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Book Review Essay: The Rise and Decline of Patriarchal Systems: An Intersectional Political Economy
Get PDFNow, You Can Breathe: A Qualitative Study of the Experiences and Resilience of Egyptian Women Victimized by Narcissistic Relationships
Get PDFNarcissistic relationships manifest as nonreciprocal affiliations that allow no room for genuine partnership or cooperation. The trait of narcissism is more prevalent in men than in women. However, Egypt’s powerful patriarchal culture has prevented adequate scholarly examination of narcissistic relationships. The current study intends to bridge this gap in knowledge by examining two objectives: a) to investigate the nature of experiences of Egyptian women in narcissistic relationships and b) to elucidate how Egyptian women remain resilient in the aftermath of narcissistic relationships. Data were collected via qualitative, semi-structured interviews conducted with 27 literate women aged 24–54 years who had experienced narcissistic relationships for at least a year. Four main themes emerged: a) the abusive experiences suffered by the women, b) perception of the narcissist as abusive partner, c) the negative impact of the narcissistic relationship on the women socially and psychologically, and d) women’s sources of resilience after leaving this relationship. For the abusive experiences, women suffered from different types of aggressive behaviors (e.g. physical, psychological, and verbal) and they tended to doubt their rationality which is called “the gaslighting effect.” The findings indicated that narcissists were perceived by respondents as dominators, vampires, nonempathetic, aggressive, manipulative, and deceiving actors. Accordingly, their relationships with narcissists were detrimental to the psychological and social wellbeing of the women. The results suggest that women need long-term social and emotional support to fully recover from the after-effects of their narcissistic relationships. Social networks and spirituality were the most frequent sources of resilience. The present paper contributes new understandings of narcissistic relationships as a common type of toxic relationship in Egypt
What Are the Attitudes towards Changing Gender Roles within the Saudi Family?
Get PDFSaudi Vision 2030 was launched with a focus on three main themes: “a vibrant society,” “a thriving economy,” and “an ambitious nation” (2017). In order to realize these primary themes, more participation of women is required in the workforce. A number of legislative reforms have supported the entry of more women into the workforce, such as lifting the male guardian permission for work and travel, supporting programs for childcare, allowing women to drive cars, and ensuring women’s involvement in leadership positions. Saudi women are now working in defense, mining, construction, manufacturing, and retail among other sectors. As a result, women\u27s participation in the workforce increased from 19.4% in 2017 to 35.6% in the second quarter of 2022. Because these social and economic transformations have the potential to influence the dynamics within the Saudi family, this study investigates the attitudes of Saudi men and women toward gender roles within the Saudi family. Based on the short version of the Attitudes toward Women Scale, an online questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 431 Saudis in the fall of 2022. Statistical analyses were conducted to measure women’s attitudes compared to men’s overall scores. Results of the independent sample t-test indicated that women held more pro-feminist attitudes compared to men
The Case for Working with Feminist New Materialisms against the Dualisms that Divide Us
Get PDFThis 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 non-dualist 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
Changing Ideologies of Marriage in Contemporary Indian Women’s Novels
Get PDFMarriage in Hinduism is sacramental in nature and considered a divine religious bond. As per Shastras, man alone is incomplete until or unless he marries. The wife is called Ardhangini (half of man) or dharmapatni, who shares religious duties with her husband. This paper views matrimony from a feminist lens and explores the changing ideology of marriage by drawing upon feminist theory. The study uses two novels by contemporary Indian women writers, Shashi Deshpande\u27s A Matter of Time (1996) and Shobhaa De\u27s Second Thoughts (1996), to explore the world of married women. These novels by Indian women express women’s viewpoints about their experiences of precarity and suffering, the subjugated world of limited choices, and conflict in married life. They extend their deep psychological insight and understanding of the husband-wife relationship. Disrupting the sacred relation of husband and wife, the husband often occupies a position similar to that of a master, while the wife is akin to a servant. Deshpande portrays three generations of common middle-class Indian women, who endure a subservient role in their marital life and struggle to adjust rather than break free from the traditional world. Shobhaa De, the spokesperson of the urban women in her novel, focuses on infidelity in the institution of marriage, a tale of love and betrayal that surfaces the hollowness and hypocrisy lurking behind Indian traditional marriages. The texts reveal that women are subservient partners in traditional Indian marriages, alienating disadvantaged women from their husbands or leading them to revolt against the social system and even reject the institution of marriage entirely
Do Women’s Education and Economic Empowerment Reduce Gender-based Violence in Nigeria?
Get PDFWomen’s education and economic empowerment are key measures to promoting gender equality and reducing gender-based violence (GBV) against women, which is one of the indicators of gender equality. Whereas women’s education has been shown to positively impact child’s health, women’s fertility, and women’s participation in civic life and paid jobs, evidence on the relationship between women’s education, economic empowerment, and women’s exposure to GBV is not sufficiently established. Mapping this relationship is important for informing effective gender policies and practices. Hence, this study used the Nigeria demographic and health survey data of 2008, 2013, and 2018 to investigate the direction of the relationship between women’s education, economic empowerment, and exposure to intimate partner or domestic GBV. Feminist and empowerment theories, which this study is anchored in, presuppose that education and economic empowerment could lead to freedom from violence. Findings have demonstrated that women’s education and economic empowerment are not sufficient for protecting women against GBV, especially domestic violence. Women’s education and economic empowerment do not directly reduce women’s GBV victimization. Nigerian women who are unemployed, have little to no education, and lower income experienced the least domestic GBV victimization while women who are more educated than their husbands experienced higher incidence of domestic violence in the years studied within Nigeria. The findings were influenced by patriarchy, culture, religion, media, and the “hidden curriculum” in schools. The study recommends gender education intervention programs that challenge social norms and empower men and women to have equalized power relations from a young age
Film Review: Indigenous Epistemology, Media, and the Representation of Women in Kantara
Get PDFCinematic works around indigenous lives in India have long been marginalized within the scope of “film as an entertaining art form.” Striking a balance between a faithful rendition of an indigenous community and the infusion of entertainment seemed impossible within the Indian film industry until Kantara struck the silver screen. Since its release, the film has been subjected to constructive and positive criticism, but the representation of women in the film has either remained unattended to or viewed negatively. This research paper intends to approach the use of indigenous media and epistemology in the film as a symptomatic representation of fourth cinema and then to address the representation of women from the perspective of faithful representation and indigeneity
Draupadi’s Polyandry: A Study in Feminist Discourse Analysis
Get PDFDraupadi serves as a crucial link between warring characters in the Mahabharata (an ancient Indian Sanskrit epic), particularly through her polyandry. Born of fire, personifying purity, yet bound by a matrimonial covenant, she is caught in a complex marital relationship with five husbands that completely changes her life and also theirs. In consonance with the aims of gyno- criticism, literary depictions of women seek not only to reconstruct but also to critique patriarchal conventions. Drawing on the perspective of feminist critical discourse analysis (Lazar, 2005), with its tools of speech acts, presupposition, vocabulary, and modality, this paper seeks to examine the varied representations of Draupadi in three translated texts of the Mahabharata by Buitenen, Ray, and Divakaruni. The aim of the paper is trifold: to study the construction of Draupadi through the events of her marriage and post-marital occurrences, to examine her power/powerlessness vis-à- vis others, and to explore the othering of her character against the notions of dharma (right conduct or action) in marriage. The analysis reveals that Buitenen’s translation emphasizes destiny and dharma, but it does not provide a voice to Draupadi and constructs her as an embodiment of ideal womanhood. In contrast, Ray and Divakaruni represent Draupadi as expressing emotions, opinions, and judgments of her own self and of others. She appears powerless and oppressed before patriarchal conventions yet reclaims power through her vivid articulations and her questioning of phallocentric norms. Thus, the women writers humanize Draupadi, lending her agency and critiquing misogyny
Redrawing the Contours of Nationalist Discourse through the Voices of Courtesans-Turned-Warriors
Get PDFThe last quarter of the twentieth century has seen the emergence of a “cult of pluralism” (Chakrabarty) in the writing of Indian history, thus challenging the standardized narrative of the nation. The hegemonic accounts of India’s struggle for independence, which have failed to acknowledge the involvement of many significant warriors, make the inextricable links between power, history, and representation quite apparent. One such exclusion is that of the tawaifs2 of Awadh.3 This hypocrisy combined with the facade of respectability has eclipsed the contribution of tawaifs, demoting them to singing and dancing girls merely. By looking at the role of Begum Hazrat Mahal in the Revolt of 1857, this paper intends to add another dimension to both the understanding of tawaifs and the historiography of the revolt. It also seeks to question the inclination of historians to focus on the participation of men and ignore women, especially those women from marginalized demographics. The study foregrounds the role of tawaifs in the changing discourses of colonialism and nationalism, with the goal to problematize their invisibility in academic discourse. Kenizé Mourad’s biographical fiction, The City of Gold and Silver, is taken as a case study to focus on the production of counter- narratives. A thorough examination of the various aspects of Begum’s personality calls into question history’s selective representations. Furthermore, by focusing on the Begum’s political life, the paper seeks to correct the false image of Awadh’s tawaifs and kothas4 and to restore the lost voices of the unsung heroines