Howzat! Navigating Gender Disruptions in Australian Young Women’s Cricket

ABSTRACT

“Howzat” is colloquially used by cricketers to ask the umpire “How is that?” when they believe a batter is out. We employ this question here to frame interrogations of young women’s experiences as they navigate elite pathway cricket in an era of significant change. The global sports entertainment industry is, it seems, undergoing a form of gender disruption. The remuneration for Australian women cricketers rose by over 500 per cent between 2012 and 2017, providing opportunities for women and girls to transition to professional sport in ways quite different from historical amateur pathways. While on the surface this shapes as a time of great opportunity for aspiring sportswomen, there are unintended consequences that warrant consideration—particularly for females involved in sports with a legacy of masculine privilege. This article draws on qualitative research concerning five female pathway players and their respective parents, coaching and administrative staff who support them as they navigate the demands of playing elite cricket during adolescence. We employ Foucault’s concept of a “history of the present” to make sense of this dispositif to problematise how young women navigate gendered experiences in sports with “masculine” traditions amid a growing profile of women’s sport in Australia.     

Struggling for food sovereignty in the World March of Women

This contribution focuses on how food sovereignty is being re-signified as a feminist issue by a non-peasant transnational feminist network, the World March of Women. First, we review the feminist literature on women, gender and food sovereignty and make suggestions regarding how to conceptualize the latter to better analyze women’s and feminist struggles on this terrain. Second, we highlight the variety of discourses and practices through which food sovereignty is appropriated in the different spaces and scales of the March. Third, we identify the political dynamics that underlie the uneven deployment of the project of food sovereignty among the national coordinating bodies of the March. Our conclusion stresses the role of discursive articulations and of internal and external alliances as processes through which food sovereignty is both diffused and transformed, and draws some implications for the larger scholarship on food sovereignty.     

Norway as an Example in the UK Women’s Suffrage Campaign

This article analyses the character and meanings of references to Norwegian experiences in the UK women’s suffrage campaign. It argues that the references to Norway served two main purposes. Firstly, they served as evidence of all the good things that would happen as a result of women gaining the vote, such as wage equality and social reform. Secondly, they played a significant part in establishing a counter-narrative to the anti-suffragist warnings of all the terrible things that would follow women’s suffrage. The study also discusses the limitations of political exchange and shows how different political contexts came into play in the debates on the validity of the Norwegian example.     

First be a woman? rural development,social change and women farmers’ lives in Thessaly-Greece

This research is prompted by a desire to portray how Thessalian women farmers’ lives have been and are still affected by agrarian, economic, political and social transformations that took place in Greece from 1950 onwards. Using a cueing technique, we collected 2034 autobiographical memories from 74 women farmers. In general, the story our data tell indicates that the progress regarding woman’s position within family and society was slow and erratic, whereas it is still underway, since gender role appropriateness remains a robust construction. The analysis proved that the first signs of change appeared in the 1970s, when the migration from Thessaly to Europe brought about some unprecedented ideas on woman’s social and domestic roles. Other factors, such as the modernization of agriculture in 1980s and the consequent economic flourishing, along with the aura conveyed by the new (female) members of farming communities, and the opening of rural societies in 1990s and 2000s, facilitated this change.     

Gender trouble on the German soccer field: can the growth of women’s soccer challenge hegemonic masculinity?

Soccer in Germany represents a social sphere for the expression of masculinity and features significant ideological battles over gender roles. This paper discusses whether the growth of women’s soccer can challenge the prevailing hegemonic masculinity in an area that represents an important economic aspect of consumer culture and social identity. Does women’s soccer have the potential to subvert existing gender norms and challenge dominant understandings of gender? While women’s soccer has seen some important areas of growth in Germany, there are reasons to remain sceptical about the subversive potential of women’s soccer. This article argues that the unholy trinity of the sports-media-business alliance is the root cause for the limitations women’s soccer faces in challenging hegemonic masculinity. This sports-media-business alliance has served as the structural framework that has shaped societal discourses about women’s soccer in Germany. This paper discusses three of those discourses: the evolution of the macro-historical discourse over the societal role of women’s soccer in post-World War II Germany; the discourse comparing men’s and women’s soccer and asserting the superiority of men’s soccer; and the discourse on the role of femininity in women’s soccer and the sexualization of the players.     

‘Where am I in this story?’ – listening to activist women writers*

This study discusses the dynamic roles of activist women in militarized societies. It offers an analysis of the perspectives of Israeli activist women regarding their roles as women activists and writers. In their non-fiction writings, these activist women voice their resistance and document both their everyday lives and political perspectives about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and their socio-political activism and resistance to the Israeli occupation. These women were interviewed regarding their perspectives and struggles. The interviews were analysed by applying narrative analysis – the ‘Listening Guide’ methodology – to explore their various voices and narratives. By using this methodology, this study sought to uncover additional knowledge regarding women’s forms of resistance in militarized societies. We emphasize the importance of women citizens’ voices, narratives and points of view by presenting activist women’s critical insights on activism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and literature. Their curiosity, agency, critical perspectives, and resistance can be viewed as counter-narratives that de-centre Israeli hegemonic masculinity and demand a critique of the national and militarized ideology. Our article seeks to demonstrate the importance of women’s perspectives, everyday life experiences, dilemmas and struggles in a reality of conflict and war.     

La position des femmes en politique locale belge et l'impact des quotas

L'article étudie les quotas adoptés par les partis politiques belges. Les sections locales de parti ayant décrété des mesures supplémentaires étaient beaucoup plus nombreuses lors des élections locales en 2006 que lors des élections locales précédentes en 2000, ce qui indique que les partis politiques intègrent davantage la notion d'égalité. Par contre, les sections sont peu enthousiastes de trouver un meilleur équilibre par le biais de nouvelles mesures pour les fonctions élevées ou peu nombreuses. Une analyse mesurant l'impact du nombre de positions disponibles confirme une présence accrue de quotas au sein de sections locales disposant d'un nombre relativement élevé de positions. Les quotas se font aussi plus facilement accepter dans un climat idéologique imbibé par les notions d'égalité et dans un contexte où les femmes ont déjà balisé le chemin.     

Can twitter change the Iranian legal landscape for women?

ABSTRACT

This article explores the effectiveness of international social media (Twitter) campaigns, as a modern form of transnational advocacy networks, seeking domestic legal change in Iran for women’s rights. Using the spiral model of human rights change and second wave normative theories, the article critiques current thought on social media as an advocacy tool using evidence from two Iranian campaigns. Gathering empirical data from the #stopstoning and #letwomengotostadium campaigns, the research finds that Twitter campaigns may be linked to regression in some areas of women’s rights. Early evidence indicates that social media may lead to amplified government backlash, lack of campaign persistence and foreign overshadowing of domestic voices, which all contribute to the ongoing problematisation of the role of transnational advocacy networks in domestic human rights change.     

浅议魏晋南北朝时期女性出家之现象

佛教自西汉末传入中国,在魏晋南北朝时期已出现兴盛的局面。女性出家在此时期遂成为普遍的社会现象,这是苦难的社会现实使然,又决定于妇女这一社会群体的生活特点,同时又有相应的社会风尚的因素在内。反过来,妇女出家的普遍对社会经济、社会生活又有着一定的影响,是认识这一时期历史变迁的重要方面。     

非婚同居中女性合法权益的保护

长期以来 ,人们不加区别的视各种非婚同居为非法 ,道德上加以歧视 ,法律上不予保护 ,非婚同居的成本大多由女性独自承担 ,其结果不但不能有效的减少非婚同居 ,反而使女性的权益遭受日益严重的侵犯。本文所做的就是力图在区分侵犯第三人利益的非婚同居和单纯的非婚同居的基础上 ,结合婚姻法、民法的有关规定 ,对非婚同居中的女性合法权益的保护问题予以探讨。