{"title":"Social status and women’s work in urban India: A closer look at occupations","authors":"Sai Madhurika Mamunuru","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103154","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103154","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In rural India, where landed, upper-caste women traditionally did not perform wage work, female labor force non-participation signals social status. In this paper I explore the ways in which urban India may be different given that urban India has more industrial variety and a greater concentration of high-skilled jobs. I propose that the relationship between female labor force participation and familial social status depends on the kinds of jobs women can access. Indicators of social status – household wealth, education, and caste – are all positively correlated with female participation in well-paying, high-skilled occupations, and negatively correlated with female participation in low and medium-skilled occupations. I cite three separate but interrelated reasons for this. First, high wages and other favorable job characteristics might incentivize female labor force participation even with high or improving socio-economic status. Second, high-skilled jobs accrue social respect rather than signal financial need. Third, women of a high social status have greater access to well-paying jobs because of social networks and higher college graduation rates.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 103154"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144996513","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}
{"title":"There's always another way: A case of female teachers' career mobility in Xiong'an New Area, China","authors":"Lu Guo , Guobiao Li , Yaqian Zheng","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103195","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103195","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study focuses on the first group of female teachers in Xiong'an New Area of China and explores the phenomenon of career mobility, in which women in stable careers who meet gender expectations choose to leave their comfort zones and take on new challenges. The study finds that self-worth realization is the intrinsic motivation for female teachers to break out of their career comfort zones, and that the “Motherhood Penalty,” although posing obstacles, can be transformed into motivation for career development. On the one hand, career mobility stimulates women's intrinsic self-efficacy, makes them more confident in professional and family domains, and enhances women's family and professional power. On the other hand, the coupling of self-worth realization and social embeddedness stimulates women teachers' career mobility, which in turn realizes women's social empowerment. Structural support is also important for female career breakthroughs. This study constructs a multidimensional relational framework of female career mobility, emphasizing that female-dominated occupations should not be a compromise between women's internalization of traditional gender roles and their pursuit of socio-professional identities and that women's self-empowerment in mobility can reshape stereotyped gender roles. These findings provide new perspectives for understanding the complexity of female career mobility and policy implications for promoting female career development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 103195"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144925431","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}
{"title":"Care penalty and gender inequality: A qualitative study of poor single mothers in China","authors":"Qin Li , Xiaohui Zhong","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103194","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103194","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>For a long period of time, caregiving has been erroneously perceived as a woman's “inherent responsibility,” thereby contributing to feminization of caregiving. Although the maternal penalty endured by female caregivers stands as a pivotal issue within the realm of gender inequality research, existing scholarly endeavors have largely overlooked the care penalty experienced by poor single mothers. Drawing upon fieldwork conducted in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, this article provides a compelling portrayal of the living conditions faced by poor single mothers, offering a nuanced exploration of these challenges from the intersecting perspectives of gender and traditional Chinese culture. The findings reveal that poor single mothers endure a culturally embedded multifaceted “care penalty” that manifests in wage penalties and occupational restrictions, psychological stress and emotional disturbances, weak interpersonal relationships and identity crises, and societal discrimination and poor prospects for remarriage. It is essential to develop robust social support networks to better integrate gender considerations and caregiving responsibilities into family policy agendas. Furthermore, targeted social policies should be specifically formulated for poor single mothers to ensure that they are not left behind in the pursuit of social justice and equality.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 103194"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144907632","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}
{"title":"Studying those we oppose: A reflexive ethical framework for researching antifeminist women online","authors":"Pauline Hoebanx","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103196","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103196","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>How can researchers ethically study online communities whose values fundamentally oppose their own? This article addresses the ethical dilemmas of conducting digital fieldwork with antifeminist women's communities. Drawing from netnographic research in four women's manosphere communities, Red Pill Women, Femcels, the Honey Badger Brigade, and Mothers of Sons, I develop a reflexive, feminist framework for ethical decision-making in politically contentious digital spaces. Rather than offering fixed rules, the framework consists of three sets of guiding questions that help researchers navigate ethical tensions at different stages of their project: when entering the field, during data collection, and throughout analysis. These questions are grounded in feminist epistemology, which prioritizes situated knowledge over claims to universal objectivity. I argue that studying ideologically oppositional communities does not require emotional alignment or political solidarity. Instead, it demands critical self-awareness and ethical transparency. The article highlights how antifeminist women's communities raise distinct challenges for digital research: their ideological complexity, gendered expectations of privacy, and resistance to academic inquiry all complicate the ethics of observation, interpretation, and representation. The framework presented here speaks to broader challenges in internet research and feminist methodology, offering tools for scholars working in polarized political contexts, especially with subjects who do not welcome the feminist researcher's gaze.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 103196"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144866779","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}
{"title":"Gender disparities in Chinese middle school science textbooks: A semiotic analysis","authors":"Jialu Zhao , Christine Min Wotipka","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103192","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103192","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Gender representations in school textbooks can perpetuate biases or promote equity, influencing students' academic engagement and career aspirations. This is particularly important in China, where gender disparities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education present a complex picture that evolves from primary school to higher education. This study investigates gender representation in 149 human images from 12 Chinese middle school science textbooks. Unlike traditional quantitative methods, it employs a novel approach that combines a social semiotics framework with a large language model, enabling a deeper exploration of implicit gender biases in textbook content. The findings suggest an underrepresentation of females compared with males, as well as distinct gender differences in the role distribution of males and females. Findings from the analyses of interactive and compositional meanings further reveal gender differences but not always as expected. These results underscore the impact of cultural and educational norms on textbook content, showing that Chinese textbooks align with both traditional and changing gender norms. This study contributes to the academic discourse on gender bias in educational materials by highlighting the intersection of visual and textual gender representations. The paper concludes by suggesting areas for future research and ways to develop textbook content that fosters gender equality, potentially influencing future science curricula and policies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 103192"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144866780","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}
{"title":"Silenced voices, enduring struggles: An Islamic feminist analysis of afghan female academics under Taliban rule","authors":"Shahira Shahir , Xiaoni Ren , Shaista Noor","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103193","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103193","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Taliban's systemic exclusion of Afghan female academics represents both a loss of individual agency and a broader intellectual crisis. This study examines their lived experiences through the lens of Islamic feminism, which challenges cultural and political distortions of Islamic teachings used to justify gender-based oppression. Employing a qualitative research design, it draws on in-depth interviews with twelve Afghan female academics to explore the psychological, economic, social, and professional consequences of Taliban policies. Thematic analysis identifies four key themes: psychological distress, economic exclusion and career erasure, social isolation and loss of autonomy, and systemic gender-based oppression. The findings demonstrate that Taliban policies not only strip women of autonomy but also cultivate fear, despair, and socio-economic marginalisation, reinforcing entrenched patriarchy. We argue that Islamic feminism offers a contextually grounded framework for resistance, advocating for women's rights to education, employment, and public participation within an Islamic paradigm. By examining the intersection of Taliban governance, systemic gender inequality, and the state of higher education (HE), this study contextualises the resilience and struggles of female academics. Urgent international advocacy, policy reforms, and alternative education initiatives are needed to counteract these regressive policies and support Afghan women in reclaiming their place in academia and society.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 103193"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144860302","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}
{"title":"Is Instagram emerging as a site for self-objectification of women? A systematic literature review","authors":"Sanju Kumawat, Chhavi Garg","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103191","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103191","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Social media has become an integral part of almost everyone's lives, blurring the lines between its users to some extent on the basis of age, place of residence and occupation. Gender inequality as a barrier too to some extent has also been overcome through the use of social media, particularly in terms of accessibility and use of technology among women. Hence, it becomes pertinent to understand how women are using social media as it allows them to read or watch content as well as enable them to produce content. The present study conducted a systematic review of literature using the keywords, Instagram, women and self-objectification following PRISMA guidelines. Instagram was studied as it has emerged as the most popular image based social networking sites, while women and self-objectification were chosen as mass media so far has presented stereotypical images of women. This review of existing literature shows that using Instagram can lead to body dissatisfaction, body surveillance, drive for thinness, low self-esteem and life satisfaction, and increased level of anxiety and depression in women. Hence, programs on media literacy need to be initiated to increase awareness of latent effects of media among users of media, particularly of social networking sites. More nuanced studies on self-objectification by women who use social media should be conducted in every part of the world, especially in the Global South.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 103191"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144852264","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}
{"title":"Introductory essay: Race, gender and queering/querying sport and movement cultures","authors":"Aarti Ratna , Janelle Joseph , Kyoung-yim Kim","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103180","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103180","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Queer theorizations offer an evocative lens to trouble taken-for-granted readings of different cultural contexts, including those of sport and movement cultures. Yet, a distinct focus on the moving body is missing from both women's studies and race and ethnic studies, ignoring the utility of this cultural context for exploring complex inequalities at the intersections of gender, race, sexuality, and nation. Acknowledging the paucity of literature that focuses on women of color and queerness in socio-cultural studies of sport, in this Special Issue opening essay we provide an original critique of this literature and directions for future study. Specifically, we engage in queer, transnational, feminist, anti-racist, and decolonial knowledge systems, to better position pressing debates about race, gender, and sexuality. We argue that through queer disruption, new critical insights about sport and movement cultures can be gleaned, which trouble predominant, white, and western framings of being “in the closet”, apparent inclusion, and neoliberal multiculturalism. By turning our critical lens inwards to query queer theorizations, we also offer an alternative approach that makes visible queer translations and centers race and non-normativity in cultural and material analyses of sport and movement cultures, locally and transnationally.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 103180"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144911867","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}
{"title":"Relationship between emotion regulation and aggression mediated by criminal thinking in women convicted of violent offenses","authors":"Emek Yuce Zeyrek-Rios , Esra Çetinöz , İrem Erten , Ayça Gürsoy , M Burak Gönültaş","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103179","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103179","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The pathways to violence in women—especially in non-Western contexts—remain underexplored. This study examines the relationship between emotion regulation difficulties, criminal thinking, and aggression among 114 incarcerated Turkish women convicted of violent offenses (i.e., assault, murder/manslaughter, bodily harm, etc.). The mean age of the sample is 35.67 (SD = 9.66). Half of the sample (50 %, N = 58) has a maximum educational level of primary school qualification, and 30 % are unemployed. Drawing on the General Aggression Model and criminal thinking framework, the participants were administered the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ), and the Criminal Thinking Scale (CTS). Results revealed significant positive associations between emotion regulation difficulties and all subtypes of aggression, yielding correlation coefficients ranging from 0.25 to 0.62. Furthermore, while offenders scored lower than university students on emotion dysregulation and aggression, they scored higher compared to age-matched community samples—highlighting the importance of contextual comparison. Mediation analysis demonstrated that criminal thinking partially mediated the relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and aggression, suggesting that cognitive distortions amplify the effect of affective dysregulation on violent behaviour. These findings underscore the interplay between affective dysregulation and cognitive distortions in female violence and suggest that gender-responsive, trauma-informed interventions must integrate cognitive restructuring alongside emotional regulation skills to effectively reduce female violent offending. The current study advances our understanding of female violence by integrating emotional, cognitive, and sociocultural perspectives within a non-Western context.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 103179"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144780753","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}
{"title":"An existential exploration of Dalit subjectivity in Bama's short fiction “Annachi” and “Chilli Powder”","authors":"Keerthana S","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103183","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103183","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The study interrogates two short fictions by Bama to look at how the narrative reflects the idea of Dalit Humanism as a conceptual framework that straddles the notion of existentialism and “earthy humanness”. While the first objective of the study is to trace and decipher the nuances surrounding the construct of “Dalit humanism”, the second objective exclusively deals with “earthy humanness” and its associated set of ethics and rebellion. The final section of the article intends to read the relationality of social inequality, caste stratification, and availability of resources as determining components in Dalit conjugal relationships. Close reading Bama's “Annachi” and “Chilli Powder”, the article also elaborates upon the need to take cognisance of the empathetic humanism that is inclusive in its approach. While the available discourses on Bama's works have excessively dealt with the aspects of caste and gender, the present study incorporates the often-neglected phenomenological dimension, which hints not just at the caste-gender nexus but also projects the paradigms of “rebel” literature. In questioning the verticality of wealth, the arbitrary nature of respect/dignity and subverting the traditional quotients of caste hierarchy, the study employs an intersectional framework offered by Sartre's philosophy of “existentialism is a humanism” and Roja Singh's “earthy humanness” of Dalit women. Even as the study traces the evolution of the discourses on patriarchy in Dalit lives, it illustrates how Bama's conceptualisation of “Dalit Womanism” is uniquely egalitarian and realistic in its function. In determining their identity through divergent contextual moorings in the social mainstream, the study concludes that the Dalits reterritorialise their self-dignity in radically disavowing their construct as the jettisoned other and reorient their personality with the renewed values of dignity, empathy and militancy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":"113 ","pages":"Article 103183"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144767186","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}