Gender studies: women and girls Books

Book SynopsisMaking Feminist Media provides new ways of thinking about the vibrant media and craft cultures generated by Riot Grrrl and feminism's third wave. It focuses on a cluster of feminist publications - including BUST, Bitch, HUES, Venus Zine, and Rockrgrl - that began as zines in the 1990s. By tracking their successes and failures, this book provides insight into the politics of feminism's recent past.Making Feminist Media brings together interviews with magazine editors, research from zine archives, and analysis of the advertising, articles, editorials, and letters to the editor found in third-wave feminist magazines. It situates these publications within the long history of feminist publishing in the United States and Canada and argues that third-wave feminist magazines share important continuities and breaks with their historical forerunners. These publishing lineages challenge the still-dominant - and hotly contested - wave metaphor categorization of feminist culture. The stories, struggles, and strategies of these magazines not only represent contemporary feminism, they create and shape feminist cultures. The publications provide a feminist counter-public sphere in which the competing interests of editors, writers, readers, and advertisers can interact. Making Feminist Media argues that reading feminist magazines is far more than the consumption of information or entertainment: it is a profoundly intimate and political activity that shapes how readers understand themselves and each other as feminist thinkers.Trade Review"In her accessible and entertaining Making Feminist Media, Elizabeth Groeneveld brings a nuanced historicizing eye to print magazines in the 90s and 00s. By connecting contemporary zines and magazines to the publishing practices, constraints, and market conditions of the late 19th and mid-20th centuries, Groeneveld illuminates historical continuities that are too often ignored. And with her close readings, she demonstrates that feminist print media--like feminism itself--is always more complicated than as described by others." -- Lisa Jervis, founding editor and publisher of Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop CultureTable of ContentsList of Figures and TablesAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Making Feminist Media: Third-Wave Magazines on the Cusp of the Digital Age PART ONE: HISTORICIZING THIRD-WAVE MAGAZINES 1. ""Someone Else Actually Cares as Much as Me"": Sassy Magazine, Grrrl Zine Culture, and Feminist Magazines2. ""Serious and Material Business"": Third-Wave Magazines and the Marketplace in Historical Perspective PART TWO: THE POLITICS OF THIRD-WAVE MAGAZINES 3. HUES Magazine, the Politics of Alliance, and Critical Multiculturalism4. ""Be a Feminist or Just Dress Like One"": BUST, Fashion and Lifestyle Feminism5. ""Join the Knitting Revolution"": Representations of Crafting in Feminist Magazines6. Dildo Debacle: Advertising Feminist Sexualities in Bitch Magazine ConclusionAppendix: Publication Histories of Third-Wave MagazinesNotesWorks CitedIndex

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Book SynopsisSigrid Undset''s Catherine of Siena was critically acclaimed as one of the best biographies of this well-known and amazing fourteenth-century saint. Known for her historical fiction, which won her the Nobel Prize for literature in 1928, Undset based this factual work on primary sources about Catherine of Siena, her own experiences living in Italy, and her profound understanding of the human heart.  

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Book SynopsisThe economic and political empowerment of women continues to be a central focus for development agencies worldwide; access to medical care, education and employment, as well as women's reproductive rights remain key factors effecting women's autonomy. Feminisms, Empowerment and Development explores what women are doing to change their own personal circumstances whilst providing an in-depth analysis of collective action and institutionalized mechanisms aimed at changing structural relations. Drawing on unique, original research and approaching empowerment as a complex process of negotiation, rather than a linear sequence of inputs and outcomes, this crucial collection highlights the difficulty of creating common agendas for the advancement of women's power and rights, and argues for a more nuanced, context-based approach to development theory and practice. An indispensible text for anyone interested in gender and development, this book shows that policies and approaches to development that view women as instrumental to other objectives will never promote women's empowerment as they fail to address the structures by which gender inequality is perpetuated over time.Trade ReviewA helpful book at the right time. After decades of trying to get women's rights to the top of policy-making agendas, it is refreshing to read sound analysis about the pitfalls, "rallying points" and "hidden pathways" that feminist activists, organizations and movements are today facing. * Nicky McIntyre, Mama Cash *This book, with rich empirically grounded chapters from around the world, is a truly feminist multidisciplinary collection that brings the discourse on women's empowerment to a new level. * Radhika Balakrishnan, Rutgers University *In a neoliberal development paradigm obsessed with silver bullets for complex social challenges, this book is a transformative text that reveals the multifaceted, unpredictable and even contradictory results of empowerment processes. Its rich array of insights and lessons - most powerfully articulated in the voices of women engaged in the struggle - has immense value for researchers, activists, policy makers, and the aid and philanthropic community. I consider this a vitally important text for all those who believe there can be no development or social justice without gender justice. * Srilatha Batliwala, Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) *Based on context-specific, wide-ranging and incisive analysis, this innovative and insightful book ... raises hard and serious questions that help us lay to rest conventional assumptions and easy generalizations related to women's empowerment. It provides a stimulating and solid contribution to ongoing debates on social change. * Zenbework Tadesse, women's rights activist and member of the board of DAWN *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Negotiating Empowerment - Andrea Cornwall and Jenny Edwards 1. Legal Reform, Women's Empowerment and Social Change: The Case of Egypt - Mulki Al-Sharmani 2. Quotas: A Pathway of Political Empowerment? - Ana Alice Alcantara Costa 3. Advancing Women's Empowerment or Rolling Back the Gains? Peace Building in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone - Hussaina J. Abdullah 4. Education: Pathway to Empowerment for Ghanaian Women? - Akosua K. Darkwah 5. Paid Work as a Pathway of Empowerment: Pakistan's Lady Health Worker Programme - Ayesha Khan 6. Steady Money, State Support and Respect Can Equal Women's Empowerment in Egypt - Hania Sholkamy 7. Changing Representations of Women in Ghanaian Popular Music - Akosua Adomako Ampofo and Awo Mana Asiedu 8. Subversively Accommodating: Feminist Bureaucrats and Gender Mainstreaming - Rosalind Eyben 9. Reciprocity, Distancing and Opportunistic Overtures: Women's Organizations Negotiating Legitimacy and Space in Bangladesh - Sohela Nazneen and Maheen Sultan 10. Empowerment as Resistance: Conceptualizing Palestinian Women's Empowerment - Eileen Kuttab 11. Crossroads of Empowerment: The Organization of Women Domestic Workers in Brazil - Terezinha Gonçalves 12. Women's Dars and the Limitations of Desire: The Pakistan Case - Neelam Hussain 13. The Power of Relationships: Money, Love and Solidarity in a Landless Women's Organization in Rural Bangladesh - Naila Kabeer and Lopita Huq 14. Women Watching Television: Surfing between Fantasy and Reality - Aanmona Priyadarshini and Samia Afroz Rahim 15. Family, Households and Women's Empowerment through the Generations in Bahia, Brazil: Continuities or Change? - Cecilia M. B. Sardenberg

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Book SynopsisIn this highly original work, Mary Njeri Kinyanjui explores the trajectory of women's movement from the margins of urbanization into the centres of business activities in Nairobi and its accompanying implications for urban planning. While women in much of Africa have struggled to gain urban citizenship and continue to be weighed down by poor education, low income and confinement to domestic responsibilities due to patriarchic norms, a new form of urban dynamism - partly informed by the informal economy - is now enabling them to manage poverty, create jobs and link to the circuits of capital and labour. Relying on social ties, reciprocity, sharing and collaboration, women's informal 'solidarity entrepreneurialism' is taking them away from the margins of business activity and catapulting them into the centre. Bringing together key issues of gender, economic informality and urban planning in Africa, Kinyanjui demonstrates that women have become a critical factor in the making of a postcolonial city.Trade ReviewWomen and the Informal Economy is a well-researched critical analysis, providing new perspectives on urbanization in Kenya. The book is essential reading for geographers, planners, policy makers and students of African urbanization and gender studies. * Agnes Musyoki, professor of human geography, University of Venda *Kinyanjui has presented us with a fresh way of understanding the complexities associated with women's socio-economic empowerment in a hostile city, in terms of access to economic space. This book is a paradigm shift in the way we talk and write about poverty alleviation in marginalized communities! * Faith Maina, professor of education, State University of New York, Oswego *This is a powerful case study, with important implications for urban planning and development in sub-Saharan Africa. Kinyanjui provides vital evidence of the genuine significance of women's informal economic activity for contemporary Nairobi. It is a concise, seminal contribution, very effectively situated in the burgeoning literature of African urban studies. * Garth Myers, Urban and International Studies, Trinity College, Hartford *The informal sector dominates Africa's economy and women have long played an important role in it. However, their contribution to the continent's urban informal economy is neither well understood nor documented. I applaud Kinyanjui for this timely volume on the contributions of women to the continent's urban informal economy and to the broader postcolonial African urban scene. * Kefa M. Otiso, associate professor of urban and economic geography, Bowling Green State University *Table of Contents1. Introduction 2. Theorizing planning and economic informality in an African city 3. Economic informality in Nairobi between 1980 and 2010 4. Women in Nairobi 5. Women, mobility and economic informality 6. Women in economic informality in Nairobi 7. The quest for spatial justice: from the margins to the centre 8. Women's collective organizations and economic informality 9. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisWomen have traditionally played a vital part in Islam throughout Central Asia - the vast area from the Caspian Sea to Siberia. With this ground-breaking and original study, Razia Sultanova examines the experiences of Muslim women in the region and the ways in which religion has shaped their daily lives and continues to do so today. 'From Shamanism to Sufism' explores the fundamental interplay between religious belief and the cultural heritage of music and dance and is the first book to focus particularly on the role of women. Based on evidence derived from over fifteen years of field work, 'From Shamanism to Sufism' shows how women kept alive traditional Islamic religious culture in Central Asia, especially through Shamanism and Sufism, even under Soviet rule when all religion was banned. Nowhere was the role of women more important than in the Ferghana Valley in Uzbekistan, the cradle of female Islamic culture and a centre for women's poetry and music. This area is home to the 'Otin-Oy', a sisterhood of religiously educated women and members of Sufi orders, who take a leading part in rituals, marking the pivotal moments in the Islamic calendar and maintaining religious practices through music and ritual dances. Sultanova shows how the practice of Islam in Uzbekistan has evolved over time: long underground, there was a religious resurgence at independence in 1991, boosting national Uzbek identity and nationalism - 500 new mosques were built - only to be followed by a return to persecution by a repressive state under the banner of the 'war against terror'. Now events have come full circle, and once again covert worship by women remains crucial to the survival of traditional Muslim culture. Ritual and music are at the heart of Central Asian and Islamic culture, not only at weddings and funerals but in all aspects of everyday life. Through her in-depth analysis of these facets of cultural life within Central Asian society, 'From Shamanism to Sufism' offers important insights into the lives of the societies in the region. The role of women has often been neglected in studies of religious culture and this book fills an enormous gap, restoring women to their rightful historical and cultural context. It will be essential reading for anyone with a serious interest in the History or Religion of Central Asia or in Global Islam.Trade Review'Sultanova has written a magnificent portrait of the social life and mores of the mysterious and little known but largest land mass in the world. Her remarkable book portrays past and present Central Asia through its music and lifestyle that includes Shamanism and popular Sufism. A wonderful read.' Ahmed Rashid, author of Taliban 'This book shows the role played by Central Asian women in the harmonisation of non-Muslim and Muslim spiritual and ethical trends and arts in Shamanism and popular Sufism. It gives insight into the interconnection between music and mysticism and the mentality of Sufi female musicians and singers.' Thierry Zarcone, Senior Researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris 'An insightful work that scholars from many disciplines will enjoy.' Earle Waugh, Professor of Islamic Studies, University of AlbertaTable of ContentsPreface Chapter 1: Historical Overview 1. Early religious practices and beliefs 2. Islam in Central Asia 3. Central Asia under Russian and Soviet rule 4. Land ploughed by Cultural Revolution Chapter 2: Shamanism in Central Asian nomadic culture 5. Theory and practise 6. How to become shaman? 7. Women and Shamanism in Central Asia 8. Kyrgyz heroic epic 9. Shamanism and Islam Chapter 3: Sufism in Central Asia 10. Historical development 11. Main Tariqas of Central Asia Chapter 4:Female Sufism: historical overview 12. Female Sufism: historical overview 13. Sufi poetry in Central Asia: Ghazal and female poets Chapter 5: Transmission of Sacred Knowledge 14. Usto-shogird in medieval sources 15. Usto-Shogird tradition today 16. Mehterlik or Professional guilds 17.Professional training: Hafizlik Chapter 6: Music and Female Sufis . 18. Sufi Masters in Music 19. Sufi music in Central Asia: from court to folk traditions 20. Maqam music and Sufism 21. Female Maqam singers 22. Munojat Yulchieva 23. Sufi origin genre Katta Ashulla Chapter 7: Interaction of Shamanism and Sufism 24. From healing rituals to protective songs 25.Femalee shamanism in Turkmenistan 26.Galeke 27.Tajikistan Chapter 8: Female music making: Musical instruments and Dance 29. Musical instruments: from Shamanism to Sufism 30. Dutar 31. Dances in Central Asian culture Chapter 9 : Female folk Sufism 32. Female Sufi practises 33. Otin-Oy as female Sufi Pirs 34. How to become an Otin-Oy 35. Current situation: female religious school in Bukhara Chapter 10 : Female rituals led by Otin-Oys 36. Female rituals 37. Zikr 38. Other rituals led by Otin-Oy 39. “O’qish” (reading) as a ritual’s session 40. Calssification 41. Ichkari: the inner space 42. Pre-Islamic believes and practices in rituals 43. Female rites of passage 44. Toy: the main ritual in human life as a Sufi feast 45. Calendar Rituals led by Otin-oy 46. Otin-Oy in Uzbek pop music Chapter 11: Otin-Oy in the neighbouring areas 47. Female rituals in Turkic speaking world 48. How musical are female rituals Conclusion Apendix: 1. Female poetry References and notes Comprehensive glossary Bibliography

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Book SynopsisIs late modern art 'anti-aesthetic'? What does it mean to label a piece of art 'affectless'? These traditional characterizations of 1960s and 1970s art are radically challenged in this subversive art history. By introducing feeling to the analysis of this period, Susan Best acknowledges the radical and exploratory nature of art in late modernism. The book focuses on four highly influential female artists--Eva Hesse, Lygia Clark, Ana Mendieta and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha--and it explores how their art transformed established avant-garde protocols by introducing an affective dimension. This aspect of their work, while often noted, has never before been analyzed in detail. Visualizing Feeling also addresses a methodological blind spot in art history: the interpretation of feeling, emotion and affect. It demonstrates that the affective dimension, alongside other materials and methods of art, is part of the artistic means of production and innovation. This is the first thorough re-appraisal of aesthetic engagement with affect in post-1960s art.Trade Review"At last, here is, a book that lifts the ban on affect imposed on art criticism and theory by the 'anti-aesthetic' school that has been dominating the scene in the last forty years! Taking her clues from four of the best women artists whose work spans the period, Susan Best convincingly demonstrates that if you close the door of the house of art to feelings, they enter through the window. What's more, this is valid for the supposedly 'anaesthetic' art movements - minimal and conceptual art - that form the contextual background of her case studies: they are no less aesthetic than the art of the past or the most recent present." Thierry de Duve, Historian and Theorist of contemporary art and Professor at University of Lille "Susan Best's remarkably lucid and paradoxical project begins the process of recovering feeling and emotion in late modern art. Her landmark study of four women artists - Hesse, Clark, Mendieta and Cha - rescues both the feminine and the aesthetic from the ghetto, by an astute combination of psycho-analysis and art history." Dr. Ann Stephen, Senior Curator, Sydney University Museums "Visualizing Feeling develops a compelling argument for focusing on precisely the centrality of affect and feeling in any understanding of the art of the 1960s and 1970s, where it seemed that affect no longer had a place. In exploring the work of four powerful and sometimes neglected women artists, she shows how it is paradoxically where affect is consciously minimized that it nevertheless returns to haunt the art work as its most powerful force. Art works affect before they inform, perform or communicate. Sue Best demonstrates that by restoring the question of affect and emotion to the art work, new kinds of questions can be asked about the feminine in art, questions that affirm the personal and political power of these works of art." Elizabeth Grosz, Rutgers University, author of Chaos, Territory, Art: Deleuze and the Framing of the Earth, Columbia University Press, 2008Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Minimalism and Subjectivity: Aesthetics and the Anti-aesthetic Tradition Chapter 2: Mild Intoxication and other Aesthetic Feelings: Psychoanalysis and Art Revisited Chapter 3: Lygia Clark: Participation, Affect and the Body Chapter 4: Eva Hesse's Late Sculptural Works: Elusive Expression and Unconscious Affect Chapter 5: Ana Mendieta's Silueta Series: Affect Miniaturisation and Emotional Ties Chapter 6: The Dream of the Audience: The Moving Images of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Conclusion: Which Anthropomorphism?

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Book SynopsisThis book is a fascinating and gripping examination of birth, sex and abuse during the Nazi era. Dr Chalmers' unique lens on the Holocaust provides a stunning and controversial expose of the voices of both Jewish and non-Jewish women living under Nazi rule. Based on twelve years of study, the book takes an inter-disciplinary view incorporating women's history, Holocaust studies, social sciences and medicine, in a unique, cutting-edge examination of what women themselves said, thought and did.

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Book SynopsisThis latest book in the Psychoanalysis and Women series includes writings from practising psychoanalysts mainly from Italy and Europe. They take a wide sweep in exploring many aspects of women's creativity with an emphasis throughout the chapters on the contribution of dreaming to creativity. It takes as its starting point creativity in clinical work in the consulting room, and puts forward new perspectives on psychoanalytic theory. The focus then turns to creativity in the life cycle, particularly when there are delays and difficulties in becoming pregnant, as well as the everyday creativity in overcoming obstacles to intimacy and coupling and being able to allow the female body in particular to be receptive to growing and nurturing an infant human being. It turns next to aspects of female creativity in the arts in the broadest sense, discussing artworks and sculpture, film and literature. Lastly, it considers aspects of creative living in society, the large, small and unseen creativity in culture, society and the structures that we live with. This book is dedicated to the memory of Mariam Alizade, who, as the second Chair of the International Psychoanalytical Association's Committee on Women and Psychoanalysis (COWAP), lived with such creativity.Trade Review'The title tells the truth: there is so much creativity in this book, which is not at all academic and which deals with a number of moving topics. More than about women, it speaks about our world, contemporary life and many stories seen from a woman's perspective. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that this is a scientific book, based on that amazing human science that is psychoanalysis. Faced with this blossoming of female creativity, it is only natural to refl ect on how much women psychoanalysts still have to contribute in the future to the advancement of our understanding of mental life, both in individuals and in society as a whole.'- Stefano Bolognini, President of the International Psychoanalytical Association'Feminine creativity - both psychic and biological - has for a long time remained a closely guarded secret despite the efforts that female analysts have made to cast light on the prevailing darkness. This bold and beautiful book about female creativity is delivered by Laura Tognoli Pasquali and Frances Thomson-Salo as tender midwives. The labour has been induced by both men and women - their feminine and masculine elements together contributing to the birth of the book.'- Elina Reenkola, training analyst of the Finnish Psychoanalytic Society, past European co-chair of COWAP, and author of The Veiled Female CoreTable of ContentsIntroduction -- Creativity in Psychoanalytic Theory -- Creativity and authenticity -- Discussion of “Creativity and authenticity” by Irma Brenman Pick -- Listening, technique, and all that jazz -- William, did you say, “Much Ado about Nothing”? -- Discussion of “William, did you say: ‘Much Ado about Nothing’?” by Juan Eduardo Tesone -- Female elements and functions in creativity -- Women and creativity -- Creativity in Psychoanalytic Practice throughout the Life Cycle -- When creativity restarts: distorted and adaptive forms -- A little girl’s analysis -- A psychoanalyst in the labour room: the birth of emotions -- Generativity and creativity: dialogue between an obstetrician and a psychoanalyst -- Dreaming about pregnancy when it is not there: two clinical cases -- A particular kind of sterility -- Discussion of “A particular kind of sterility” by Jones de Luca -- “With you I can bleat my heart out”*—older women in psychoanalytic practice -- Creativity in the Arts and Literature -- Using contents from a sewing box: some aspects of the artwork of Sonia Delaunay and Louise Bourgeois -- Commentary on Brodeuses -- The voice of the mother in To the Lighthouse -- Living Creatively in Society -- Happily ever after: depictions of coming of age in fairy tales -- Cultural altruism and masochism in women in the East -- Horses and other animals: some background obstacles to female creativity in Russia -- Is healing possible for women survivors of domestic violence? -- No peaceable woman: creativity in feminist political psychoanalysis—commemorating Margarete Mitscherlich-Nielsen (17.7.1917–12.6.2012) -- Should we as psychoanalysts apologise to women? -- Maria Pia Conte -- Laura Tognoli Pasquali -- Afterword

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