Subordination Of Women Research Articles

Farming groups and empowerment of women smallholder farmers

ABSTRACT Discrimination and subordination of women have contributed to lower economic and social development levels for women, especially in developing countries. Empowerment of women enables them to gain control of their lives by increasing their participation in the economy and all levels of decision making. This study used mixed method research to examine the social and economic empowerment of women experienced in farming groups. The groups have contributed to women’s empowerment. However, the individual abilities of women are vital for empowerment to occur among members. Development support organisations should focus on improving women’s capabilities alongside the mobilisation of group establishment.

The theory of liberal dependency care: a reply to my critics

ABSTRACT This author’s reply addresses critiques by Daniel Engster, Kelly Gawel, and Andrea Westlund about my 2020 book, Freedom to Care: Liberalism, Dependency Care, and Culture. I begin with a statement of my commitment to liberalism. In section two, I defend the value of a distinction between conceptions of persons in the real world and in contract theory to track inequalities in care when indexed to legitimate needs. I argue, as well, that my variety of contract theory supplies the normative content needed to reject the subordination of women of color. Acknowledging the enduring danger of expressive subordination, I emphasize my theory’s compatibility with the full social inclusion of people with disabilities. Section three then defends liberal dependency care’s compatibility with radical critique and transformative change by emphasizing the abstract nature of its core theoretical module. Finally, in section four, I reaffirm conceptual distinctions between autonomy skills, care skills, and a sense of justice by explicating their theoretical roles. In that section, I also embrace Westlund’s insight that theorists of justice need to have skills enabling responsiveness to other perspectives. To this new requirement for actual theorists of justice, I further add that we must attain capacities to engage critically with our society’s norms. Thus, the final section of this article supplements the justificatory module of liberal dependency care, building from the necessary conditions specified as two-level contract theory toward an account of necessary and sufficient conditions for this liberalism’s justificatory module.

The Plate is Political

In this paper, I investigate why anorexia nervosa emerged in non-Western nations after Western globalization efforts. Using Simone de Beauvoir’s theory of gender from The Second Sex alongside Michel Foucault’s conceptualization of the “docile body,” I argue that the emergence of anorexia nervosa in non-Western nations reflects the Western sovereign’s subordination of women. While patriarchal oppression is not exclusive to the West, I contend that the political ideology behind Western industrialization has allowed new avenues for patriarchal oppression to permeate. To conclude, I demand that mainstream discourse on anorexia nervosa consider the political conditions which are catalytic to its occurrence.

Wedlock or Wed-Lockup? A Case for Abolishing Restitution of Conjugal Rights in India

Abstract Colonialism in India consisted of a “civilizing mission” when the British rulers sought to initiate reforms in India, by projecting themselves to be the forerunners of modernity. Ironically, restitution of conjugal rights (RCR) runs contrary to any claims of modernity. Through an RCR, an unwilling spouse could be directed by the coercive machinery of the law to cohabit with his/her spouse, in recognition of the right of married persons to conjugality and consortium. Although couched in gender neutral terms, the remedy had and continues to have grave ramifications for women. This was applied by British judges to family law cases in India in the 1800s, and incorporated in family law statutes in post-independent India. RCR remains in force and is a legal remedy sought in the Indian courts till date, although it was abolished in England in 1970. This article critically examines RCR through historical, legal, feminist and comparative law perspectives. It analyses the impact of the English remedy on the norms of marriage and family in India, which are sites of oppression of, violence against and subordination of women. It argues for the repeal of RCR from the Indian statute books as it undermines bodily integrity and sexual autonomy of women in intimate relationships, and is incongruent with constitutional principles and India’s international human rights obligations.

“I am a man of both sides”: female power and Islam in the life and work of a male spirit healer in northern Mozambique

ABSTRACT How can male experiences of spirit possession contribute to feminist-influenced anthropology, which has focused mostly on the subordination of women and/or their resistance to male power? I engage with this question by examining the story of Alfio, a male Makhuwa spirit healer living in the city of Nampula in northern Mozambique, who both draws upon and negotiates with female power within spirit possession. I first provide the historical context of Alfio’s story, showing how spirit possession in the matrilineal context of northern Mozambique was originally a domain of female power. I then look at how the Islamization brought about by the nineteenth-century slave trade challenged women’s spiritual power, especially with the introduction of Muslim male spirits (matxini) into local cosmologies. Given that the spirit complex that emerged during the slave trade is still prominent in Nampula today, I draw on Alfio’s story to explore the effects of Islamization on spirit possession and society. Specifically, I show how, although matriliny endured, matxini and Islam provided male healers with resources to attenuate female power and appropriate female ritual spaces. I conclude by comparing Alfio’s story with those of other healers, reflecting on the implications of these changes in spirit possession for gender relations in present-day Mozambique.

BETWEEN TRADITIONS AND TECHNOLOGY: POLITICAL RADICALISM AND THE SPECTACLE OF MASCULINITY IN CONTEMPORARY POLAND

Radical movements of the Polish far-right consist, as elsewhere, mainly of young men. The strict gender binarism, the exaltation of men’s power, homosociality, brotherhood, physical strength and subordination of women are omnipresent among 'angry white men' everywhere, Poland included. However, these general characteristics have always its local variants, trajectories, and particularities. This article is an attempt to explain the phenomenon of Polish radical right movements in its local context: cultural, social, economic. The article focuses on ‘The March of Independence’ – a cyclical celebration for radical groups, which proliferates the discourses of far-right radical masculinity. In the first part, the author focuses on the social and economic background, worldview and ‘masculinist’ ideology of Polish' angry white men’ (Kimmel 2013). The second part focuses on the historical and cultural coding of their 'aggrieved entitlement' (Kimmel 2013). The third part of the essay draws on Steve's Garlick (Garlick 2016: 163−193) concept of ‘spectacular masculinity’. It analyzes how modern technology contributes to the construction of ‘spectacular’ masculinity among the participants of the march/members of radical groups.

Domestic Violence and Its Impact among Married Dalit Women: A Study of Kalika 28, Pokhara Metropolitan City

A study was carried out the domestic violence against Dalit women of Kalika, of Pokhara Metropolitan City, Gandaki Province, Nepal. Domestic violence is a social issue of inquiry. In this context, this study was made a comprehensive effort to explore the forms, factors and consequences of married Dalit women in the study area. Twenty victim women were chosen as respondents for this study. Using different tools for data collection like in-depth interview, observation as well as different sources of secondary data. this study was more guided by Marxist feminism and more qualitative. There are so many incidences of domestic violence against Dalit and vulnerable married women that blocked the progress and prosperity. Unfortunately, women are even neglected by their husbands and in-laws and their families. Study found that majority of husbands' alcoholic habit, their feeling of superiority, patriarchal social structure, re-marriage and extramarital affair were the main reasons that kept women as victims of the society. Physical, psychological and unwanted sexual abuse of husband, along with unproductive engagement of women in household activities, unwanted pregnancy and deprivation of various needs are major areas of women's subordination among the Dalit married women.

Towards a better understanding of gendered power in small scale fisheries of the Western Indian Ocean

Scholarship on gender in fisheries is not new. However, while there are many studies on the context and politics of gender and fisheries, understanding how power influences gender equality remains understudied, especially in the Western Indian Ocean. Based on evidence gathered from an interdisciplinary set of literature, including sectoral policies, this article provides nuanced insight at rethinking - how gendered-power dynamics constrain and enable choices and opportunities for addressing gender inequality in small-scale fisheries. Compelling evidence shows that a gendered-power dynamic is crucial for renegotiating gender equality with social norms and politics, including challenging simplistic views on poverty, vulnerability, and subordination of women. The article presents a latent chance for greater reflexivity among development practitioners, researchers, and policymakers on the politics of and transformation towards gender equality in small-scale fisheries.

Representation of woman's subordination in the novel Al Hobb fi Zaman al-Naft

مقولة فرودستی، به­عنوان یکی از اصلی­ترین مباحث فمنیسم اجتماعی، در آثار و نظریه­های ادبی مورد توجه است. فمنیسم گرچه دارای ابعاد و موضوعات مختلف است، اما به نظر می­رسد نتیجة تمام قضایا و دغدغه­های فمنیست­ها اعتراض به جایگاه زن در تاریخ و جهان معاصر است. جریان فمنیسم، با فراز و فرودهای خود، بعد از حضور در ادبیات غرب، در حوزة ادبیات عربی نیز از جانب نویسندگان زن با جدیت بیشتری دنبال شد. از برجسته­ترین این نویسندگان نوال السعداوی مصری است. او تحت تأثیر جایگاه نازل زن مصری، به طور خاص در رمان الحب فی زمن النفط به­دنبال دستیابی به هویت زن بوده، بر این باور است که در سایة توجه به حقوق اجتماعی زن، دستیابی به هویت و در نتیجه خروج وی از مقام فرودستی، محقق می­گردد. چنین رسالتی در رمان «سعداوی» در ابعاد مختلف قابل بررسی است. این نوشته بر آن است تا با بررسی مقولة فرودستی زن و پرداختن به خاستگاه و پیامدهای آن، تصویری از تلاش زن برای دستیابی به هدف یاد­شده ارائه دهد، لذا پس از ارائة مختصری دربارة فمنیسم اجتماعی و رمان «سعداوی»، مقولة فرودستی را با استفاده از شیوة توصیفی-تحلیلی مورد بررسی قرار می­دهد. نتایج نشان می­دهد با توجه به مبانی نظری تحقیق، مفهوم فرودستی در رمان حاضر، تحت تأثیر محورهای زن و وابستگی، برساختة ذهنی مردان، مردسالاری و ذهنیت قدرت طلبی مردانه و سیطره بر مسألة آموزش زن قرار دارد.

Assessment of Ambivalent Sexism in University Students in Colombia and Spain: A Comparative Analysis.

(1) Background: Gender-based violence has no geographical, personal, or social boundaries. It constitutes a serious public health problem that affects the entire society. This research aims to identify and compare the level of ambivalent sexism in Spanish and Colombian university students and its relationship with sociodemographic factors. Ambivalent sexism, developed by Glick and Fiske (1996), is considered a new type of sexism since, for the first time, it combines negative and positive feelings that give rise to hostile and benevolent sexism, maintaining the subordination of women through punishment and rewards. (2) Methods: The methodology consisted of the application of the validated Spanish version of the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI) to a sample of 374 students in their final academic year of the Law program, of which 21.7% were students at the University of Santander (Bucaramanga, Colombia), 45.5% at the University Rey Juan Carlos (Madrid, Spain), and the remaining 32.9% at the University of Seville (Seville, Spain). (3) Results: A high level of ambivalent sexism is reported in Colombian students nowadays. In the two countries. there are similarities (e.g., the great weight of religion and the variation in attitudes towards sexism in people who identify themselves as women, compared to male or students consulted that prefer not to answer) and differences (e.g., absence in Colombia of gender-specific legislation, low number of students who have received gender education in Spain). (4) Conclusions: These findings may contribute to the construction of laws that take into account the particular problems of women and the development of educational programs on gender that are offered in a transversal and permanent way and that take into account cultural factors and equity between men and women as an essential element in the training of future judges who have the legal responsibility to protect those who report gender violence.

Mary Astell’s radical criticism of gender inequality

ABSTRACT This paper aims to bring to light the radical and subversive ideas of the British Enlightenment philosopher Mary Astell. It will be argued that Astell, despite her strict Anglicanism and affiliation with the rather conservative Tories, articulates radical thoughts on questions of gender equality. As will be shown, she is highly critical of contemporary sexual hierarchies, which is evident from her fierce criticisms of customary, natural, and scriptural defenses of patriarchalism. Part of her review of such hierarchies entails her ruthless assessment of the contemporary condition of marriage and the subordination of women therein. Besides reviewing and systematizing her critical positions, it is a further aim of this paper to compare these with her otherwise conservative ideas, such as denying a right to resistance or disobedience; a tension other commentators have tried to solve as well. I argue that, what we find in Astell, is a thinker who holds views many radicals would have concurred with, concerning both the spiritual and political equality of women.

The Plate is Political

In this paper, I investigate why anorexia nervosa emerged in non-Western nations after Western globalization efforts. Using Simone de Beauvoir’s theory of gender from The Second Sex alongside Michel Foucault’s conceptualization of the “docile body,” I argue that the emergence of anorexia nervosa in non-Western nations reflects the Western sovereign’s subordination of women. While patriarchal oppression is not exclusive to the West, I contend that the political ideology behind Western industrialization has allowed new avenues for patriarchal oppression to permeate. To conclude, I demand that mainstream discourse on anorexia nervosa consider the political conditions which are catalytic to its occurrence.

Ecofeminism Perspective on the Role of Women Concerning Nature in Miyori No Mori Anime

This paper examines the role of women in their relation to nature as represented in the anime Miyori no Mori through an ecofeminist perspective, considering that men in the patriarchal world often exploit women and nature. Especially in Japan, where this anime came from, its gender relations remain deeply patriarchal and unequal until now. This study used the qualitative paradigm and ecofeminism approach. Data were obtained from data sources in the form of an anime entitled Miyori no Mori. We chose this anime because it represents an issue about women as well as an issue about nature and the environment, two things that will never stop being discussed. The data taken are events, objects, and dialogues related to the main female character and nature. Data analysis was carried out using interpretive qualitative discourse analysis with an eco-feminist approach that focuses on the subordination of women and the subordination of nature to the interests of humans (men). In addition, a semiotic perspective is also used to interpret the signs contained in the scene image. This research succeeded in finding two things, namely (1) women's resistance to patriarchal power over nature and women; and (2) women's deconstruction of patriarchal power over nature and women.

Desert Daughters, Desert Sons: Rethinking the Christian Desert Tradition by Rachel Wheeler

Reviewed by: Desert Daughters, Desert Sons: Rethinking the Christian Desert Tradition by Rachel Wheeler Kyle A. Schenkewitz (bio) Desert Daughters, Desert Sons: Rethinking the Christian Desert Tradition. By Rachel Wheeler. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2019. ix, 178 pp. $19.95. Collections of wisdom from the early desert tradition, like The Sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, are perennial classics for the study of Christian spirituality; and Desert Daughters, Desert Sons will permanently shift how this body of literature [End Page 333] is read and applied to the spiritual life. Rachel Wheeler writes with a penetrating lens to see and imagine what is just beyond the pages of the recorded apophthegmata. Wheeler is attentive to both the text on the page as well as what is occluded, missing, and discounted. This inquiry is squarely focused on the neglect of women, the absence of women, the rejection of biological relationships, and the subordination of women's lives and experiences in this literature. Wheeler ably demonstrates that "men were never entirely able to get away from women, as much as they might have desired, tried to, and led us to believe they had" (3). On Wheeler's examination, the literature of the desert tradition was "full of women" for those willing to perceive them (2). Desert Daughters, Desert Sons refocuses the reader's attention to attend to the women in the Sayings who appear as background characters of many male-centered stories, as foils for men's spiritual pursuits, and as gendered others to be overcome by men's spiritual achievements. Desert Daughters, Desert Sons not only brings the lives of women in these tales to the fore, but highlights how women had much to offer, teach, and exemplify in the desert tradition. As much as this book offers a necessary corrective to a surface reading of these ascetic texts, Wheeler's aim is also reconstructive. Wheeler utilizes a hermeneutic that "consider(s) possibilities about the lives" the women depicted in the desert tradition to provide a "liberating vision . . . to reassess what is our present reality and to reimagine what might be our future" (17). One of the central themes of this book is how this re-reading of the desert tradition can foster a way of love when one considers the characters of the Sayings as real persons with biological families. Her title points readers to the fact that the ammas and abbas of the desert, indeed every individual mentioned in the literature, were also daughters and sons, as well as biological mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and even spouses. Attending to the biological ties that are often neglected and rejected in the ascetic literature provides ample evidence of the ways these ascetics fashioned new, spiritual relationships at the expense of their familial relationships. According to the opening chapter, Wheeler's explicit motivation for this book is for a current audience that seeks in the early desert communities models for encountering God in daily life. The desert stories "offer contemporary readers a portrait of a lifestyle that, because independent of the explicit vocation that eventually derived from this context, might still feel possible for spiritual seekers today" (30). This literature is still being read and inculcated in Christian lives today and with it the bias, exclusion, and negative portrayals of women. By "peering into the margins" of the text and highlighting peripheral figures, Wheeler elicits new and deeper spiritual significance for the reader. The common thread of exemplary men overshadows the women in the background who were "leading their own lives, dealing with their own ordeals and successes, which seem not to interest men" (32). Wheeler brings to the fore intriguing questions that reshape the reception of the monastic wisdom these stories attempt to communicate. For example, in a passage where Poemen interacts with a monastic brother who had a pregnant wife the husband is instructed to repent and send his wife and newborn away having given them whatever they needed. Wheeler contends that attempting to solidify his monastic goals and resituate his obligations toward his spiritual family at the expense of his physical and biological family this husband and father was in the wrong. Wheeler's reasons are based on the...

CHAPTER 10 The Master’s Tools Will Not Dismantle the Master’s House: Hip Hop, Young M.A., and Gender Norms

Immediately electrifying the rap game, Young M.A. entered the hip hop scene in 2016 and quickly became one of a few openly gay artists to make it big in hip hop. For many LGBT youth, Young M.A. invokes adoration and respect as a long-awaited depiction of the historically excluded queer rapper. For others, she brings controversy. Some critics call out what they perceive to be Young M.A.’s own disdain for women, while dedicated fans interpret it as turning gender on its head by a woman “doing what the men do.” For other listeners, she sparks derision and outright hostility as a reaction to her failure to adhere to expected gender norms. The reaction to Young M.A.’s groundbreaking entry into the hip hop scene represents an important crossroad for a music genre and culture that rebukes racism on one hand, yet often fails to pivot to embrace a progressive vision of gender equality on another. In this chapter, a Black teen and creative writer inspired by Young M.A. and a Black civil rights scholar offer their collective insights on the artist’s lyrics and rise to fame in the hip hop industry. They contend that as long as hip-hop culture shuns those who fail to conform to expected gender norms – norms that are the vestiges of White American culture and perpetuated through legal doctrine – it will fall short of its revolutionary potential to vocalize a radical social justice vision. A hundred years before the hip hop movement began, the United States Supreme Court relied on gross gender norms and stereotypes to exclude women from the practice of law, invoking what one Justice characterized as an “axiomatic truth” that “God designed the sexes to occupy different spheres of action and that it belonged to men to make, apply, and execute laws.” The legal enforcement of this type of patriarchal structure is the root of multiple forms of gender discrimination still present today, including misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia. Hip Hop’s current embrace of these gender norms is simply “serving the master” by partaking in the subordination of Black girls, Black women, and Black LGBT people. As Audre Lorde brilliantly put it, “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”

Medical Violence, Obstetric Racism, and the Limits of Informed Consent for Black Women

This Essay critically examines how medicine actively engages in the reproductive subordination of Black women. In obstetrics, particularly, Black women must contend with both gender and race subordination. Early American gynecology treated Black women as expendable clinical material for its institutional needs. This medical violence was animated by biological racism and the legal and economic exigencies of the antebellum era. Medical racism continues to animate Black women’s navigation of and their dehumanization within obstetrics. Today, the racial disparities in cesarean sections illustrate that Black women are simultaneously overmedicalized and medically neglected—an extension of historical medical practices rooted in the logic of biological race. Though the principle of informed consent traditionally protects the rights of autonomy, bodily integrity, and well-being, medicine nevertheless routinely subjects Black women to medically unnecessary procedures. This Essay adopts the framework of obstetric racism to analyze Black women’s overmedicalization as a site of reproductive subordination. It thus offers a critical interdisciplinary and intersectional lens to broader conversations on race in reproduction and maternal health.

Modern Arab Women and Traditional Morality

This study uses a descriptive–analytical methodology, based on a postmodern deconstructive feminist approach, to analyze the struggle of modern Arab women fighting against patriarchal biases, violence, and the hypocritical morality system that dominate most tribal Arab societies. Applications for the study are taken from major Arab contemporary novels that continue to create strong independent female characters to expose the misogynistic nature of selected traditional tribal Arab societies. Many of these characters challenge the existing tribal moral codes that incite physical and psychological violence against women who are suspected of violating accepted social and cultural codes of family honor. The study highlights that the existing morality system is biased and unjust, resulting in the continuous subordination and manipulation of women. The analysis also reveals that modern Arab women challenge the hegemony of the long-standing and traditional patriarchal system, fight for an equal distribution of social rights and responsibilities, and reject any form of psychological and physical violence inflicted on women under a misguided masculine system of honor.

Re-interpreting Deuteronomy to Empower Women (of South Africa)

ABSTRACT The patriarchal discourse in the Deuteronomic Code creates the need for its re-interpretation from a feminist perspective. This is in aid of understanding the subordination of women viewed from the following perspectives: their roles, images and the limited contributions of women in the ancient world. The reading also includes some remarks on the patrilineal and patriarchal organisation of the Israelite society and its family-centred economy - with special reference to the Covenant Code because of its similarity to Deuteronomy. This article describes how reformers of the Code formed a social structure which they made effective by linking disempowerment of women with other poverty alleviation laws. Keywords: Deuteronomic Code, Socio-economic, Covenant Code, Social-scientific interpretation, Gender inequality

The Female Absolute and the Relative Male. The Gender Relations According to Georg Simmel

This paper focuses the attention on Simmel’s selected writings on women, love and gender relations. This paper is structured as follows. The first section focuses on the image of woman presented by Simmel. Although his arguments sound “old fashioned”, he gives a positive evaluation of woman. The second section is devoted to the analysis of the gender relations that has led to woman subordination. The third section analyses Simmel's idea of male-female relationships based on the domination/subordination paradigm. The last section shows how Simmel's work devoted to this topic can drive our researches today.

Impact of Gender inclusion in local government: A study based on Laltipur and Jhapa District

This article focuses on the impact of gender inclusion in local government. This topic is based on gender inclusion theory, policy and programme of Nepalese government. This research examines the situation of knowledge of equal participation of female in decision making process, on policy and practices of local Government, and next is to understand the historical and patriarchal control over participation in decision making and influence of policy. It introduces to the Gender-aware approaches concerned with the manner in which such relationships are socially constructed; men and women play different roles in society, their gender differences being shaped by ideological, historical, religious, ethnic, economic and cultural determinants. It focuses on power relations and roles that challenges the existing women's subordination in the society. This research used in cross sectional descriptive and analytical research and all information is gathered and assessed on the issues- what and how they utilize resources benefits from local where the local people participate in different ways; what and how women use women's sectors fund and resources; how the social and cultural division of labour affecting in the decision making process in local government council and general meeting. Almost 90%respondents of study areas of both districts (Lalitpur and Jhapa) are affiliated political parties before they elected in local government. Almost 50 % people of both Jhapa and Lalitpur district have the knowledge of gender inclusion. The practice of implementation of the formulated policies - program is gradually increasing in local government but still takes time to implement completely, but it seems that there is lacking of an effective awareness campaign. Increasing local government authority over service provision is pursued in part to reduce the gap between citizens and government authorities, as local government is considered closer to constituents. Whether or not LGs are able to continue to provide and improve services and develop infrastructure will be critical to the success of the new governance structure.