Controlling land they call their own: access and women's empowerment in Northern Tanzania

Formal rights to land are often promoted as an essential part of empowering women, particularly in the Global South. We look at two grassroots non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working on land rights and empowerment with Maasai communities in Northern Tanzania. Women involved with both NGOS attest to the power of land ownership for personal empowerment and transformations in gender relations. Yet very few have obtained land ownership titles. Drawing from Ribot and Peluso's theory of access, we argue that more than ownership rights to land, access – to land, knowledge, social relations and political processes – is leading to empowerment for these women, as well as helping to keep land within communities. We illustrate how the following are key to both empowerment processes and protecting community and women's land: (1) access to knowledge about legal rights, such as the right to own land; (2) access to customary forms of authority; and (3) access to a joint social identity – as women, as ‘indigenous people’ and as ‘Maasai'. Through this shared identity and access to knowledge and authority, women are strengthening their access to social relations (amongst themselves, with powerful political players and NGOs), and gaining strength through collective action to protect land rights.     

The trouble with ‘women in computing’: a critical examination of the deployment of research on the gender gap in computer science

The pessimistic scenario for ‘women in information communications technology’ and for ‘women in technology’ generally is even more paradoxical and insidious with respect to ‘women in computing’. Studies within this field not only report insignificant improvement in the proportion of women in Western countries’ computing fields but also alert us of a declining trend. Moreover, that decline has been accompanied – or even preceded – by years of research and programs that have specifically focused on increasing women’s participation in computing; however, they have not had the expected effect. More surprisingly, there has been a significant increase in the representation of women in all other science-related fields and professions. Our aim is to provide some clues to fight the feeling of inexorability that may be entailed by the research on women in computing. We will argue that part of the problem is related to the static nature of the research deployed around the problem of ‘women in computing’, primarily, the research constructed around the ‘leaky pipeline’ metaphor. We provide a synthesis of the critiques this research has received in recent decades and highlight research trends that render other landscapes visible when studying ‘women in computing’. These trends help us question how we are conducting research within this field and urge us to problematise assumptions about computing and gender that we may paradoxically continue to reproduce even while denouncing the paucity of women in computing and studying the reasons for this state of affairs. In short, we present the need for different researchers’ eyes that allow different landscapes of women and computing to be seen and produced.     

Fathers,adolescent daughters and gender in a low-income South African community

Knowledge about father–adolescent daughter relationships is mostly based on research in North-American and European contexts. Furthermore, it tends to rely on either fathers' or daughters' perspectives, and not on dyadic data. Informed by a social constructionist perspective, this study investigated the fatherhood constructions of fathers and adolescent daughters in a South African low-income community. We used Charmaz' social constructionist grounded theory method. Forty-two interviews were conducted separately with fourteen fathers and their adolescent daughters. Five conceptual categories were identified: (i) Predominance of fathers' provider role; (ii) Fathers and daughters having an ‘understanding’ in which daughters apparently complied with fathers authoritarian positions; (iii) explicit expressions of affection were mostly limited to special occasions; (iv) Fathers wished a better future for their daughters and attempted to keep them on track to such a future and (v) lastly, Fathers' expected daughters to follow their instructions and not their bad examples. Our findings highlight the influential and constricting role of dominant masculine and feminine gender notions in the discourses and practices of the fathers and adolescent daughters in our study. However, some evidence of contestations were present that suggests the potential of a shift towards more equitable gender relations.     

Poetic boundary conditions: Australian poets in the ivory tower

This article explores the experience of women poets in academe and posits that by institutionalising themselves in universities, women poets gain financial stability by working in the wider field of poetry. However, they also face discrimination and a lack of opportunity in these workplaces. The article uses two case studies of poets Maria Takolander and Jill Jones, who work at Deakin University and the University of Adelaide, Australia, respectively. These case studies show the way in which these poets explore the experience of academe in their poetry.     

The return migration experiences of Ethiopian women trafficked to Bahrain: ‘ … for richer or poorer,let me be on the hands of my people … ’

ABSTRACT

This study draws upon the return experiences of Ethiopian women trafficked to the Middle East. Understanding these experiences is critical to informing the design of effective government policy to mitigate obstacles to return and reintegration. This study was conducted in Addis Ababa with five women who were trafficked to Bahrain and later returned to Ethiopia. Action research was used to establish an inquiry group of women in order to produce a viable vision for successful reintegration. Despite initial high hopes, the returnees did not see migration as producing positive returns. All five participants agreed that their experiences in the destination were devastating and thus they were relieved to have returned to their home country. Nonetheless, reintegration was a difficult process for them. In addition to not accumulating enough savings to enable them to reintegrate economically, they all faced misunderstandings and impractical expectations from their families and community. The women suggested that adequate protection from law enforcement, facilitation of income-generating activities, and improved access to rehabilitation and medical services are important elements of successful return and reintegration. Effective return and reintegration policy is needed to ensure that trafficked returnees can become productive citizens in their home country.     

A Pretext for Regression? The Gendered Institutional Response to COVID-19 in the Country of Football

This article considers the gendered institutional response to COVID-19 in Brazilian football. It is argued that the asymmetries of power which shaped policy are rooted in the historical marginalisation of women's sports in the country along with socially constructed notions of hegemonic masculinity. The COVID-19 pandemic has served to accentuate deeply embedded social and economic inequalities and may serve as a pretext for eroding precarious gains made in recent times.     

How the Global Pandemic Intensifies Vulnerabilities for Colombia's Women Social Leaders

Women social leaders in Colombia say that the biggest danger posed by the global pandemic comes not from contracting the virus, but rather from non-state armed groups taking advantage of the quarantine to violently pursue social and territorial control. This article details three phenomena that highlight how existing vulnerabilities for women social leaders have been sharpened by the global pandemic: (a) women's community work increases while state and institutional support decrease; (b) armed groups' ability to target violence increases while women's ability to self-protect decreased; and (c) armed groups' ability to act with impunity is increasing as access to justice is limited.     

Temporeras and Household Relations: Seasonal Employment in Chile's Agro-Export Sector

Abstract — This paper considers how the growth in non-traditional fruit and vegetable exports has affected female employment patterns and the consequences this may have for household and gender relations. Within export agriculture, there has emerged a demand for specifically female labour, providing rural women with employment opportunities that had not previously existed. The majority of the female workers have only seasonal work and this has led to their designation as temporeras. Through a variety of interview material drawn from the experiences of women living and working in Region IV and VI, the paper seeks to reveal the complexities involved in attempting to conceptualise women's involvement in this emergent labour market. The composition of the household and the level of household income are important factors in determining women's labour force participation. The case studies appear to show that in spite of the hard work and unprotected conditions, working as a temporera is a desirable employment for women. The paper argues that the sweeping changes in the agricultural sector, in which women had previously been marginalised as'unpaid family labour', have created opportunities for them to rework household relations.     

Just Use What You Have: Ethical Fashion Discourse and the Feminisation of Responsibility

ABSTRACT

The rise of fast fashion has meant that young women (even those on relatively low incomes) are able to ‘regularly consume and discard fashionable clothing’ [Buckley, Cheryl, and Hazel Clark. 2012. “Conceptualizing Fashion in Everyday Lives.” Design Issues 28 (4): 18–28. doi:10.1162/DESI_a_00172., 21]. While this development may be aligned with the democratisation of fashion—the fact that the supply chains that deliver fast fashion are not consistent with the principles of global democracy is now also relatively common knowledge in the democratised West. This, along with growing awareness of the ecological harms associated with the fashion industry has contributed to what Elke Gaugele [2014. Aesthetic Politics in Fashion. Vienna: Sternberg Press] has termed the ‘ethical turn’ in fashion. However, despite the fact that young women are often not deemed capable of translating their (ethical) attitudes into (ethical) behaviours [McNeill, Lisa, and Rebecca Moore. 2015. “Sustainable Fashion Consumption and the Fast Fashion Conundrum: Fashionable Consumers and Attitudes to Sustainability in Clothing Choice.” International Journal of Consumer Studies 39 (3): 212–222], nor able to be ‘trusted to consistently make good decisions’ [Brooks, Andrew. 2015. Clothing Poverty: The Hidden World of Fast Fashion and Second-Hand Clothes. London: Zed Books, 241], they are also increasingly being called to recognise their individual role in the politics of global fashion supply chains. Drawing on examples from scholarly and popular discourses as well as online peer to peer communications, this article explores the historical moment of fast fashion as an instance of both the feminisation of consumption and the feminisation of responsibility.     

Augusta Webster’s Mother and Daughter and the only child debate

The enduring debate about family size has roots in Victorian England, most notably in literary works addressing the issue of balancing motherhood and a writing career. One Victorian writer and activist, Augusta Webster (1837–1894), directly addressed the issue of family size in her uncompleted sonnet sequence Mother and Daughter (1895), which she began when her only child was a newborn. In this posthumous series of 14-line poems, Webster defends her decision to have one child and, in doing so, challenges popular assumptions that only women with multiple children could be considered ‘complete’, socially-acceptable mothers. Despite her efforts, however, and despite the rising popularity of one-child families, the results of numerous scientific studies and the lingering critiques of mommy blogs make it clear that challenges to mothers of ‘onlies’ remain.