Womens Studies International Forum最新文献

The online discourse of Arab-Bedouin girls in Israel 以色列阿拉伯-贝都因女孩的网络话语

IF 1.9 3区社会学

Womens Studies International Forum Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-17 DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103275

Aref Abu- Gweder

引用次数: 0

Legalizing anti-gender ideology and civil society resistance in Turkey 土耳其反性别意识形态合法化与公民社会抵抗

IF 1.9 3区社会学

Womens Studies International Forum Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-17 DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103281

Asuman Özgür Keysan

{"title":"Legalizing anti-gender ideology and civil society resistance in Turkey","authors":"Asuman Özgür Keysan","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103281","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103281","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates how feminist, LGBTQI+, labour, and human rights organisations in Turkey frame and negotiate the legal institutionalisation of anti-gender ideology and how these processes generate strategic yet fragile cross-movement alliances. Drawing on Benford and Snow's framing theory and Yuval-Davis's transversal politics, the analysis is based on semi-structured interviews conducted with activists from ten organisations between April and June 2025 and organisational documents. The study conceptualises anti-gender politics in Turkey not as a societal backlash but as a state-driven, multi-layered project of “masculinist entrenchment (<span><span>Yetiş & Özdüzen, 2024</span></span>)” that restructures legal, ideological, and affective arenas. The findings demonstrate that activists increasingly reframe anti-gender assaults as systemic attacks on democracy, rights, and equality, producing a shift from issue-based coordination to what this article terms “strategic coexistence”, a hybrid alliance formed across previously distant ideological and organisational positions. Diagnostic framing identifies anti-gender reforms as an existential threat, prognostic framing centres on alliance-building, movement memory, and inclusive organisational practices and motivational framing foregrounds shared destiny, solidarity, and the symbolic significance of LGBTQI+ rights. The analysis reveals that while this recontextualisation widens the basis for coalition, the resulting alliance remains structurally unbalanced and fragile. Hierarchical power relations, uneven exposure to political risk, and selective silence, particularly regarding LGBTQI+ concerns, limit the depth and durability of alliances. In this context, LGBTQI+ rights serve both as a catalyst for broad-based mobilisation and as a litmus test for democratic commitment, disclosing the limitations of transversal solidarity under authoritarian regimes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":"116 ","pages":"Article 103281"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145981832","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Voltage drops (transitions) in economic empowerment to intrinsic empowerment of women in India 印度妇女从经济赋权到内在赋权的电压下降（过渡）

IF 1.9 3区社会学

Womens Studies International Forum Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-13 DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103305

Shubham Ranjan , Shalem Balla

{"title":"Voltage drops (transitions) in economic empowerment to intrinsic empowerment of women in India","authors":"Shubham Ranjan , Shalem Balla","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103305","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103305","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While economic empowerment is often seen as a pathway to increasing women's agency and autonomy, its effectiveness is context-dependent. In patriarchal societies like India, the relationship between economic empowerment and intrinsic empowerment is complex and non-linear. This study explores how economic empowerment translates into intrinsic empowerment among Indian women and how this relationship has evolved over time. Using data from two rounds of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4: 2015–16 and NFHS-5: 2019–21), we analysed responses from currently married women aged 15–49. Economic empowerment was measured through indicators including bank account ownership, financial control (own money to spend), and digital payment use. Intrinsic empowerment was assessed through women's mobility, autonomy, household decision-making participation, and attitudes toward wife-beating. Logistic regression models controlled for socio-demographic factors, with robustness checks using separate economic indicators. Economic empowerment among women increased from 2015 to 2021, yet mobility autonomy declined, indicating that financial inclusion does not automatically enhance personal agency. Digital financial use (11.25% in NFHS-5) was significantly associated with greater mobility (AOR 2.24) and decision-making power (AOR 2.18). Financial control showed the strongest and most consistent positive associations with intrinsic empowerment. Higher educational levels (for both women and spouses) and age were positively linked with empowerment, while women from Muslim communities, rural areas, and those with chronic conditions remained disadvantaged. Improving women's economic access is essential but insufficient alone. Lasting change requires gender-sensitive financial literacy, inclusive education, and community engagement to challenge restrictive social norms and ensure real empowerment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":"116 ","pages":"Article 103305"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146190060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

“A mother is a mother, and a father is a father.” (Anti-)gender at play in the 2024 Romanian elections “母亲是母亲，父亲是父亲。”（反）性别在2024年罗马尼亚选举中发挥作用

IF 1.9 3区社会学

Womens Studies International Forum Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-17 DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103282

Ionela Băluță , Claudiu D. Tufiș

{"title":"“A mother is a mother, and a father is a father.” (Anti-)gender at play in the 2024 Romanian elections","authors":"Ionela Băluță , Claudiu D. Tufiș","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103282","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103282","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We examine in this article how anti-gender discourses affected Romania's 2024 mega-electoral year, contributing to an ongoing democratic backsliding. Based on electoral programs and an in-depth case study of the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians, we explore the official platforms of parliamentary parties and the performative rhetoric of candidate-launch events. We operationalize anti-gender politics through five theoretically defined and empirically updated clusters of issues, ranging from opposition to gender equality and LGBTQI+ rights to opposition to sex education and gender ideology. We find evidence of discourse capture, with anti-gender frames being normalized and spreading across the political spectrum. Through a strategy of “democratic washing,” far-right actors published sanitized manifestos while circulating homophobic, transphobic, and chauvinistic messages via social media, thereby undermining democratic norms. At the same time, mainstream parties displayed contagion effects, marginalizing or omitting gender equality, women's rights, and LGBTQ issues. Romania's semi-peripheral and inter-imperial positionality, along with its post-socialist trajectory give power and meaning to the traditional / Christian / natural family, as well as to the colonizer and neoMarxism threat. Our findings show how the anti-gender discourse functions both as a domestic mobilization tool and as a node within semi-peripheral and transnational political projects. Our article highlights the Romanian case as an example of wider European trends.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":"116 ","pages":"Article 103282"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145981829","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Eroding freedoms: Perceived democratic backsliding and its impact on women's perceived empowerment in Türkiye 侵蚀自由：感知到的民主倒退及其对感知到的缅甸妇女赋权的影响

IF 1.9 3区社会学

Womens Studies International Forum Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-13 DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103306

Gokhan Savas

{"title":"Eroding freedoms: Perceived democratic backsliding and its impact on women's perceived empowerment in Türkiye","authors":"Gokhan Savas","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103306","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103306","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the relationship between perceived democratic backsliding and women's perceived political and civic empowerment in Türkiye. Drawing on a cross-sectional survey of 537 adult women conducted in Turkish in May 2025, the study measures empowerment through a multi-item index capturing perceived political voice, civic participation, freedom of expression, and institutional protection of women's rights. Perceived democratic backsliding is measured using an index assessing views on media freedom, electoral integrity, opposition constraints, civil society pressure, and executive power concentration. Descriptive results indicate widespread concern about the state of democracy alongside modest levels of perceived agency and civic voice among women. Linear regression analyses reveal a strong negative association between perceived democratic backsliding and women's empowerment. This relationship remains statistically significant after adjusting for sociodemographic and contextual factors, including age, education, employment status, region, income, marital status, number of children, religiosity, and political orientation. Religiosity is positively associated with perceived empowerment, while liberal/progressive and politically unaffiliated respondents report lower empowerment levels than conservatives. The findings suggest that women who perceived greater democratic erosion also report lower levels of perceived voice, institutional protection, and civic participation. While the cross-sectional design limits causal inference, the results underscore the gendered consequences of democratic decline and highlight the importance of policy approaches that embed gender equality within broader commitments to media freedom, judicial independence, and political pluralism.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":"116 ","pages":"Article 103306"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146190056","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Impacts of mobile phone usage on the income of women food vendors in rural areas of Tanzania 移动电话使用对坦桑尼亚农村地区妇女食品摊贩收入的影响

IF 1.9 3区社会学

Womens Studies International Forum Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-09 DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103303

F.A. Kitole , T.O. Ojo , A.O. Ige

{"title":"Impacts of mobile phone usage on the income of women food vendors in rural areas of Tanzania","authors":"F.A. Kitole , T.O. Ojo , A.O. Ige","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103303","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103303","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While mobile phones play a crucial role in enhancing income generation and facilitating access to market information for small-scale entrepreneurs globally, there remains a notable disparity in technology usage, particularly among women in rural areas. Therefore, using a cross-sectional research design, this study explores impacts of mobile phone usage on income of the women food vendors in Mvomero district, Tanzania. A multistage sampling technique was employed to collect data from 490 women entrepreneurs across four wards (Mzumbe, Doma, Dakawa, and Mlali). A double hurdle and two-stage least squares models (2SLS) were employed for the analysis. The results from the double hurdle model, estimating the determinants of mobile phone usage among women food vendors, reveal that business experience (0.0822, <em>p</em> = 0.001), level of education, access to the internet (0.1642, <em>p</em> = 0.003), airtime costs (−0.1956, <em>p</em> = 0.000), mobile phone price (−0.2855, <em>p</em> = 0.004), and women's skills diversity all significantly influence mobile phone usage. In terms of the effects of mobile phone usage on the income of women food vendors, the two-stage least squares (2SLS) model reveals that business experience (0.1096, <em>p</em> = 0.034), level of education, household size (0.1809, <em>p</em> = 0.010), access to the internet (0.1470, <em>p</em> = 0.003), and women's skills diversity significantly impact the income of women food vendors. The findings indicate that mobile phones serve as essential tools for income generation among women food vendors in rural areas. The study recommends targeted interventions to promote digital literacy, affordability measures for mobile phones, and initiatives to improve internet accessibility, aligning with the goal of empowering women entrepreneurs in the developing world.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":"116 ","pages":"Article 103303"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146190058","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Digital sisterhood: Live streaming feminism and network resilience in China 数字姐妹：中国的直播女权主义和网络弹性

IF 1.9 3区社会学

Womens Studies International Forum Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-13 DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103302

Shu Li , Yue Jiang

{"title":"Digital sisterhood: Live streaming feminism and network resilience in China","authors":"Shu Li , Yue Jiang","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103302","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103302","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines grassroots feminist livestreaming on Douyin (China's TikTok) through Chinese feminist Wang Huiling's practices and community resilience after her suspension. We conceptualise “rooted affective publics” as digital feminist engagement characterised by sustained relational ties and experientially grounded solidarity, extending Papacharissi's (2015) affective publics framework to authoritarian contexts. Drawing on digital ethnography (June 2024 to January 2025), we analyse 30 hours of livestreams and 150 clipped videos. Findings reveal how Wang cultivated feminist community through kinship language, peer-to-peer support, and consciousness-raising practices that reframed personal struggles as structural patriarchy. Her confrontational rhetoric functioned as feminist pedagogy but also attracted censorship, illustrating the paradox of feminist visibility in authoritarian platforms: the same affordances that amplify reach contribute to de-platforming. Fan-operated “clipped accounts” (切片号) preserved and recirculated Wang's content through tactical remixing and censorship evasion, sustaining operations via affiliate marketing. Following her platform deletion, these accounts became crucial for distributed content preservation, demonstrating monetisation as pragmatic survival. This evolution from individual influencer to distributed network reveals how feminist communities adapt to platform restrictions through decentralised preservation. The study contributes to understanding digital feminism under authoritarianism, demonstrating how sustained synchronous interaction can generate deeper feminist engagement despite censorship and the restrictive environment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":"116 ","pages":"Article 103302"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146190061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Reinterpreting religious authority: Women as Islamic jurists for addressing gender justice in Pakistan 重新诠释宗教权威：女性作为伊斯兰法学家在巴基斯坦解决性别正义问题

IF 1.9 3区社会学

Womens Studies International Forum Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-10 DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103300

Jamil Akhtar

{"title":"Reinterpreting religious authority: Women as Islamic jurists for addressing gender justice in Pakistan","authors":"Jamil Akhtar","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103300","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103300","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article provides a rigorous re-examination of women's religious authority in Islam through a focused inquiry into the permissibility and implications of appointing women as jurists (<em>muftiyyāt</em>) in Pakistan. Deploying contemporary feminist hermeneutics alongside classical and modern Islamic Jurisprudence (<em>uṣūl al-fiqh</em>), it argues that the historical marginalization of women from formal law-making is a contingent socio-political construction rather than a theologically mandated prohibition. By exposing the patriarchal epistemologies embedded within Pakistan's religious and juridical institutions, the article reconceptualizes <em>ijtihād</em> as a Qurʾānically grounded practice oriented toward justice, equity, and compassion. It contends that the systematic inclusion of women's interpretive voices constitutes not only a doctrinally defensible development in Islamic legal thought, but also an ethical imperative for realizing gender justice, human dignity, and accountable moral agency in contemporary Pakistan. Recognizing women as authoritative interpreters of Islamic Law thus emerges as both a normative requirement and a practical catalyst for jurisprudential renewal and reform.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":"116 ","pages":"Article 103300"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146190063","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Father-daughter relationships reflected in Druze women artists' works 德鲁兹女艺术家作品中体现的父女关系

IF 1.9 3区社会学

Womens Studies International Forum Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-27 DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103292

Ebtesam Barakat , Shahar Marnin-Distelfeld

{"title":"Father-daughter relationships reflected in Druze women artists' works","authors":"Ebtesam Barakat , Shahar Marnin-Distelfeld","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103292","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103292","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article examines the theme of father–daughter relationships in the artwork of three Druze women artists, drawn from a broader study of 15 Druze women artists aged 27 to 55, all first-generation graduates from distinct geographic regions. While the larger study explores various themes in the participants' art, this article focuses on the father–daughter dynamic, as best represented by the works of these three artists. Specifically, it investigates their depictions of relationships where the father is physically or emotionally diminished, contrasted with the daughter's significant academic or professional success.</div><div>The central argument posits that such relationships are characterized by role reversal, with the artwork revealing an unexpected inversion of traditional gender roles. Art is examined as a platform for the daughters' expressions regarding their father image and relationship with their fathers, with the artworks reflecting these themes in terms of narrative contents and material choices. Through their art, the daughters emerge as resilient, empathetic figures who exemplify strength and compassion. Methodologically, the study employs two primary approaches: visual analysis to interpret representations of gendered and socio-political identities, and verbal content analysis derived from in-depth interviews with the artists. The core insight is that educated, artistic daughters often assume a maternal caregiving role for their fathers, are willing to get closer to their fathers whether they are still alive or after their death, and demonstrate care and empathy toward their fathers' life trajectories and difficulties, challenging conventional familial roles and social expectations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":"116 ","pages":"Article 103292"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146079610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Caste-ed out of #MeToo: Dalit women's silence and resistance in Indian digital feminism 被逐出“我也是”运动：达利特女性在印度数字女权主义中的沉默与抵抗

IF 1.9 3区社会学

Womens Studies International Forum Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-29 DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103293

Ali Saha

{"title":"Caste-ed out of #MeToo: Dalit women's silence and resistance in Indian digital feminism","authors":"Ali Saha","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103293","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103293","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Following Milano's viral post and Sarkar's <em>List of Sexual Harassers in Academia</em> (LoSHA) in October 2017, the #MeToo movement gained momentum in India, yet intersectional barriers continued to silence marginalised women. This study examines the exclusion of Dalit women's voices within #MeTooIndia, addressing a critical gap in research on digital feminist activism. Drawing on a netnographic analysis of over 2200 tweets tagged with #MeToo and #MeTooIndia, the findings show that algorithmic and visibility biases disproportionately amplified non-Dalit narratives, which received nearly five times more engagement than Dalit women's posts. While non-Dalit participants often framed harm as individual emotional or reputational loss, Dalit users engaged in meta-discursive labor to highlight structural marginalization and epistemic exclusion. Dalit organizations and relatively privileged Dalit women frequently acted as intermediaries, underscoring the scarcity of direct testimonies. The study demonstrates that feminist hashtag activism, while acknowledging caste-based violence, remains constrained by the hierarchies it seeks to challenge. By extending Spivak's theorization of subalternity, I argue that despite increased agency, Dalit women's digital voices continue to be filtered, appropriated, or silenced. This study contributes to intersectional feminist and digital activism scholarship by conceptualizing this reproduction of caste and gender hierarchies online as platformized casteism.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":"116 ","pages":"Article 103293"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146079607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0