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This paper pays homage to the late Professor, Brij Lal, for the critical role he played in debunking colonial and patriarchal myths about Fiji's Indian indentured (girmitiya) women. From as early as 1985, Lal critiqued the way the British administrators wielded power over displaced female labourers by misrepresenting them in internal and external exchanges. My specific focus here is on the way he deconstructed colonial and patriarchal tropes associated with indentured women such as their alleged immorality and promiscuousness, 'sexual jealousy', 'maternal negligence' and madness, by situating these constructs within a specific historical context. With these interventions as the foundation for this paper, I will illustrate how my own interdisciplinary investigations in the interconnecting fields of gender, indenture, subaltern studies and minor history have attempted to address Lal's concern that girmitiya women's perspectives were absent in the historical records. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Italian economic boom, women became consumers par excellence. However, the relationship between gender and consumption changed significantly during the 1970s: while in the sixties the consumer virtually coincided with the housewife, during the seventies, new dynamics took place. This article examines the different constructions of narratives surrounding women during that decade, and the relationship between women and the advertising world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the last three decades, Afghanistan has suffered under foreign occupation forces and internal fundamentalist groups. Approximately six million Afghans migrated to the neighboring countries – Pakistan and Iran – after the conflict commenced in the late 1970s that disrupted the basic fabric of the Afghan society. Even today, after 30 years of ceaseless war among internal groups and external forces, the Afghan society is in total chaos with high levels of unemployment, homelessness, and anarchy. The military occupation of Afghanistan in the recent decade following 2001 and the previous Taliban control for nearly five years has left Afghan social structure in complete disarray. The social and political problems emanating from Afghan society affect not only the region but also other parts of the world. Beyond doubt, Afghan people have suffered tremendously, but the most affected segment of the society is the women. Their plight goes largely unnoticed in global media, which focuses on the coverage of conflict and diplomacy most often conducted by powerful men. National and international media intermittently focus on Afghan women living in large cities under the control of Afghan official security agencies backed by an international coalition force; however, local or international journalists rarely approach women living in the rural areas, which constitute the bulk of Afghan territory. The paltry coverage, if ever, offered to the Afghan women is strategically used to advance foreign policy agendas by demeaning and dehumanizing the ‘enemy’ by employing stereotypes that lack an understanding of the Afghan culture and one divorced from reality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present article examines the way Zakia Tahiri's film Number One(2009) foregrounds a renewed understanding of gender and gender relations in contemporary Morocco, especially in the wake of the New Family Code Reform (Moudawana), which has revolutionized women's status by increasing their power in the private as well as the public spheres. It centers not on the oft-studied subject of women and the regulation of femininity in Arab countries, but on the complex relationship between masculinity and performance, highlighting the sociocultural norms that have shaped and affected the performance of masculinity in Arabo-Muslim contexts. In particular, this study examines how Tahiri uses subversive comedy to challenge traditional views and constructions of male and female roles, to expose and dismantle the normative constructions of masculinity, and to promote the emergence of a new social frame that begs for different gender performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El artículo presenta los resultados de una investigación sobre la participación de mujeres en la práctica de graffiti en México, con énfasis en los estudios de caso de cuatro mujeres dedicadas al graffiti legal. Se ofrece un resumen del desarrollo y aspectos sociales del graffiti desde finales de la década de 1960 hasta 2013. Los temas discutidos incluyen roles de género, la idea de lo femenino y el contexto familiar de las cuatro escritoras de graffiti.

The process of being a woman starts with biological gender but it is shaped by learning the social gender roles. Besides social gender role; age, education, marriage, and motherhood supply social roles and attributions and they have an impact on women identification and their interpersonal relationships. The aim of the study is to investigate interpersonal relationships of women in terms of gender role, age, education, marriage, and motherhood. The sample contains 467 women, from different socio-economic environments in Istanbul, and at different education levels. The age range of the group is 20-40. BEM Sex-Role Inventory, Scale of Dimensions of Interpersonal Relationships and Demographical Information Sheet were used as measurements. The results indicated that gender role had an impact on approved dependency, trust in others, and emotional awareness. Moreover, while age did not have any effect on interpersonal relationships; educational level had an effect on trust in others. Finally, marital status and motherhood had an effect on approved dependency and trust in others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this paper, we explore how individual women cope with the tensions between economic forces encouraging temporary labour migration and cultural norms tying 'proper' women to their homes and families. Combining in-depth interviews with returned migrant women in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi with secondary migration data for the region, we illustrate the recent increases in Georgian women's participation in international labour migration. Deteriorating economic conditions in Georgia leave women with few local opportunities to financially support their families, while institutional changes have altered the accessibility and attractiveness of international destinations, leading to increasing motivations and opportunities for women's migration. Focusing on the contradictions between growing female migration and persistent adherence to cultural norms stigmatizing migration in Georgia, we explore the cognitive strategies migrant women employ in an attempt to balance internalized perceptions of acceptable gendered behaviour with their migration choices. Two key pathways of adaptation emerge: framing migration as a necessity rather than a choice and stressing the unique and individually exceptional nature of their own migration experience. We posit that these strategies may serve to limit the norm-challenging nature of women's migration in Georgia. Although migration is often described as an empowering experience for women, if women migrants work to present their migration in a way that fits within the bounds of traditional gender norms, these norms may be strengthened rather than challenged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature understood as a form of representation of reality, shows a series of transformations on the concept of family and, therefore, of family relationships. In this sense, the Mexican narrative written by young women shows a change in the way in which family members interact with each other and on the intergeneric relationships they establish. Gender roles that arise are different, so as the way in which family members take their role in it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cadernos PAGU is the property of Universidade Estadual de Campinas - Portal de Periodicos Eletronicos Cientificos 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 Cuban Studies is the property of University of Pittsburgh Press 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.)

This article examines how a gendered discourse of taste was formulated in colonial Bengal by the Bengali Hindu middle classes, which in its turn facilitated the self-fashioning of Bengali bhadralok. This discourse of taste was articulated specifically through the culture of food. The middle-class Bengali Hindus constituted a new rhetoric of cuisine that enabled them to distance themselves from their 'others', especially the lower classes. Often this distancing was done through aestheticizing women's cooking that assimilated gender with class. Undoubtedly, women were the signpost of 'tradition' in the middle-class discourse. However, the same discourse also assigned them the responsibility for producing a 'modern' Bengali cuisine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Politica y Sociedad is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid 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.)

Introduces a series of studies on the definition of gender, relationships and power in social scientists' attempts to respond to the HIV/AIDS crisis. Role of women's relationships and gender role socialization on HIV transmission; Reason why HIV prevention and AIDS treatment in gay men may not apply to women; Research methods and populations.

Examines sociogender relations in the political life of contemporary Russia. Distinction of gender and sociogender relations; Results of the fundamental transformations in Russia in the status of women in politics; Women leaders; Models of female electoral behavior; Study of female elite in Russian sociology.

Graffiti are frequently considered mere vandalism or aimless ramblings on a wall, yet closer examination of washroom graffiti shows otherwise. Studies of graffiti in women's lavatory stalls at the University of Illinois indicate that graffiti are an alternative means of expression for women and that the writers are actually participating in a form of communication similar to that found in consciousness-raising (CR) groups. Though the perpetrators of the graffiti never meet one another, many elements of CR groups (i.e. politeness, chaining, humor, filling in, typing together and serializing) are present nonetheless. This article examines how women can and do: voice opinions; solicit advice; support, console and encourage each other; and, upon occasion, call male dominance into question in a society that otherwise silences them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The essay analyzes the lyrics of the Indonesian pop ballad "Cinta Terlarang (Forbidden Love)," by female duo The Virgin. The author states that the song presents a unique perspective within traditional Indonesian discourse on the role of women, love, and sexual identification. He also discusses productive friction, sexuality in Indonesian mass media, and same-sex love in Indonesia.