been vocal on the gender oppressions operated in the field and have claimed pedagogy has a role to play in social transformation through a liberating education. Purpose We aimed at analyzing the academic production about sport pedagogy and feminism published in articles globally, to answer when, where how and by whom the studies were developed; what is known and what is missing. Method We conducted a scoping review searching for sport pedagogy and feminism and their related terms combined. Selection was delimited by studies informed by feminist approaches discussing sport pedagogy from recreational to elite level. Findings Our review covered 46 studies from the last three decades when Global North English-speaking countries have dominated the scene, both as investigation settings and authorship. Studies presented two main trends. The most substantial were investigations reporting gender inequalities, especially with women coaches; followed by others exploring pedagogical alternatives for more equitable sport experiences. Together, studies have demonstrated that the ‘patriarchal gender game’ is still on and the ‘deviants’ from the cis-hetero-white-able-bodied-male ideal continue to suffer systematic prejudice and discrimination in sport, inclusive through sexist coaching. But they also showed ‘the tactics of the equity gender game’ is counterattacking with pedagogical strategies to welcome girls, women and gender-diverse people in sport. Discussion Undoubtedly, the dialogues between sport pedagogy and feminisms have contributed greatly to challenge sexism through education, but the game is not over. The invisibility of black women, women with disabilities and queer people in studies evidenced the need for more intersectional approaches. Coach development initiatives should be critically examined and rethought. The predominance of studies and researchers from Global North English-speaking countries denoted that voices and knowledges from Global South are missing. More than empathizing with gender inequalities, we long to see feminist sport pedagogy engaging in the reinvention of the ways we learn, practice, teach and coach sport. More democratic, diverse and audacious research designs grounded in the commitment to guarantee sport as an educational experience for everyone seem promising ways to be explored.

From Agni to Agency: Sita’s Liberation in Arni and Chitrakar’s Graphic Retelling of the Ramayana

The traditional interpretations of the Ramayana have been critiqued for preserving and promoting patriarchal gender structures by emphasising masculine heroism and often portraying female characters as unidimensional symbols of selflessness, purity, and honour. This paper analyses how Samhita Arni and Chitrakar’s graphic novel Sita’s Ramayana offers a retelling that foregrounds Sita’s perspective to question and reinterpret the social constructs. By analysing the text through a feminist literary lens, this paper examines how the novel adapts the traditional narrative to provide centre stage to Sita’s various encounters with instances of oppression. The findings reveal how Arni’s retelling employs unique aesthetics that combine texts and Chitrakar’s patua art illustrations to question the traditional male-centred versions, making this novel a part of a broader structure of feminist reinterpretations that aim to highlight female agency in cultural canons. This paper examines Sita’s stance against societal expectations for women, such as self-sacrifice, while also tracking her personal growth, which is symbolically represented by her reunion with Mother Earth. The novel contributes to the ongoing tradition of literary revisionism by offering a nuanced critique of the patriarchal foundations within classical myths. This is underscored by the novel’s reinterpretation of the epic in a way that points out the plasticity of the Ramayana, which can be reshaped to support more progressive views, encouraging discourse on existing gender norms present in contemporary societies.

Characterizing myths of sexual aggression in the young population in Spain

BackgroundMyths of sexual aggression have a negative influence in aggressive behavior against women, in the institutional approaches to sexual violence and in how women cope with it. The objective of this study is to describe acceptance of myths of sexual aggression in young women and men residing in Spain.MethodCross-sectional study carried out online with 2,515 women (50.2%) and men (49.8%) ages 18–35 in Spain in 2020. Information on myths was collected using the Acceptance of Modern Myths About Sexual Aggression Scale (AMMSA). We described the myths most prevalent among women and men. The variables associated with myths were identified using multiple regression. The regression models were adjusted by sociodemographic and sexual orientation variables.ResultsThe average AMMSA values were higher among men [mean: 3.11; standard deviation (sd):1.23] than among women (mean 2.49 sd:1.11). In both sexes, the myths with greater acceptance showed the presence of patriarchal gender roles in sexual contacts. Men were more likely than women to accept myths that question allegations and severity of violence. Having a higher level of educational studies (β -0.350 sd: 0.046) was associated with lower average AMMSA values. Being born in Latin America (β 0.047 sd: 0.063) was associated with higher average AMMSA values. Among heterosexual men, AMMSA values were greater than among gay and bisexual men. Among women, there was no difference in average AMMSA values based on sexual orientation.ConclusionsMyths persist during youth that question and trivialize sexual violence against women. It is necessary to implement strategies that reduce these myths, particularly in heterosexual men, in those of foreign-born origin and among those with low levels of education.

Moral Policing of Gender Norms: Honor-Based Violence as a Mobilizing Factor Towards Militant Islamism

Honor culture, in which the virtue of the family—if not community—depends on the “purity” of its female members, enforced through “moral policing” of gender norms to collectively control women’s sexuality and uphold a patriarchal gender order, is a central aspect of both honor-based violence and the Salafi-jihadist culture in militant Islamist milieus. Drawing on interviews with 1) an imprisoned Danish woman convicted of ISIS-related terrorism, 2) a mother of a deceased Swedish ISIS foreign fighter, who herself was previously part of the Salafi-jihadist milieu, and 3) “professionals” (e.g. police officers, social workers and municipal employees) conducted during ethnographic fieldwork in Sweden and prison ethnography in Denmark, this article explores how honor-based violence can constitute a mobilizing factor for Western Muslims towards militant Islamism in three distinct ways. First, isolation of Muslim women and children through gender segregation and restrictions on accessing public space to “moral police” gender norms enables the Salafi-jihadist milieu to cement and extend its ideological, religious, and physical control. Second, in an honor culture with intense pressure on men to defend and restore family honor whenever it is challenged, joining ISIS can be perceived as a means to fulfill this obligation, thereby affirming “real” Muslim masculinity and upholding a patriarchal gender order. The deeply ingrained cultural expectations to defend honor can even be exploited by militant Islamist milieus in their recruitment efforts. Third, besides providing a “safe space” where one cannot be persecuted and punished for dishonoring one’s family by leaving it as an unmarried woman, ISIS’s multiethnic diversity and embrace of interethnic marriage can be appealing for someone who wants to escape forced endogamous marriage. Given that honor-based violence strikes at the individual freedoms and rights, thereby undermining liberal democratic values and the rule of law, our article contributes knowledge on the broader threat to democracy from anti-democratic forces in the context of militant Islamism.

KONSEPSI FEMINISME DAN KESETARAAN GENDER DALAM PERSPEKTIF HUKUM ISLAM: ANTARA FENOMENA DAN REALITA

This research examines the conception of feminism and gender equality from an Islamic legal perspective. There are inherent traits in men and women that are constructed socially and culturally, but in reality, women are often placed as optional after men because of patriarchal culture. This research will soon examine the phenomenon and reality of feminism and gender equality in society from an Islamic legal perspective. This research method uses descriptive analysis by collecting primary and supporting data for analysis based on Islamic Law. The research results of this paper confirm that both progressive and traditional thinkers agree that in Islamic law, there is no favoritism towards one group. Men and women have the same position, even though the phenomenon and reality of society are still affected by patriarchal culture and gender discrimination. Gender equality and gender justice are essential for achieving equality between all genders. Gender justice focuses on the fair distribution of opportunities according to the needs of each individual, while gender equality focuses on equal rights and opportunities for all, regardless of gender. Islam teaches the importance of balance and justice and rejects all forms of injustice, emphasizing that both genders have complementary roles in the family and society.

Gendering Zoom Diplomacy: Women’s Participation in Digital Diplomacy

Abstract In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent emergence of “Zoom diplomacy,” scholarship on digital diplomacy has shifted attention from the nexus between social media and foreign policy to exploring the use of digital technologies in diplomatic encounters. While these studies have generated important insights on the affordances and limitations of digital diplomacy, we know much less about the impact of digitalization on the gendered hierarchies and power dynamics that characterize diplomatic practices. In what ways does digitalization of diplomacy shape these hierarchical and gendered practices of diplomacy? In taking stock of recent empirical findings on digital diplomacy, the analysis reviews the varied effects of digitalization on women’s diplomatic agency. Focusing on peace diplomacy, it suggests that digitalization of diplomacy produces ambivalent agency where digitalization opens up some opportunities for disrupting gendered diplomatic practices, but within patriarchal gender structures. The analysis highlights the ways in which digital diplomatic agency and competence are shaped by gendered material and normative structures, suggesting that on the borders of what is conventionally regarded as diplomacy, digitalization may be reinforcing diplomacy as a masculine practice.

SHG Play a Big Role in the Economic Empowerment of Women

Women make up half of India's 1.39 billion populations; however they are still denied access to resources such as economic activity, self-determination, education, and improved health. In Young India 1930, Mahatma Gandhi stated that there is a need to equip village women with access to economic activities in order to unlock their hidden potential and power, which they are now unaware of. Women can contribute to home finances but are unable to participate in income-generating activities. Where India sits on the global arena, women's participation is just as crucial as men's in strengthening the Indian economy. Women face barriers to economic success due to patriarchal society, socio-cultural difficulties, home duties, and gender discrimination. SHGs assist rural women in obtaining low-interest loans from banks, allowing them to start their own businesses. There are 78, 32,327 SHGs in India, with 8, 50, 07,507 members. The state of Bihar in India has the most SHGs. Women in India lead more than 50% of the small-scale industry, with 527,000 SHG members, demonstrating that SHGs play an important role in the development of women's entrepreneurship. The major purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which SHGs help women achieve economic empowerment. Women's empowerment entails not only empowering women, but also empowering their families, societies, states, and countries. The IFMR study found that women who received assistance from SHGs had above 10% savings ability, indicating their economic empowerment. SHGs serve as a tool for women to develop socioeconomic self-confidence. The findings revealed that SHGs support economic activity because when women earn income, they become economically empowered, and only when they are economically empowered do they become socially and politically empowered.

Challenges in Upholding Women’s Post-Divorce Rights: Experiences From Legal Practitioners in the Mataraman Region, East Java

This article examines the fulfillment of womens' post-divorce rights initiated by the wife in the Religious Courts of the Mataraman Region, East Java. Applying the legal system and feminist legal theory, this article combines a normative juridical approach with case studies. The findings identify inconsistencies between the legal substance and its implementation in Mataraman Region, which affect the fulfillment of wives' rights after divorce. Law enforcement officers face challenges in enforcing these rules due to patriarchal culture and a lack of gender awareness. The legal culture within society also influences the process of fulfilling wives' rights, particularly concerning the impact of patriarchal culture and gender stereotypes. Utilizing feminist legal theory, gender bias in the application of the law often disadvantages women, indicating the urgent need for fundamental changes to achieve gender justice. Therefore, revising and harmonizing legal regulations in a more specific and detailed manner through implementing rules issued by the Supreme Court and enhancing gender awareness among law enforcement officers and the community is crucial to ensure the fair and equitable fulfillment of wives' rights post-divorce.