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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]

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]

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 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]

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]

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]

When the 2nd Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Henry Cavendish died in 1691, he left behind one of the wealthiest estates in England. Having no male heir, he chose to leave his fortune to his favourite daughter Margaret. This decision was not well received by other family members, leading to a lengthy conflict culminating in court proceedings that attempted to contest the will. Utilising both judicial sources as well as personal correspondence, this paper examines the role and influence of the women within the Cavendish family in this process. It explores the methods by which they were able to participate both in and outside of court, and how they utilised both practical and emotional tactics to achieve their aims. This paper argues that the idealised roles of wife, mother and widow offered women a role of influence, lending credibility to their testimonies as well as enabling them to effectively manage family discord. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A plethora of research has focused on how the pandemic has shifted human relations with space, place and wellbeing. Yet, to date few have focused on how the return to public spaces after extended periods of lockdown is impacting subjective wellbeing, particularly amidst a context with fluctuating levels of risk, rapidly changing policy demands and expectations, and different affective responses to such regulations. In this paper we re-turn with the voices of 17 women who were living in Aotearoa New Zealand during the early stages of the pandemic and working in the sport or fitness industry before, during and after the first national lockdown. Drawing upon insights from feminist materialist theory, we explore how indoor fitness studios materialised as 'riskscapes' in women's negotiations of the affects that shaped their re-turn. Whereas some women experienced fear and anxiety in re-turning to familiar spaces 'made strange' through new risks, responsibilities, routines and objects (i.e. sanitizer, floor markings), others came to new appreciations for the importance of human connection offered through shared movement experiences. Conceptualizing these different affective relations as processes of becoming, we trace the multiple and more-thanhuman relations through which wellbeing and risk were co-implicated in particular ways of knowing-moving-becoming in the re-turn to fitness. Recognising the effects of continued uncertainties, this paper contributes material feminist insights through women's affective engagements with the social world, surfacing more-than-human wellbeing in the processes of re-turning to familiar spaces 'made strange' in and through pandemic space and time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the styles and the role of monumentality have undergone significant transformations in the West, in line with wider trends of democratization and demystification of arts. Nevertheless, statues depicting human figures are still important landmarks in urban cultures. The statue wars that have erupted in several countries during recent years to challenge the racist, colonial and/or patriarchal vision embodied by many monuments, are a tangible demonstration of this. However, the topic remains understudied in the scientific literature. This research paper is intended as a contribution to begin addressing this gap by focusing on the dimension of gender in public monuments. We analyze statues in Italy depicting contemporary secular female figures. The aim of this paper is to research gender-based patterns or stereotypes that are specific to cultural heritage and urban design. The sample consists of 34 statues, distributed throughout the Italian national territory. A thematic analysis is conducted on the corpus integrating visual, narrative, aesthetic and sociological elements. The results reveal the existence of evident and widespread forms of stereotyping and discrediting of the female figure in Italian monuments, as well as the inadequacy of cultural policies, both in small provincial as well as larger urban contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The schoolteacher and poet Hilja Pärssinen (1876–1935) was the most influential and internationally best-known female socialist in Finland before the Finnish Civil War (1918). She was a member of the Finnish Parliament, the leader of the Finnish Social Democratic Women’s Movement, and the most prominent ideologue of the Finnish Social Democratic Party’s (SDP) welfare programme. For instance, Pärssinen promoted paid maternity leave, public daycare, legalised abortion, and compulsory education with free meals and school supplies.Historians have acknowledged Pärssinen’s leading role as the architect of Finnish socialist welfare, but also pointed out that she was an aggressive opponent of the Evangelical Lutheran church. However, the studies have mainly failed to note that instead of rejecting religion itself, Pärssinen claimed all the reforms demanded by socialists were based on Christianity. Finnish scholars have argued—mainly based on writings by the party male elite—that the SDP rejected religion and adopted secular/antireligious ideology at the beginning of the twentieth century. I argue that this paradigm is based on an oversimplified and gendered interpretation. This paper will show that shifting the perspective from male socialist leaders to female ideologues can change and widen the comprehension of the history of socialism drastically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our standards of beauty have become sufficiently diverse. However, the representation of older women continues to be marginalized in mainstream media platforms, with the dominant ageist message revolving around the notion of 'failure.' For a woman, the 'horrors' of aging are felt more conspicuously, which renders her a devalued commodity. Within Indian society, aging is further contested by varied socio-cultural factors that prescribe an older woman to dress, behave and act according to her age and firmly reprimand any transgression from normative practices. This paper explains the complexities related to the prevailing aging/anti-aging discourses and discerns how older women influencers engage in challenging the negative stereotypes (like body shaming and sexageist derision) through the model of successful aging. Through select Instagram handles, the study analyses how the graying individuals collectively seek to direct or reclaim their power to forge alternative narratives/perspectives that encourage the aging/aged self to 'be' in her skin. The visual content from the Instagram profiles of Manjri Varde, Ravi Bala Sharma, Rajani Chandy, Seema Anand, and Usha Soman, who serve as representatives of redefining aging with purpose, has been critically analyzed. The results obtained have delineated how the social networking site has emerged as a space of resistance and empowerment- redefining beauty, desire, and agency within the contemporary youth-centric Indian culture and rendering possibilities that one can explore while growing old. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The labor exchange agreements signed between Turkey and several European countries in the 1960s resulted in a large population move to Europe. While the majority of workers were men, the share of women had increased over the years. Initially overlooked, women's transborder mobility came under public scrutiny from the mid-1960s onwards. Migration scholarship has demonstrated that sending states may impose restrictive policies on women's transborder mobility to regulate their sexuality. However, this research often relies on a binary model (travel bans/no bans) where attention is paid mostly to cases in the former group. Under the rubric of moral panic, this paper offers an analytical framework to explore how control over women's sexuality can be maintained in contexts where no travel bans are adopted. Drawing on archival research, this study reveals that women's mobility triggered a moral panic in Turkey, prompting various political demands for prohibitive policies, which were met with state reluctance. Still, the disciplinary control over women's sexuality was maintained through a transnational network of ethno-national kin, spontaneous and independent of any state authority. While it was not designed to fill any power vacuum, the network effectively exercised disciplinary control over numerous Turkish women, employing discursive and punitive practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a review of the literature in economics on the effect on earnings of human capital investment from Adam Smith to the early 1980s. It discusses the use of the net present value (NPV) technique by Walsh and Friedman and Kuznets, and Becker's use of the NPV to estimate the internal rate of return to schooling. The first regression-based approach was the Becker and Chiswick 'schooling-earnings function', which was expanded by Mincer to the 'human capital earnings function' (HCEF) by incorporating on-the-job training. Extensions of the HCEF in the 1970s and early 1980s are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sally Rooney's Normal People (2018) examines gender normality in a Post-Celtic Tiger Irish social context and a post-feminist cultural milieu, through detailed depictions of the material body and its manipulation by Millennial Irish youth. Employing Laura Mulvey's gaze theory and post-feminist theories, this article explores the materiality of the body by analyzing the depictions of the female and male body facing social gazes in both public and private spheres. The paper argues that both women and men are adjusting their identity and sexuality to cope with anxiety in a post-feminist culture. However, the novel also highlights the entanglement and backlash of post-feminist culture, as the male gaze and violence gain power as a symbolic practice of identity construction through interaction with the material body. As Rooney's characters rely more on material body interactions, the search for identity and cure of anxiety rely heavier on the material connectedness in a post-feminist way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The representation of motherhood and the feminine in Fiennes's Coriolanus has until recently been unduly overlooked. The present investigation provides an analysis of key aspects and crucial scenes of the film, in which the Shakespearean issues of femininity and motherhood are represented, reinforced, metaphorised and/or questioned. This paper argues that the significance of the female dimension is expanded in the cinematic version of the play and recoded in terms manageable and relevant to a new-millennium audience. This amplification of the feminine, and of motherhood in particular, partly redresses the gender balance in the film and figuratively represents what Coriolanus tries to escape but cannot avoid in his blind quest for impenetrable, self-sufficient masculinity, which is revealed as a destructive myth nurtured by the destructive mother culture of contemporary society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PurposeMotivationDesign/Methodology/ApproachMain findingsPractical implicationsNovelty/ContributionThe main objective of this study is to analyse the impact of auditor gender on audit fees, with a view to establishing whether there are any differences in audit price depending on the gender of the auditor.The existence of a gender gap in audit fees is a problem. In order to try to reduce this gap, it is necessary to understand the determinants of audit fees according to gender.The sample under analysis is made up of 3217 unlisted Spanish companies. In order to fulfil our aim, an audit fee model is put forward, applying a multiple linear regression analysis differentiated by auditor gender.The results point to an absence of any statistically significant association between audit fees and auditor gender. In contrast to other countries within the same context, Spanish female audit partners do not generate higher audit fees than their male counterparts; there is no female audit fee premium as there seems to be in other countries such as Belgium, France, Finland, China or the USA.Differences were found among the factors which determine audit fees; there tend to be fewer factors considered in audits signed by female auditors, with indicators related to the economic and financial situation of the company under audit excluded from the fees model. These results could be justified by differences between male and female auditors with respect to audit planning and efficiency.This paper is a contribution to the literature on gender in auditing, and offers up evidence on the impact of auditor gender on audit fees within a specific context that has not been studied in any depth, namely the Spanish auditing market for unlisted companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Existing literature has sought to characterize the broad cognitive impact of non-central nervous system cancer and its treatment, including chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, and hormonal regulation. However, despite the frequency of women that are diagnosed with breast and gynecological cancer, there is limited research on the specific cognitive experiences of women undergoing cancer treatment. Presently, the current literature lacks concise guidance for neuropsychologists to support the cognitive health of women facing cancer, despite the acknowledged impact of cancer interventions and chronic illness on cognitive outcomes. Method: Applying scoping review criteria outlined by Peters et al. (2015) and adhering to Preferred Reporting Items for Systemic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines, we conducted a comprehensive examination of literature spanning multiple databases (Google Scholar, PubMed, PsychINFO) with a focus on the cognitive impact of cancer treatment on women. Conclusions: Women are subject to unique treatment-related outcomes due to the impact of hormonal alterations, differences in metabolization of certain chemotherapies, and psychosocial risk factors. Despite the known impact of cancer intervention, chronic illness, and cancer-related sequelae on cognitive outcomes, the current literature does not parsimoniously outline best practices for neuropsychologists to promote the health of women experiencing cancer. The current paper (1) provides an overview of the cognitive implications of cancer treatment with an intentional focus on cancers that are more prevalent in women versus men, (2) addresses the characteristics of this impact for women undergoing cancer intervention(s), and (3) provides possible intervention and treatment strategies for mental health providers and neuropsychologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the onset of the apartheid era, Jewish women across South Africa began to publish community cookbooks to raise money for Jewish schools, synagogues, and other organizations. Through their combination of recipes, titles, advertisements, prefaces, and guidelines, community cookbooks narrated the economic, social, and cultural successes of the women who compiled them. In the postwar period, South African Jewish women sought a place for themselves in Jewish communal life, and in the white middle class of the country's new apartheid order. By producing and consuming community cookbooks, these women armed themselves with the organizational platform and the cultural capital that would help them claim that place. In order to be able to step into the public sphere while meeting their domestic obligations, they came to rely on the invisibilized labor of the black women who worked in their homes and kitchens. The paper uses cookbooks to think critically about the position of South African Jews in the apartheid system, analyzing how Jewish women benefited from the privileges of whiteness in the intimate arena of their homes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis study investigated the experience of self-harming behaviour that inflicts external injuries to the body in UK based Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi (UKBIP) women. A total of eight participants were recruited via purposive sampling and semi-structured interviews were carried out. The interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Analyses were carried out on an individual and group level and three super-ordinate themes, and nine sub-ordinate themes emerged. The superordinate themes were: ‘Powerlessness’ (‘Entrapment’, ‘Internalised Negativity’ and ‘Abused by my Environment’), ‘Mitigation’ (‘Releasing my Overwhelming Emotions’, ‘Connecting to my Pain’ and ‘Addicted to Self-harm’) and ‘Self-harm is Wrong’ (‘It must be Hidden’, ‘What have I done to myself?’ & ‘My Self-harm is Sinful’). The analyses revealed novel insights on the impact and importance of some South-Asian cultural values and beliefs on the experience of self-harm in South-Asian women. This paper will focus on the third superordinate theme and related sub themes, that of ‘Self-harm is Wrong’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been recognised as a serious health issue not only because of the immediate impacts at the time the injury occurs but even more so due to the longstanding impacts. Even though TBI is a globally recognised condition, the research is disproportionately focused on its incidence in, and immediate and long-term effects on men. A growing body of research suggests that generally, women who experience family violence are at high risk of TBI and suffer its impacts in ways that reflect gendered differences in the patterns and frequency of violence. In Australia, the social and physical costs of TBI are multiplied for Indigenous women, whose experience of disability and access to healthcare lies at the intersection of gender and race in the historical context of settler colonialism. The present study addresses the need for research into the sociodemographic inequalities that affect access to culturally appropriate hospital care, timely response systems, and flexible, safe and engaged social services. This paper draws on data from interviews and focus groups with Indigenous women, hospital staff and community-based service providers and suggests potential pathways for further research in settler-colonial settings elsewhere in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the intersection of culture, ethnicity, gender, and religion, this paper offers insights into the lived experiences of Nigerian women by adopting Nkomo and Ngambi’s multilevel framework on African women’s leadership to understand their work-family experiences in the Nigerian banking sector. Employing data from interviews with eleven Northern women and ten Southern women who live in the following states: Kano, Kaduna; Akure, Lagos, Ibadan; and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, the findings confirm the existence of patriarchal systems at the macro (social), meso (organizational), and micro (individual) levels of social action that shape Nigerian women’s work-family experiences. Nevertheless, as tradition and modernity interact to provide a hybrid social space within which these women negotiate the different levels, they demonstrated the ability to redefine femininity and womanhood and reject constraints that confine them. The women from both regions resisted conformity to the patriarchal systematic ideologies and cultural processes that placed them in a disadvantaged position. Despite social and cultural criticisms that restrict women’s movement and career options, their agency was evident in their narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While many studies have been devoted to interrogating the political history of the centralized Igala society and the enormous influence of the Atta and Achadu institutions on the Igbo polity and economy, little scholarly attention has been paid to analyzing, in reverse order, the influence of Igbo culture on the Igala society. Despite the precarious placement of women in traditional Igala-Igbo Nsukka borderland, the Umu-ada (women) institution represents one of the means through which women organize and assert power while promoting collective peace, security, development and socio-cultural transformation. We argue that the diffusion and adaptation of Umuada heritage in this region is traceable to geography, the influence of inter-ethnic marriage, trade, burial and funeral rites. The similarities and differences in organization and impact of this women institution in both Igbo Nsukka and Igala communities are appraised to show the preponderance of cultural dispersals in contemporary Nigeria. This paper relied on the use of both primary and secondary data. Primary data was obtained through oral interviews with aged Umuada (women) members of Igbo Nsukka-Igala communities including men. Oral data were intermeshed with secondary literature, especially published books and journal articles. The collected data were qualitatively analyzed using the cultural diffusion theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fiji's iTaukei (Indigenous) women contribute significantly to small-scale coastal fisheries, and are therefore integral to successful fisheries (co-)management, yet their role still remains underestimated. This paper explores an original pathway to highlight iTaukei women's role in Fiji's small-scale coastal fisheries; a pathway that, through a 'dwelling perspective', emphasises the socialities that are inseparable from this role. It is based on data collected during two distinct fieldwork periods, 2003–2004 and 2016–2018, in a village located on Gau, Fiji's fifth biggest island, in Lomaiviti Province. An overview of the fishing practices of the iTaukei women living in this village shows that fishing can be seen as both a gender-differentiated and a more-than-human, dynamic field of sociality. Furthermore, we argue that fishing is these women's main mode of active engagement with their marine environment, conceived as inseparable from land, and all its sentient constituents. This mode of engagement reflects the relational ontology inherent in the iTaukei all-encompassing concept of vanua, which includes a sense of environmental responsibility and stewardship. This mode of engagement and its 'procurement' dimension are adjusted over time through 'friction' with conservation regulations and ideas that are both internal and external to the fishing community. These conservation regulations and ideas are related to community-based marine resource initiatives, as well as to national fisheries management concerns and measures (including species-specific fishing bans). They give a supplemental dimension to women's interactions and engagement with the sea and its sentient constituents, far from reducing those to a mere divide between 'nature' and society/sociality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women working in sports media contend with unwanted attention during their careers, extending beyond evaluations of their knowledge to encompass judgements of their appearances and emotional management. Using Banet-Weiser's framework of popular feminism, within the 'economies of visibility', this research explores the experiences and strategies of women in sports media as they navigate increased -visibility. Working as a researcher-insider, the first author conducted semi--structured interviews with seven women working in sports media (early career to 35 years' experience), working in the UK and/or Ireland, across TV, radio, print and/or online formats. Collaborative reflexive thematic analysis by both authors resulted in the construction of two themes around 'heightened visibility' (including a subtheme of standing out) and 'blending in'. The findings indicate that while women are increasingly visible in the industry, the gender dynamics and conditions of the sports media workplace have not progressed to the same extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to estimate risk factors for type 2 diabetes in women. A case–control study included 99 newly diagnosed cases of type 2 diabetes and 198 controls. Descriptive statistics were used, and conditional univariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine differences between cases and controls. According to multivariate analysis-independent risk factors for T2DM were as follows: oral contraceptives (OR = 2.57; 95% CI = 0.99–6.62), and their longer duration of use (OR = 3.55; 95% CI = 1.79–6.99); greater quantity of coffee consumed (OR = 1.89; 95% CI = 1.06–3.39), occupation (odds ratio – OR = 3.17; 95% confidence interval – CI = 1.57–6.41); never been pregnant (OR = 5.88; 95% CI = 2.23–15.49); family history of diabetes (OR = 18.52; 95% CI = 7.25–47.62); overweight and obesity (OR = 2.13, 95% CI = 1.39–4.53); stress (OR = 4.42; 95% CI = 2.19–8.26), and the greater number of stressful life event (OR = 1.65; 95% CI = 1.22–2.23). The present study emphasizes the role of oral contraceptive use, a greater quantity of coffee consumed, occupation, never been pregnant, overweight and obesity, major stressful life events, and family history of diabetes in the development of type 2 diabetes. What is already known about this topic (1) It is well known that lifestyle factors and genetics are involved in the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and its complications. (2) Gender differences in T2DM are explained by differences in sex chromosomes, sex hormones, possible hormonal disbalance, lifestyle habits in nutrition, and physical activity. (3) The global prevalence of diabetes will increase to 366 million by 2030, even if the prevalence of obesity remains constant. (4) The vast majority of patients with diabetes have T2DM. (5) Knowledge of modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors for T2DM is important for the prevention of this disease. (6) Many factors have been investigated for their relation to T2DM, but data on the association between some of them and the risk for diabetes are not consistent. What this paper adds (1) Independent predictive factors for T2DM in women are oral contraceptive use and quantity of coffee consumption. (2) Other independent predictive factors for T2DM include occupation, never been pregnant, overweight and obesity, major stressful life events, and family history of T2DM. (3) A greater number of children was significantly negatively related to T2DM. (4) In this study, oral contraceptive use and especially their use for 5 years and more were significantly positively associated with T2DM after adjustment for potential confounding factors. (5) This study highlights, in particular, the need to target overweight and obese women who use oral contraceptives, have never been pregnant, and consume a greater quantity of coffee, with major stressful life events and a family history of diabetes. These groups are more vulnerable to T2DM; thus, prevention should focus on these groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the one-child policy in China, post-80s women have experienced dramatic social, economic, and political changes that differ from previous generations. This article explores post-80s women’s experiences of beautification in their different life stages from a feminist perspective, drawing upon 14 in-depth interviews with post-80s women to examine their perception of beauty and beauty practices in different life stages. Three main themes emerged that were intricately associated with two distinct life stages. During their transition from schoolgirls to young women, (1) participants perceive their younger selves as naïve, passive receivers of the beauty culture. When transitioning from young women towards becoming wives and mothers, (2) their values regarding beauty shift from emphasizing outer beauty to emphasizing inner beauty. (3) They also transition to embracing natural beauty standards. This paper argues that these women’s perceptions of beauty and beauty practices are fluid and change across different life stages. ‘Trivialised’ everyday beauty discourse exists to enable them to negotiate beauty practices and gender roles. This research suggests that young Chinese women, especially those leaving high school and entering university, would benefit from readily accessible academic feminist knowledge and debate regarding beauty culture to facilitate critical thinking and informed decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay investigates the sexual violence against Indian indentured women during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries on colonial plantations around the world through the lens of intimacy and labour. Beginning in the 1830s, Indian men, women, and children were brought to various overseas plantations by colonial planters under the indenture system, which was designed to fill the labour shortage that resulted from the 1833 abolition of slavery in the British Empire. This essay uses the petitions, depositions and letters of indentured women---available in colonial archives in both their native Indian languages and in English translation---to argue that the violence against women was not only perpetuated by plantation authorities but equally by Indian male indentured workers. The paper identifies two forms of violence on the plantations: colonial violence related to racial hierarchy and control over the subjugated subject and patriarchal violence related to Indian social control and domination. Each type of violence was related to intimacy, i.e. closeness of people on plantations. While colonial violence was enacted through power relations, the Indian male violence was enacted through imposition of the patriarchal norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual revictimization can have a negative impact on many facets of women's wellbeing, yet limited evidence exists regarding specific interventions that support healing and the reduction of further revictimization. This paper will explore regional and rural women's experience of a group-based empowerment program, the Shark Cage program, in Victoria, Australia. The "Shark Cage" program aims to address revictimization by empowering women and girls to build personal boundaries and assertiveness within the context of gender equality and human rights. Data were collected via participant observations across the 8-week program, in combination with semi-structured interviews with participants (N = 11) pre and post intervention. All participants had access to therapeutic support outside of the program. Findings indicate that the program fostered connections among women with shared experiences of sexual revictimization, reducing feelings of isolation. Participants detailed the benefit of developing and practicing skills in reducing revictimization, such as assertiveness and boundary setting. Program learning and recovery was embedded within a network of embodied emotions, social connections, cultural norms and place-based relations that influenced how participants recovery could be understood, processed and addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender-based violence (GBV) is an all-encompassing term that speaks to acts or threats that may lead to physical, sexual or emotional harm to an individual based on their gender. This paper provides a scoping review of research on gender-based violence among Somali refugee women in different parts of the world. Using the socio-ecological model as a framework, we reviewed 30 empirical studies focusing on some form of GBV among Somali refugee women. We identified societal, community and individual factors contributing to the experience of GBV. We also discuss how these factors influence women's willingness to access care, especially healthcare and social services. The review reveals that oftentimes, institutions that work closely with this population have a limited understanding of how closely culture affects the willingness and ability to seek help about GBV. Based on our analysis, we suggest ways in which social institutions and healthcare providers can provide culturally-safe support to Somali refugee women who have experienced some form of GBV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite an increase in published research investigating the development of sport for women and girls, to date there have been no attempts to review scholarly contributions rigorously and critically in this area. To address this issue, we first conducted an integrative review of research literature to portray an overarching and holistic picture of the field. Our comprehensive literature analysis following five-step process, provide evidence of the status quo of current research foci, authorship, theoretical frameworks, methodologies, and key research findings. Through this initial review, our study identified a distinct lack of intersectional representation of women and girls in the literature. As such, our focus shifted to a critical analysis and discussion of the intersectional works in the body of literature, calling to action for more thoughtful engagement with research participants, contexts, and foci. We conclude our study by providing new perspectives on key issues in research focused on developing sport for women and girls, and by outlining current research and theoretical gaps that provide the basis for future scholarly enquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]