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Bridgewater Magazine, Volume 33, Number 1, Spring 2023
Get PDFA Greater Good: BSU Alumni, like Tamara Dzialo, ’02, founder of Project PACK Post-Assault Comfort Kits, make helping others the focus of their careers. Also in this issue: Biology students discover rare species, leading the way in cybersecurity, and increasing diversity and equity in undergraduate research.https://vc.bridgew.edu/br_mag/1084/thumbnail.jp
Dignity, Life-Affirming Advocacy and Compassionate Solidarity
Get PDFIn “Special Issue: Overcoming Violence against Women and Children” in the Journal of Theology for Southern Africa (No. 114, Nov. 2002), the guest editors Tinyiko Sam Maluleke and Sarojini Nadar wrote:
Given the great cloud and intricate network of witnesses and conspirators who subscribe to the covenant of death, standing up against this covenant of death and violence is costly. It often results in the isolation and rejection of those who dare to speak. Therefore, the voices of those who dare to stand up against the covenant are often like voices in the wilderness (7).
In this essay, I will focus on the lessons I learned from a few strategies and tactics to covenant with dignity and life to uphold Ubuntu. I will draw inspiration from my mothers in faith who one hundred years ago in Kenya shielded the dignity of Gĩkũyũ girls and women against female genital mutilation and other dignity and life-denying cultural practices and beliefs, which are contrary to Ubuntu and the sustaining of life. I will conclude with a summary of collective actions I have taken with the women and men who have been my professional companions in my work as an ordained minister of word and sacrament with the Presbyterian Church of East Africa
Islamic Feminism at the Crossroads between Apologetics and Defending Women: Rajaa Alsanea’s Girls of Riyadh in Context
Get PDFThe concept of Islamic feminism provides a dialectic relationship that suggests that the two very different and seemingly irreconcilable trajectories of Islam and feminism are joining forces to achieve gender equality and social justice. It also evokes the question of which weighs more than the other, and prompts queries and worries about Islam, egalitarianism, and the oppression of Muslim women. This paper examines the Islamic feminism’s order of precedence in the predicament of defending women versus defending Islam. By employing feminist methodologies and the method of textual analysis, this article probes whether the Islamic feminist project is solely about women’s rights advocacy, and considers whether defending Islam is a pre-ordained inevitability. These issues are examined with reference to Rajaa Alsanea’s Islamic feminist novel Girls of Riyadh. The novel depicts the lives of four young Saudi women and themes of love, relationships, marriage and divorce. It challenges traditional assumptions about Saudi Arabian society. The author of the novel has been caught in a crossfire of criticism for the novel’s audacious and non-conservative depiction of Saudi life and culture. Girls of Riyadh aims to lay bare a deliberately hidden side of life in Saudi Arabia
“Who Hears the Cry of the Wailing Women?”: Discourses on Livelihood Activities and the Challenges of Internally Displaced Women in Nigeria
Get PDFIn this paper, we examine the livelihoods and daily challenges of internally displaced women (IDW) in the New Kuchingoro Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Abuja, Nigeria. We discuss strategies that have the potential to help create successful livelihoods, and we listen to the views of displaced women on how effective they think these strategies might be. We also examine the social and economic factors forcing IDW to develop resilience and highlight the dire social burdens which these women carry with them. Previous studies concerning livelihood activities of IDW in IDPs camps have emphasized distress, hardship, neediness, deprivation, and general inability to cope with prevailing conditions. Although we stress the resilience of these women, our research reveals failure by the government and other agencies to adequately support strategies employed by IDW to support themselves and their families
The Rape-Revenge Film Lives On: Promising Young Woman
Get PDFWritten and directed by Emerald Fennell, the film Promising Young Woman shows how an egregious assault is not so dissimilar from the ubiquitous less explicit assaults comprising what we often label “seduction.
Custodianship and Care: Women and Reading in Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day
Get PDFSeveral scholars have noted how the Indian state has been able to care for women only by placing them in custody of the family or the community, often overseen by male relatives. How do novels by Indian women writers intervene in this difficult social and legal problem? This paper answers this question by integrating feminist scholarship on the place of Indian women in postcolonial India with another scholarly tradition: the ethics of care. Conventionally, these two bodies of writing have not been in direct dialogue. This paper facilitates a conversation by close-reading Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day, a novel that powerfully describes the struggles of educated women in independent India through a perceptive depiction of the complexities of care. It argues that a postcolonial theory of reading based on care must account for the powerful influence of custodianship in postcolonial India
Women in the Cuban Revolution: Where\u27s the Change?
Get PDFThe Cuban Revolution of 1959 was a notable turning point in the country\u27s history, with significant ramifications for politics, culture, and society. One crucial aspect of the Revolution was its impact on the role of women in society. The Revolution sought to end capitalism and establish a socialist government as communism emerged, but alongside this was a push to challenge the entrenched gender norms of Cuba\u27s patriarchal society. Before the Revolution, Cuban women faced significant inequality and discrimination. They were often relegated to traditional roles such as homemaking and childcare and excluded from participation in formal politics and activism. However, the revolutionary movement sought to change this. Fidel Castro and other revolutionary leaders recognized the importance of women\u27s participation in the struggle and actively invited women to participate in political activities. Other women, however, became inclined to join based on their desire for equality
Assessing Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability in the Small Businesses of Bridgewater, MA
Get PDFThis thesis examines the extent to which small, local businesses in Bridgewater, MA generate social value for their community by engaging in socially responsible and sustainable corporate practices. After conducting an examination of local businesses to determine those that utilize such strategies, members of the selected organizations were contacted via email and asked to participate in a survey intended to generate qualitative data relating to corporate sustainability. Factors such as community impacts, internal benefits, motivations, and communication strategies pertaining to sustainability were all evaluated. Results indicate that Bridgewater businesses practicing sustainability not only generate internal value for the organization by reducing costs and boosting profitability, but also create external value by educating and building relationships with their community. Through primarily digital communication channels, such as business websites and social media, organizations in Bridgewater publicize these efforts, improving consumer perception and strengthening their role in the community
How Can Consuming a Plant-Based Diet Reduce the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in Postmenopausal Women?
Get PDFDespite the fact that women suffer higher rates of cardiovascular events after menopause, there exists a significant underrepresentation of women—especially postmenopausal women—in cardiovascular clinical trials to date. Fortunately, current evidence reveals that cardiovascular events in the general population are largely preventable through modifiable lifestyle factors, with dietary intervention being one of the most important (Amiri et al., 2022). As the impact of whole-diet interventions on cardiovascular risk factors is further explored, it has been determined that a plant-based dietary pattern may favorably influence the prevention of cardiovascular events in postmenopausal women (Barańska et al., 2021). Evidence also reveals that certain phytochemicals which are provided in bulk by a plant-based diet, such as phytoestrogens, may be particularly beneficial to the health of the postmenopausal population (Barańska et al., 2021). This comprehensive literature review will attempt to evaluate exactly how a plant-based diet can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in postmenopausal women by examining relevant clinical trials, identifying and explaining the beneficial effects of various cardioprotective phytochemicals, and by considering how popular plant-based diets like the Mediterranean Diet are conducive to heart health. As early as 2006, Chin-Hua Fu et al. established that a plant-based diet may be a natural and effective approach to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in postmenopausal women (Fu et al., 2006). This review concludes that more well-designed controlled clinical trials should be conducted with this population to achieve more conclusive results regarding the most effective diet for cardiovascular risk reduction in postmenopausal women
The Impact of Age and Race on Impressions of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Victims
Get PDFIn the present study, we examined perceptions of domestic minor sex trafficking victims based on the race and age of the victim using a mock juror paradigm. We hypothesized that participants exposed to Black victims and older victims would yield fewer pro-victim judgments, including fewer guilty verdicts and lower victim credibility. Likewise, we hypothesized there would be an interaction between victim race and age where the older Black victims would yield the fewest pro-victim judgments, and the younger White victims would yield the most. Additionally, we anticipated that participants with colder feelings toward younger teens on a feelings thermometer measure would hold more negative perceptions of the younger victims, and those with colder feelings toward older teens would hold more negative perceptions of the older victims. Participants (N = 146) read a mock sex trafficking trial summary that depicted a victim as a girl who was either a Black 17-year-old, a White 17-year-old, a Black 13-year-old, or a White 13-year-old and was trafficked by an adult man. The results indicated that while participants had similar pro-victim judgments regardless of victim age or race, participants were significantly more likely to view the White 17-year-old victim condition as more similar to a typical prostitution case than any other victim condition. We discuss findings with regard to their legal and social implications, such as law enforcement and layperson identification of sex trafficking cases