Search Results (78)

Agrarian women are at the forefront of rural livelihoods increasingly affected by the frequency and severity of climate change impacts. However, their household livelihood resilience (HLR) remains limited due to gender-blind policies, scarce sex-disaggregated data, and inadequate consideration of gender-specific needs in resilience-building efforts. Grounded in participatory feminist research, this study employed a multi-method qualitative approach, including semi-structured interviews and oral history narratives, with 60 women in two climate-vulnerable provinces. Data were analyzed through thematic coding, CATWOE (Customers, Actors, Transformation, Worldview, Owners, Environmental Constraints) analysis, and descriptive statistics. The findings identify nine major climate-related events disrupting livelihoods and reveal a limited understanding of HLR as a long-term, transformative concept. Adaptation strategies remain short-term and focused on immediate survival. Barriers to HLR include financial constraints, limited access to agricultural resources and technology, and entrenched gender norms restricting women’s leadership and decision-making. While local governments, women’s associations, and community networks provide some support, gaps in accessibility and adequacy persist. Participants expressed the need for financial assistance, vocational training, agricultural technologies, and stronger peer networks. Strengthening HLR among agrarian women requires gender-sensitive policies, investment in local support systems, and community-led initiatives. Empowering agrarian women as agents of change is critical for fostering resilient rural livelihoods and achieving inclusive, sustainable development. Full article

This paper introduces the concept of degenerative affordances to explain how social media can unintentionally destabilise family-run influencer businesses. While affordance theory typically highlights the enabling features of technology, the researchers shift the focus to its unintended, risk-laden consequences, particularly within family enterprises where professional and personal identities are deeply entangled. Drawing on platform capitalism, family business research, and intersectional feminist critiques, the researchers develop a theoretical model to examine how social media affordances contribute to role confusion, privacy breaches, and trust erosion. Using a mixed-methods design, the researchers combine narrative interviews (n = 20) with partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) on survey data (n = 320) from family-based influencers. This study’s findings reveal a high explanatory power (R² = 0.934) for how digital platforms mediate entrepreneurial legitimacy through interpersonal trust and role dynamics. Notably, trust emerges as a key mediating mechanism linking social media engagement to perceptions of business legitimacy. This paper advances three core contributions: (1) introducing degenerative affordance as a novel extension of affordance theory; (2) unpacking how digitally mediated role confusion and privacy breaches function as internal threats to legitimacy in family businesses; and (3) problematising the epistemic assumptions embedded in entrepreneurial legitimacy itself. This study’s results call for a rethinking of how digital platforms, family roles, and entrepreneurial identities co-constitute each other under the pressures of visibility, intimacy, and algorithmic governance. The paper concludes with implications for influencer labour regulation, platform accountability, and the ethics of digital family entrepreneurship. Full article

Henri Lefebvre’s “right to the city” has rarely been examined through an intersectional feminist lens, leaving unnoticed the uneven burdens that urban design and policy place on women. This article bridges that gap by combining constitutional analysis, survey data (n = 736), in-depth interviews, and participatory observation to assess how Quito’s public spaces affect women’s safety and mobility. Quantitative results show that 81% of respondents endured sexual or offensive remarks, 69.8% endured obscene gestures, and 38% endured severe harassment in the month before the survey; 43% of these incidents occurred only days or weeks beforehand, underscoring their routine nature. Qualitative narratives reveal behavioral adaptations—altered routes, self-policing dress codes, and distrust of authorities—and identify poorly lit corridors and weak institutional presence as spatial amplifiers of violence. Analysis of Quito’s “Safe City” program exposes a gulf between its ambitious rhetoric and its narrow, transport-centered implementation. We conclude that constitutional guarantees of participation, appropriation, and urban life will remain aspirational until urban planning mainstreams gender-sensitive design, secures intersectoral resources, and embeds women’s substantive participation throughout policy cycles. A feminist reimagining of Quito’s public realm is therefore indispensable to transform the right to the city from legal principle into lived reality. Full article

This study investigates the gendered nexus between climate change, food insecurity, and conflict in Plateau State, Nigeria. This region in north-central Nigeria is marked by recurring farmer–herder clashes and climate-induced environmental degradation. Drawing on qualitative methods, including interviews, gender-disaggregated focus groups, and key informant discussions, the research explores how climate variability and violent conflict interact to exacerbate household food insecurity. The methodology allows the capture of nuanced perspectives and lived experiences, particularly emphasizing the differentiated impacts on women and men. The findings reveal that irregular rainfall patterns, declining agricultural yields, and escalating violence have disrupted traditional farming systems and undermined rural livelihoods. The study also shows that women, though they are responsible for household food management, face disproportionate burdens due to restricted mobility, limited access to resources, and a heightened exposure to gender-based violence. Grounded in Conflict Theory, Frustration–Aggression Theory, and Feminist Political Ecology, the analysis shows how intersecting vulnerabilities, such as gender, age, and socioeconomic status, shape experiences of food insecurity and adaptation strategies. Women often find creative and local ways to cope with challenges, including seed preservation, rationing, and informal trade. However, systemic barriers continue to hinder sustainable progress. This study emphasized the need for integrating gender-sensitive interventions into policy frameworks, such as land tenure reforms, targeted agricultural support for women, and improved security measures, to effectively mitigate food insecurity and promote sustainable livelihoods, especially in conflict-affected regions. Full article

This qualitative study adopts a feminist perspective, delving into the cultural and moral dynamics inherent in financial literacy for retirement among Generation Y women in Israel. Employing the theoretical framework of gendered cultural schemas and focusing on the motherhood model, the research provides valuable insight into the social and moral forces that underlie young women’s financial literacy perceptions and actions regarding retirement in Israel. Based on interviews with 46 young Israeli-Jewish women from the Y generation, results underscore the significant embedded nature of the cultural model of intensive motherhood in young women’s financial literacy and their approach to retirement planning. This study emphasizes the role of culture in explaining gender inequality in retirement planning, shedding light on the role of young women’s agency operating within the boundaries of a gendered social structure. It calls for the inclusion of feminist approaches to enhance our understanding of social phenomena. Full article

Background/Objectives: Adolescent girls’ physical activity levels are well below the minimum recommended levels for health and wellbeing. Rural-dwelling adolescents may also experience decreased physical activity levels than their urban counterparts, placing rural adolescent girls at a greater disadvantage. The reasons for these low levels are multifactorial, including, but not limited to, age, geographical locations, and gendered stereotypes surrounding activities. Qualitative investigations into adolescent girls’ physical activity can provide deeper understandings on the key barriers and supports that specific populations experience and have been limited in the current literature. This study explores the physical activity experiences of adolescent girls living in rural Nova Scotia to provide deeper understandings of the needs of this population to inform physical activity policy and programming. Methods: Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenology and feminist post-structuralism were used in a bricolage fashion to analyze six semi-structured interviews from adolescent girls between 11–13 years old living in rural eastern Nova Scotia. Results: Three major themes were identified from the interviews: (1) what physical activity looks like depends on your definition; (2) “What do you do when the boys take over the gym?”; and (3) “It’s really nice to have space…but there’s a lot less options out here”. The themes were not independent, but rather all were linked by the threads of gendered sociocultural expectations and hegemonic femininity. Conclusions: Distinct physical activity identities were exposed within the stories, shaped by parental and peer supports, personal ideals, sociocultural gender roles, and individual sense of agency surrounding physical activity engagement. Rural adolescent girls need both increased social and parental support to better navigate barriers of location and gender stereotypes that may be limiting their physical activity. Full article

This article focuses on the health impacts of the gender-based violence (GBV) experienced by migrant and refugee women (MRW) survivors in their migration/settlement journeys in Canada, and their challenges in accessing healthcare. Adopting a feminist and intersectional lens, I draw upon qualitative in-depth interviews with 48 migrant women conducted between 2020 and 2022. GBV is a frequent experience in the migration and (re)settlement journey and has wide-ranging and cross-secting emotional-psychological, socio-economic, physical, as well as sexual and reproductive health consequences which, in turn, impact settlement and integration and may increase vulnerability to further GBV as a result. Drawing upon a “social determinants of health” approach, I aim to understand the workings of barriers to healthcare access and help seeking for MRW survivors of GBV in Canada. The social determinants of health involve structural (e.g., legal, financial, linguistic, knowledge, healthcare access) barriers, mediated by gender, intersecting with various positionalities and identities. GBV unambiguously impacts on the health and well-being of all survivors, but the extent of harm varies significantly depending on the intersections of positions and identities of survivors. The migration context entails unique barriers to MRW help seeking and healthcare access as well as aggravates the impacts of other barriers on MRW. My objective is to show how GBV affects the health status of MRW survivors in Canada in the specific context of healthcare access and help-seeking barriers MRW face, conceptualized as risk factors for reproducing GBV. Full article

This article used an intersectional feminist analytic framework to theorize the role of anthropomorphizing human–equine interactions in the HERD Institute’s modality for practitioners of Equine-facilitated learning and equine-facilitated psychotherapy (EFL/P). EFL/P is a traditionally human-centered activity which leverages anthropomorphizing equine behavior and emotions to better understand human selves and dynamics by assigning human emotions to equids and human–equine interactions. Intersectional feminist theories were used to interpret 11 in-depth interviews with EFL/P practitioners. The data analysis identified anthropomorphizing behaviors which were used as the foundation for the creation of two vignettes. The vignettes present different ethical dilemmas of anthropomorphizing that may impact equine welfare in EFL/P explicitly discussed by interlocutors. One vignette examines interpreting and assigning human injustices within equine behavior (e.g., resource guarding) and the second engages with human interpretations of equine choice versus consent in an EFL/P session. The vignettes demonstrate how anthropomorphizing may be used to develop an understanding of human dynamics or equine welfare. The researchers suggest that the use of critical reflexivity when anthropomorphizing may increase attention toward equine welfare in EFL/P settings. As such, it may be beneficial to consider the development and refinement of EFL/P training/certification and continuing education. Full article

Obstetric violence (OV) is a form of gender-based violence (GBV) that arises from the medicalisation of childbirth and the systematic devaluation of women’s bodies during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. Recognised as a violation of sexual and reproductive rights, OV reflects historically constructed power relations and highlights the need for public authorities to provide guarantees. In Portugal, OV has historical roots and continues to be an obstacle to the realisation of constitutional principles such as human dignity. Based in an intersectional feminist epistemology and the social constructionist approach, this study was conducted using an exploratory qualitative approach. Ten r7495/2006 acialised Brazilian women were interviewed to examine their experiences of OV during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period in the Portuguese NHS, through the lens of reproductive and sexual rights. The interviews revealed dehumanising and discriminatory treatment, highlighting the lack of respect for these women’s autonomy, dignity, and rights. These experiences of OV during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period affected the participants, leading to trauma and significant negative impacts on their mental, sexual, and reproductive health. This research on OV is crucial to advancing global reproductive justice, as it challenges structural inequalities and places racialised Brazilian women at the heart of the struggle for universal human rights and equality in sexual and reproductive healthcare. Full article

Feminist studies have increasingly highlighted the contributions of women from various backgrounds; however, a gap remains in the research on conservative religious women. This article presents findings on Casilda Iturrizar, a bourgeois and religiously conservative woman who significantly influenced 19th-century Bilbao. Three surveys with 442 participants and five communicative interviews with educators were conducted using a communicative methodology, which has pioneered the current criteria for social impact and cocreation in the Horizon Europe scientific program. The results revealed that most people in Bilbao were unaware of Casilda’s contributions, with feminists and institutions neglecting her achievements. The findings from the communicative interviews suggested that Casilda’s contributions have been overlooked, contradicting recent efforts in education to address the invisibility of notable women. Such findings potentially have social impact by opening feminism to all women, including those made invisible for having conservative religious thinking. Full article

This study explores the perspectives and experiences of three Muslim female headteachers in Islamic schools in England, each with over twenty years of experience, to understand how they perceive and negotiate their leadership roles. Using Allama Muhammad Iqbal’s theory of agency and structure, nine semi-structured interviews were conducted in three phases: 2010–2012, and 2018–2020. The rich longitudinal data, despite the limited sample size, provided an in-depth understanding of emerging themes around Muslim women’s leadership in British Islamic schooling. Analysis reveals that these headteachers conceptualise leadership through the Islamic principles of imāmah (spiritual leadership), qiwāmah (guardianship), and amānah (trusteeship), emphasising ethical responsibility, continuous learning, and service-oriented leadership. Their leadership within this framework is neither submissive to men’s authority nor rivalling it but acts as an autonomous agency through the Tawḥīdi (Oneness of God) theological framework and akhlāq (ethical framework), defending chosen values within the Ibādah (worship; acts of devotion to God alone) context. Motherhood is seen as intrinsic to their leadership, with nurturing, guiding, and supporting roles extending from home to school, challenging the dichotomy between private and public spheres. This paper contends that the current educational leadership models are predominantly Western, failing to capture the unique experiences and perspectives of female Muslim leaders who reject framing their perspectives within feminist parameters. Advocating a decolonised approach, centring these women’s coherent religious conceptual frameworks, the study suggests that these leaders’ practices offer a unique perspective on educational leadership, blending spiritual, ethical, and communal responsibilities, and calls for further research to explore the identified themes in broader contexts. Full article

UNESCO presently offers a universal regime and policy environment for the identification and management of natural and cultural heritages. However, heritage does not merely signify cultural diversity; it can also facilitate greater equity and equality. The research problem addressed in this article is that in Ghana, the national government perceives and treats the small-scale fishing (SSF) sector as a masculine space and endeavour, ignoring the gendered aspects of this environment, of SSF practice and ocean care. In the article, it is hypothesized that if the SSF sector is treated as a socially differentiated space, and if the concern of ocean care is prioritized as a key imperative in Ghanaian ocean management, it is likely that a more inclusive and sustainable ocean management process and SSF sector will emerge in Ghana. Mindful of the socially differentiated nature of the SSF sector in Ghana, the goal of the research presented in this article is to use mixed qualitative research methods (participant-observation and semi-structured interviews) to investigate gendered knowledge forms and gendered practices in ocean care in the central region of Ghana. A key finding of the research is that gendered ritual practices, including canoe building and use in Ghana, are critical to long-term, sustainable, and inclusive ocean management in the country. Recognition of the gendered dimensions of ocean management in Ghana may also result in more inclusive ocean governance policies and nature management policies in Ghana in general. The conclusion of the article is that ocean governance in Ghana should consider and mainstream a gendered perspective of the SSF sector, to advance transformative, sustainable, and inclusive ocean care. The article draws on theories of intersectionality, African indigenous feminist thought, and critical heritage studies to analyse the data gathered, to support the discussion, and to propose the way forward for the national government. Full article

This article argues for the critical need to value the voices and creative work of contemporary women writers in Australia. Historically, women writing in Australia have endured erasure, dismissal, and suppression. I argue that there is still, in the modern period, a continued lack of awareness, recognition and education on Australian women’s writing despite targeted awards and the achievements of the feminist movement. This piece reflects back across time, drawing on interviews I conducted and PhD thesis research with women writers in Australia at the turn of the twenty-first century, and maps how the legacies of gendered notions of writers impacted women at this pivotal era to consider what this may mean for women writing today. It also explores how feminist theories such as écriture féminine are helpful for framing and understanding the responses of Australian women writers to the shifting notions of sexual difference and agency in writing. This article aims to provide insights into the complexities of liberation for women from the past to modern times, and the impact of gender on creative expression in Australia across changing social periods. Full article

I seek to analyze the narrative construction of the reporter’s book A Vida Nunca Mais Será a Mesma (Life Will Never Be the Same Again, 2021), which tells stories of sexual violence against women and also features the first-person account of the author herself, Adriana Negreiros. I try to understand (a) how journalistic fundamentals such as precision and objectivity are articulated/tensioned with lacunar and fragmentary traces of testimony; and (b) how adopting a feminist/gendered perspective on journalistic narrative can bring to light traumatic female experiences that, throughout history, have been placed in the background. To do this, I examine the book and an interview conducted with the author in 2023, concluding that a feminist approach to journalism and testimony can open up affective spaces for women’s stories to be told. Full article

The introduction of women’s, gender, and feminist studies (WGFS) into higher education (HE) curricula has primarily been driven by individual efforts rather than institutional objectives. This article employs a multimethod approach to comprehensively understand the potential contribution of gender equality plans (GEPs) to strengthening the integration of WGFS in HE curricula and pedagogical practices. The study’s documentary corpus includes data from GEPs in implementation, semi-structured interviews with 27 WGFS lecturers, and a web survey of 118 lecturers who teach courses related to or integrating gender aspects. This approach reveals divergent perspectives on the role of GEPs in HEIs, summarized into three categories: cautious optimism, skepticism, and simplistic views. The tensions and constraints associated with the contributions of the GEPs, as perceived by many involved in incorporating gender issues into teaching, outline a vigilant optimism for the future implementation of these mechanisms. Nonetheless, given the historically limited role of institutional initiatives in consolidating WGFS in Portuguese higher education, we argue that the potential contribution of GEPs to this field should not be underestimated, as integrating WGFS into institutional planning can legitimize, support, and leverage efforts that have predominantly been individual. Full article