Women Security Research Articles

A Smart Alarm System for Women's Security

A Smart Alarm System for Women's Security

Does women’s empowerment through policy intervention reduce food insecurity in South Africa?

ABSTRACTThis article determines the extent to which the food insecurity status of women in South Africa can be reduced by participating in gardening around the homestead, using survey data from 207 women farmers. A household food insecurity average score index and an empirical model that accounts for observed and unobserved factors contributing to food insecurity were employed. The findings reveal that participating in the programme worked to reduce the food insecurity of women significantly, and also show other policy factors that need to be taken into consideration to reduce food insecurity. We recommend that policy interventions towards promoting high participation by women are a sustainable strategy to address food insecurity and to achieve the 2030 agenda targeting an end to poverty and hunger.

Design of Smart Device with Android based Application for Self-defense and Self-protection-A Women Security Solution

Design of Smart Device with Android based Application for Self-defense and Self-protection-A Women Security Solution

Resilient patriarchy: public authority and women's (in)security in Karamoja, Uganda.

This paper draws on fieldwork conducted in 2011 and 2016 to explore the differing experiences of Karamojong women following the Government of Uganda's most recent disarmament programme. Besides being deprived of their guns, Karamojong communities have lost most of the cattle on which their livelihoods and way of life were centred. The study assesses whether or not women's experience of patriarchy has changed in these new circumstances, and, if so, how this impacts on their security and control of resources, or the absence of them. It maps, using information primarily supplied by women, public authorities from below, and evaluates if and how they respond to women's protection and survival needs, as well as if current development/humanitarian interventions are of sustainable benefit to Karamojong women. The paper concludes that apparent shifts in gender relations are probably superficial, contingent on continuing food aid, and that economic development and positive social change for women remain elusive.

Fragile State in Iraq and Women Security

After the Cold War and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the term “fragile states” has gained increasing prominence in security debates and the international community turned its attention to how to deal with such countries. These security concerns originate from several factors: emphasis on building peace and security, spread of this idea that development and security are related, and the principle that the stability of state plays an influential role in its development. The term “fragile state” refers to weak states that are vulnerable to internal and external threats and have a poor government that is incapable of managing internal affairs and external policy. In this regard, Iraq was considered as a fragile state after 2003, and its stability has been evaluated poor since ever. The present study employed indices of fragile state and human security in order to investigate the effect of Iraq’s fragile state on development of threats to women security. Violation of human security in Iraq after 2003 was caused by failure in nation state-building process and weakness of Iraqi government in maintaining societal order and unity. Therefore, the main question that the present study aims to address is: “How has women security been threatened by Iraq’s crisis and its fragile state?”

Role of Women in Security and Defense: Bulgarian National Policies and Experience

Abstract The paper focuses on the policies for gender equality which can and should be understood as a long-term investment, not as a situational solution or a short-term cost, especially in military environment. On the basis of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 - “Women, peace and security”, the National plan for implementation of the Resolution 1325 in the MoD in Bulgaria has been analyzed. New policies or initiatives concerning the implementation of gender in the Bulgarian Armed Forces are included with the actual information about female active duty military personnel and the perspectives to overcome the prejudices and stereotypes in people’s minds.

Understanding Transgender and Medically Assisted Gender Transition: Feminism as a Critical Resource.

Feminism has fought the trivialization of women's experiences, championed women's security, and insisted on respect for women's choices. In so doing, feminism has developed important perspectives on the complicated connections between what gender means as it plays itself in people's lives, and the inequalities of power and authority that structure much of human experience. Here, I put a few of these perspectives into contact with an issue where the interactions of gender and power are squarely in play: medicine's role in assisting gender transitioning generally and, specifically, the enduring controversy between medicine and many transgender people about the pathologization of transgender and the role of clinicians as gatekeepers to gender-transition interventions.

Does microfinance redefine identity, income and insecurity among rural women? A model of women’s empowerment

This paper describes how JEEViKA, a microfinance project supported by the World Bank and Government of Bihar, has addressed women’s insecurity in the absence of identity and income. JEEViKA’s home-grown model of community resource persons created identity with enhanced income options as a sub-set of micro-finance. This study suggests that the name, norms and network of women created by the project translate into enhanced capacity, choices, and cohesion among the rural women. The paper concludes by recommending microfinance as a means to redefine identity, income, and insecurity for women’s empowerment in the context of rural livelihoods.

How religious extremism compromises women’s security, agency and mental health: Conversation with Sarah Eltantawi

abstractExtremist forms of thinking regulate and restrict in particular, women’s agency in many parts of the world compromising women’s ability to make personal decisions or even informed choices. As increasingly documented, different lived experiences of Muslims dismisses the often presumed universal understanding of the theological framework undergirding Islamic praxis. This interview with Sarah Eltantawi, an intellectual historian of contemporary Islam who has focused on political Islam and Islamic law in Nigeria and Egypt, reviews the practical implications of the operations of Islamic law in contemporary societies. In the interview Eltantawi responds to concerns for women's security and the connections between peace and violence in the domestic environment as it links with the broader political and socio-economic context. There is increasing recognition of the ways in which Muslim women negotiate their understanding of the pietistic requirements to observe God’s will with contemporary ideas of agency in what is habitually touted as an hierarchical domain. This interview offers an Islamic feminist perspective on the intersections of women's security and pietistic norms, particularly in Nigeria and Egypt. Furthermore, it explores the intersections of religio-cultural and gender-based concerns for mental health as depression gradually becomes a leading illness globally. In this final element the interview suggests new avenues for feminist analysis of the intersections of personal security, reproductive health and depression.

Evaluation of Social and Psychological Factors Affecting the Feeling of Security of Women in Iran

This article is trying to examine social and psychological factors affecting social security for women over 18 years in Kerman. The population is consisted of female employees over 18 years (equivalent to 357,963 persons) in Kerman and the research sample is 400 employees and cluster and simple random methods are used for sampling. Regarding the theoretical framework, the integration of theories of Durkheim, Buzan, Jenkins and Walter Rekles and colleagues were used to explain the social factors and theories of Sigmund Freud and David Riesman have been used to account for psychological factors affecting women's sense of social security. The results suggest that the variables that have a direct and positive impact on the sense of security in the highest to lowest impact are respectively as: perception of social control (0.339) and female identity (0.283) and social capital (0.172) perception of social order (0.131) and the perception of appropriate clothing (0.108) and variables that have less an negative impact are nearness to the areas of high crime (0.113-) and religious adherence (0.73-). The results also suggest that social control of women, female identity, social capital, social order and proper coverage and religious commitment are effective in a sense of security in women and can give women a sense of security. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n3s2p123

ENGENDERING THE EVALUATION OF ANTI-TRAFFICKING POLICY: A GENDER SENSITIVE APPROACH

IntroductionThis paper explor es state's anti-trafficking policy using as an active analytical tool. By making visible women's voices and their specific needs within different processes of state's policy, and state's accountability to what it has done for women under policy framework, I seek to evaluate VNAP's success in terms of promoting women's empowerment, improving equality, and reducing women's vulnerability, especially those of trafficking returnees. While has been described as a proactive way to understand human trafficking within last two decades by feminist scholars like D'Cunha (2002) Heyzer (2006), and Samarasinghe (2008), inadequate attention has been given to integrating into policy evaluation of anti-human trafficking strategies. To bridge this theoretical gap, I seek to formulate a Gender Sensitive Approach as an evaluation framework for antihuman trafficking policy. Application of GSA into evaluation of VNAP will help answer research question: To what extent was VNAP a gender-sensitive policy? The paper therefore is divided into two main parts: formulation of GSA, and a brief evaluation of VNAP using GSA.A Gender Sensitive Approach to Evaluating Anti-TIP PolicyConceptualizing Gender: Gender and PowerGender has been established as a major factor in development studies. Truong, Wier inga a nd C hha chhi (2006) emphasize equa lity a nd empowerment as important tools to engender women's security. Specifically, equality and equity are central to human development and to supporting women's human rights. Further, as it has been argued by Jackson and Scott (2002), all aspects of life are gendered. It means that is present itself in all life issues; and human trafficking is no exception.Historically, has become a key social science term since rebirth of feminism in 1970s. After four decades, is still a largetheme idea and contested concept. Early, in her influential book Sex, Gender and Society, Oakley (1972) defined as a psychological and cultural concept rather than a term with biological connotations. Accordingly, is differentiated from sex. While sex is biologically constructed and refers to biologica l differ ences between male and female, r efers to sociocultural classification into masculine and feminine. In word of Oakley, is the amount of masculinity or femininity found in a person (p. 159).Being emphasized as a key category that affects different aspects of our personal lives, social relations, and culture (Connell, 2002; Bradley, 2007), term gender has created burgeoning literature of both feminists and scholars. The term, today, is fully conceptualized. Jackson and Scott (2002) depict as a construction that: [D]enotes hierarchical division between women and men embedded in both social institutions and social practices. Gender is thus a socia l structural phenomenon but it is a lso pr oduced, negotiated and sustained at level of everyday interaction (p. 1).Clearly, concept of has been extended in comparison to its former defined meanings. Gender is no longer a simple basic distinction between sexes; it has become a multi-faceted structure that is socially, historically, culturally, and politically constructed and has become a crucial factor of development.To serve aim of policy evaluation in this paper, concept of is deliberately utilized as socially and politically constructed; relations are as relations of power defined by who has power and who does not. Following Gender in Development (GID) approach, gender, in this article, is conceptua lized as a socia l structure that is deeply embedded in societ y, creating opportunities or constraints to people at different levels (Risman, 2004). At individual level, denotes self-reliance, internal strength, and ability to det er mine choices. …

Cognitive emotional consequences of male infertility in their female partners: a qualitative content analysis.

IntroductionInfertility, as a global phenomenon and one of the most important issues of reproductive health, affects women more often than men, even when the infertility is due to a male factor. The purpose of this study was to explore the cognitive emotional experiences of women faced with male infertility.MethodsThis qualitative study was conducted in 2014–2015 in Mashhad, Iran. The perceptions and experiences of healthy women whose husbands were diagnosed with primary male factor infertility were investigated using a qualitative content analysis approach. Participants were selected through purposeful sampling, and data collection was conducted using in-depth semistructured interviews. Data were analyzed using conventional content analysis with MAXqda software. Study rigor was verified via criteria proposed by Lincoln and Guba.ResultsOne main theme emerged through analysis entitled “cognitive emotional reactions confronting infertility diagnosis” with sub-themes of cognitive emotional reactions when confronted with male infertility diagnosis with subthemes of disbelief and denial, fear and apprehension, suffering and emotional distress, disappointment, frustration, confusion, and joy.ConclusionThe diagnosis of male infertility was associated with important emotional cognitive consequences for their female partners. Emotional support, providing new insights into how to treat the issue, and trying to shorten the process of diagnosis are necessary for these women. This kind of support could reduce the psychological effects of confrontation with the diagnosis of male infertility, including social insecurity for women.

When Development Is Not Enough: Inequality, Structural Change, and Violence Against Women

In most countries in most years, peacetime violence against women kills and maims more people than war. Since development reduces many forms of conflict, the persistence of gender violence worldwide, and especially in modernizing middle- income countries, is a puzzle. We therefore ask whether violence against women reflects unequal development and structural changes that generate gendered insecurity, in a manner outlined by feminist theorists. We hypothesize that gender- based violence will follow the patterns of other forms of social conflict-such as crime and political terror-linked to inequality, urban crowding, and poor governance. The Physical Security of Women Index from the WomanStats Database allows the first comprehensive cross-national test of the relationship between these variables and gendered insecurity. The PSOW captures the incidence, reporting barriers, and state response to rape, femicide, and domestic violence. We show that high levels of political terror are always accompanied by high physical insecurity of women. Then, using ordered logit regression on cross-sectional ordinal data, we examine the association between income inequality, urban crowding, corruption, and the physical insecurity of women, alongside modernization factors such as national income, religion, and female labor force participation. We find that cross-national variation in the physical insecurity of women is associated with inequality, dense urban growth, corruption, and political terror — but not religion — and that the effects of national income are highly conditioned by income inequality. Moreover, these effects operate differently at different levels of development, with stronger associations with inequality at higher levels of income, and diminishing returns to female labor force participation. Our study suggests that policy makers promoting economic and cultural modernization of gender roles should consider targeted policies to ameliorate inequality and improve governance and urban policy to protect women from increased risk of violence during development processes.

Teaching Academic Writing in a Maximum Security Women's Prison

In this chapter, the author describes her experience teaching in a women's prison in New York, the challenges that arose with teaching autobiography, and the distinct situation of women behind bars.

Human security thinking in practice: ‘personal security’, ‘citizen security' and comprehensive mappings

This paper describes the introduction of an emphasis on ‘personal security’ in human security thinking and practice, as part of the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to compartmentalize the pursuit of security. It reviews the past 20 years of attention to ‘personal security’: both in compartments that consider organized physical violence or threats to personal safety and property (‘citizen security’), and as parts of more wide-ranging examination of threats to fulfilment of basic needs and rights, for example, in comprehensive mapping exercises undertaken in various UNDP Regional and National Human Development Reports or in studies of women's security. The paper reflects on the complex process of opening-up conventional security thinking and practice in ways that add value and depth without shrinking into preconceived compartments.

The convergence of HIV/AIDS and customary tenure on women's access to land in rural Malawi

This paper examines the convergence of HIV/AIDS and the social processes through which women access customary land in rural Malawi. Data were collected from focus group discussions with women in patrilineal and matrilineal communities. Women's land tenure is primarily determined through kinship group membership, customary inheritance practices and location of residence. In patrilineal communities, land is inherited through the male lineage and women access land through relationships with male members who are the rightful heirs. Conversely in matrilineal matrilocal communities, women as daughters directly inherit the land. This research found that in patrilineal communities, HIV/AIDS, gendered inequalities embedded in customary inheritance practices and resource shortages combine to affect women's access to land. HIV/AIDS may cause the termination of a woman's relationship with the access individual due to stigma or the individual's death. Termination of such relationships increases tenure insecurity for women accessing land in a community where they do not have inheritance rights. In contrast to the patrilineal patrilocal experience, research on matrilineal matrilocal communities demonstrates that where women are the inheritors of the land and have robust land tenure rights, they are not at risk of losing their access to land due to HIV/AIDS.

Nutrition insecurity for women in the marginal agro-ecosystems of the Indian Himalayas

Poverty and adverse societal norms have deprived a majority of women in India of their basic rights, including those of access to adequate and nutritive food. Women in the Himalayas suffer a low social and economic status and a very high load of physical work requirement of households. They play a key role with respect to food production, being the main farmhands on their family farms, and managing household nutrition and diet. This paper presents the findings of a participative study in the Indian Himalayas on the nutrition status of households, with a special focus on women. The study reveals chronic calorie deficit and nutritionally poor diet, suffered by women and adolescent girls in the Himalayas. Interventions to address the issue included various small agricultural initiatives for women to improve production of nutritive food crops, and to enhance land and crop productivity and thereby increase food production and farm revenues.

Do Improved Property Rights Decrease Violence Against Women in India?

Using a legal change in inheritance law in India, this paper estimates the effect of women's improved access to inheritance on violence committed against them. I use the staggered implementation of the Hindu Succession Act across states to identify the causal impact of the legislative amendments on police-reported violence against women and on self-reported intimate partner violence. I find a decrease in reported violence following the amendments and this effect is not due to changes in reporting behaviour or a generalised decrease in crime. Further, women eligible to inheritance are 17% less likely to be victims of domestic violence. These findings are explained by an improvement in husbands' behaviour and in marriage market negotiations. I find weak evidence of changes in women's decision-making. This suggests that while inheritance legislation improves women's security, this may not necessarily be due to changes in empowerment.

Promoting Women, Peace and Security in the Pacific Islands: hot conflict/slow violence

How has the Women, Peace and Security agenda been advanced in the Pacific Islands? While some observers argue that this region suffers from a contagion of unrest, violence and state weakness, these estimates commonly ignore the vital work women have performed in the region as promoters of peace and security. Even when such activity places them in direct personal danger, women across the region have spearheaded efforts to bridge communal boundaries and challenge the increasing normalisation of violence, gendered and otherwise, that accompanies threatened or actual incidents of conflict. As this article demonstrates, these efforts have had profound impacts on the ground in conflict-affected Pacific Island countries. They have also received increased recognition at the level of institutional politics, with member states of the Pacific Islands Forum recently accepting a Regional Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. This has been hailed as a significant achievement for the region's women peacebuilders. But much of this plan is focused on women's contributions to peacebuilding at the pointy end of a crisis. This overlooks the extent to which the ‘slow violence’ of environmental degradation, masculinised politics and militarism also compound gendered insecurity in the region. Attention to these issues offers a contradictory picture of the gains made in promoting the Women, Peace and Security agenda in the Pacific Islands. While this advocacy framework has provided important opportunities for the region's women peacebuilders, it may also have discouraged broader reflection on the prevailing structural conditions at work across the region which function in an attenuated fashion to undermine women's security and the achievement of a gendered regional peace.

Women Social Security Status in Rushing Sidewalks (Case study: Mashhad Metropolis, Iran)

Security is considered as a fundamental right and a critical necessity for social livings. Women are among one of the most vulnerable groups to insecure conditions. Therefore researches about the amount of social damages imposed on this category of the society have found a crucial position. The objective of this study is to assess the amount of women's social security status in rushing sidewalks in Mashhad metropolis as the second city from the view point of importance and area in Iran based on multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) approach. Sample size was selected 172 individuals for each sidewalk. This study was conducted based on a descriptive- analytical approach. First of all, the deterministic criteria of women social security in sidewalks were listed and weighted according to analytical hierarchy approach (AHP). In order to rank the highest secure sidewalks VIKOR and TOPSIS approaches were used.