Gender studies: women and girls Books

Book SynopsisDestined to transform its field, this volume features some of the most exciting feminist scholars and activists working within feminist political ecology, including Giovanna Di Chiro, Dianne Rocheleau, Catherine Walsh and Christa Wichterich. Offering a collective critique of the ‘green economy’, it features the latest analyses of the post-Rio+20 debates alongside a nuanced reading of the impact of the current ecological and economic crises on women as well as their communities and ecologies. This new, politically timely and engaging text puts feminist political ecology back on the map.Trade ReviewThis outstanding volume at last brings us a much-awaited sequel to the highly acclaimed Feminist Political Ecology. It illustrates like no other book I know the unprecedented coalitions being pioneered by women in regions across the world. * Arturo Escobar, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill *Moving beyond narratives of eco-hero/ines to nuanced explorations of identity, activism, and the complexity of environmental justice in the lived world, this collection represents a high-water mark in the new feminist political ecology. * Joni Seager, author of Earth Follies and Carson's Silent Spring *This wonderful book brings vital counter-visions and practices to today’s debates about the green economy and sustainable development. This should be required reading for all concerned with the troubling future of humanity on our planet. * Melissa Leach, University of Sussex *Table of ContentsIntroduction: are we 'green' yet? And the violence of asking such a question - Wendy Harcourt and Ingrid L. Nelson Section I: Positioning feminist political ecology 1. A situated view of feminist political ecology from my networks, roots and territories - Dianne Rocheleau 2. Contesting green growth, connecting care, commons and enough - Christa Wichterich 3. Life, nature and gender otherwise: feminist reflections and provocations from the Andes - Catherine Walsh Section II: Rethinking feminist political ecology 4. Feminist political ecology and the (un)making of 'heroes': encounters in Mozambique - Ingrid L. Nelson 5. Hegemonic waters and rethinking natures otherwise - Leila M. Harris 6. Challenging the romance with resilience: communities, scale and climate change - Andrea J. Nightingale Section III: Living feminist political ecology 7. A new spelling of sustainability: engaging feminist-environmental justice theory and practice - Giovanna Di Chiro 8. The slips and slides of trying to live feminist political ecology - Wendy Harcourt 9. Knowledge about, knowledge with: dilemmas of researching lives, nature and genders otherwise - Larissa Barbosa da Costa, Rosalba Icaza and Angélica María Ocampo Talero 10. World-wise otherwise stories for our endtimes: conversations on queer ecologies - Wendy Harcourt, Sacha Knox and Tara Tabassi

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Book SynopsisStraddling disciplines and continents, Feminist Futures interweaves scholarship and social activism to explore the evolving position of women in the South. Working at the intersection of cultural studies, critical development studies and feminist theory, the book's contributors articulate a radical and innovative framework for understanding the linkages between women, culture and development, applying it to issues ranging from sexuality and the gendered body to the environment, technology and the cultural politics of representation. This revised and updated edition brings together leading academics, as well as a new generation of activists and scholars, to provide a fresh perspective on the ways in which women in the South are transforming our understanding of development.Trade ReviewReadable and well written ... especially valuable in the classroom. * Choice *[A] valuable and often challenging volume, a winding river that yields nuggets of gold. * Gender and Development *While providing an unflinching account of the ravages of globalization, the authors uncover visions of radically transformative feminisms that are rooted in women’s daily struggles for survival. The women, culture and development approach that the authors embrace is more prescient and necessary than ever. * Amrita Basu, Amherst College *Provides a rich perspective on the lived experiences and agencies of women. A highly creative endeavour that will be valuable to activists and academics committed to both agendas of social justice and nuanced understandings of the effects of development. * Leela Fernandes, author of Transnational Feminism in the United States *A diverse and exciting tapestry of themes and authors, drawn from different disciplines and countries, assessing the situation of women in the South and speaking to the multiple challenges for the future. * Lourdes Beneria, Cornell University (Emerita) *A candid and hard-hitting agenda for feminist scholarship and activism in the South in the twenty-first century. * Patricia Mohammed, University of the West Indies *Table of ContentsPreface to the Second Edition 1. An Introduction to Women, Culture and Development - Kum-Kum Bhavnani, John Foran and Priya A. Kurian Visions I Maria’s Stories - Maria Ofelia Navarrete The Woof and the Warp - Luisa Valenzuela Consider the Problem of Privatisation - Anna Tsing Part I: Sexuality and the Gendered Body 2. More ‘"Tragedies" in Out-of-the-Way Places: Oceanic Interpretations of Another Scale’ - Yvonne Underhill-Sem with Kaita Sem 3. ‘Revolution with a Woman’s Face’? Family Norms, Constitutional Reform, and the Politics of Redistribution in Post/Neoliberal Ecuador - Amy Lind 4. Claiming the State: Revisiting Women’s Reproductive Identity in India’s Development Policy - Rachel Simon-Kumar 5. Abortion and African Culture: A Case Study of Kenya - Jane Wambui Njagi 6. Bodies and Choices: African Matriarchs and Mammy Water - Ifi Amadiume Visions II Empowerment: Snakes and Ladders - Jan Nederveen Pieterse Gendered Sexualities and Lived Experience: Revisiting the Case of Gay Sexuality in Women, Culture and Development - Dana Collins Revolutionary Women’s Struggle and Leadership: Building Local Political Power in Rural Areas in the Age of Neoliberal Globalization - Peter Chua ‘What Should I Say about a Dream?’: Reflections on Adolescent Girls, Agency and Citizenship - Gauri Nandedkar Part II: Environment, Technology, Science 7. New Lenses with Limited Vision: Shell Scenarios, Science Fiction, Storytelling Wars - David McKie with Akanksha Munshi-Kurian 8. Development Nationalism: Science, Religion and the Quest for a Modern India - Banu Subramaniam 9. What Would Rachel Say? - Joni Seager 10. Negotiating Human-Nature Boundaries, Cultural Hierarchies and Masculinist Paradigms of Development Studies - Priya A. Kurian and Debashish Munshi 11. The Intersection of Women, Culture and Development: Conversations about Visions for the Future – Take Two - Arturo Escobar and Wendy Harcourt Visions III Alternatives to Development: Of Love, Dreams and Revolution - John Foran Dreams and Process in Development Theory and Practice - Light Carruyo The Subjective Side of Development: Sources of Well-Being, Resources for Struggle - Linda Klouzal Part III: The Cultural Politics of Representation 12. Of Rural Mothers, Urban Whores and Working Daughters: Women and the Critique of Neocolonial Development in Taiwan’s Nativist Literature - Ming-yan Lai 13. Revisiting the mostaz’af and the mostakbar - Minoo Moallem 14. Mariama Bâ’s So Long a Letter: ‘Women, Culture and Development’ from a Francophone or Postcolonial Perspective - Anjali Prabhu 15. The Precarious Middle Class: Gender, Risk and Mobility in the New Indian Economy - Raka Ray Visions IV An Antipodean Take on Gender, Culture and Development Co-operation - Susanne Schech On Activist Scholarship and Women, Culture and Development - Julie Shayne Women, Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Sustainable Development - Sangion Appiee Tiu Reimagining Climate Justice: What the World Needs Now is Love, Hope ... and You - John Foran Postscript: A Conversation about the Future of Women, Culture and Development - Kum-Kum Bhavnani, John Foran, Priya A. Kurian and Debashish Munshi

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Book SynopsisIntroduces the work of African women's Christian theology by highlighting the influence of cultural hermeneutics and of relationality in this 'narrative theology'. This volume describes the context and methodology of Christian theology by Africans in the past two decades and provides brief descriptions of sample treatments of theological issues, such as creation, Christology, ecclesiology and eschatology. The aim of the book is to lead interested persons to the sources of African women's Christian theology. Throughout an effort has been made to illustrate how African culture and the multi-religious context has influenced Christian women's selection of theological issues. The importance of daily life to theology and the attempt to probe the spirituality of African Christian women is also evident in this introduction to African women's theology.

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Book SynopsisThis unique collection of in-depth case studies from Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe and North America demonstrates the importance of women and gender relations in plant genetic resource management and conservation. It provides a state-of-the-art overview of the concepts, relationships and contexts explaining the relatively hidden gender dimensions of people-plant relations. The contributors come from a rich range of disciplines including ethnobotany, geography, agronomy, anthropology, plant breeding, nutrition and development economics. They demonstrate how crucial women are to plant biodiversity management and conservation at household, village, and community levels; and how gender relations have a strong influence on the ways in which local people understand, manage, and conserve biodiversity. Continued access to biological resources is crucial to rural women‘s status and welfare, and their motivations therefore are a principal driving force countering processes of biological erosion. The contributors highlight the gender biases evident in much contemporary scientific research, policy and development practice. And they seek to contribute to a number of important debates, including the determinants of genetic erosion, the significance of gender in indigenous ethno-botanical knowledge systems, indigenous intellectual property rights systems and women‘s entitlements therein, and ecofeminist and other debates about the nature of gender-environment relations.Trade ReviewThis is a very important book. Taken together, the collected papers present a rich picture of the vital role played by peasant women around the world. They are struggling to preserve, in the face of modern agribusiness, the agricultural wisdom of the past and the diversity of plants that have been used for both food and medicine. It is vital that decision makers, especially in the developing world, heed the knowledge of these women who understand so well the art of a sustainable lifestyle. Women and Plants must be in the library of every individual who cares about the future of our planet.' Jane Goodall 'Women and Plants offers a uniquely gender-sensitive perspective on the management of biodiversity. These case studies empirically substantiate a broad range of cultures and ecologies, and offer keen insights for policy development and application.' Professor Nina L. Etkin, Associate Editor, Pharmaceutical Biology 'Focusing on traditional knowledge of indigenous people and local communities, and especially on the relationship between biodiversity and women in traditional societies worldwide, this book provides a well-marked path for the better understanding of biodiversity, its values and its importance for humans while at the same time highlighting community and ecosystem inter-relations.' Hamdallah Zedan, Executive Secretary to the Convention on Biodiversity 'At long last, the predominant role of women in the management of plant genetic resources has begun to be scientifically documented in this highly important book. While men were occupied by hunting and defending their territories, women were most likely domesticating many of the world's crops. Recognition that they hold much of the related knowledge and skills today is clearly overdue. But recognition is not enough - Farmer's Rights as per Article 9 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture must be assured now and for the future, if we are to give farmers - both women and men - incentives to continue to be the developers and custodians of the world's genetic resources. All those with responsibilities for promoting the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources should certainly read this book.' Jose Esquinas Alcazar, Secretary of the Commission on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization, and Father of 'Farmers' Rights' 'Wonderfully rich in evidence, persuasive in its argument, and wide-ranging in coverage, this timely edited volume on the gendered nature of knowledge about biodiversity enriches both scholarship and policy. It points to the critical need not only of recognizing the specificity of womens knowledge about plant species, but of strengthening their conservation efforts and bringing their interests to bear in arrangements for biodiversity development and benefit sharing.' Bina Agarwal, Professor of Economics, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi UniversityTable of Contents Foreword 1. Women and the Plant World: An Exploration - Patricia L. Howard Part 1: Culture, Kitchen and Conservation 2. Women in the Garden and Kitchen: The Role of Cuisine in the Conservation of Traditional House Lot Crops among Yucatec Mayan Immigrants - Laurie S. Z. Greenberg 3. Wild Food Plants and Arbëresh Women in Lucania, Southern Italy - Andrea Pieroni 4. Women and 'Wild' Foods: Nutrition and Household Food Security Among Rai and Sherpa Forager Farmers in Eastern Nepal - Ephrosine Daniggelis Part 2: Gender Relations, Women's Rights, and Plant Management 5. Farm Women's Rights and Roles in Wild Plant Food Gathering and Management in Northeast Thailand - Lisa Leimar Price 6. Gender and Entitlements in the Zimbabwean Woodlands: A Case Study of Resettlement - Allison Goebel Part 3: Gendered Plant Knowledge in Science and Society 7. 'Passing on the News': Women's Work, Traditional Knowledge and Plant Resource Management in Indigenous Societies of Northwestern North America - Nancy Turner 8. The Invisible Queen in the Plant Kingdom: Gender Perspectives in Medical Ethnobotany - Brij Kothari 9. The Gender of Crops in the Papua New Guinea Highlands - Paul Sillitoe Part 4: Plants, Women's Status and Welfare 10. Gendering the Tradition of Plant Gathering in Central Anatolia (Turkey) - Füsun Ertug 11. The Basket-Makers of the Central California Interior - Linda Dick Bissonnette 12. Exchange, Patriarchy and Status: Women's Homegardens in Bangladesh - Margot Wilson Part 5: Gender, Biodiversity Loss and Conservation 13. Losing Ground: Gender Relations, Commerical Horticulture and Threats to Local Plant Diversity in Rural Mali - Stephen Wooten 14. Modernization and Gender Dynamics in the Loss of Agrobiodiversity in Swaziland's Food System - Millicent Malaza 15. Arawakan Women and the Erosion of Traditional Food Production in Amazonas Venezuela - Shirley Hoffmann 16. Women and Maize Breeding: The Development of New Seed Systems in a Marginal Area of Southwest China - Yiching Song and Janice Jiggins

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Book SynopsisThe war in Iraq has put the condition of Iraqi women firmly on the global agenda. For years, their lives have been framed by state oppression, economic sanctions and three wars. Now they must play a seminal role in reshaping their country's future for the twenty-first century. Nadje Al-Ali challenges the myths and misconceptions which have dominated debates about Iraqi women, bringing a much needed gender perspective to bear on the central political issue of our time. Based on life stories and oral histories of Iraqi women, she traces the history of Iraq from post-colonial independence, to the emergence of a women's movement in the 1950s, Saddam Hussein's early policy of state feminism to the turn towards greater social conservatism triggered by war and sanctions. Yet, the book also shows that, far from being passive victims, Iraqi women have been, and continue to be, key social and political actors. Following the invasion, Al-Ali analyses the impact of occupation and Islamist movements on women's lives and argues that US-led calls for liberation has led to a greater backlash against Iraqi women.Trade Review'An invaluable book ... Al-Ali unearths the stories of Iraq's women, providing thoughtful analysis and reflection on the nature of memory and identity. [It] is also the author's personal story; an act of discovery and also the reclamation of an identity ... this book exhibits the complex and often difficult conjunction between history and personal lives.' Maysoon Pachachi, Filmmaker 'An original and engrossing book ... It speaks with an immediacy and an authenticity that should put many ersatz histories of Iraq to shame. I recommend it to all those interested in women's contributions to Iraq.' Hala Fattah, Historian 'An extraordinary book ... Particularly sobering is the author's balanced and sensitive analysis of the negative effects on women's rights and lives of the decade of sanctions and the current US- British occupation.' Lila Abu-Lughod, Columbia University 'Al-Ali draws a vivid picture of Iraqi society and politics using intense personal narratives, and offers alternative visions of modern Iraqi history. An absorbing read.' Sami Zubaida, Birkbeck, University of London 'A powerful interrogation of the complex relationships between experience, memory and truth, told through the dynamic narratives of Iraqi women ... a compelling critique of contemporary histories of Iraq which project back into the past relatively newly installed notions of religion and ethnicity.' Suad Joseph, University of California 'A finely nuanced account of the experiences of women in Iraq ... Al-Ali's experience of Iraqi society as an insider/outsider, and her understanding of the political background of her informants, enables her to explore the relationship between experiences, memory and truth in ways which will intrigue and excite her readers.' Peter Sluglett, University of Utah '[A collection of] the thoughts, memories and experiences of more than 100 women who, at one time or another, have joined Iraq's huge diaspora in America, Britain and Jordan....the pattern [Al-Ali] draws of the way that educated women's lives have changed and rechanged since Iraq's 1958 revolution is fascinating.' The Economist ‘[This] book makes a vital and original contribution to the literature on Iraq's modern history and to the literature on gender and women's studies. But at the same time its rich, fascinating and revealing text is enormously readable and accessible to the non-specialist, and it deserves a wide readership.’ Al-Hayat 'This book is a moving and engrossing exploration of the lives of Iraqi women...Exhibits author's informed and detailed understanding of the social and political history of Iraq...Forms an extremely valuable picture of their lives and experiences.' Voices '...should be required reading for anyone who wants to get beyond the usual litanies of depression about the war and the stereotypes about Middle East women held even by "progressives." Excerpts from a hundred interviews of Iraqi women stud the author's narrative to yeild a detailed, rich and contradictory "alternative history or histories" that begins with late-1940s post-colonial Iraq....It will be left to future writers to explore the rooms whose doors this hallmark new book has opened for us.' Ellen Cantarow, Counterpunch 'The women in Nadje Sadig al-Ali's book have some remarkable stories to tell...[she] has performed a vital service in bringing together these testimonies of the human toll for Iraqis of western policy that is never adequately explored in the mainstream media.' Mike Phipps, Labour Briefing 'This book is a powerful antidote to the image of Iraqi women as passive victims, promoted by apologists for USA imperial policy in order to justify sanctions, war and occupation. It opens a window onto a past all our rulers would rather forget, reminding us that women's struggles for liberation have shaped Iraq's history, even when mere survival would have been achievement enough.' Anne Alexander, International Socialism 'A moving, reflexive, and deeply felt account' 'Timely and crucial research.' Gender and DevelopmentTable of Contents Introduction 1. Living in the Diaspora 2. Living with the Revolution 3. Living with the Ba'th 4. Living with Wars on Many Fronts 5. Living with War and Sanctions 6. Living with the Occupation Conclusion Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisThis original study examines women's activism against war in areas as far apart as Sierra Leone, India, Colombia and Palestine. It shows women on different sides of conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Israel addressing racism and refusing enmity and describes international networks of women opposing US and Western European militarism and the so-called 'war on terror'. These movements, though diverse, are generating an antimilitarist feminism that challenges how war and militarism are understood, both in academic studies and the mainstream anti-war movement. Gender, particularly the form taken by masculinity in a violent sex/gender system, is inseparably linked to economic and ethno-national factors in the perpetuation of war.Trade Review'Cynthia Cockburn is one of the most valuable and innovative thinkers/activists/writers helping us all to make sense of women's myriad forms of resistance to war and militarism. She shows how it is they who are crafting fresh thinking about how nationalism, masculinity, imperialism, racism, classism and misogyny each and together fuel militarism and its deadly outcomes. This is a book to open our eyes and move us to action.' Cynthia Enloe 'Cynthia Cockburn is one of the best gender researchers in the world. In this very important book she opens global perspectives on women's politics and the struggle for peace, linking activist experience with up-to-date gender analysis.' Raewyn Connell, University of Sydney '..the book is welcome in that it highlights the positive role of worldwide women-only groups in opposing war, racism and violence against women and children.' Jean Turner, Morning Star 'A vivid, comprehensive, and compelling account of the day-to-day efforts of women peacebuilders and leaves the reader enlightened and enriched.' Gender and DevelopmentTable of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Different wars, women's responses 2. Against imperialist wars: three transnational networks 3. Disloyal to nation and state: antimilitarist women in Serbia 4. A refusal of othering: Palestinian and Israeli women 5. Achievements and contradictions: WILPF and the UN 6. Methodology of women's protest 7. Towards coherence: pacifism, nationalism, racism 8. Choosing to be 'women': what war says to feminism 9. Gender and war: what feminism says to war studies Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis moving autobiography of a Berber woman from the village of Tizi-Hibel in the Kabilie Mountains of Algeria is unique on a number of levels. Illegitimate, Fadhma Amrouche would have been killed with her mother to preserve the honour of the family, but for the intervention of the French authorities. Because of this, she received an education and eventually married a Christian convert, although they remained closely linked to their families of origin. Her account of battling poverty, illness and exile is a gripping story. Fadhma's fight for an education in a world of almost universal female illiteracy was nothing short of heroic. She and her children moved from the harsh, fixed hierarchies of a traditional Berber village with archaic means of production to become cosmopolitan Parisians. The journey was filled with heartbreak, and Fadhma never overcame her nostalgia for what she had lost, but never doubted that the journey had to be made. Her unassuming narrative throws an unforgettable light on Berber life, women's position in traditional societies and the tensions between governed and governors in the colonial world.Trade Review'Written in an intimate and frank voice [it] weaves personal memories with the sagas of family members, important family events and details of traditional village life. With excellent introductions on the Berbers, Christianity in the Kabylie, and the Amrouche family.' Kay Hardy Campbell, Saudi Aramco World

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Book Synopsis"From the age of thirteen I wandered abroad and at twenty-one I decided to take a little trip across France dressed as a man..." Maria ter Meetelen tells the story of her capture by Barbary pirates and twelve years as a slave at Meknes in Morocco. Straightforward and with no literary pretensions, her voice comes down the centuries, robust, clear, personal and often surprising: "I do not complain at having been so far across the world, nor of my twelve years of slavery, nor of the suffering the Turks caused me, I can rise above that. But the spitefulnessand derision that my husband and I suffered from our fellow-countrymen cannot be forgotten, and is impossible for me to set it down here in writing."

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Book SynopsisThe Middle Ages saw a flourishing of mysticism that was astonishing for its richness and distinctiveness. The medieval period was unlike any other period of Christianity in producing people who frequently claimed visions of Christ and Mary, uttered prophecies, gave voice to ecstatic experiences, recited poems and songs said to emanate directly from God and changed their ways of life as a result of these special revelations. Many recipients of these alleged divine gifts were women. Yet the female contribution to western Europe's intellectual and religious development is still not well understood. Popular or lay religion has been overshadowed by academic theology, which was predominantly the theology of men. This timely book rectifies the neglect by examining a number of women whose lives exemplify traditions which were central to medieval theology but whose contributions have tended to be dismissed as 'merely spiritual' by today's scholars. In their different ways, visionaries like Richeldis de Faverches (founder of the Holy House at Walsingham, or 'England's Nazareth'), the learned Hildegard of Bingen, Hadewijch of Brabant (exemplary voice of the Beguine tradition of love mysticism), charismatic traveller and pilgrim Margery Kempe and anchoress Julian of Norwich all challenged traditional male scholastic theology. Designed for the use of undergraduate student and general reader alike, this attractive survey provides an introduction to thirteen remarkable women and sets their ideas in context.Trade Review'Andrea Janelle Dickens appeals to the mystic in every reader with her inviting and informative treatments of a dozen medieval women. For the widely known (Teresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich, and Hildegard of Bingen) as well as the less studied (Angela of Foligno, Richeldis of Faverches, and Mechtilde of Hackeborn) matters of love, location, authority, pilgrimage, and anti-clericalism are common themes. This readable introduction is the perfect primer for the religious studies or gender studies classroom and has ample scholarly apparatus to encourage further study.' - Mary E Hunt, Co-director, Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER), Silver Spring, Maryland. 'The Female Mystic will serve as an excellent introductory textbook to the life, works and thought of twelve leading women mystics, from 11th Century Richeldis of Faverches to 16th Century Teresa of Avila. The discussion throughout is balanced, informed and clear. The author has both an eye for detail and an admirable capacity to sketch an insightful overview of each figure against the background of her own historical period and within her own social contexts. In these pages the mystical texts emerge as distinctively female, though open-endedly so, and as a vital communication of the rich, multi-faceted world of medieval Europe. The Female Mystic will open up new horizons for any reader who wishes to come closer to these extraordinary texts and their authors.'- Oliver Davies, Professor of Christian Doctrine, King's College London.Table of ContentsCONTENTS: 1. Introduction 2. Richeldis de Faverches 3. Hildegard of Bingen 4. Christina the Astonishing 5. Hadewijch of Brabant 6. Mechtilde of Magdeburg 7. Mechtilde of Hackeborn 8. Angelina Foligno 9. Marguerite Porete 10. Julian of Norwich 11. Catherine of Siena 12. Margery Kempe 13. Theresa of Avila 14. Conclusion Glossary Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisQuilting, once regarded as a traditional craft, has broken through the barriers of history, art and commerce to become a global phenomenon, international multi-billion dollar industry and means of gendered cultural production. In Quilting, sociologist and quilter Marybeth C. Stalp explores how and why women quilt.This close ethnographic study illustrates that women's lives can be transformed in often surprising ways by the activity and art of quilting. Some women who quilt as a leisure pastime are too afraid to admit to being a quilter for fear of ridicule; others boldly identify themselves as quilters and regard it as part of their everyday lives.The place of quilting in women's lives affects core family and personal identity issues such as marriage, childcare, friendship and aging. The book's accessible and intimate portrayal of real quilters' lives provides a fabric for the sociology, anthropology and textile student to understand more about wider issues of cultural production and identity that stem from this very personal pastime.Table of ContentsChapter I: Introduction: Why Quilting? Why Quilts Matter ... The (Recent) Global Quilting Phenomenon What is a Quilt, Anyway? Cultural Production in the Economic Sphere The Sociology of Culture and the Culture of Non-Economic Cultural Production Chapter II: Tripping through the Tulips: Doing Research Close to Home Using Feminist Methods to Study Contemporary U.S. Quilters Local Knowledge and Grounded Theory Methods and Data When Quilting is Enough: Immediate Commonalities through Quilting Piecing Together My Personal and Professional Selves Gendered Assumptions about Quilting and Fieldwork How Long Did it Take You to Make That Quilt? How Many Quilts Have You Made? Revealing My Quilting and My Self When Quilting is Not Enough: Tripping through the Tulips of an Academic Career Chapter III: It's Not Just for Grannies Anymore: Learning to Quilt at Midlife Learning to Quilt as an Adult, and Not on your Mother's Knee Quilting Heritage The Skipped Generation of Quilters New Quilters Midlife Women and Quilting Subjective Careers Learning to Quilt at Midlife Becoming a Self-Identified Quilter Affirming a Subjective Career in Quilting Quilting as Identity Work Extending the Self: Quilts as Finished Products Chapter IV: The Guilty Pleasures of the Fabric Stash Quilting and Fabric Collecting Starting a Fabric Collection Stashing Fabric The Stigmatized Stash and Hiding One's Quilting Identity Quilters' Families as Greedy Institutions Can The Fabric Stash Ever Come Out of the Closet? Chapter V: Quilt Rhymes with Guilt: Finding the Time & Space to Quilt Quilting Seriously Not Enough Time Not Enough Space Not Having Space Rhymes with Guilt: Finding the Time to Quilt Finally! Negotiating a Room of One's Own From a Room of One's Own to a Life of One's Own? Chapter VI: Coming out of the Closet: Quilting is for Self and for Others Quilting as Carework for Self Quilting as Carework for Others Bookmarking Life Through Quilting Self, Space and Sanity Chapter VII: Piecing it All Together What's So Important About Quilting? Leisure, Carework and the Family Developing a Midlife Identity through Quilting Quilting and Other Creative Processes and Products Quilting as Gendered Non-Economic Cultural Production

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Book SynopsisEach morning we establish an image and an identity for ourselves through the simple act of getting dressed. Why Women Wear What They Wear presents an intimate ethnography of clothing choice. The book uses real women's lives and clothing decisions - observed and discussed at the moment of getting dressed - to illustrate theories of clothing, the body and identity. Woodward pieces together what women actually think about clothing, dress and the body in a world where popular media and culture presents an increasingly extreme and distorted view of femininity and the ideal body. Immediately accessible to all those who have stood in front of a mirror and wondered 'does this make me look fat?', 'is this skirt really me?' or 'does this jacket match?', Why Women Wear What They Wear provides students of anthropology and fashion with a fresh perspective on the social issues and constraints we are all consciously or unconsciously negotiating when we get dressed.Trade Review'Woodward writes in a marvellously clear and lively style, melding ethnographicanalysis nicely with an accomplished rendition of appropriate theory from herrelated fields. This book is ideal for undergraduate as well as graduate students, andwill be of value for researchers concerned with the body, fashion design, and retail. The book wears its learning lightly, provides fascinating case studies, and is a total delight to read.'Current SociologyTable of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Understanding Women and their Wardrobes. Chapter 2: Hanging Out in the Home and the Bedroom. Chapter 3: But What Were You Wearing? Clothes and Memories. Chapter 4: Looking Good, Feeling Right: The Aesthetics of Getting Dressed. Chapter 5: Looking in the Mirror: Seeing and Being Seen. Chapter 6: Mothers, Daughters, Friends: Dressing in Relationships. Chapter 7: Fashion: Making and Breaking the Rules. Chapter 8: Dressing up and Dressing Down: Can you Wear Jeans? Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisWomen across the globe are being dramatically affected by war as currently waged by the USA. But there has been little public space for dialogue about the complex relationship between feminism, women, and war. The editors of Feminism and War have brought together a diverse set of leading theorists and activists who examine the questions raised by ongoing American military initiatives, such as: What are the implications of an imperial nation/state laying claim to women's liberation? What is the relation between this claim and resulting American foreign policy and military action? Did American intervention and invasion in fact result in liberation for women in Afghanistan and Iraq? What multiple concepts are embedded in the phrase "women’s liberation"? How are these connected to the specifics of religion, culture, history, economics, and nation within current conflicts? What is the relation between the lives of Afghan and Iraqi women before and after invasion, and that of women living in the US? How do women who define themselves as feminists resist or acquiesce to this nation/state claim in current theory and organizing? Feminism and War reveals and critically analyzes the complicated ways in which America uses gender, race, class, nationalism, imperialism to justify, legitimate, and continue war. Each chapter builds on the next to develop an anti-racist, feminist politics that places imperialist power, and forms of resistance to it, central to its comprehensive analysis.Trade Review'A cogent, passionate and damning anti-racist feminist exposè and dissection of the politics of contemporary US warmongering and its devastating impacts. An essential reference point for all those committed to mobilising against imperialist capitalism, war and globalisation.' Ailbhe Smyth, Women's StudiesTable of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: Feminism and U.S. Wars: Mapping the Ground - Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Robin L. Riley Part I: Feminist Geopolitics of War A Vocabulary for Feminist Praxis: On War and Radical Critique - Angela Y. Davis Resexing Militarism for the Globe - Zillah Eisenstein U.S. Sexual Exceptionalism: Feminists and Queers in the Service of Empire - Jasbir Puar Interrogating Americana: An African Feminist Critique - Patricia McFadden In Praise of Afrika's Children - Micere Githae Mugo What's Left? After 'Imperial Feminist' Hijackings: From Personal Pain to Collective Change - Huibin Amelia Chew Part II: Feminists Mobilizing Critiques of War Women of Color Veterans: A Dialogue on War, Militarism and Feminism - Setsu Shigematsu with Anuradha Kristina Bhagwati and Eli PaintedCrow On Euro-Colonial Sovereignty: Decolonizing the Racial Grammar of International Law - Elizabeth Philipose The Other V-word: The Politics of Victimhood Fueling George W. Bush's War Machine - Alyson M. Cole Deconstructing the Myth of Liberation @ riverbendblog.com: Baghdad Burning and the Politics of Resistance - Nadine Sinno "Rallying Public Opinion" and Other Misuses of Feminism: How U.S. Militarism in Afghanistan Is Gendered through Congressional Discourse - Jennifer L. Fluri Part III: Women's Struggles and the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Afghan Women: The Limits of Colonial Rescue - Shahnaz Khan Gendered, Racialized and Sexualized Torture: Orientalism and the Politics of Torture at Abu-Ghraib - Isis Nusair Whose Bodies Count? Feminist Geopolitics and Lessons from Iraq - Jennifer Hyndman "Freedom for Women": Stories of Baghdad and New York - Berenice Malka Fisher The War on Iraq - Micere Githae Mugo Part IV: Feminists Organizing Against Imperialism and War Violence Against Women: The U.S. War on Women - LeiLani Dowell "We Say CodePink": Feminist Direct Action and the "War on Terror" - Judy Rohrer Every Bomb Dropped on Iraq Falls on U.S. Cities: Women, Gentrification, and Harlem - Nellie Hester Bailey War Does Not Affect All Women Equally: U.S. Economic Wars and Latin America - Berta Joubert-Ceci Feminist Organizing in Israel: Against Militarism, War and Occupation - Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz Engaging Power and Injustice in the U.S.A.: Strategies for Anti-War Organizing - Leslie Cagan Feminism and War: Stopping Militarizers, Critiquing Power - Cynthia Enloe Prosaic Poem - Micere Githae Mugo End U.S. War Now! Afterword - Linda Carty

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Book SynopsisThe New Maids is a pioneering book, grounded on rich, empirical evidence, which examines the relationship between globalization, transnationalism, gender and the care economy. Expertly addressing the thorny questions that surround the increasing number of migrant domestic workers and cleaners, child-carers and caregivers who maintain modern Western households, the author argues that domestic work plays the defining role in global ethnic and gender hierarchies. Using a central ethnographic study of immigrant domestic workers and their German employees as its starting point, The New Maids uses the voices of such women themselves to provide unique conceptual and evidential support for this vital new approach argument. This exciting book will not only enhance the reader's understanding of the new care-economy, it also sets standards for feminist global methodology.Trade ReviewIn this nuanced, important, big-picture book, Lutz tells us that "old maids" --serving tea, say, in a bourgeois Berlin in 1900 home -- might be an 18 year old from a nearby rural town. In the frightening l930's, she might have been one of 100,000 women the Nazis forcibly moved from the nations it conquered placed in German homes as maids. By contrast, the "new maid" is a willing volunteer of global capitalism. Compared to maids of the past, she is often older, a mother, and a migrant from the educated middle classes of the flagging economies of the Ukraine, Poland, Belorussia. As their harrowing stories reveal, however, the new maid often balances long-distance mothering with fears of being deported as an "illegal," uncertain living circumstances, and the unpredictable hearts of marginal men. A must read. * Arlie Hochschild, author of 'The Second Shift', 'The Time Bind', and co-editor of 'Global Woman' *Through compelling ethnographic portraits and astute theory, 'The New Maids' takes us beyond narratives of exploitation or empowerment to capture mutual dependences, transnational motherhood, and intimate labor under shifting gender, migration, and welfare regimes. It moves the scholarship on paid domestic work under globalization to new heights! * Eileen Boris, Hull Professor and Chair, Department of Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, co-editor of Intimate Labors: Cultures, Technologies, and the Politics of Care *This is an absorbing analysis of migrant domestic and care work in Germany. Based on intensive interviews with both household employers and employees, Lutz sensitively unfolds the complex, interlocking but deeply asymmetrical employment relationship. This is a major case study of intersectionality in action. The poignant and moving biographies of transnational mother-workers are interspersed with constant analytical insights which make this book essential reading for anyone researching or working in the field of migration and care. * Fiona Williams, Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, University of Leeds *With insight and conviction, Helma Lutz takes us inside the world of the foreign domestic work. She shares poignant narratives that reveal the paradoxical lives of today's maids as one of simultaneous professionalism and personalism at work, distance and proximity in the family, and the unrecognized dependency on their labor by the state. This is an important book that should be read by policy makers and scholars alike. * Rhacel Salazar Parreñas, Professor of Sociology, University of Southern California, author of 'Illicit Flirtations: Labor, Migration, and Sex Trafficking in Tokyo' *The insights from Helma Lutz's rich ethnographic research bring a new dimension to the growing literature on women, migration and care work. In this brilliant synthesis, Lutz shows how the household becomes a 'global market for women's labour,' one in which active players 'do ethnicity' as they negotiate care and domestic work. While the focus is on Europe, The New Maids adds to our understanding of transnational women across the globe. As she did with Migration and Domestic Work, Lutz once again raises scholarship on women, migration and work to a new level. * Sonya Michel, Director of United States Studies, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC USA *Table of Contents1: The New Division of Domestic Labour 2: The Household as a Global Market for Women's Labour 3: Domestic Work and Lifestyles: Methods and First Results 4: Domestic Work - A Perfectly Normal Job? 5: Exploitation or Alliance of Trust? Relationship Work in the Household 6: Transnational Motherhood 7: Being Illegal 8: Migrant Women in the Globalization Trap?

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Book SynopsisDrawing on both religious and secular sources, this challenging book argues that divinely ordained law is frequently misinterpreted by Muslim authorities at the expense of certain groups, including women. Khaled Abou El Fadl cites a series of injustices in Islamic society and ultimately proposes a return to the original ethics at the heart of the Muslim legal system.Table of Contents1. Induction 9 2. The authoritative 9 3. A Summary transition 86 4. The text and authority 96 5. The construction of the authoritarian 141 6. The anatomy of authoritarian discourses 170 7. Faith-based assumptions and determinations demeaning to women. Conclusion: resisting the authoritarian while searching for the moral 264

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Book SynopsisIn 2005, Amina Wadud made international headlines when she helped to promote new traditions by leading the Muslim Friday prayer in New York City. In her provocative new book, /Inside the Gender Jihad/, she brings a wealth of experience from the trenches of the jihad to make a passionate argument for gender inclusiveness in the Muslim world. Knitting together scrupulous scholarship with lessons drawn from her own experiences as a woman, she explores the array of issues facing Muslim women today, including social status, education, sexuality, and leadership. A major contribution to the debate on women and Islam, Amina Wadud’s vision for changing the status of women within Islam is both revolutionary and urgent.Trade Review"Seen as a pioneering feminist, her last book, Inside the Gender Jihad: Women's Reform in Islam (2006) was partly an experiment in autobiography, and included details of the threats to her life in New York." * The Independent *Table of ContentsForeword by Professor Khaled Abou El Fadl Acknowledgments Introduction: Inside the Gender Jihad, Reform in Islam 1 What’s in a Name? 2 The Challenges of Teaching and Learning in the Creation of Muslim Women’s Studies 3 Muslim Women’s Collectives, Organizations, and Islamic Reform 4 A New Hajar Paradigm: Motherhood and Family 5 Public Ritual Leadership and Gender Inclusiveness 6 Qur’an, Gender, and Interpretive Possibilities 7 Stories from the Trenches Conclusion: Why Fight the Gender Jihad? Notes Index

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Book SynopsisWhile many in the West regard feminism and Islam as a contradiction in terms, many Muslims in the East have perceived Western feminist forces in their midst as an assault upon their culture. In this career-spanning collection of influential essays, Margot Badran presents the feminisms that Muslim women have created, and examines Islamic and secular feminist ideologies side by side. Borne out of over two decades of work, this important volume combines essays from a variety of sources, ranging from those which originated as conference papers to those published in the popular press. Also including original material written specifically for this book, Feminism and Islam provides a unique and wide-ranging contribution to the field of Islam and gender studies.Trade ReviewHumanities \ Religion Badran, Margot. Feminism in Islam: secular and religious convergences. Oneworld, 2009. 349p bibl index; ISBN 9781851685561 pbk, $29.95. Reviewed in 2010may CHOICE. Written by Badran (Georgetown Univ.), this collection of essays based on fieldwork, conference presentations, and literary historical analysis ranks among the best works investigating feminism and Islam. The first part is devoted to feminism in Egypt, and the second traces the spread of feminism in the broader Muslim world. Badran carefully balances attention to major thinkers and writers with her grasp of the issues feminists faced and addressed, along with the opponents and obstacles in their paths. She demonstrates points of divergence and convergence in her historical portrayal of the rise and growth of Islamic feminism with the two foundational methodologies of ijtihad (independent reasoning into religious texts) and tafsir (interpretation of the Qur'an). Running throughout her analysis are many crucial issues: political Islam, nationalism, education, the modernity and secularism introduced by the West, and an excellent discussion of female genital mutilation. Her discussion of "gender activism" and "Islamic feminism" (p. 219: " . . . a middle space . . . between secular feminism and masculinist Islam") is particularly helpful. The scope, clarity of argument, depth of analysis, and wealth of new information make this a very useful work. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above; general readers. -- L. J. Alderink, emeritus, Concordia College More than 35,000 academic librarians, faculty, and key decision makers rely on the reviews in Choice magazine and Choice Reviews Online for collection development and scholarly research. Choice reaches almost every undergraduate college and university library in the United States. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/choice/index.cfm * Choice *"this book excels and is bound to create more than just a splash in the midst of ongoing debates about the vexed ‘Muslim woman question’ " * Muslim World Book Review *

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Book SynopsisThis book takes as its starting-point the images of women in the Parthenon sculptures, in order to investigate two levels of feminine experience in Classical Athens, the human and the divine. The inter-play between women's religious prominence and their domestic obscurity is examined in relation to the young citizen women who lead the procession; while the great goddesses represented in the frieze are studies in terms of their relationships with their human worshippers and, on a symbolic level, with the mythological females, such as the Amazons, who appear in the metopes. Finally, the book turns to a third aspect of th e feminine experience, and looks at the women who do not appear in the Parthenon sculptures - the prostitutes, slaves and alien women who made a vital economic and ideological contribution to the Athenian achievement.

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive examination of the full range of Carmen Martín Gaite's work. Carmen Martín Gaite produced a large body of work in various genres over the course of her five-decade career, though she is primarily known as a novelist, short story writer, and social commentator. Her work at times reflects, and at times defies, the pattern of development in Spanish fiction since the 1950s. This Companion offers a re-reading of Martín Gaite's works, emphasizing her early experimentalism which culminated in mid-career works (notably El cuarto de atrás), and stressing how, in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the majority of Spanish novelists were engaged in a critique of history, Martín Gaite turned to the writing of cultural history, exploring its intersection with narrative fiction in a positivist rather than a nihilistic mode. Her exploration of gender issues, particularly mother-child relations, towards the end of her career anticipated new directions in feminist thought. Discussions of often-ignored works, such as poetry, drama, children's literature, and literary translations, offer insight into sidelined aspects of this writer's literary output. Catherine O'Leary is Reader in Spanish at the University of St Andrews. Alison Ribeiro de Menezes is Professor of Spanish at the University of Warwick.Trade ReviewOffers a structured and comprehensive panorama of the distinct genres of a writer that has contributed a unique literary voice to Spain in the second half of the twentieth century. * IBEROAMERICANA *Despite her extraordinary contribution to contemporary Spanish literature, martingaitistas from English-speaking countries have had to wait for years for a book like the one reviewed here: an overview of Carmen Martin Gaite's oeuvre, attractive and stimulating to both specialists in the field and tertiary students. * JOURNAL OF IBERIAN AND LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH *A guide for anyone interested in the life and works of this prolific 20th-century Spanish author, this volume provides [.] invaluable information on how her experiences impacted on her development as a writer. Recommended. * CHOICE *Este es un libro imprescindible para cualquiera que desee tener una visión panorámica y a la vez profunda de la obra completa de Carmen Martín Gaite. * BULLETIN OF SPANISH STUDIES *Table of ContentsEntre visililos Short Stories Rit lento Retahílas Fragmentos de interior El cuarto de atras Nubosidad variable La reina de las nieves Lo raro es vivir Irse de casa Essays and Historical Writings El cuento de nunca acabar Theatre and Poetry Children's Literature and Los parentescos

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Book SynopsisAn overview of the issues and critical debates in the field of Women's Studies within the area of peninsular Hispanism. After an introductory survey of the development of women's studies in the context of Spain, twenty-one chronologically ordered essays by scholars from Britain, the United States, Spain and Mexico explore women's roles in the cultural production of their time from the Middle Ages to the present. The essays of the first half examine the work of the earliest women writers and artists - memoirs and meditations, novellas and plays - and the representationor self-representation of women in a broad sweep of texts including medieval folksong, hagiography, and painting of the Baroque era. The modern section focuses on women's participation in politics and culture from the eighteenth century onwards: as translators and essayists, as consumers of visual ephemera and conduct books, as writers and artists, film directors and performers. An alternative and supplement to standard literary histories, thisvolume offers new insights into women's agency and representation in the cultural heritage of Spain. It will prove a useful and stimulating resource for students at all levels, and an accessible guide for the general reader. XON DE ROS and GERALDINE HAZBUN lecture in Spanish literature at the University of Oxford. CONTRIBUTORS: Nieves Baranda, Andrew M. Beresford, Mónica Bolufer Peruga, Helena Buffery, Rosanna Cantavella, Lou Charnon-Deutsch, Georgina Dopico-Black, Joanna Evans, Carmen Fracchia, Margaret F. Greer, Jessamy Harvey, Louise M. Haywood, Geraldine Hazbun, Susan Kirkpatrick, Frances Lannon, Laura Lonsdale, María Ana Masera Cerutti, Roberta Quance, Xonde Ros, Alexander Samson, Alison Sinclair, Joyce Tolliver.Trade ReviewHARCOVER EDITION: It deserves a place among the library collections of any academic institution offering Hispanic studies as part of the curriculum. * REFERENCE REVIEWS *The word 'thorough' best describes this admirable companion. [...] Highly recommended. * CHOICE *

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Book SynopsisBiotechnology is the single most powerful bundle of new technologies currently under development. It is also the most intrusive and determinative technology relating to nature generally and the human body specifically. This Reader brings together some of the most important work from feminists and environmentalists critical of the headlong rush into what is likely to prove a technological minefield. As such it will be essential reading for students, scholars and activists in social studies of science, women‘s studies, development and environmental studies.Table of Contents Foreword Preface List of Contributors 1. Introduction: Mobilizing Critical Communities and Discourses on Modern Biotechnology - Ingunn Moser Part I: Biotechnology as Culture: (Re)constructions of Biology and Nature 2. Human Nature - Ruth Hubbard 3. Genes as Causes - Ruth Hubbard 4. Fractured Images of Science, Language and Power: A Post-Modern Optic, or Just Bad Eyesight? - Evelyn Fox Keller 5. Otherworldly Conversations, Terrain Topics, Local Terms - Donna Haraway Part II: Biohazards: Risk in Context 6. The Limits of Experimental Knowledge: A Feminist Perspective on the Ecological Risks of Genetic Engineering - Regine Kollek 7. Error-Friendliness and the Evolutionary Impact of Deliberate Release of GMOs - Christine von Weizsacker 8. The Greening of Biotechnology: GMOs as Environment-Friendly Products - Les Levidow and Joyce Tait Part III: Bioethics, Knowledge, and Ethics as Politics 9. Biosemiotics and Ethics - Jesper Hoffmeyer 10. A 'Genethics' that Makes Sense - Rosalyn Diprose 11. Whose Ethics for Agricultural Biotechnology? - Les Levidow Part IV: Biopolitics: The Political Ecology of Biotechnology 12. Biotechnological Development and the Conservation of Biodiversity - Vandana Shiva 13. Biotechnology, Patents and the Third World - Cary Fowler 14. Biotechnology and the Future of Agriculture - Nicanor Perlas 16. Epilogue: Beyond Redcutionism - Vandana Shiva Glossary A Select Guide to Further Reading Index

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Book SynopsisEven in places of deadly national enmity, some very ordinary people are routinely doing peace. In this highly original study, Cynthia Cockburn deepens our understanding of the processes sustaining conflict in Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine and Bosnia/Hercegovina by means of a close involvement with three remarkable women‘s projects that have chosen co-operation. How, she asks, do they fill the dangerous space between them with words instead of bullets? How do they make democracy out of difference? The book brings fresh insight to theories of the self in relation to collective identities, and of gender in nationalist thought and practice. Observing, in words and photographs, how these women‘s alliances create a safe space in which to work together, we learn more about the dangers of essentialism and the problematic relationship between identity and democracy.Trade Review'Cynthia Cockburn, both the activist and the writer, has been important for feminists all over the world for many years now. She is one of the all too rare people who combine a sharp analytical mind, unwavering feminist and anti-militaristic political commitment and a warm and caring heart. They are all reflected in this fascinating book which is based in Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine and Bosnia-Hercegovina with activist women's groups working across ethnic and national boundaries.' - Nira Yuval-Davis, University of Greenwich/Australian National University. 'In three gritty, nuanced, feminist-informed case studies, Cynthia Cockburn reveals what sort of political acts it takes to build and sustain - through dangerous days, over wearying weeks - that elusive thing called a 'civil society'. Now, when I recommend that students and friends read Arendt and Havel, I'm going to give them Cockburn too.' - Cynthia Enloe, author of Maneuvers: The international politics of militarizing women's lives. 'Filled with photos, this is another important book from the folks at Zed.' - Feminist Bookstore News 'What is new about Cockburn’s book - which should come with a warning that 'this book changes lives' - is that it aims to challenge prevailing identity processes including those of ethnicity and nationalism.... moving and powerful... the book has many strengths: the excellent summaries of the three conflicts and the women targeted by them, the well teased out discussion of ethnicity, nation(alism) and gender, and Cockburn’s research methodology which is always collaborative, always mindful of the needs of the three projects and the women who make them... A beautiful and necessary book.' - Women's Studies International ForumTable of Contents Part I: Introduction.1. Women and Nationalism. Part II: Northern Ireland. 2. Women's Activism in a Divided City. 3. The Women's Support Network, Belfast Part III: Israel/Palestine. 4. Across an Abyss: Women in Northern Israel. 5. Bat Shalom, A Woman's Group for Peace Part IV: Bosnia-Hercegovina. 6. Women in a Disintegrating Yugoslavia. 7. Medica, Women's Therapy Centre. Part V: Conclusion8. Identity and Democracy.

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Book SynopsisHighlighting gendered violence across layers of social and political organization, from the military to the sexual, this book explores the connections between international security, intra-state conflict and ‘domestic‘ violence. International in scope, it makes the links between the local and the global and between the public and the private, in its discussion of gendered violence. Claiming that it is not enough to simply ‘add‘ women to international relations theory, the contributors to this book brilliantly demonstrate how much more fruitful an in-depth analysis of the different layers of gendered violence can be. This book will be necessary reading for students and academics of women‘s studies, international relations and political theory.Table of Contents 1. Introduction - Susie Jacobs, Ruth Jacobson and Jennifer Marchbank Part I: The Global Context: Security and Conflict 2. Re-packaging Notions of Security: A Sceptical Feminist Responds - Lee-Anne Broadhead 3. Wars Against Women: Metaphor or Reality? Gendered Violence and the Militarised State - Liz Kelly 4. Transforming Conflict: Some Thoughts on a Gendered Understanding of Conflict Processes - Judy el-Bushra 5. Engendering the State in Refugee Women's Claims for Asylum - Heaven Crawley 6. Women, the State and War - Francine D'Amico Part II: Resistance and Autonomy 7. Shifting Relationships and Competing Discourses in Post-Mao China: The All-China Women's Federation and the People's Republic - Jude Howell 8. Violence Against Women in Brazil: International Influences on Local Policy - Fiona Macaulay 9. Women's Strategies of Resistance to Intimate Violence in Calcutta - Purna Sen 10. Women and Peace in Northern Ireland: A Complicated Relationship - Ruth Jacobson 11. Gender, Community and Nation: The Myth of Innocence - Parviter Mukta. Conclusion - Susie Jacobs

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Book SynopsisGlobalization creates growth without jobs in the North, structural adjustment in the South, privatization in the East and the dismantling of states everywhere. It is a process which unifies through market integration and new information technologies, yet separates through growing social polarization. It is also a process which depends on the feminization of employment; rather than liberating women into the workplace, globalisation has bred a new underclass of low paid or unpaid women workers. Demonstrating exactly how women, all over the world, have become the call-girls of the global labour market, the author of this extraordinary book uses a mixture of case studies, examples and quotations to illustrate some hard facts. She looks at women across the world - to show how their lives have been turned upside down by industrialization in the South and a return to homeworking in the North. We meet Martha, 17-year old mother of two in Harlem, who cannot afford medical provision on the salary she has been forced to accept; Margaret, former secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture in Nairobi, now trading in second-hand clothes; Li Thi, a Vietnamese woman who is paid $500 a year for stitching the same running shoes that a top US basketball player is paid $20 million a year to promote. From New York to Phnom Penh, from Moscow to Dakar, we see the devastating effects of the unfettered power of transnational corporations on women’s lives. This book charts that devastation and calls for urgent action - by states across the world and by women themselves.Table of Contents Introduction 1. The Global Conveyor Belt 2. Worldwide Service 3. Means of Living 4. Women in the Wreckage of Structural Adjustment 5. Variants of Modernity 6. The Globalization of Women's Movements Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisHas there been a ‘conspiracy of silence’ regarding sexuality in India, be it within social movements or as a focus of scholarship? A Question of Silence? interrogates this assumption in order to thematise a crucial field. Prefaced by a detailed introductory overview, the essays use diverse perspectives to develop an understanding of the institutions, practices and forms of representation of sexual relations and their boundaries of legitimacy. From unravelling the Kamasutra (the text) to investigating KamaSutra (the condom) the volume includes essays on how sexuality has been framed by the law, within social movements, or has been the site for patrolled caste, ethnic or gender identities. Other essays analyse cinematic, televisual and literary representations of sexuality. Taken as a whole, this book makes room for more wide-ranging approaches for tackling the sexual economies of desire and violence among men and women in modern India.Table of Contents 1. Introduction: A Question of Silence? - Mary E. John and Janaki Nair 2. Unravelling the Kamasutra - Kumkum Roy 3. Offences agaist Marriage - Samita Sen 4. 'Left to the Imagination': Indian nationalisms and female sexuality - Tejaswini Niranjana 5. Reproductive Bodies and Regulated Sexuality - Anandhi S. 6. Comrades-in-Arms - U. Vindhya 7. Sexuality and the Film Apparatus - Ravi Vasudevan 8. Citizenship and its Discontents - Susie Tharu 9. Inventing Saffron History - Uma Chakravarti 10. Uneven Modernities and Ambivalent Sexualities - Kalpana Ram 11. On Bodily Love and Hurt - V. Geetha 12. Enforcing Cultural Codes - Prem Chowdhry 13. Globalisation, Sexuality and the Visual Field - Mary E.John

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Book SynopsisAs a wave of open misogyny swept through French literature and society in the aftermath of the Great War, a new generation of professional women writers took up pen to redress the situation. They disputed the prescriptive social and cultural roles ascribed to women and proposed inspiring new definitions of womanhood. Many critics today are oblivious to women's literary achievements during this period, which remain subject to severe critical neglect. This book analyzes and challenges the way in which these important women writers have been marginalized in the annals of French literary history and offers fresh readings and reappraisals of their thematically and aesthetically innovative works.Trade Review'This very readable study not only opens up new paths for reading [...] and for research (the foonotes and bibliography are excellent), but also provides a carefully reseravhed analysis of theprocess of canon compilation, and a well contextualised discussion of the relationship between history, gender and genre.'Modern and Contemporary France'definitely a useful critical addition to women's studies and contemporary fictional studies, extending the corpus of primary material for both students and specialists, and full of fascinating details'MLR'By re-examining women's writing within both social and literary contexts, this study provides fruitful revalorisation of the period, of romance and autobiography, and will allow other researchers to build on well-considered foundations'Forum for Modern Language Studies

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Book SynopsisThroughout its long history, home dressmaking has been a formative experience in the lives of millions of women. In an age of relative affluence and mass production, it is easy to forget that just over a generation ago, young girls from middle- and working-class backgrounds were routinely taught to sew as a practical necessity. However, not only have the skills involved in home dressmaking been overlooked and marginalized due to their association with women and the home, but the impact home dressmaking had on women's lives and broader socioeconomic structures also has been largely ignored. This book is the first serious account of the significance of home dressmaking as a form of European and American material culture. Exploring themes from the last two hundred years to the present, including gender, technology, consumption and visual representation, contributors show how home dressmakers negotiated and experienced developments to meet a wide variety of needs and aspirations. Not merely passive consumers, home dressmakers have been active producers within family economies. They have been individuals with complex agendas expressed through their roles as wives, mothers and workers in their own right and shaped by ideologies of femininity and class.This book represents a vital contribution to women's studies, the history of fashion and dress, design history, material culture, sociology and anthropology.Trade Review'Sewing,as a fixture of production, consumption, femininity, gentility, home, and work, deserves the serious attention of historians and theoreticians ... the most interesting essays reveal how ... women actually served to integrate the home into commercial life ... This series(dress,body culture) attempts to move specialists out of their professional ghetto while infusing such theoretically 'hot'subjects such as dress and bodies with some real material content.Both are welcome goals'.Business History Review'A collection of well researched essays ... An interesting book to dip into as each essay is complete in itself. A student of dress would find it useful as it has personal accounts that you wouldn't find anywhere else.'Costume 'This seminal publication contributes to Berg's recent prolific impact on the field of costume studies, and this book will not disappoint those searching for the latest serious academic inquiry into new areas in the field of dress ... The editor's incisiv

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Book SynopsisMost people conceive of gender as a culturally informed response to a biological imperative. But such rigid notions are overturned by certain women in remote regions of Albania who elect to 'become' men simply for the advantages that accrue to them as a result. They crop their hair, wear men's clothes, roll their own cigarettes, drink brandy and carry guns. In short, their lives are much freer and less regimented than other members of their sex - but at a cost. These women must foreswear sexual relationships, marriage and children. They have been dubbed 'Sworn Virgins'.What is interesting is that in this region of the Balkans, simply to dress as a man and to behave as a man will earn these women the same respect accorded a man. This is no mean advantage in an area known for sexual inequality and where so many men have suffered violent, premature deaths, thereby heightening the need for more household heads. Traditionally as heads of household, men are revered and the women who attend them utterly subservient. But unlike 'normal' women, Sworn Virgins can inherit and manage property, and, in fact, may even be raised to assume the male role by parents who have no male heirs. Based on extensive interviews, this book tells the frank and engrossing stories of these women, but also sets their lives within the wider context of a country undergoing radical upheaval and social transformation.Trade Review' 'Women Who Become Men' is a fascinating exploration of male and female social roles, and the ways in which cross-gendering can be a response to particular social or demographic pressures.'Times Literary Supplement'A fascinating study of the phenomena that is the Albanian sworn virgin ... The importance of this book in anthropological terms cannot be denied.'Besa for Friends of Albania' Young has undoubtedly produced the best and most detailed study in English of the way in which gender change is handled in one European society.'Peace News'Antonia Young's book is doubtless a very great contribution to the knowledge of historical and contemporary Balkan cultures.'Anthropology of East Europe Review' An invaluable contribution to Albanology and anthropology in general.'Illyria'Antonia Young has written a provocative book ... A strength of Young's book is that she clearly articulates the primary motivations for becoming a sworn virgin in Albanian society. She prTable of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Maps and Illustrations Preface -- Introduction -- Tree of Blood, Tree of Milk: Patriarchy and Patricentricity in Rural Albania -- The Kanun Laws of Honour and Hospitality -- Who are the 'Sworn Virgins'? -- Living as Men -- Dress as a signifier of Gender -- Asserting their Masculinity: Men and 'Sworn Virgins' -- The Changing World: The Challenge Ahead Apendices Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIncreasingly, women and minorities are entering fields where white male power is firmly entrenched. The spaces they come to occupy are not empty or neutral, but are imbued with history and meaning. This groundbreaking book interrogates the pernicious, subtle but nonetheless widely held view that certain bodies are naturally entitled to certain spaces, while others are not.Drawing on case studies from within the nation state, including Westminster and Whitehall, the art world, academia and everyday life, this book uncovers the hidden processes that undermine female and/or racialized bodies in spaces marked by masculinity and whiteness. How are positions of authority racialized and gendered? How do people manage their femininity and/or blackness while in a predominantly white male context? How do spaces become naturalized or normalized, and what does it mean when they are disrupted?Answering these questions and many more, this book is the first to examine the meaning of diversity in organizations in its absolute complexity. It argues that a thorough engagement with difference requires a rigorous investigation of how institutional cultures become normative. It is only when we see and name this invisible central point of reference, which is so often taken for granted, that we can we truly unsettle long established links. Uniting social, cultural and political theory, and engaging with a range of substantive material from a variety of institutions, this book is a timely contribution to wide-reaching debates on race, gender and space.

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