Space For Women Research Articles

"My Husband Is a 'Mama's Boy'": Women's Views on Male Engagement in Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health in Western Kenya.

There is an increasing global acknowledgment of the critical role that men have as key partners in maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH). Most male-engagement initiatives do not address the perceived benefits and risks that women may experience because of increased male participation in MNCH, especially in Kenya. The aim of this study, therefore, is to qualitatively assess how women perceive and experience increased male engagement in MNCH in western Kenya. Using a phenomenological approach, 53 women (35 mothers and 18 mothers-in-law) were purposively selected from seven communities in Kakamega County and participated in seven focus group discussions (FGD) in November and December 2020. Our findings suggest that the level of support for increased male involvement in MNCH varies depending on the type of participant. While mothers-in-law were less supportive of increased male involvement, mothers were more supportive of male involvement that fosters gender equity, such as joint decision making. Most mothers-in-law argued that women are 'naturally' closer to children, that men cannot care for children and their involvement may harm children, and men's involvement may give men more control over women's spaces. These findings show that programmatic initiatives to enhance male engagement in MNCH must consider mothers-in-law's concerns and leverage mothers' desire to engage men in a gender-equitable way.

Sex, Gender, and Bodies: Transmisogyny and Garfinkel's Status Degradation Ceremony

Hatred and fear of trans people, particularly trans women, are worldwide social phenomena. Transphobic rhetoric rests on essentialist understandings of sex and gender, but ethnomethodology shows how the “natural attitude” to sex/gender is a practical accomplishment. We use conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis to examine the workings of the natural attitude in a public submission to a government select committee about a law that would affect transgender people. We adapt Garfinkel's concept of the status degradation ceremony to show how the submission systematically used categories of sex and gender to present trans women as illegitimate and dangerous in women's spaces. We also show how the submission was recognized as transmisogynistic and challenged by government ministers of the select committee. We thus show how people can accomplish and challenge transmisogyny through common‐sense knowledge about sex and gender.

A comprehensive GPS-based analysis of activity spaces in early and late pregnancy using the ActMAP framework.

Health implications of mobility during pregnancy entail a need to understand pregnant women's activity spaces. We present ActMAP, a framework for quantifying multiple aspects of activity spaces from distinct trips and stays derived from GPS data. We applied ActMAP to data from 238 pregnant women in Barcelona, Spain (2018-2020) and explored weekday, weekend and intraday associations between pregnancy trimester and activity spaces. Activities were more centred around the home later in pregnancy. However, the number of visited places and daily trips remained largely constant throughout pregnancy. By constructing activity spaces from individual trips and stays, ActMAP could provide a framework for GPS-based holistic assessments of mobility.

Moroccan Feminist Subjectivities and the Ethics of Relationality

Abstract: This essay is a meditation on Moroccan women's subjectivities through an intergenerational lens that connects three generations of Moroccan women: my grandmother who lived through the colonial period (1920s–1950s), my mother whose experiences are marked by the transition into independence and nation building (1950s–1970s), and my own experiences located in the postcolonial era and the surge of globalization (1980s–to present). I conceptualize women/womxn's spaces (where I locate my feminist subjectivity) as liberatory sites of intergenerational knowledge because men did not have access to them (albeit temporarily). By weaving my family's microhistory into the macro-histories of the 20th and 21st centuries, what emerges from this telling is a re-evaluation of an indigenous ethics of interconnectivity as a necessary critique of the brutality of global capitalism and its violent practice of disposability. I locate women's spaces as sites of contestation of colonialism and nationalism while addressing the limits of institutional knowledge as a patriarchal tool that has systemically undermined Moroccan women's contributions to knowledge production. Through the emotional act of remembering and weaving personal and public histories of Moroccan women, I have come to realize that my own subjectivity is intersubjective, intergenerational and grounded in the conception of a future feminist imaginary only possible through radical inclusivity.

Smartphone GPS-Based Exposure to Greenspace and Walkability and Accelerometer-Assessed Physical Activity During Pregnancy and Early Postpartum-Evidence from the MADRES Cohort.

A growing number of studies have associated walkability and greenspace exposure with greater physical activity (PA) in women during pregnancy. However, most studies have focused on examining women's residential environments and neglected exposure in locations outside the home neighborhood. Using 350 person-days (N = 55 participants) of smartphone global positioning system (GPS) location and accelerometer data collected during the first and third trimesters and 4-6months postpartum from 55 Hispanic pregnant women from the Maternal and Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors (MADRES) study, we examined the day-level effect of women's exposure to walkability and greenspace on their PA outcomes during pregnancy and in the early postpartum period. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity [MVPA] minutes per day was assessed using accelerometers. Walkability and greenspace were measured using geographic information systems (GIS) within women's daily activity spaces (i.e., places visited and routes taken) recorded using a smartphone GPS and weighted by time spent. We used a generalized linear mixed-effects model to estimate the effects of daily GPS-derived environmental exposures on day-level MVPA minutes. Results showed that women engaged in 23% more MVPA minutes on days when they had some versus no exposure to parks and open spaces in activity spaces (b = 1.23; 95%CI: 1.02-1.48). In addition, protective effects of daily greenspace and walkability exposure on MVPA were stronger in the first and third trimesters, among first-time mothers, and among women who had high pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and lived in least-safe neighborhoods. Our results suggest that daily greenspace and walkability exposure are important for women's PA and associated health outcomes during pregnancy and early postpartum.

Women in space: A review of known physiological adaptations and health perspectives.

Exposure to the spaceflight environment causes adaptations in most human physiological systems, many of which are thought to affect women differently from men. Since only 11.5% of astronauts worldwide have been female, these issues are largely understudied. The physiological nuances affecting the female body in the spaceflight environment remain inadequately defined since the last thorough published review on the subject. A PubMed literature search yielded over 2200 publications. Using NASA's 2014 review series 'The effects of sex and gender on adaptation to space' as a benchmark, we identified substantive advancements and persistent knowledge gaps in need of further study from the nearly 600 related articles that have been published since the initial review. This review highlights the most critical issues to mitigate medical risk and promote the success of missions to the Moon and Mars. Salient sex-linked differences observed terrestrially should be studied during upcoming missions, including increased levels of inflammatory markers, coagulation factors and leptin levels following sleep deprivation; correlation between body mass and the severity of spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome; increased incidence of orthostatic intolerance; increased severity of muscle atrophy and bone loss; differences in the incidence of urinary tract infections; and susceptibility to specific cancers after exposure to ionizing radiation. To optimize health and well-being among all astronauts, it is imperative to prioritize research that considers the physiological nuances of the female body. A more robust understanding of female physiology in the spaceflight environment will support crew readiness for Artemis missions and beyond.

Beyond the ‘gender gap’ in agriculture: Africa's Green Revolution and gendered rural transformation in Rwanda

The African Green Revolution (AGR) aims to modernize, intensify, and commercialize agriculture through increasing technology adoption by smallholder farmers. AGR interventions also promote gender equality, aiming to close the ‘gender gap’ in agriculture by enhancing women's access to purchased inputs, technology, land, and finance. With an empirical focus on Rwanda, this article examines the gendered implications of the AGR. We critically reflect on the notion of gender gaps and the associated tendency of development research to treat gender as a variable, assessing outcomes for male-headed versus female-headed households in terms of their access to material assets. We argue that these assessments overlook (1) the differential impacts of AGR policies within households and (2) how agricultural modernization influences gendered access to material resources as well as immaterial responsibilities, norms, and identities. Our findings from a mixed-methods study with four Rwandan communities show how the AGR empowers men as ‘modern’ farmers while marginalizing women's agricultural spaces, labor, and crops. We argue that development research and practice should move beyond the narrow focus on gender gaps to additionally consider how technologies and policies are themselves gendered in ways that can constrict food security, entrench inequitable power dynamics, and further marginalize women.

Caesarean section vs vaginal birth: a narrative review of decision making and postnatal outcomes

Background/Aims Few studies have mapped decision-making factors behind mode of birth to postpartum outcomes. This review's aim was to compare factors that drive women's decision making on mode of birth and postnatal outcomes. Methods This narrative literature review of Google Scholar, PubMed, Medline and Wiley Online Library explored studies published from 2000 onwards that compared caesarean section and vaginal birth in relation to decision-making factors and postnatal quality of life. Extracted data were analysed thematically. Results A total of 10 articles were included. Most women favoured vaginal birth, associating it with satisfaction, fear of surgery and cultural norms. Caesarean sections were favoured because of a fear of pain, previous caesarean section experience and the perception that it was easier. There were poorer physical and mental postpartum quality of life outcomes for caesarean sections and assisted vaginal birth, even after 10 years. Conclusions Healthcare professionals require more exposure to supporting women to decide on mode of birth. Routine checks for new mothers require a holistic, person-centred approach as opposed to generalised care. Implications for practice Healthcare workers can and should make every contact with intending and present mothers count. Open conversations about childbirth need to be had, even outside of women's health spaces, with appropriate referrals and signposting to best available evidence for informed decisions to be made regarding mode of childbirth and expected outcomes.

"I Couldn't Leave the Farm": Rural Women's Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence and Coercive Control.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) and coercive control are prevalent across Canada; these experiences are exacerbated by regionality with women in rural areas disproportionately affected. This study explores rural women's experiences of IPV and coercive control, drawing on qualitative interviews with rural women in Saskatchewan who experienced IPV and focus groups with service providers who work with survivors. Our findings suggest rurality magnifies conditions of coercive control through physical elements of normative rurality, such as isolation that restrict women's space for action. Our participants' experiences of coercive control were exacerbated by the geographic reality of living in a rural/remote location.

SPACES OF ART CULTURE ORGANIZATION CREATED BY WOMEN INTELLECTUALS OF THE 17TH CENTURY

Background. The concepts of cultural space and cultural space were analyzed by A.Ya. Flier, L.P. Repina and others. In Western European culture of the 17th century, the problem of the place and role of a woman creator became more acute. The beginning of the present of women’s creativity originates in those times. Women's intellectual culture is a mental and verbal foundation created by creative women of a specific historical era and a specific country. The relevance of the study of women's intellectual culture of the 17th century is associated with the revival of the awareness of women creators of the past and the destruction of stereotypes in relation to women's creativity. The article analyzes the aspect of the organization of women's intellectual culture of the 17th century in order to identify the spaces in which women creators created works of art. Methods. While analyzing cultural institutions, an axiological approach is used with the inclusion of an anthropological component. While analyzing the space of art culture organization, methods such as analysis of the physical characteristics of the space, its internal structure, functions, values, place and role of creators in it and the results of their creative activity are used. Results. Creative women in the 17th century create their own spaces for the production of artistic cultural objects. Such spaces are monastery, female academy, salon, and Women’s Republic of Letters. Conclusion. The closed spaces for the organization of women's intellectual culture were monastery and female academy, where works of art were created within the framework of tradition. The open space was the salon, which created favorable conditions for creative innovation. In the space of Women’s Republic of Letters the new principles of upbringing and education were worked out.

Gerakan Perlawanan Body Shaming melalui Musik Video Lagu Berhak Bahagia

This research was motivated by the many acts of body shaming that attack women. The emergence of society's views regarding ideal body image encourages people, whether consciously or not, to compare themselves with other people. Women's space for movement becomes narrow due to patriarchy which regulates men in a dominant position while women are in a subordinate position. This is why women experience body shaming more often than men. The impacts range from a person's lack of self-confidence to mental disorders. Basically everyone can be a target for body shaming, such as Aurel Hermansyah. Aurel Hermansyah experienced body shaming through social media comments when she was pregnant with her first child because she was considered to have changed her body shape. The negative comments given to Aurel Hermansyah made Atta Hlilintar release a song entitled Berhak Bahagia. Therefore, this research aims to determine the form of resistance of the anti-body shaming movement in the song Berhak Bahagia. Using qualitative methods with a critical approach. The data collection techniques used were observation, literature study and documentation.

“We Know It's a Library”: Black Space, Black Women's Labor, and Radical Black Joy

The Junior Scholars Program (JSP) is a tuition-free youth learning program at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, New York. At JSP, Damaris, a former JSP instructor, was introduced to Kadiatou, the Schomburg Center's former education and outreach programs manager. They write collaboratively to (re)member the dialectical relationship between Black women's labor, Black Space, and Radical Black Joy.

РЕЛІГІЄЗНАВЧИЙ АНАЛІЗ ФЕМІНІСТИЧНИХ КОНЦЕПЦІЙ У ДАВНЬОМУ РИМІ

B a c k g r o u n d . This article is a comprehensive study of feminist ideas that can be found in ancient Roman society in the religious paradigm. The paper examines the socio-legal, religious, cultural and political conditions that shaped women's lives, analysing how these conditions both constrained and empowered women, challenging the perception of feminism as a purely modern phenomenon. M e t h o d s . This attempt is made possible by the use of a cross-disciplinary approach, since this issue is fully revealed, taking into account cultural, sociological, historical and political aspects. The study emphasises the complexity of gender dynamics in the religious context, demonstrating how these dynamics have contributed to the broader development of feminist thought. R e s u l t s . Illustrating how women functioned in a society where their roles were predetermined, as well as how they exercised their rights and challenged restrictions, makes it possible to understand the intentions of the desire for gender equality as far back as antiquity and enriches our understanding of the evolution of feminist ideas. Since the socio-cultural dimension is largely determined by the religious factor, the latter is given special attention. The article examines how religious practices and narratives shaped norms and ideas about the role, place and importance of women in society, and how the transition from paganism to Christianity affected their lives. Also in focus is the problem of female priesthood (the phenomenon of vestal women) as a social lift, since the specificity of these roles, on the one hand, granted women a certain autonomy, which was limited by default in a patriarchal society, and allowed them to integrate into socio-political processes and even exert some influence on them. On the other hand, the institution of the priesthood imposed significant restrictions on a woman's personal space, completely regulating her private life. C o n c l u s i o n s . Since the social context of Ancient Rome is a controversial historical and cultural layer, the study of feminist concepts in the light of the religious studies paradigm is a particularly interesting and challenging attempt to reconstruct the problem of women in the Ancient period.

Noken, Women's Identity Space and Strategy In Power Contestation

Asmat women have undergone a process of transformation due to contact with the agents present and changing the pattern of existing gender relations. This intersection has given birth to a new process of creation regarding women's space and identity. This paper will discuss the impact of the transformation of gender relations experienced by Asmat Women. The impact that occurs then needs to be seen in relation to the current context of the new conditions that occur in it, especially in the space of women's cultural identity which is now embedded and as if produced as a cultural identity for Asmat women, namely noken. Bourdieu's perspective is used to look at agents who fall into the scale of gender relations transformation, namely investors, traders, buyers and the many economic spaces that are also present in it. Noken as part of the results of the process of gender relations transformation occurred in Papua, especially in Asmat. The research method used is qualitative method of analysis The results of the study show that Asmat Tribe Women find themselves in the process of identity reconstruction that they begin to interpret with actions and efforts on the awareness they have. The transformation process that occurs due to the intervention of agents is seen as part of a change that they cannot control but can manage for the benefit they are trying to achieve as "key players" in gender relations both reproductive roles, productive roles and social roles, through the production of noken

BARGAINING POWER, ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE, DECISION MAKING: CASE STUDY OF WOMEN INFORMAL WORKERS THROUGH PHILOSOPHER JOHN STUART MILL

The scope of this research is at the level of experience of women informal workers in Pasar Besar Palangka Raya. This experience speaks of bargaining power, empowerment in terms of decision-making, economic independence, body and future authorsity and freedom of expression. Nevertheless, the authors found the imprisonment of double burden in the lives of 3 research subjects. The purpose of this study is to show the extent to which the narrative leads them to live the values of equality through informal work. The research method used is qualitative research with interviews., then the authors recorded, transcribed, made a factual solid and then classified into themes that are close to this research. The results of the research through the experiences of women informal workers in Pasar Besar show that women are found to be empowered over assets, time and in decision-making. On the other hand, both empowerment and imprisonment of women's double burden make John Stuart Mill's philosophical lens dialogue in it when talking about marriage as friendship and not as property or slavery. Mill's intersubjective space becomes a buffer in the narrative of women's experiences of informal workers. In addition, the authors finds that gossiping as a negative stigma by society becomes erroneous when confronted with the daily life practices of women informal workers. Gossip/ngerumpi is able to make women's space a place of self-development, self-protection and self-promotion when women are hit by a flood of fatigue, boredom in terms of waiting for the arrival of buyers.

Miracle Meal Ragi: Perspectives On Ragi Ragini: Chronicles From Aji's Kitchen From Alimentary Domain

Ragi Ragini: Chronicles from Aji's Kitchen, Anjali Purohit's debut work, is an intriguing mash-up of recipe writing, pictographic visualizations, and narrative writing. It presents a sensitive story about the miracle meal ragi, which is intertwined with the protagonist Ragini's life in various ways. What unfolds is a one-of-a-kind story about women and food traditions encouraging each other through a mutually supportive relationship. The study explores the diverse responses to food narratives, with female characters often conforming to patriarchal codes while resisting them. Authors like Anjali Purohit challenge patriarchal ideologies by incorporating kitchen locations as women's spaces for knowledge creation, sharing, and caring. Purohit's narrative aligns with the contingencies of Third World women, who lead lives in deeply patriarchal locations. By writing narratives anchored on alimentary traditions, she offers a new prescription for women's enablement, offering a nuanced understanding of empowerment discourses.

Gender Space and Collaboration Politics: Christine Longford’s The Furies (1933)

ABSTRACT In the context of intersectional gender economies, collaborative genealogies, and hierarchies of (in)visibility in theatre making, this inquiry turns to Christine Longford's little-known play-version The Furies (1933) to explore how gender exclusions, class privileges, and uneven dynamics of spousal joint authorship have historically been overlooked within modern Irish theatre history. By examining the trajectory of her partnership with the Dublin Gate Theatre's male artistic collaborators, i.e., her spouse Edward Longford as well as Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammóir (also known as The Boys), this study further attends to the ways Christine Longford created a space for herself within an androcentric/queer collective at the backdrop of the European avant-garde and the rise of fascism. Christine Longford's theatre work in 1930s post-independence Ireland countervails resonances about the political economy of intellectual agency in joint writing which make manifest a complex mosaic of uncharted women's spaces, labour, and biographies.

Navigating access to golden lands: Gender roles and constraints of women in artisanal and small‐scale mining operations in north‐western Ghana

AbstractThe daily lives of female artisanal and small‐scale miners revolve around an array of complex and labour‐driven activities. The complexities and labour demands vary depending on the type of artisanal and small‐scale mining involved, the underground pit (ghetto) or surface mining. Few studies have explored how gender roles manifest in the two major mining types to inform policy on the creation of a gendered mining environment for women. This paper fills the lacuna in the literature by investigating gender roles and the consequential effects on female artisanal miners' daily lives and practices along the underground pit and surface mining. The liberal feminist theoretical lens is employed as a framework. Data were sourced through field observations and in‐depth interviews with 13 lead miners (men) and 67 female miners in the Upper West Region of Ghana. Findings show that sociocultural marginalisation of women is predominant in underground pit/ghetto mining. Women are content to work in surface mining operations and can form gangs to operate independently; nevertheless, sociocultural framings have limited women's space and access to mineralised concessions. The study argues that steps towards promoting gender equality in artisanal and small‐scale mining should explore a gendered mineralised concessions distribution; thus, the distribution of mining concessions under the community mining project by the government of Ghana should be gender‐sensitive.

Gender and sand extraction in the Usumacinta River basin

Globally, sand and gravel are the second most extracted natural resources by volume after water. Despite that, knowledge about social and gender implications of sand-supply systems is limited. Here we aimed to advance the understanding of practices and gender relations in sand mining at male and female spaces in the Usumacinta River basin in Mexico and Guatemala. Drawing from desk and field research carried out in 79 locations on the riverbanks of the Usumacinta River and eight tributaries, this paper examines the extractive activities, gender roles and conditions of the workers. Sand extraction is characterized by a large diversity of actors, forms of organization, and local practices. We provide empirical evidence of a prevalent gender imbalance in the sand mining sector, as well as between men and women's spaces. Women participate in sand-mining related works in 19.51% of the sites, although in half of those cases they perform administrative tasks from town offices. Overall, their roles are seen as peripheral and minor even as they sell and classify materials and contribute to organizational tasks. We argue that the low participation of women at extraction sites is due to a combination of physically demanding work conditions and deeply ingrained gender norms in rural communities.

Painting the Kitchen Tables: Exploring women's domestic creative spaces through publication design

The spaces women take up in society have been shrouded in shame, disenfranchisement, and contention, with the kitchen as a focal point of this argument. This article aims to suggest ways in which women can take up space in the kitchen, this integral pillar of society that upholds connection and creativity as an art form. Adjacent to this subversive shift of connotation is the shifts within feminism, as feminist perspectives on women within kitchens develop alongside the historical movement. In this project, the researcher has utilised a post-positivist paradigm under an auto-ethnographic methodology to document, analyse, and celebrate the variations within feminist perspectives on creativity within domestic spaces through textile and publication design. In order to shift perspectives on these domestic spaces, the design outcomes paid tribute to feminist artists who made the kitchen their studio and others who captured the kitchen as an artistic contribution to the feminist perspectives on these spaces. Through heuristic methods of testing, experimentation, and physical outputs, the researcher curated a series of design artefacts that distil the visceral experiences of how women take up space in kitchens. Through publication design, there is a documentation of the shifting feminist perspectives on women's domestic spaces through contrast and analysis of articles, poems, recipes, and artist insights. These contexts are supported by the tactility of the physical design outcome made using textile, pottery, and printed matter. The research distils and provides a destination for the celebration of ways in which women take up space within the kitchen and the integral artistic creations within those spaces.