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An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses the compilation of presentations from the 9th World Conference on Women's Studies, emphasizing the theme "Gender Justice and the Power of Feminisms: Dismantling Patriarchy, Building Equity."

Abstract This article is a review paper, which examines the place of gender in hospitality research and education and discusses the significance of hospitality for women's employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. The paper's main purpose, however, is to speculate on the future of hospitality gender research and women's employment prospects in the industry. It suggests that, despite the emergence of gender perspectives in hospitality research and the recent rise of popular feminism in response to high-profile sexual harassment cases and a well-publicised gender pay gap, gender still does not occupy mainstream territory in the field. The paper stresses the continued missed opportunities of neglecting female talent and calls on female and male leaders to shape a gender-just future in hospitality study and practice by mentoring and holding hierarchies to account. The paper identifies AI and robotics and sexual exploitation and harassment as two areas in which hospitality gender scholars could lead scholarship and policy debates on gendered human experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper reviews and discusses papers related to women''s studies, gender or feminist perspectives, published in the scientific journal Futures. The aim is to provide new understandings and remapping of futures studies by capturing how gender is created and understood in this field. The gender/feminist criticism of futures studies mainly relates to the field being male-dominated and male biased, which means that the future is seen as already colonised by men. When synthesising the insights from all 78 papers focusing on futures studies and feminism, gender or women, four conclusions are especially striking: (1) Women and non-Westerners are generally excluded from professional futures studies activities and so are feminist issues or issues of particular relevance for women. (2) Futures studies usually make no attempts to reveal underlying assumptions, i.e. often lack a critical and reflexive perspective, which is needed in order to add a critical feminist perspective and envision feminist futures. (3) Feminist futures are needed as a contrast to hegemonic male and Western technology-orientated futures. Feminist futures are diverse, but focus the well-being of all humans. (4) Futures studies often view women as victims, rather than as drivers for change, which means that their alternative futures are often ignored. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

An introduction is presented in which the author discusses reports within the issue on topics including higher education, women's education and feminism.

The article focuses on the accomplishment of Cheryl and Nikki Bart, mother and daughter, of scaling the summit of Mt. Everest, which became a topic at the "Australia 2020 Summit." It provides the author's narrative and personal story of attending and participating in the said summit. It explores the way in which women were included in and excluded from the processes, content and discussions of the event, in the hope that the analysis may assist in formulating ways to enhance effective strategic thinking, policy development and service delivery which specifically addresses the needs of and opportunities for women in Australia over the next decade and beyond. Related issues are further duscussed.

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This paper aims at investigating the contribution of magical realism as a narrative mode to the thematic critical content of women upliftment or magical feminism as an influential literary domain. Women upliftment is a thematic critical theory in the sense that it tackles themes and ideas more than techniques and structure. In comparison to formalism, structuralism and post-structuralism, feminism proves to be more thematically oriented. The paper works on extending the domain of the feminist theory to embrace magical realism as a narrative mode that refamiliarises its thematic definition of magical feminism. The paper is based on proposing that between magical realism and feminism, there is a relationship that springs from the similarity between them, in addition to the significance attributed to feminism when enhanced by magical realism as a mode of narration. This brings into concern the 'duality' and 'defocalization' as leading terms that knot both magical realism and feminism to postmodernism as a basic context of reference. Bringing the theme of accepting the 'other' into the scene, literary references are made from Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novels. The novels of Marquez explain and show how magical realism, through the theme of avenging abuse, has enhanced the feminist reading that is based here on naturalizing woman contributing to the domain of magical feminism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Anthropology Magazine is the property of University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Barefoot College (India) is an NGO working in the fields of education, skills development, health, drinking water, and solar power mainly to train older, rural women who are determined to challenge restrictive gender roles in their respective communities. Since its inception, the NGO has trained over 2,000 rural women as solar engineers across 93 countries worldwide and has brought electricity to over 18,000 homes. Barefoot trainers employ nonnormative methods of sharing knowledge such as color coding, sign language, and practical experience. This paper conducts a critical assessment of the Barefoot College Solar Electrification Programme to explore how it empowers illiterate and semi-literate women from remote rural areas around the world to become solar engineers (or "Solar Mamas"). It utilizes qualitative research methods to analyze this women's empowerment project as a landmark practical application of decolonial feminist theory. The paper contends that the Barefoot approach both challenges and conforms to the Women in Development and Gender and Development approaches of the past. The research is grounded methodologically in feminist praxis and also borrows from the conceptual frameworks of Feminist Political Ecology and Women and the Politics of Place. Stories and personal experiences from Solar Mamas have been highlighted to understand the real world impact of the program. The main findings indicate that the Barefoot College's innovative approach to empower marginalized communities and educate older women is achieved through decentralizing control and demystifying technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mahasweta Devi is a legendary figure among the Indian Writers. She is one of the greatest contemporary writers, who used to write in Bangla. Till the last breath of her life, Mahasweta Devi raises her voice against illiteracy, displacement, ignorance, and other issues related to exploitation. The Play Bayen was published in 'Five Plays', with other four plays - Mother of 1084, Aajir, Urvanshi and Johnny and Water in 1997. Mahasweta Devi's play Bayen exposes exploitation of women, caste, and gender. I would like to discuss the situation of a lower caste woman Chandidasi and gender discrimination in this play. In this play, there are many dimensions, where women are shown as victims. Samik Bandyopadhyay comments on Mahasweta devi's Bayen, "The metaphoric core of Bayen...lies deeper than the obvious protest against the inhumanity of superstition...Mahasweta touches the larger space of the social forces that separate mother and son in a male-dominated system". This paper attempts to see the struggling woman figure in Mahasweta Devi's play Bayen and discuss how a lower caste woman is accused as a Bayen. According to village people bayen is a woman, who has ability to curse others and breastfeed the dead children. Chandidasi is separated from her son and family. The purpose of this paper is to examine the identity of a woman, which is constructed by the society and fake beliefs of society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Adivasi people, termed Scheduled Tribes in India, have a lifeworld entwined with nature, land, and resources. Their relationship with the land produces a particular form of lived experience. This interface between land and culture that shapes the body of knowledge is not written or recorded like other practices and traditions. Adivasi/Tribal women play an important role in articulating this knowledge and contributing to its formation. However, this particular lived experience, especially concerning women, has not received the recognition it deserves within the context of mainstream feminism, which has not paid attention to Adivasi/Tribal women as victims of colonial and imperialist oppression. However, the Adivasi/Tribal struggle over land rights in India is also a feminist struggle. Adivasi/Tribal feminism fails to be encapsulated by the colonial lens of the body/earth dichotomy. This paper critically analyzes narratives from the Chotanagpur (Central Plateau of India) and the Northeast region of India, capturing the Adivasi/Tribal women's worldview and their struggles to save their territory. By exploring the oral history of women-led struggles and movements, this paper argues that the theoretical framework of Adivasi/Tribal feminism emerges organically from Adivasi/Tribal perspectives about land, paving the way for a more comprehensive understanding of their struggles and aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theater proposes an alternative reality and different possible identities offering a framework of how representation works in performances, and it further provides an understanding of the transformative potential of enactment. The attempt to retrieve and re-write women's histories through performances develops a culture of reconstructive capacities that resists absorption into the dominant culture. In theater, women have asserted their own vision and exercised their own viewpoints, expanding feminist space and communicating with spectators by employing publicly encoded signs. The folk theater of India, in particular, provides a public space to the (silenced) subaltern to assert agency and question the modalities of power, exclusion, images, and strategies that marginalize women. The paper examines Indian women's roles on stage and in the folk theater of Chhattisgarh from the 1980s onwards and shows how feminist performances redefine gender binaries and contest popular consciousness. By voicing women's perspectives, the women performers and women narrators of the epic Mahabharata in folk performances restructure and alter the stage. This paper explores themes of gender, power, construction of theatrical space, and the shifts in feminist positioning created by Teejan Bai and other women Pandwani performers and Kathagayakas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to share findings from empirically driven conceptual research into the implications for English teachers of understanding generative AI as a "tool" for writing. Design/methodology/approach: The paper reports early findings from an Australian National Survey of English teachers and interrogates the notion of the AI writer as "tool" through intersectional feminist discursive-material analysis of the metaphorical entailments of the term. Findings: Through this work, the authors have developed the concept of "coloniser tool-thinking" and juxtaposed it with First Nations and feminist understandings of "tools" and "objects" to demonstrate risks to the pursuit of social and planetary justice through understanding generative AI as a tool for English teachers and students. Originality/value: Bringing together white and First Nations English researchers in dialogue, the paper contributes a unique perspective to challenge widespread and common-sense use of "tool" for generative AI services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is an editorial from the Australian Journal of Adult Learning, discussing various topics related to adult learning education. It mentions changes in Ministerial portfolios in the Federal Albanese Government and highlights the Labor government's commitment to adult and lifelong learning. The journal includes four refereed papers on topics such as academic advising for adult learners, Bessie Harrison Lee's fight for suffrage, adult community education in the theatre and arts, and perceptions of adult learning for visually impaired individuals during the pandemic. The article also includes book reviews and emphasizes the importance of pedagogy, policy, and practice in adult education. [Extracted from the article]

This paper critically examines the relationship between women's labor force participation (LFP) and empowerment, particularly in the Global South, utilizing Naila Kabeer's empowerment framework. By challenging the orthodox conceptualization of LFP, the study reveals its methodological limitations as a measure of women's economic engagement. By emphasizing the dynamic nature of empowerment as a multifaceted process within the formal and informal sector, this paper highlights the interplay of agency, resources, and achievements within Kabeer's framework. Drawing from global examples, it demonstrates the varied impacts of paid work on women's decision-making in both private and public spheres. While acknowledging the potential of LFP to enhance women's empowerment, the paper underscores the significance of contextual factors in shaping this relationship. By shedding light on the complexities and nuances of women's labor and empowerment, the study offers valuable insights for policymakers and researchers striving for gender equality and women's empowerment worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By researching the intersections of art, geography, and violence, this paper interrogates performance art and its capacity to question one's gendered existence in space/place. Through an analysis of two performance art pieces--J. Hawkes's Playing Kate (2018) and Cassils's PISSED (2017)--I explore the connections between art, gendered bodies, and space/place, while establishing a link between and across feminist and trans* gendered tyrannies. While discussing feminist and trans* performance art, this paper probes the felt and lived harms that are experienced by feminist women and trans* individuals in gendered locales and addresses ways in which art can challenge socio-spatial violence. Overall, through a broad exploration of geographies of art and violence, this paper speaks of spatial gendered oppression as well as spatialized potential and hope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of planning in addressing concerns about safety for women. The paper recognizes that safety has once again become a matter of public interest in the UK. We examine the ways in which safety has been included within the UK Women and Planning Movement in the past, and the ways it is being articulated today. We argue that a narrow focus on safety is problematic and fails to engage with the breadth of the Women and Planning Movement. We use Sen’s (1992) Capability Model to propose ways in which a focus on safety be improved through a more holistic engagement with the Women and Planning Movement’s insights. We conclude that doing so will address many of the wicked (Rittel and Weber, 1973) issues planners seek to respond to. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Owing to the graded inequality inherent in Indian society, Dalit women lie at the bottom of the hierarchy with no power to execute. In short, one can say that they are "Dalit of Dalits." The present paper looks at the challenges and exclusionary practices faced by the Dalit women with reference to the works of Bama's Sangati (2005) and Baby Kamble's The Prison We Broke (2008). Delving into the concepts of gender and caste, the paper aims to demonstrate how both writers portray the idea of the outsider within the identity of Dalit women. It will also deal with how this outsider within identity gives them a standpoint of their own. In its entirety, the paper highlights the challenges and haplessness of Dalit women because of their identity and their zealousness in fighting the oppressive forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the status of feminist theory and academic politics as the foundation for women’s struggle for liberation. A distinct contribution of the paper to the current literature is the focus on theory and theoretical perspectives, distinguishing between sociology, patriarchy, and capitalism as the key to women’s liberation. After a careful and critical examination of the classical roots of contemporary sociological theory, the varieties and basic domain assumptions of feminist theory, and the impact of patriarchy and capitalism on women, the following conclusions are drawn: 1) Feminist theory must be recognized and accepted for its significant contribution to the birth and development of sociology and its major role in helping to broaden the field of sociology and provide a broader and better understanding of society, the individual in society, and various social phenomena; 2) The negative impact of patriarchy and capitalism on the struggle for women’s liberation must be recognized; and 3) Both men and women must eliminate academic politics intellectually and more importantly, practically in order to bring about real and true women’s liberation. It is therefore correct, right, and justifiable to have a Feminist Perspective in Sociology based on the following: 1) the clearly identified, different, and unique basic domain assumptions and research methodological approaches of feminist theory; 2) the fact that gender is unique and different from other social stratification categories since it is made up of two broad categories, females and males, with two unique and different intellectual bases; 3) the fact that the Feminist Perspective will facilitate the elimination of academic politics; and 4) the fact that the Feminist Perspective will facilitate the production of different social realities, especially and particularly, women’s liberation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In patriarchal societies, women are traditionally subjugated and suppressed in one way or another. Men are privileged and kept at the center. They speak, express, and dream while benefiting from the autonomy provided to them by the phallogocentric system. By contrast, women are marginalized. Patriarchal writers define women as weak, fragile, helpless, docile, submissive, and emotional. However, this paper reveals that in Daniyal Mueenuddin's "Nawabdin Electrician" and Abrar-ul-Haq's song "Chamkeeli," regardless of a change in times and "gender performativity," Pakistani male writers continue to stigmatize women. This study shows that although gender roles are changing, women remain subjugated. My paper claims that whereas women were previously portrayed as submissive, docile, suppressed, uncritical, and mindlessly silent, in these two more recent texts women are represented as uncontrollable, hypersexual, dangerous, mad, violent, hysterically dominating, and madly authoritative. I argue that these recent portrayals do not help or emancipate Pakistani women. In 2019, Advocate Rana Adnan Asghar filed a petition against Haq's song in the Lahore Civil Court, declaring it a scurrilous attack on men's integrity. My study, however, reveals that Haq has depicted incapacitated men in contrast to strong women, as a way to prove that women's emancipation is a potential threat to patriarchy. Thus, rather than demeaning men, Haq's depiction of a madly uncontrollable woman is more critical of women than of men. This implies that Pakistan's dominant patriarchal familial and social structures suppress women more in order to protect men from disgrace. My study reveals that in the time between these texts (2009 to 2019), no significant change has occurred because gender discrimination persists in the works of Pakistani men. This article offers a dismantling of these recent prejudiced female stereotypes in order to achieve a more emancipatory future for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper employs a feminist-psychoanalytical approach to explore Elif Shafak's "10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World," analyzing how patriarchy and gender-based violence shape the construction of womanhood Design/Methodology/Approach: The methodology used in this article is a Qualitative analysis of the Novel. Psychoanalytic- Feminism was employed as a framework of analysis. Findings: This shows how patriarchal societies use violence to control and dominate women in their houses. Domestic abuse has physical and psychological impacts on victims. The work also explores sexual violence, showing women's vulnerability in a male-dominated society. Violence against women highlights their commodification and dehumanization as objects for male satisfaction [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THIS PAPER EXPLORES THE INFLUENTIAL ROLE OF FEMALE AUTHORS DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA AND THEIR USE OF PEN NAMES AS A SUBVERSIVE TACTIC TO CONTRIBUTE TO FEMINIST DISCOURSE. IT EXAMINES HOW THESE AUTHORS, CONSTRAINED BY THE GENDER NORMS OF THEIR TIME, CIRCUMVENTED SOCIETAL BARRIERS BY ADOPTING MALE PSEUDONYMS TO PUBLISH THEIR WORKS. THROUGH A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF TEXTS BY AUTHORS SUCH AS JANE AUSTEN, THE BRONTË SISTERS, AND GEORGE ELIOT, THE STUDY HIGHLIGHTS THE EMERGENCE OF THE 'NEW WOMAN' IN LITERATURE--A CHARACTER THAT DEFIED THE TRADITIONAL PASSIVE FEMALE ARCHETYPE BY EXHIBITING SELF-RELIANCE AND INTELLECTUAL AGENCY. BY WEAVING LITERARY CRITICISM WITH HISTORICAL CONTEXT, THE PAPER DELINEATES THE SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VICTORIAN LITERATURE AND FEMINISM'S PROGRESSIVE PUSH, ULTIMATELY REVEALING HOW THESE WRITINGS HELPED TO REFRAME WOMEN'S ROLES AND ADVANCE THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Via Panorâmica: A Journal of Anglo-American Studies / Revista de Estudos Anglo-Americanos is the property of Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Letras and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Ámbitos: Revista de Estudios de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades is the property of Asociacion de Estudios de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Cinta de Moebio is the property of Universidad de Chile, Facultad de Ciencas Sociales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

With the artificial intelligence and robotics revolution transforming science and society rapidly, ethical issues surrounding the development and use of advanced technologies are causing concerns worldwide. Despite communication scholars being well-positioned to tackle issues relevant to ethical technology development, we have conducted little research to inform and critique this space. This paper aims to advocate for better knowledge and approaches in ethical technology design and communication scholarship, and encourage communication researchers to contribute to technology design by leveraging communication expertise and borrowing scholarly insights from other fields. Specifically, we introduce foundational feminist technoscience theories and relevant technology design approaches, propose seven core design principles to aid communication research, and discuss how communication scholarship can benefit the space of technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Družboslovne Razprave is the property of Druzboslovne Razprave and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In recent years, studies on gender inequality have increased because of the 1995 World Conference on Women, which aimed to increase women's participation in decision-making and exercising power. This paper investigates this research question: How does participation by gender on corporate boards and in directorships impact the rest of the decision-making positions? We conducted this study to give evidence of the gender inequality that exists on boards of directors and within leadership positions in Mexico with the aim of proposing strategies to remedy this situation. The hypothesis is that if men make up the majority of corporate boards and directorships, the difficulty for women to attain these positions increases. This exploratory study originates from the 2019 report Women in the Boardroom: A Global Perspective and analyzes reports of 29 companies listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange, including financial services, media technology, telecommunications, consumer products, industry, energy, and health sectors. The results show that in the countries studied, including Mexico, the predominance of men in directorships and corporate boardrooms prevails. We highlight that in countries where women have been included in decision-making positions, the presence of women in functional directorship positions is increasingly common. Although in Mexico a movement to demand the constitutional right to equality was followed by the establishment of positive measures in favor of women, the initiative to set gender quotas as a fair practice in forming corporate boards and filling directorship positions has not taken hold. This has motivated us to argue for a norm in favor of equality in the positions of directors and board members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term Siddi refers to the African diaspora communities in India, who initially arrived in the 13th century with the Islamic invaders in Gujarat (then Sindh) as slaves, palace guards, traders, and musicians from the eastern parts of Africa, including Ethiopia, Zanzibar, Sudan, and Tanzania. In the 15th century, another group of Africans from South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique were brought to India by the Portuguese colonizers as slaves. The majority of the histories of the Siddi community are androcentric in nature, focusing on the contributions of African men and male spiritual figures towards the development of the Siddi community in India. However, this paper offers a more diverse and deeper analysis that uncovers the role of women spiritual figures like Mai Misra, Makhaan Devi, and goddess Luxmi, and the role of Siddi women in the cultural and spiritual evolution of Siddi practices. This article analyzes how women spiritual figures and spiritual practices contribute to Siddi culture in Gujarat and offer Siddi women empowerment and agency. The thematic and theoretical arguments in this article are supported by a kin study on the patterns and intentions of Mai Misra worship in Gujarat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of the homophobic nature of Nigerian society, the LGBTQ+ rights movement has been very visible in Nigeria. A number of local pro-LGBTQ+ initiatives have sought to challenge the conservative myths and homophobic stereotypes that prevail in the society. One method used for such advocacy has been avant-garde cinema, particularly lesbian or gay films. A case in point is Ikpe-Etim's 2020 romantic film titled Ife. As an unusual Nollywood movie, Ife strongly makes a case for the human rights of lesbian, bisexual, and queer women in Nigeria. Its very positive representation of what Nigerian legislation and censorial forces consider deviant sexualities has fueled a huge controversy in the Nigerian socio-cultural sphere. This controversy has been understudied. Using Anthonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony and the feminist film theory as interpretative tools, this paper examines how Ikpe-Etim's film is both a counter-hegemonic and queer feminist initiative. The paper argues that although Ife contributes to proselytism for LGBTQ+ rights and feminism in Nigeria, it has serious weaknesses and limitations. Despite the producer's and director's sexual identities and work as activists, straight Nollywood filmmakers have remained reluctant to join the LGBTQ+ rights movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a case study of NISA, an autonomous Muslim women's organization in the South Indian state of Kerala. This paper elaborates on the limitations of the Islamic framework embraced by women's associations affiliated with sectarian Muslim groups in Kerala by comparing NISA's works and strategies and explaining their unwelcome position within the community. The paper also considers Muslim women's organizations in Kerala from a global perspective compared to international platforms like Musawah while exploring their limitations in forming a transnational alliance with such organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music is a part of life in Ghana. Studying a people's music brings one closer to understanding them since music and reality are intertwined. Despite this reality, the contribution of popular music to national discourse has not received adequate research attention in Ghana. This paper sets out to study the lyrics of one of the songs of Ebony Reigns (Priscilla Opoku-Kwarteng), a Ghanaian musician who died few years ago. Using the womanist theory, the paper investigates how the tenets of this theory are inscribed in the song, the problems that womanism addresses in the song and their implications to the Ghanaian youth. The researchers conclude from the analysis in the paper that the youth have to use social media with caution; they need to listen to advice from the elderly in choosing life partners and the African woman needs to fight for self-expression and liberation through positive cultural means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past decade, the pace of China's digital and technological development has been rapidly increasing. While this growth creates economic opportunities, it has negative impacts for Chinese women who are marginalized at the intersections of gender, class, and geographic location. This paper adopts an intersectional feminist lens to examine how Chinese women experience digital exclusion and gender oppression in the digital era. To do so, it discusses (1) existing technologies that reflect and perpetuate gender stereotypes through gendered technology design, (2) digital spaces and media censorship that disenfranchise women, and (3) AI surveillance and unfair labor practices that oppress women. This paper calls for social work practices in digital feminism at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels, specifically in promoting gender equality in training and design, leading feminist initiatives, and promoting digital accessibility and data protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a theoretical overview of dualisms which lie at the foundation of Western thought in an attempt to highlight the fundamental contribution that feminist new materialisms bring to sociological theory and practice and beyond. To delineate the oppressive patterns of thought generated by anthropocentric dualistic thinking, I will draw on the influential works of ecofeminist Val Plumwood, science studies scholar and feminist Donna Haraway, and feminist theorist Karen Barad within the material turn. The exploration begins with an analysis of the Cartesian subject-object dichotomy rejected by post-humanists and new materialists, a dichotomy which spawns many others, and continues with a mapping of the crisis of reason that Western thought is confronting. The crisis of reason is held in place by human attachment to binary conceptual pairs which serve to naturalize systems of domination. The materializing effects of this crisis include the marginalization, oppression, and exploitation of bodies human and nonhuman, justified through the uneven valorization of mind/spirit/masculine/culture over matter/body/feminine/nature, shaping the hazard-ridden epoch that we now call the Anthropocene. In this context, I then provide a brief outline of the material turn's proposal for situated, embodied knowledges, which entails a consistent nondualist philosophy, and its urgent relevance in the contemporary global context. Notions of responsibility (defined as the capacity for response), the nature of the epistemic subject and the generation of knowledges, embodiment, boundaries, and positioning, as well as the very mechanisms we use to conceptualize the world, are being reconfigured within the material turn. Across disciplines, scholars are proposing new frameworks that encourage non-typological, engaged, accountable positioning within the world on the part of the human subject. Finally, a parallel is drawn with the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, whose insights complement the epistemological work of feminist new materialisms and their call for situated, embodied knowledges, thus providing a fertile ground for exploration in the areas of exclusion between the disciplines of sociology and philosophy. The aim of this paper is to offer new avenues for critical interdisciplinary thinking meant to re-assess and reconfigure the underlying assumptions of Western systems of thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Asia Pacifi c War (1937-1945), the Japanese Imperial Army forced women in Japanese East Asian colonies to work as so-called “comfort women” (sex workers). The justice movement for these women is an international intersectional alliance of feminists from Japanese ex-colonies in East Asia, the former colonial power Japan, and other societies, such as Australia, Germany, and the USA. This long-term feminist justice movement has campaigned for an apology and compensation from the Japanese government, as well as for recognition of “comfort women‘s” suff ering and of sexual violence in war in cultural memory. Through researching this justice movement from a processual intersectionality perspective, this paper shows that it gained power and legitimacy from refl ecting and working on its internal intersectional inequalities. This included refl ecting on the class hierarchies between many former “comfort women”, who had power of defi nition, and intellectual feminist activists, as well as on the postcolonial divide between former Japanese colonies and the former colonial power Japan, leading it to develop horizontal cooperation and practices. Following an overview, the paper outlines the movements in South Korea, Japan, and Germany, and highlights the different postcolonial constellation between East Asia and Germany, the main actors, and their aims. While the Japanese government rejected the justice movement‘s demands and the right wing mobilised against it, has been able to infl uence cultural memory to widely recognize sexual violence in war and the dignity of the “comfort women”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A Muslim society that interprets feminism as anti-Islamic may not accept overtly feminist maneuvers to challenge patriarchy. However, there are subtle ways of steering out of the Islam vs. feminism dichotomy. What triggers anti-feminists are phrases like women's rights, female emancipation, and women's freedom since all these are interpreted as the agenda of the West and hence are considered anti-Islamic. In this paper, I argue that since feminists are fighting against all forms of oppression and have joined forces with other forms of activism such as child protection, human rights, animal rights, rights of the underclass and minority groups, and rehabilitation of runaways, exposing oppression and fighting against it should not be perceived as the agenda of the West. Television drama can be used as an effective medium to educate people along these lines. In this paper I use an Urdu drama serial Dil Na Ummeed To Nahi (The Heart Is Not Hopeless) written by Amna Mufti as a case to show (a) how various forms of oppression are connected and (b) how patriarchy that lies at the root of oppression can still be challenged without overt feminist activism in a Muslim society such as Pakistan where feminism is considered anti-Islam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feminist discourses on the "New Indian Woman" focus on the woman's body as a surface upon which modernity is inscribed. Sexual transgression has been the only lens through which the New Woman has been usually studied and analyzed until now, thus offering a superficial definition of modernity by women being defined only by the corporeal. This is problematic not only because it offers a reductionist view of modernity but also "constructs a boundary around the notion of modern womanhood that excludes woman whose bodily autonomy has been compromised, for example through sexual assault" (Daya, "Embodying Modernity" 97). This paper will study two novels, Kishwar Desai's Witness the Night (2010) and Kalpana Swaminathan's I Never Knew It Was You (2012), closely analyzing the women sleuths as portrayed in these texts: Simran Singh in the former, Lalli and Sita in the latter. The paper will move beyond the existing discourses on the New Indian woman and demonstrate how the New Woman in these narratives of detection is transgressive in contesting dominant ideals of femininity. The aim will be to understand how these women detectives contest and challenge patriarchal hegemonies through their behavior and how their acts of detection also are essential acts of rebellion against a largely misogynistic system. Swaminathan's Lalli and Sita and Desai's Simran can be seen as a reflection of the uninhibited, independent, professional, twenty-first century Indian woman. The paper seeks to reconstruct the figure of the New Indian woman through the representations of these women fighting crimes against women in modern-day India, enacting their autonomy and rebellion in the process by deftly taking on the role of a detective, traditionally a profession for men. The aim will also be to discuss how these works provide a space for creating new roles for women, while also illustrating a wide spectrum of women's experiences. Lastly, the paper will explore these works in the context of India's economic growth and how they affect and are affected by India's publishing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the fictional representation of the ways in which Afghan girls attain autonomy in their post-puberty stage through the tradition of bacha posh2 despite the traditional constraints to switch back to their gender at birth. This analysis of bacha posh characters in Ukmina Manoori's3 I Am a Bacha Posh and Zarghuna Kargar's Bakhtawara's Story attempts to demonstrate how the bacha posh tradition develops the potential for transgression in Afghan girls, fostering a resistance to traditional gender roles. In doing so, this paper challenges and rebuts Western feminist views regarding Afghan women, who are stereotyped as incapable, voiceless, and oppressed entities. By drawing upon Andrea Veltman and Mark Piper's notion of "autonomy," Marina Oshana's concept of commitment to feminism and autonomy, as well as the three intersecting elements of Catriona Mackenzie's concept of relational autonomy, i.e. "self-determination," "self-governance," and "self-authorization" (Mackenzie 15), this paper explores the autonomous nature of the bacha posh particularly after puberty in the Afghan context. This study highlights how the bacha posh tradition has proved to be an asset for these otherwise suppressed women by equipping them with confidence, determination, and authority. In doing so, this paper also aims at rebutting the criticism on bacha posh which has focused predominantly on its negative implications. This discussion also concentrates on how these Afghan girls utilize the tradition of bacha posh to improve the conditions of women in Afghanistan. The present research attempts at providing an intervention within the discourses surrounding post-puberty bacha posh identity. It not only explores a rather sensitive and provocative topic but also induces a shift within the perceptions regarding the bacha posh tradition and its ramifications. In doing so, this research serves as a key entry point for readers and counters misperceptions regarding this globally misunderstood Afghan tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is one of the first academic papers in the Dutch-speaking world about the need for a decolonization of bioethics. Drawing on examples from the Belgian context I illustrate the continuity between the historical role of the medical world in the colonial project and contemporary discrimination and structural racism in the healthcare system. The main argument in the paper is that bioethics as a discipline fails to provide an answer to institutional racism in the health care system, because the way bioethics thinks about race relies on a myth of neutrality and color blindness. I argue that the race problem of bioethics is explained by (1) the forward-looking nature of bioethics and the tendency to locate medical racism in the past, (2) the link of bioethics with western philosophical traditions overly emphasizing individual autonomy and contractual relations, while simultaneously concealing social and political power relations and (3) the whiteness of bioethics and medical ethics committees. I use concepts from feminist bioethics and from decolonial feminist theory to indicate how the decolonization of bioethics might look like, both in terms of bioethical theory formation and for bioethics as a practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Witnessing the speed of growth and reach in demand for service design (SD) confronts us to ask what neoliberal forces are behind this acceleration? Can services, systems and structures really improve at this velocity; what are we eroding and ignoring in turn? Pausing to ask about the direction and effect of change is critical to recognising SD’s implication in the status quo. This paper calls for a reflexive methodology of noticing precedents that are quotidian and dystopian to show how dominant logics of SD commodify social practices of relating and organizing. By slowing down to attend, listen and reflect, our approaches reveal existing rituals, values, nuances and commitments that teach us what an apolitical SD fails to see. Rather than adding aspirational methods, this paper calls for greater attention to the political in SD practice, sharing paths of resistance and reorientation toward ethical, transformative, self-determined service design work and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to illuminate for teachers how the suffrage movement is centered in whiteness. The authors posit that this historical erasure is intentional, and teachers should actively find ways to counter that erasure. This paper positions teachers to ask critical questions of dominant narratives, and have students do the same. Design/methodology/approach: Given the existence of historical erasure and the absence of Black suffrage stories, the authors sought to build teachers' content base by conducting a historiography of the dominant narrative of the women's suffrage movement. They examined how state standards and popular online archival collections perpetuate the dominant narrative. They provide teachers with a rich content base and include primary sources they could use to teach this content to their students. Findings: Unsurprising, the Texas and Missouri state standards do little to advance the voices of underrepresented people, especially when it comes to the suffrage movement. Likewise, archival collections are limited by the choice of those who curated the collections. The article presents teachers with lesser known stories of the movement and accompanying primary sources. Practical implications: Teachers cannot teach what they do not know. So the authors sought to build a teacher's content base so they could tell a more inclusive history. They want to help teachers identify dominant narratives and where historical erasure is happening, and commit to asking critical questions of those narratives and seek to diversity their histories. Originality/value: This piece is original because much of this content is missing from current history classrooms. In addition, the primary sources and additional resources provided can strengthen a teacher's ability to teach about it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Budhan Theatre is a renowned theatre group in India consisting of members of the Chhara tribe, who are one of the many Denotified tribes (DNTs) in India. They were previously known as 'Ex-Criminal tribes' and still carry the colonial stigma of 'Born Criminals.' Budhan Theatre focuses on social issues about DNTs in India like the stigmatization of Chharas and other DNTs as 'Born Criminals', social segregation and marginalization, Police atrocities, continuous negligence by the state even after their Denotification, etc. Budhan theatre uses theatre as a means of creating awareness towards Chharas and other DNTs and initiating social change. In addition to addressing issues related to Chharas and other DNTs in India, they are also raising voices on behalf of women in the community. This paper intends to discuss how women play a crucial role in Budhan Theatre, both in terms of their participation in the group and the themes that the group addresses. The group actively encourages women's participation in theatre, both on stage and behind the scenes. Many women have been a part of the group's productions, and some have even gone on to become leaders in the group. This theatre has addressed various women's issues in its productions, including violence against women, gender discrimination, and patriarchal societal norms. Through their performances, the group aims to challenge these norms and bring attention to the struggles faced by women in society. The purpose of this article is to examine how Budhan Theatre has been instrumental in promoting women's rights and empowering them through theatre and how the group's work serves as a reminder of the importance of women's voices in creating a more equitable and just society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on Sara Ahmed's conceptualization of the "feminist killjoy," this paper explores how young women transitioning from secondary school to higher education grapple with neoliberal notions of desirable vs. undesirable feminisms. This research aims to build on affective research on women's lives by contextualizing their experiences as a more inclusive practice of becoming. To capture these nuanced and complex subjectivities of young women, I used a postqualitative methodology, which disturbed the subject/object binary by exploring the affective engagements made between human and non-human matter. The data used was from a study of four Year 13 women (aged 18) who participated in a four-week, arts-based workshop. A variety of visual art methods were used, such as painting, collage, and graffiti, which also formed part of a collaborative data analysis. The results showed that the girls felt pressure from family, school, and society to do well, and achieving academic success was the most important factor. However, despite pressures to conform, they all embodied elements of the feminist killjoy which disrupted their relationships with neoliberal notions of happiness. Furthermore, these disruptions led to social blockages, which created an affirmative change in the women's experiences at university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When analysing how cities and public facilities – especially public bathrooms – are designed, gendered perspectives are often neglected. This paper investigates the effects of the inaccessibility of public bathrooms on women’s lives in London. Informed by a feminist lens, the research shows that many public bathrooms are inaccessible and unsafe, making it women’s priority to avoid bathrooms throughout the day. This has effects on women’s health and their understanding of bodily sensations. This inaccessibility leads women to plan ahead, limiting their ability to be spontaneous within public spaces, and using ‘just in case’ visits to bathroom facilities before leaving a place to minimize the risk of having to look for one later in the day. (In-)accessibility of public bathrooms is a long-lasting issue which has been translated into the creation of a cross-generational, non-formal bathroom education between women of different generations. Overall, tensions and difficulties arising from women’s (in-)accessibility to decent bathroom facilities means that their basic human rights are often denied, and their everyday life significantly affected. As a response to such intersectional inequalities, women develop adaptative strategies, fostering their resilience as they reclaim their urban and public life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]