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Barbara Brandon-Croft is the first African American woman to have a nationally syndicated mainstream newspaper comic strip. Her comic Where I'm Coming From was first published in the Detroit Free Press in 1989. Two years later it was nationally distributed when it was picked up by Universal Press Syndicate. This interview is a compilation of edited excerpts from two recorded interview sessions conducted with Barbara Brandon-Croft during the summer of 2022, and follow-up sessions that occurred in the fall of 2023. The conversation focuses on how Barbara's experiences during her formative and adult years inspire the world depicted in Where I'm Coming From. We discuss her experiences while growing up in the predominantly Black neighbourhood of New Cassel, Long Island; her father Brumsic Brandon, Jr.'s influences on her career path; her undergraduate years at Syracuse University; and the inspirations behind the content in some of her strips. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The eight papers making up this special issue on promoting women in mathematics consider the underrepresentation of women in mathematics and the experiences and observations of authors who are immersed in this work. In this editorial, we identify common themes we see across many of these papers, framing our discussion with the "social identity framework of mathematical development" presented in the first paper. This framework consists of three beliefs conducive to the pursuit of mathematics, and we discuss how the authors address each of these beliefs in their work. We also present data to illustrate that the underrepresentation of women in mathematics continues to be an issue, and we hope the papers in this issue will be informative for others who want to lead gender-based initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that reflections on gender identity in tourism studies are important and that gender influences research. However, the situation is unclear in a male-dominated activity such as mountaineering. By using a systematic review, this research note aims to identify and analyse the gender of authors who are working on mountaineering tourism issues. A literature review was conducted using the Web of Science search engine. Of 866 papers identified, 42 met the inclusion criteria and belonged to the category of 'Hospitality Leisure Sport Tourism'. Overall, although femininity is limited in mountaineering and the number of women who participate in this kind of tourism is small, in the world of mountaineering science, women occupy a similar position as men do. In doing so, they challenge the traditional gender discourse in mountaineering activities and, thus, hegemonic ideas about gender and equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper lies in our special interest in women leaders and those aspiring to leadership positions in schools and other educational contexts within Australia. Leadership is a gendered concept, and due to a myriad of factors including conscious and unconscious bias, and the challenges of balancing career with other life commitment, the reality is that women's career journeys are different from men's. Women's unique career trajectories have implications for achieving their leadership potential. In addition to reviewing some of the extant literature in the area of women in educational leadership, we share our experiences and reflections based on our research and the leadership development programmes we have run for women mainly in Australia. These programmes have reinforced to us their value, place, and contribution to enhancing women's capacities for leadership. In this paper, we address the following four key questions as they pertain to women leaders within the Australian context: (1) Why a focus on gender and leadership? (2) What are some of the barriers impeding women leaders? (3) Why is it important to have multiple faces of leadership? (4) Why is women's leadership development everyone's responsibility? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the difficulties and challenges inherent in women's participation and continuation in sport through the experiences of athletes who participated in a national sporting event in South Sudan. Contrary to expectations, it was found that the overwhelming majority of the athletes indicated that they were in favour of women's participation in sport. Furthermore, the data collected revealed that perceptions of sport and women varied between genders and by sport type. However, it is unclear whether its society is accepting of women's participation in sport. Therefore, through the testimonies of athletes, coaches, and the event stakeholders, we examined the challenges women face in sport and how society perceives sport and women. As a result, this paper identified the underlying socio-cultural and economic challenges that make it difficult for women to continue playing sport in the South Sudanese context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primary dysmenorrhea (PD) has a significant impact on women's lives, especially among young women who miss school and work due to painful periods. Experiences and how women manage PD have been explored to some extent, but the evidence has not been systematically collated and reviewed to allow health professionals to better understand women's experiences of and perceptions about PD. Hence, we aim to synthesize the qualitative evidence related to women's experiences of PD and associated symptoms. For this purpose, seven databases (Ovid MEDLINE®, PubMed, Embase, APA PsycINFO, Web of Science, CINAHL and OpenGrey) were searched for relevant papers published in English, Spanish, Greek and Chinese between January 1997 and May 2021. All studies investigating women's experiences with PD were included; besides, The Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) tool for qualitative studies was used to critically appraise the papers. A data extraction form was developed using JBI template and findings from the papers were analyzed and synthesized using meta-aggregation. Sixteen articles were included and during the analysis five themes were identified: Experiencing pain and associated symptoms, the psychological dimension of PD, knowledge and support, day-to-day living with PD, and coping strategies. We concluded taboos and deeply rooted beliefs around menstruation can potentially lead to gender inequalities; hence, women's common concerns and their experiences with PD need to be considered. Training and treatment protocols for health practitioners are needed. Future research should focus on development and testing of protocols for diagnosis, pharmacological and non-pharmacological management and men's perceptions of menstruation of their lovers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes a major intervention in the historiography of elites through analysis of the experience of women occupational elites born in post-war Britain. The paper draws on a new set of oral history interviews recently conducted with women born in the post-war decades with an entry in Who's Who which is the leading biographical dictionary of 'noteworthy and influential' people in the UK. The women we interviewed were all highly occupationally successful and those analysed here also attended one of twelve elite girls' schools. This article argues that our interviewees can be separated into two distinct post-war cohorts: one born between early 1940s and mid-1950s and the other born late 1950s to late 1960s. The shape and structure of the cohort's trajectories were different, their relationship to their careers were different, and, even though both groups faced sexual discrimination and unequal divisions of labour, the nature of these gendered inequalities changed too. By foregrounding elite women within this shifting historical context, this article illuminates broader trends in both classed and gendered experience and how this related to the changing nature of the economy in recent history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the links between socioeconomic concerns and one of the most significant conflicts in the world, the Boko Haram-led insurgency in Northeastern Nigeria. In doing so it centers group dynamics for analysis of how women and youth constituencies intersect with vulnerability to violent extremism. It offers sophisticated quantitative analysis of new and original gender- and age-disaggregated survey data, with over 80% female respondents. The paper finds that while poverty can influence vulnerability to violent extremism, women and youth constituencies interact in particular ways with structural factors and certain youth constituencies exhibit lower propensities to violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on gender in fisheries often argue that women's contributions are important to the functioning of fisheries and are worthy of recognition. However, this has so far failed to consider how women experience and practice belonging to fisheries. This paper structures the analysis of women's narratives around three conceptualisations of belonging: i) how women perform place-belongingness; ii) the politics of belonging; and iii) more-than-human co-constructions of belongings. To develop the conceptual approach, the paper synthesises these three concepts with an understanding of belonging as fluid and adaptable to particular situated relationships. In doing so, the paper explores how women's gendered belongings are co-constructed and performed in the male-oriented UK fisheries contexts. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews, the paper finds that women's practices of belonging make and maintain fishing communities and places, and that women's practices of belonging both confirm and challenge longstanding notions of who belongs in the fishery – with women fishers challenging socio-spatial exclusions in fishing. Women's belongings in fishing were further co-constructed in relation to the more-than-human such as fishing materialities, smells, non-human animals and the ocean. The concept of belonging helps to highlight the processes of becoming with fish, fishing and the fishery – even when there are no clear identities and identifications available for the women involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the intersection of age bias and gender bias in relation to female leadership. "Cheat codes" is a term originally applied to computer and video games to describe a code that, when used, allows the player to access features, level skips, or capabilities not otherwise available (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). As a metaphor, the term is meant to suggest a shortcut in decision-making toward a desired conclusion or outcome. In the context of this article, "faulty cheat codes" refer to society's use of misinformed and unfair stereotypes as specious shortcuts to judge the abilities or qualifications of individuals based on their age, leading to incorrect conclusions or inappropriate actions. This piece highlights the detrimental effects of age bias on prominent female politicians, including Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and emphasizes the need for authentic conversations about cognitive abilities. The paper challenges the use of age as a flawed measure of competence and advocates for retiring negative stereotypes about aging. It also discusses the delayed entry of women into political office and the compounding effects of age and gender biases. By promoting positive narratives about aging and addressing ageism in our political discourse, society can create a more fair and inclusive political landscape that values the capabilities of individuals of all ages. The paper concludes by urging a shift in focus toward substantive political discussions and away from shallow indicators of competence based on age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I have addressed the issue of sexual violence in the specific context of the 1984 anti-Sikh carnage in Delhi. Though a significant number of cases of sexual assault took place in Delhi in November 1984, they have largely remained shrouded in obscurity. I have attempted to analyse the reasons, prompting a near total silence on these instances. In undertaking this inquiry, the paper reflects on the selective, and often disempowering, nature of memory-making and preservation. It goes on to ask the critical question: what constitutes legitimate memory? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although women account for about half of the users in the digital games market, people still consider the gaming world predominantly male. In the literature, we found studies that report on game features that are relevant for this audience; however, we did not identify works that relate game aspects to values that are relevant for women. This paper presents values considered relevant to them and attributes (features of a game) that allow women to achieve these values. To do this, we conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with women between 18 and 35 through the laddering technique. We used Means-End Theory and found and discussed nine main routes. The chains identified represent possible paths between a given attribute and a given value. The two values that mostly stand out were 'Achievement' and 'Happiness'. The results reflect the participants' experience and can be used to develop games with adaptations to the female audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1869, the year the Suez Canal was completed, visits to Egypt and, therefore voyages to the Orient were increased. Crowned royals such as Prince and Princess of Wales, French Empress, Prince of Prussia, Austrian Emperor, Prince and Princess of Holland, and Duke of Aosta went on these voyages, which included cities like Alexandria, Cairo, Istanbul, and Athens. What makes these crowned royal's travels to the Orient in 1869 distinguishing and worth investigating is the presence of women. Examining on the Istanbul part of the voyages, this research accepts women as historical actors. It aims to interpret European women's gaze on both Ottoman Istanbul and their 'other', local Muslim women, through their time-space experiences. This paper focuses on travel narratives produced by the women in the suite of British and French crowned royals in the 1869 travels to decipher women's real time-space experiences. Levant Herald (LH), a local newspaper published daily in Istanbul, was also examined to grasp locals' perspectives simultaneously. While emphasizing the [un]met expectations of both counterparts' (guest/local), this paper discovers diversifying positionalities of women towards their other and reveals their heterogeneous gaze. Although women's gaze -and thus narratives- contain many orientalist codifications, their gender privileged time-space experiences challenge and disrupt some of the stereotypes and prejudices prevalent in the male-dominated literature of the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decentralization and efforts for inclusivity in Pakistan's public sector from 1973 led to the recruitment and advancement of women as officers of the newly constituted Central Superior Services (CSS) of the federal government of Pakistan. Quotas for women made government more diverse and representative, and educational and length of service benchmarks for recruitment and promotion made advancement more attainable and transparent. The increasing participation of these new officers of state, outlined in this paper, can be seen as an outcome of the 1973 public sector reforms, but government policy alone is not sufficient to account for women's entry into public life and policy making where they had been excluded from it over the previous century of the development of the bureaucracy. This paper presents professional life history narratives of 23 women officers of the CSS recorded in an oral history project in Lahore and describes the women who participated in this state project of decentralization and gender inclusivity and their motivations, complementing an historiography of administrative reform. I argue for attention to the role of families and academic institutions in enabling women in finding pathways into the CSS and advancing and succeeding in their roles, mediating between the state and Pakistani society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sheds light on the feelings of exclusion and insecurity among female members of Catholic groups in contemporary Poland. It is based on data gathered in the years 2019–2020 within the research project Resistance and Subordination. Religious Agency of Roman Catholic Women in Poland, which involved 48 in-depth interviews with university-educated Catholic women living in large Polish cities and engaged in various religious groups. The conducted analysis indicates that the interviewees resorted to defensive actions, representing a cultural backlash. Taking into consideration the numerical and institutional dominance of Roman Catholicism in Poland, the overarching question of the paper is: why do the interviewed women feel excluded and at what or at whom is their resentment directed? The analysis draws upon a wider discussion on the ongoing ideological polarisation of contemporary societies, showing the case of a country that is religiously homogenous. The interviewed women recognise some external threats, such as liberal culture and feminism, but also internal ones, namely ritualised, habitual, 'mainstream' Catholicism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labelled 'the shadow pandemic' by UN Women, violence against women received considerable global public attention during 2020–21. Underpinning this moment of public concern, there lies a substantial history of efforts to document the nature of, and campaign against, the extent of violence against women globally. This is also the case in relation to femicide. Whilst we recognise that this is a contested term, for the purposes of this paper we use femicide to refer to the killing of women and girls because they are female by male violence. Femicide, as a death to be specifically counted in law only exists in a small number of jurisdictions. Where it is so recognised, primarily in South American countries as feminicidio, such deaths represent only the tip of the iceberg of such killings globally. This paper, in drawing on empirical data from a range of different sources (including administrative data, media analysis, and Femicide Observatory data) gathered throughout 2020, considers: what it means to call a death femicide, what implications might follow if all the deaths of women at the hands of men were counted as femicide, and the extent to which extraordinary times have any bearing on this kind of ordinary death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conceptual paper critically analyses how the British Army exercises control over the production of knowledge about women's war labour in 'front line combat' and how women exert agency to resist this. 2018 saw all British military roles opened to women, yet it is a myth to say that women are only now able to serve in 'front line combat'. The paper reveals a complex negotiated gender order or 'bargain' between the British Army and servicewomen seeing the latter controlled through their co-option, embodied by compliant military femininities, whilst permitting them some agency to resist. Driven by military need, sustaining this ordering has repeatedly seen women exposed to unnecessary risk. This critical feminist history contributes to conceptual development through deconstructing gendered knowledge systems, arguing that foregrounding women's voices is central to furthering the cultural turn in war studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intersection of gender and entrepreneurship has received growing attention in recent years from academics, practitioners, and policy makers. The current paper reviews research on what influences women's demand for- and supply of entrepreneurial finance, while suggesting a conceptual approach untangling contradictory findings in earlier studies. This is achieved through a systematic literature review of 113 carefully selected papers, published between 1989 and 2019. Specifically, the review includes 77 studies dedicated to female access to finance, 32 studies on female investment behaviour, and 4 studies addressing both. We find that inconsistent findings can be traced to a combination of wide theoretical plurality in one-half of the studies and an absence of theoretical anchoring in the other half, calling for conceptual integration of existing theories with feminist critiques. Accordingly, we propose integrative conceptual frameworks highlighting the roles of explicit and symbolic factors impacting women's access to- and investment of- financial resources. This approach led us to suggest that refocusing research on symbolic and intangible factors may help uncover new associations, otherwise obscured in earlier research. Furthermore, the inclusion of interaction terms with gender-related variables may also help untangle existing inconsistencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper aims to show that the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified existing barriers to healthcare in England for ethnic minority and migrant women. These barriers include those embedded within the institution, stemming from community perceptions and relating to socio-economic factors. Though barriers to accessing healthcare have existed long before the pandemic, more attention must be devoted now because of the inequalities that COVID-19 has laid bare in England for ethnic minority and migrant women. By adopting an intersectional lens, this paper uncovers what has previously been hidden by 'intersectional invisibility', now exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst the pandemic has seen an increase in focus on inequalities related to race, gender and immigration status, this paper adds to the literature by specifically considering the intersection of race and gender, and immigration status and gender, in the context of inequalities relating to healthcare. We argue that ethnic minority and migrant women experience inequalities in healthcare related to access uniquely because of their intersectional identities and the context of a public health crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People with low or no digital literacy may not receive the digital transformation benefits. There are no-cost digital literacy programs to address this gap, whose outcomes need to be studied. Using survey data of 6989 unemployed females living below the poverty line in India, the present paper examines the linkage between the digital skills training program and empowerment. Economic empowerment measured through employment, education and entrepreneurship-seeking behavior, and psychological empowerment are studied. It also assesses the moderating role of perceived value derived from the training and the mediating role of actual skill usage in understanding the linkage. Results show that the moderating role of perceived value is important for economic empowerment and the mediating role of actual usage of learned digital skills is relevant for psychological empowerment. The paper contributes to the ICTD domain by highlighting that digital literacy training may lead to empowerment for poor women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At any given time, 16% of the world's female population is made up of widowed women, though this figure varies by region. The loss of a spouse usually means the loss of economic and social support for the surviving partner. Understanding the experience of widowhood is essential to understanding society; the lives of widows offer insights into how societies are organised and what responses there are to those in need. This paper investigates the survival strategies of widows in Cape Town in 1938/9 using a household survey in order to understand whether their experiences differed by race in the city just before World War II and a decade before the formalisation of apartheid. The survey provides the opportunity to understand how widows in the city lived and worked, whether they cared for others or were given care from others. The paper considers the structures of households and the incomes of widows. Who did widows live with? Or did they live alone? Were they more likely to work than other women in the city? Was it common for widows to live with non-family members? One finding is that although coloured and white households seemed similar in size and nature, widowhood brought differences between them to the fore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the Fascist Colonial Institute (ICF) of Bologna as a local space in which fascist ideals of empire, gender and class collided and were reproduced. Founded shortly before Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, the ICF served to transmit colonial consciousness to the Italian people, and, most especially, to young middle-class women. Analysis of the local Bolognese ICF, however, reveals a more complex reality. Courses designed to create fascist imperialists out of middle-class women and forge a ruling settler class for the colonies evidence that the institute used the empire as a tool to shore up gender norms in fascist Italy. The author argues that an unintended outcome of these courses was that the ICF became a space of limited freedom and of social and professional mobility for its young women participants. In addition to learning transgressive skills, these women took advantage of their affiliation with the institute, using it as a springboard for further employment opportunities. The paper is based on a rich collection of sources from the Bolognese branch of the ICF, held in the Museo Civico del Risorgimento di Bologna in the Archivio dell'Istituto Fascista dell'Africa Italiana – Sezione di Bologna. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, women have suffered from the effects of inequality in most social, economic, political and cultural spheres. In this paper, discrimination against women in sport is analysed on the basis of a set of empirical data on the inequal participation of men and women in sport. In particular, three Catalan sports regulations are analysed. To this end, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is taken as our frame of reference; more specifically, two instruments that are proposed therein to reduce women's inequality: the gender perspective and gender mainstreaming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coaching researchers from different academic disciplines have been occupied for years in exploring the constraints and barriers that women face when entering the coaching profession, not only at the level of individual agency but also at a structural and socio-cultural level. This paper reprises some of their findings and recognises that historians of coaching have made little contribution to the debate, apart from confirming the critical part played by networks, community, and experience in facilitating coaching careers. While the existing historiography has focused almost exclusively on male coaching practices and on a masculine orientated cultural heritage of coaching, attention is drawn here to the way in which the limited literature on women in coaching has been the result of adopting a very narrow definition of 'coach'. This introduction to the special issue of Sport in History highlights the range of terms historically used by women in coaching-related roles and the way in which women transcended social constraints to become coaches. Although the 'herstory' of sports coaching is only just being uncovered, these contributions represent an important stimulus to the further development of the topic and the paper concludes by highlighting how historians of women's coaching will be taking their research forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The compliments paid to Clara Jarvis by the Amateur Swimming Association in recognition of her contribution as trainer to the women's swimming team at the 1912 Olympics marked a unique public recognition of the role of the woman as coach in the Edwardian era (1901–1914). The absence of similar references to women as coaches or trainers in the archives could easily persuade the observer that Clara was an isolated example, but the reality was very different in that women were actively coaching in several sports and activities, if coaching is interpreted in the sense of helping others to improve their physical performance. The key to researching these women is to look beyond the terminology 'coach' or 'trainer'. This paper uses a range of search terms to uncover women involved in skating and riding, and as physical culturalists and games mistresses, from the 1911 census and explores the characteristics of each group as well as uncovering some individual life courses. The paper concludes that these women were not unique, in that similar communities can also be identified in activities such as swimming and dance, and that the notion that few women coached in this period needs to be revised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractReflexivity has received a lot of attention in recent years, but there is little on how to initiate reflexivity amongst those who are not familiar with it. This paper explores how to initiate reflexivity work and what difference it can make to the initiates in how we research and what we write about, and how this work can be done collaboratively between women in different locales. It breaks new ground by drawing on duo-reflexivity between three African women migration researchers reflecting on their role in collaborative research. In doing so, it unravels the complexities of insider-outsider status in global-North/South research and shows the importance of intersectional reflexivity, which addresses gender, social class, nationality, research setting, and discipline as we researched migration and inclusive growth in Africa. The paper unpacks gender as a category and how we approach it, how we experience it as part of our daily researching lives, and as a research topic in Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria. Furthermore, we throw a global South perspective on taken for granted categories such as income to show how reflexivity is important when researching migrants and non-migrants for a global audience. The paper ends with some thoughts on our experience of undertaking this reflexivity exercise. We offer this as an invitation to researchers, especially those from the global South, who may also be new to reflexivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the analysis of the life histories of buraku women in the latter half of the 20th century, this paper explores the empowering potential of literacy classes and other educational activities. The paper focuses on the case study of Yamamoto Eiko, a woman born in the pre-war period in a poor buraku family in Kyoto who dedicated her adult life to the literacy movement and education. To have a deeper understanding of how multiple, interconnected factors such as buraku discrimination, poverty and gender have impacted buraku women’s life experiences, the paper adopts an intersectional perspective to look at education as a specific field of discrimination. I argue that literacy can become a tool for empowerment both on a personal level, making women more independent and raising their self-esteem, and on a societal level because it allowed them to participate more actively in the liberation movement and advocate for women’s needs. Still, buraku women’s experiences reveal the deep-rooted patriarchal social structure inside buraku communities and the gender discrimination they encountered inside the liberation movement itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Popular Hindi cinema in India has come a long way in portraying women. From the 1910s, when male actors used to play heroine characters, to the 1950s, when female actors started playing lead roles, women's depiction has undergone various forms of experimentation. One such aspect constantly discussed in cinema, literature, and other art forms are their depiction of the extremes and their take on the marginalities. This paper attempts to analyse the representation of women in refugee camps in popular Hindi cinema. There are works available focussing on the depiction of women in cinema content-wise. However, the cinematographic portrayal explicitly referring to refugee camps is not widely explored. This paper attempts to fill these existing gaps. It also discusses the current political landscape of India vis-à-vis popular Hindi cinema. The cinematographic representation of women exemplifies their nurturing and caring nature. The screen time shrinks when the focus shifts to their inner conflicts and emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public spaces are central to social interactions and cohesion, overall urban life, and therewith sustainable urban development. They can play key roles in increasing social interactions and women's empowerment. The literature lacks empirical research on the state of women's use of public spaces and these spaces' effects on women's social interactions and empowerment in Middle Eastern cities in the Kurdistan Region, where women historically enjoyed greater freedom. This paper addresses this gap by presenting insights from a comparative cross-border study with women in two Kurdish cities, Sanandaj and Sulaimani. In doing so, the paper contributes an empirically based theorization of urban public place-making, and debates its effects on the empowerment of women in the context of Kurdish urbanisms. The study developed a survey instrument to measure women's interactions with and in public spaces and their related empowerment in these two cities across five main factors. Despite the local women's limited interaction with and in the public spaces of these two Kurdish cities, the findings show a strong positive relationship between women's interactions in public spaces and their empowerment. The results also suggest that socio-political and related socio-spatial changes have contributed to a decreased relevance of traditional meeting and leisure spaces but have increased the use of malls as commodified spaces, particularly in Sulaimani. The study debates the specificities of urban public spaces in Kurdish cities, and commonalities as well as differences compared with developments elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the implementation of a STEM scholarship program which utilized a holistic approach to providing a multi-dimensional student support system. The program has been successful in encouraging and supporting women in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science by offering a diverse suite of extracurricular opportunities, actively engaging them in organized events, research projects, and participation in STEM communities, and helping them achieve higher GPAs and shorter times to graduation. The supported women also benefitted from close mentoring relationships with the faculty mentors. The program emphasized the development of empowering settings for women's engagement and achievement, which act to sustain and expand interest in mathematics and computing, and thereby help them to see themselves as future professionals in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable management of water and sanitation is inextricably linked with women's health and well-being. This paper investigates slippage in sanitation, experienced by women beneficiaries of the Swacch Bharat Mission Rural programme through Amartya Sen's conception of justice. A total of 135 individuals were interviewed from 49 households in Kanjadwa and Madhnagar Manoharpur Gram Panchayats, Shravasti, India, out of which 90 were women. As per findings, 30% of women practice open defaecation despite possessing toilets, resulting in slippage. The Sanitation Well-being framework is deployed to study slippage and its linkage with women's agency. Personal, cultural, and structural factors contributing to this are child marriage, denial of education and employment opportunities, slut shaming, victim blaming, domestic violence, and character assassination. These are made worse by the state adoption of misogynistic IEC messages that reinforce cultural stereotypes and worsen women's condition. In the quest to attain ODF status in Ikauna Block, UP, the current sanitation programme became a tool of suppression. Consequently, we understand that open defaecation among women is an outcome of the basic unfreedoms rather than a volitional choice that prevents them from experiencing sanitation well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, veteran research and support have centred on the requirements of a predominantly male population. However, as female participation in the Armed Forces increases and their roles diversify, consideration of women's unique mental health needs is imperative. Women veterans are at greater risk of post-service mental health challenges than their male counterparts, and female mental health outcomes have deteriorated in recent years. To determine the provenance of these outcomes, a scoping review considering both barriers and facilitators to female veteran participation in mental health services was conducted. A review was carried out following the 2020 Joanna Briggs Institute Scoping Review framework. Twenty-four papers were identified, with all but one originating from the US. This research indicated that whilst women experience barriers common to male veterans (e.g. help-seeking stigma), they also experience unique gender-specific barriers to accessing mental healthcare services (e.g. lack of gender-sensitive treatment options, feeling uncomfortable) and such barriers result in under-utilization of services. Literature indicates that consideration and mitigation of these barriers might improve access and health outcomes for women veterans. Further research is required outside the US to understand the barriers to mental healthcare experienced by women veterans internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will explore the place of women's experiences within the collections held by the recently redeveloped R&A World Golf Museum in St Andrews [The R&A World Golf Museum is aligned with The R&A, golf's governing body (outwith USA and Mexico)]. It will explore how women have been traditionally represented in the galleries and in academic research, highlighting the gaps that existed in our understanding of women's experiences at a grassroots level within clubs in Scotland. The paper will discuss how the new museum galleries have started to address some of these absences and how they will be further addressed through an AHRC Collaborative PhD Studentship undertaken by Lauren Beatty. It will discuss in brief how and why oral histories have formed the main methodology for this study, and what the longer-term plans are for the use of these testimonies within the Museum in relation to education and outreach work. In doing so, the paper will demonstrate the value of combining both academic research and museum public engagement work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among many of the activities concerned with the "collateral consequences of incarceration," visitation has been quite a challenge. In particular, women visitors face several challenges while visiting a carceral space. Using semi-structured interviews with women having a family member incarcerated, we explore the experiences of women visitors visiting a prison in Kashmir. The paper employs a qualitative methodology to understand the experiences of these women visitors. The paper tries to understand the ways in which the prison regime dictates and directs their lives. The paper emphasizes the fact that the effects of incarceration are tremendously bore by these women who jeopardize their own economic and social capital in order to maintain ties with an incarcerated individual. These women are claimed to be the "other victims of crime" and are treated as quasi-inmates inside the carceral spaces. These women live lives marked with stigma and suspicion as they are often assumed to have known about the crime. Thus, they suffer from courtesy stigma and the taint of being equally involved in the crime. The findings reveal that these women face difficulties in visiting their incarcerated kin, endure emotionally intense experiences, and the traumatic experience of prison visitation, ironically, acts as a blessing in disguise. They become increasingly absorbed into the correctional facility, suffer the anxiety of waiting and frustration to meet institutional dictates, and elation or despair that stays with them after spending time with their loved ones in prison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There appears to be a globally unifying discourse that suggests Muslim communities are not supportive of girls' education12. This paper aims to destabilize such a discourse by inserting the narratives of Muslim parents pursuing girls' education in Assam's Nagaon district. By paying attention to the concepts of bhal suwali (good girlhood) and bhal ghor (good family) articulated by parents in my study, this paper connects the performances of certain types of gender practices with the pursuit of class aspirations. It shows that good girlhood works as symbolic capital that helps Muslim parents to culturally authorize their daughters as legitimate actors in the field of education, while legitimizing themselves as good family. This paper draws attention to three practices of respectable femininity through which good girlhoods are enacted in the field of education, namely: negotiating poverty respectably, prioritizing gendered discipline, and merging career aspirations with marital prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the United Nations has long implemented strategies to tackle deep-rooted gender-based inequalities and discrimination in its programmes and policies, there is limited evidence on successful strategies to foster institutional structures and practices that promote gender equality or institutional gender mainstreaming. This paper explores and analyses the experience of institutional gender mainstreaming within UN Agencies working on global health, highlighting potential areas for learning. Overall, progress on institutional gender mainstreaming has been modest, with slow increases (if any) in investments in financial and human resources. The findings highlight the importance of well-established strategies, such as enforcing accountability, a robust gender architecture, and a cohesive capacity-building policy. Drawing on the experiences of gender experts, the paper shows that equally or more critical to the success of institutional gender mainstreaming were approaches such as leveraging strategic internal and external support and identifying strategic entry points for gender mainstreaming. There is considerable scope for strengthening gender mainstreaming within UN Agencies by reviewing and learning from UN system successes. In addition to learning from practice, the way forward lies in making visible and developing strategies to challenge embedded patriarchal organisational norms and systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The burden of malnutrition experienced globally, coupled with the increasing rate of micronutrient deficiencies, compromises the health and well-being of women during their reproductive years. Obesity places young South African women at particular risk during pregnancy, and increases obesity risk for their offspring. To address these risks, the Bukhali trial is being implemented in Soweto, South Africa with 18–28-year-old women, as part of the Healthy Lifestyle Trajectory Initiative. A dietitian is part of the Bukhali intervention team (community health workers) to provide nutritional support for overweight/obese trial participants, making use of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) Nutrition Checklist. This paper reflects on the experiences and lessons learned by the Bukhali dietitian, including the use of the FIGO Nutrition Checklist and Healthy Conversation Skills to facilitate conversations about making healthy dietary behaviour changes. Identified challenges that influence nutrition and behaviour are discussed, including lack of food affordability, cultural and social influences on healthy food choices, unsupportive environments and food insecurity. Strategies to optimise this nutritional support are also mentioned. The Bukhali trial is showing that introducing additional nutrition support by a dietitian for at-risk participants has the potential to encourage young women to prioritise nutrition and health, even in the midst of contextual challenges to both nutrition and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Tanzania, the gender gap in sports participation remains largely due to socio-cultural and economic influences, partly due to the transition to a market economy and the Ujamaa policy. One of the reasons for lower participation of women compared with men is that many girls give up continuing with sport after primary school. In this situation, the Tanzania Ladies First (LF), a national sports competition exclusively for women, has been held since 2017. In this paper, a questionnaire survey and random interviews were conducted with selected and non-selected athletes for Tanzanian LF, and their parents to examine the role of the LF in the continuation of elite female athletes' sport by using a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative analysis. This paper found that participation in LF boosts subsequent continuation in sport. On the other hand, in the context of the transition to a market economy, this paper shows that LF may have fixed social and economic structures that allow only a few elite women athletes to continue in sport, rather than expanding women's participation in sport, which runs counter to the spirit of LF. This paper suggests that in the context of a market economy, it will be necessary to promote national awareness of LF to a wider audience and media to make LF more attractive to women and private companies. This paper also recommends the introduction of life skills training through sport for female students to encourage them to continue with sport after leaving school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This ethnographic study is an exploration of risk as an everyday practice that women undertake to actualize their mobilities and social worlds in the city of Banaras, renowned as a sacred urban city in Northern India. The scholarship about this site has typically not centered on women's experiences, knowledge, and lives, in narrating the overwhelming sacred rhetoric of the city. This paper contributes to the extant scholarship on gender, risk, corporeality, and urbanity by establishing a dialogue between risk theories embedded in institutional management discourse, emerging from Western contexts, and the lived and embodied risk practices of women in the global South. Risk, as conceptualized in this paper, presents a grounded discussion of women's active and conscious modes of being emplaced in myriad sites in urban cities through their mobilities. In essence, the paper draws links between the potentiality of everyday risk-taking and women's mobilities. This is achieved through interrogating the embedded notions of 'respectable' femininity, honor, fear, and violence, through ethnographic accounts of having observed, interacted with, and interviewed women from diverse socio-economic backgrounds in the city. In doing so, the paper argues that women attempt to enable themselves and recreate their worlds in a patriarchal urban setting through various intersectional forms of risk-taking, namely, what I denote 'imposed' and 'chosen' varieties, which intersect in complex ways. Therefore, the paper highlights women's risk-taking as potentializing the everyday but also views this as a practice that sustains them as inhabitants of Banaras. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last two decades there has been an increase in the use of participatory and emancipatory methodologies within disability research; centring the lived experience of disabled people. This paper explores some of the ethical and practical considerations when researching in the area of disabled women and sexuality, highlighting the pervasiveness of ableist attitudes and processes. Drawing on critical disability studies and utilising critical reflexivity, the researcher, a disabled woman, discusses some of the strengths and limitations of being an 'insider-outsider' researcher. The paper also presents some strategies and considerations for researchers who seek to use inclusive methods in research with and by disabled people, including the importance of language and multi-methods to facilitate and promote access and expression. If research is to be a true reflection of the community being researched, then it is vital inclusive principles are incorporated into all stages of research projects. There has been an increase in research that includes disabled people in all stages of the research process. This paper discusses some of the ways the researcher, a disabled woman, used inclusive research methods throughout her study focused on disabled women's experiences of sex education, sexual expression and violence. The paper considers some of the strengths and challenges of insider research, and outlines ways to promote access and expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an exploration of women's experiences of engaging in digitally mediated care work. Data for this article is drawn from qualitative interviews conducted with 15 young women in Australia to explore their experiences of securing care work through a digital platform. Importantly, we focus on both online and offline dimensions of securing work, thus contributing to the extant literature which has tended to focus on the online aspects of securing platform work. Through the complementary lenses of performativity and affective atmospheres, we examine the complexities of presenting an idealised self to obtain work opportunities from an online pool of diverse care-seekers, and the bodily performances and attributes required offline to secure actual work. We conclude by reflecting on how online and offline interactions explicate the normative performativity required by young women to successfully access digitally mediated service work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emergency Contraceptive Pills (ECPs) are increasingly available over the counter as a form of hormonal birth control in India. As use of ECPs is increasing over time, this paper draws on ethnographic research in Dehradun, in Uttarakhand (Northern State) to highlight the everyday material conditions under which women create narrative around choice and agency regarding these ECPs. Women viewed ECPs as better options than abortion, appreciated the sense of empowerment these provided them because they could be consumed in houses where women had limited 'space and privacy;' and finally that ECPs and their advertisements could act as 'agents of social change.' Feminist scholarship on reproduction demonstrates that choice is a form of agency that is enacted within certain constraints. Using this framework, the research here highlights how women create narratives about ideas of contraceptive choice and notions of 'empowerment' when talking about ECPs and their advertisements. In revisiting the dilemma about women's agency and choice, this paper builds on Rosalind Gill's concept of 'critical respect' to propose 'critical ethnographic respect' as an ethnographic tool to help read women's responses and respectfully contextualise the materiality from within which these narratives emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper asks how libraries have rhythmed women's education and everyday lives. It draws on women's narratives of library use in a multicultural suburb of Birmingham, UK. It shows that women's use of libraries exists in rhythmic relations with other times and places, both public and private. The narratives reveal the value of the library in offering space for women to claim time for themselves in the Lefebvrian "weak time, the stops, silences, blanks". Routines, cycles and continuity of use over various scales are important in women's engagements with libraries. Memorable too are particular moments. Punctuating the quotidian rhythms of library use, these moments are individual stories of rupture; times of great significance in women's lives. Changes to library provision have, therefore, rhythmic consequences, with reduced opening hours and library closure bringing arrhythmia. Through the library, women are linked to particular histories and they enter into shared rhythms, within both the present and the past. Libraries, this paper argues, offer not only an important public space but also public time.1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic research focused on Tibetan women-in-exile is rare. Also, very few existing studies explore the perspectives of Tibetan women on the Tibetan nation and their contributions to Tibetan nationalism. Therefore, considering this gap in the literature, this paper explores the question of the Tibetan nation from the perspectives of Tibetan women-in-exile and seeks to understand their contributions to Tibetan nationalism. The paper draws from qualitative interviews conducted with Tibetan women in Dharamsala. The findings indicate that as agents and symbols of nationalism, educated Tibetan women-in-exile express ambivalence in their ideas of Tibetan women's contributions to Tibetan nationalism. Their narratives help us expand our understanding of Tibetan nationalism and reveal how women as active agents of nationalism contribute to the Tibetan movement. At the same time, the paper argues, the Tibetan women-in-exile have not escaped the symbolism of nationalism attributed to them by the larger Tibetan society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labor history and international relations (IR) each offer insights regarding the extent to which women contribute to non-state armed groups and the value of their labor. Yet questions remain about how agency in joining armed movements – and, conversely, the forced participation of women – are operationalized and even fetishized by observers. Positivist empirical work in IR has operationalized agency and coercion as a dichotomy in gendered wartime labor, implying that where women's labor is coerced it may have a lesser impact on the conduct of conflict or conflict outcomes. This paper challenges the existence of an agency-coercion binary, drawing on the case of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Analyzing archival sources in a manner informed by both feminist international relations and labor history scholarship, I show the complex interplay of agency and coercion in women's lived experience within a non-state armed group. I further reflect on how a temporal understanding of labor relations, examining coercion and choice at the moments of entry, work, and exit, contributes to a more complete understanding of the gender dynamics of wartime labor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws from necropolitics to apply an intertextual analysis of representational texts in order to foreground the constitutive role of race and gender in the construction of media texts. This construction is referred to in this paper as a meta-text which obtains from socio-cultural classifications which mark some groups as 'people' and others as 'unpeople', and thus, some groups as possessing 'internal lives' and others as only existing as 'surfaces'. Out of these grand, racing distinctions emanate the additional layers of gendered femininity, which is marked as white, and de-gendered 'non-femininity' which is Black. These meta-texts constitute the building blocks for the construction of meanings which then become representation as understood within textual analysis. The Osaka and Williams final in 2018 provides a highly illuminating instance in which these necropolitical processes occur, even as the paper attempts to demonstrate how African postcolonial [necropolitical] theory and critical cultural analysis complement in textual analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper interrogates the identities in the representations of women adorned in African cultural dress forms in contemporary Nigerian paintings. While many studies have explored the subject of African dress forms from other viewpoints, not many are known to investigate the topic from the perspective of contemporary Nigerian paintings. It is for this reason I purposively selected five paintings from different artists in which they represented women adorned in African dress forms to communicate the expressions of personal, social, religious, and cultural identities within different contexts. Although the contemporary paintings give clues to the expressions of identities in dress, the ideas and meanings conveyed were also interrogated in each work. In engaging the paintings in close case study interrogations, the paper combines formal analysis and cultural history methodologies. Formal analysis is adopted for the analysis of the formal elements in each painting, whereas cultural history is used to contextualise each painting within the culture and history that is recalled to give the representation its proper identity. Besides, the close case study analysis reveals that the artists drew inspiration from the personal aesthetics of women adorned in African dress forms in different Nigerian cultures. Through the representations, three notable African cultural identities are manifested, which include Yoruba, Gwari, or Gbagyi and Hausa cultures, aside from other identities interrogated in each painting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the variables per International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)-domain that are associated with upper limb (UL) function in women after breast cancer surgery. PubMed and Web of Science were searched until 7 January 2020. Eligibility criteria were: prospective investigation of an association between one or more variables of the ICF model and UL function in women after breast cancer surgery. PRISMA guidelines were used to conduct and report the systematic review. The Quality In Prognosis Studies tool (QUIPS) was used to evaluate risk of bias. Twelve studies were included (2244 participants). Risk of bias of the included studies was low to moderate. Variables at the ICF-function level that were systematically associated with decreased UL function across multiple included papers were: increased UL pain, decreased shoulder range of motion, decreased handgrip strength and a higher number of comorbidities. Results on the association between UL function and variables at other ICF-domains were conflicting. UL function was associated with certain variables at the ICF-function level. Variability in disease stages, treatment and measurement methods might explain inconsistent associations with other variables. Only limited studies investigated associations between UL function and psychosocial factors. This paper gives an overview of associations between different variables of the ICF model and UL dysfunctions in women after breast cancer surgery. Identified associated factors are situated at the ICF function level, i.e., UL pain, decreased handgrip strength and shoulder (abduction) ROM. These factors are modifiable and should be monitored, prevented and treated in physical therapy practice. UL dysfunction is not consistently associated with treatment-related variables. The role of psychosocial personal factors in UL dysfunctions should be considered and further explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's lives have been affected exponentially by the COVID_19 pandemic. In this paper, we explore some of the ways in which women's everyday experiences of paid and unpaid labour have exacerbated pre-existing gender inequalities. We examine the impact that the pandemic has had on women's experiences within the domestic sphere, as hyper-normative and historical representations of women as the 'natural' primary carers for children and the home have resurfaced. For many, this has led to an almost unbearable pressure to provide full-time domestic care while simultaneously holding down paid work. Drawing on theoretical feminist debate, which has emphasised the importance of intersectional approaches to gender, the paper shows how the fusion of domestic worlds and public lives has brought domestic issues and challenges to the fore and has meant that women's participation in paid work has been disproportionately affected by the pandemic in a number of ways. Women have an increased likelihood of, first, furlough and redundancy; second, of working in 'high-risk' jobs; third, of experiencing poverty; and fourth, of bearing the brunt of domestic labour and childcare intensified during the pandemic. Written by both an academic and practicing full-time politician, it offers a unique perspective on this subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]