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Paper short abstract:

Wealthy and powerful gated communities, an integral feature of neoliberal urban expansion, enact various forms of dispossession on their poorer neighbours. This paper highlights the visual and symbolic violence that women domestic workers experience in one such context in Kolkata.

Paper long abstract:

Growth and development on the fringes of cities in India has generated experiences of extreme dispossession and violence for poorer residents of these areas. The mushrooming of wealthy gated communities has led to the securitization of space (Banerjee-Guha, 2009) and the partitioning of cities into archipelagos and enclosures (Stavrides 2013). Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork over several months, this paper, as part of an ongoing doctoral study, demonstrates the forms of marginalization and violence that women paid domestic workers, residing in a ‘slum’, experience, in one such location of Kolkata, that has witnessed rapid neoliberal urban expansion.

Women paid domestic workers working in a wealthy and powerful gated community in this area (anonymized for respondents’ safety) live in ‘slums’ adjacent to the community. The visual and symbolic violence of these high-rise towers is multi-faceted in these women’s narratives. It serves as a constant reminder of the exploitative work relationships and of the stark wealth inequalities these women are subject to. Given many of these women have also experienced sexual and gender-based violence during work, the constant visual presence of the apartments also acts to perpetuate the trauma of those experiences; further, substantial political clout of the residents of the community deprives these women of justice in many cases of conflict. Invoking Hayden’s deconstruction of the skyscraper as a phallic fantasy (1977), then, this paper argues that the high-rise residential towers of the community enact visual and symbolic violence on the bodies of these women.

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This study explores Black women’s livelihood strategies in South African townships affected by mining. Central to the discussion is ‘hustling’. Amidst the precarious living conditions imposed by mining activities, hustling allows women to sustain their families.

Paper long abstract:

As the global demand for mineral resources rises, the South African mining industry is expected to draw further interest, even as some sectors experience a decline. This has been framed as an opportunity for the country to promote further grow, but many are concerned about the negative social and environmental externalities. Women in particular have been shown to bear the brunt of extractive activities while enjoying little of the benefits. Despite efforts to reduce gender biases in the industry, women are still given very limited opportunities. This is particularly true for women who experience multiple forms of oppression. As more research is warranted on gendered perspectives of resource extraction, this study focuses on the lived experiences of Black women living in townships affected by mining. To do so, the study connects to existing literature on gender and mining in South Africa and draws from extensive multi-sited fieldwork done over the course of three months in the provinces of Gauteng, Free State, Northern Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. Central to the discussion is “hustling”, namely a livelihood strategy which consists of engaging in one or more side jobs, small businesses or other entrepreneurial activities to generate income. In the context of South African townships, hustling allows women to sustain their families amidst precarious living conditions. Mining is viewed by most as a source of tension and insecurity, which further exacerbates their vulnerability. Some women, however, find in mine dumps chances to make a living through hustling as artisanal miners

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This study explores gendered perceptions of environmental shocks and the role of gender empowerment in adaptation across Ghana, Mali, and Kenya (N=3033 households). Utilising household panel data, this research underscores the importance of gender-sensitive approaches in adaptation strategies.

Paper long abstract:

This study investigates gendered perspectives on environmental shocks, focusing on diverse adaptive capacities and decision-making in households and their impact on responses to climate variability. With an intersectional approach, we analyse how factors like age, education, and income, intersect with gender and each other, and influence perceived shock exposure and adaptation strategy effectiveness. Therefore, this study seeks to understand the complex interplay of social factors in shaping vulnerability and resilience within rural communities to environmental shocks.

Grounded in the context of rural Ghana, Mali, and Kenya this study employs panel data gathered from household surveys in 2022 and 2023, encompassing responses from over three thousand households, including both household heads and their spouses. The research focuses on investigating the relationship between anticipated losses from climate impacts and the subsequent decisions to adapt, either locally or through migration. A key aspect of this study is exploring how gender empowerment within household decision-making processes influences these adaptation choices.

Preliminary findings indicate that climate shocks exacerbate vulnerabilities, particularly among marginalised individuals. Additionally, vulnerabilities vary even within households. Successful adaptation strategies are linked with a range of socio-demographic factors, including but not limited to gender. This research contributes to the discourse on climate change adaptation, shedding light on diverse sensitivities and capacities to adapt. It aims to offer policy-relevant insights that underscore the importance of gender-sensitive approaches in developing climate adaptation strategies, thereby enhancing support for households affected by climate impacts.

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Ecological movements in the Global South often classified as 'livelihood struggles,' Field data provide diverse and complex realties. Analysis -beyond essentialist perspectives ,delves into the lived experiences. Intersectionality, movement mobilization, Feminist ecological citizenship explored.

Paper long abstract:

This article critically engages with the discourse of gender and the environment through qualitative field research in the ongoing Anti-Mining movement in Thottappally and the Silverline Protest against the Semi High-speed Railway project in the state of Kerala. Using theoretical frameworks such as ecofeminism, feminist environmentalism, and feminist ecological citizenship, the study seeks to unravel the complexities of the movement's mobilization, emphasizing the interconnectedness of women's struggles, socio-political positions, and ecological concerns. While much of the existing literature characterizes ecological movements in the Global South as simple 'livelihood struggles,' contemporary environmental movements in India encompass a multifaceted landscape, engaging with participatory democracy, alternative development, ecological citizenship, civil society's role, and global connections.

Through a critical lens, the article delves into the lived experiences of women in Thottappally and other parts of Kerala, shedding lights on their agency, struggles, resilience, and everyday resistance during the pandemic. The study maps claim making employed by these women and their effectiveness in maintaining momentum despite social distancing measures. The analysis goes beyond essentialist perspectives and explores how women, particularly from the marginalized communities, actively participate in the movement, evoking their ecological citizenship, resist the state’s privatization, challenging stereotypes and contributing to the broader discourse on collective action. The article underscores the need for an inclusive and intersectional approach in addressing the environmental crisis. Kerala is a state in India that made remarkable strides in the socio-demographic, education and public health indicator. These movements expose Kerala’s ill-informed political ecology of development.

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The paper introduces 'feminisation of responsibility in community recovery' and troubles the uncritical assumptions around women's participation in disaster reconstruction. It argues that disaster justice needs the lens of Care in order to address ambient gender injustices in disaster contexts.

Paper long abstract:

Post-disaster interventions have gradually paid attention to fostering women’s participation in processes of rebuilding in recent years. The explicit targeting of women in reconstruction initiatives has been regarded as a measure to ‘transform’ gender roles/relations and to fulfil broader disaster justice aims of providing access to political spaces and resources, and recognition. In the Philippines, women are increasingly acknowledged for their roles in helping their families and communities ‘bounce back’ from disasters thereby paving the way to their greater participation in disaster recovery. This paper, however, troubles the assumptions underpinning the uncritical celebration of women’s participation in community recovery – anchored on constructions of female altruism and women’s care responsibilities – and draws attention to how the targeting and mobilisation of women in times of disaster might inadvertently exacerbate gender inequalities and proliferate injustice. The paper presents a qualitative case study of community recovery in post-Yolanda Tacloban City, Philippines. Using the concept of feminisation of responsibility, it illuminates how the instrumentalisation of women’s participation and care-based practices in service of aspirations for ‘resilient recovery’ come at a cost – depletion of women’s time, energy, and emotions. Engaging with the concept of disaster justice, the paper argues that for gender justice goals to be attained in contexts of recovery, we need to address the containment of care as women’s responsibility. More importantly, it contends that disaster justice frameworks need to embody ethics of care if it is to address the ambient forms of injustices that (re)produce gendered disaster vulnerabilities.

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Inter-ethnic conflict in Manipur threatens intra-community gains made in gender equity, shrinks space for gender progressive conversations, and calls for devising creative pathways forward to foster gender justice

Paper long abstract:

India’s Manipur state hosts several ethnic communities, including those designated ‘tribal’. ‘Tribal’ communities are structured around customary laws. This abstract is concerned with Thadou-Kukis, afflicted, like other communities, by gender violence.

Customary verdicts ‘settle’ GBV cases by butchering pigs. These all-male customary courts lack investigative and rehab capacities. Victims approaching Indian judiciary attract fines from customary courts. Indian penal system, also corrupt, favours the influential.

Within this complexity, Centre for Women and Girls (CWG), a non-profit, tackles gender violence by addressing both episodic (comprehensive legal aid) and long-term (gender sensitization).

But this balancing act (contending with state and non-state groups) and the gains over recent years (with several women filing court cases) now stand threatened by an unprecedented conflict that broke out mid-2023 between Kukis and dominant Meiteis, resulting in demographic separation, militarization, and vigilantism.

Now, with courts disrupted and Manipur police seen as partisans, CWG can no longer convince GBV victims to approach Manipur police and Indian judiciary. The education and mobility of women and girls are severely affected.

Simultaneously, Kukis’ priorities are stark — roof, water, warmth, safety, money — leaving little space for holding gender sensitization. This space shrank as gender violence increased — within the house (as stressors worsened) and outside (sexual violence used as weapon of war). Kukis, inclined to defend ‘culture’, always resisted gender justice grounded in human rights, but now find their identity existentially threatened. This jeopardizes the small progressive window CWG, along with the community, had created. Creativity in pursuing gender justice is ever more important

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This paper focuses on women’s experiences of economic abuse during pregnancy, childbirth and the first few months. It argues that becoming a mother is a particularly vulnerable period in a woman’s life where intensification of abuse and shrinking of financial options may happen simultaneously.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores women’s experiences of economic abuse, in Bihar India. Economic abuse is a form of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) which involves controlling a person’s ability to acquire, use and maintain economic and financial resources to create dependency (Adams et al. 2008). The current conceptualisation of economic abuse has been largely informed by research in the US, Australia and Europe and do not adequately reflect South Asian women’s experiences of economic abuse. This paper uses a social justice and intersectional approach and draws on 50 interviews (21 video and 29 audio) and focus group discussions with further 25 mothers of dependent children recruited through community networks representing a variety of class, caste, occupational and religious backgrounds. The paper focuses on women’s experiences of economic abuse during pregnancy and early years of motherhood specifically focusing on economic abuse during pregnancy, childbirth and the first few months. The paper argues that becoming a mother is a particularly vulnerable period in a woman’s life where intensification of abuse and shrinking of financial options may happen simultaneously. The paper also argues the need for a better conceptualisation of economic abuse that reflects the cultural, structural, and socioeconomic experiences of women in diverse contexts. This has urgent implications for policy and practice as new forms of economic abuse tactics have surfaced following the pandemic partly due to enhanced digitalisation of finances and remote working practices.

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Paper short abstract:

Study analyses hysterectomy's impact on domestic violence in India using NFHS-5 data of 63,851 women. Findings show increased violence risks post-hysterectomy, underscoring the need for inclusive sexual health awareness campaigns.

Paper long abstract:

This study empirically investigates whether undergoing a hysterectomy is causally linked to an increased likelihood of women's exposure to domestic violence in India. Utilizing data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), specifically the domestic violence module comprising 63,851 women. First, we looked at the determinants of hysterectomy in India. Our analysis reveals that critical determinants for hysterectomy include the proportion of hysterectomies in the district, the sex of the first child, the number of children, and other socio-demographic factors. Subsequently, we explore the potential role of hysterectomy in influencing domestic violence in India. However, establishing a causal link is challenging due to unmeasured confounding factors and reverse causality. To address these concerns, we employ an instrumental variable approach, using the exogenous variation in the distance to health facilities. In our conditional mixed processes estimation, we find that the likelihood of physical, sexual, and emotional domestic violence increases for women who have undergone hysterectomy compared to those who have not. Our estimates remain robust across alternative estimation techniques and various robustness checks. Our findings emphasize the importance of conducting informative sessions on sexual and reproductive health, particularly focusing on providing accurate information about hysterectomies. Furthermore, our results suggest that policies aimed at promoting gender equity may inadvertently increase women's exposure to domestic violence unless they involve men in such awareness campaigns.

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This proposal examines the question of feminism in the context of the Palestinian nationalist movement in the digital era. I argue that to understand Palestinian feminism, the history of (settler-)colonialism and neoliberalism needs to be thoroughly considered.

Paper long abstract:

In this research, I will explore the question of the mediated visuality of Palestine under the Israeli settler-colonial occupation through theories of feminism and nationalism. I will first trace the history of Palestinian women’s activism and their participation in the resistance nationalist movement. Then, I will examine visual digital media content created by Palestinian women, such as Palestinian filmmaker Mai Masri’s fictional film 3000 Nights (2015). I argue that many visual digital media content, such as the film 3000 Nights, challenges the stereotypes and the binary assumption that Palestinian women being “mother of the nation” during national movements is the result of patriarchal violence; instead, it has to be understood through the history of (settler-)colonialism and posited within specific contexts. Palestinian women strive to refuse the dichotomy division that forces them to choose between being a mother/wife or a nationalist, nor do they want to fall into the binary trap of assigning them to be either the victim of patriarchal dominance or colonial violence. The goal of this research is to first investigate the debate over the potential or limitations of digital media in fostering and disseminating hegemonic ideologies, consequently reinforcing systemic power imbalance. Subsequently, this research explores how Palestinian women's content creators posit questions of sociality and collectivity in constrained contexts of dispersion, and siege, to shed light on how the logic of gendered nationalist discourses shapes Palestinian women’s sense of feminist and nationalist consciousness.

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This paper considers the political economic axes in which maternal health, wellbeing and employment intersect. Quality and tempo-spatial realities of jobs impact access to rights and care. Maternal choices and outcomes are curtailed by both lacking and unenforced policies, eroding gender justice.

Paper long abstract:

This paper studies the relationship between maternal health, wellbeing and employment for a reproductive justice lens. It considers how the scope and findings of feminist economic scholarship may be embraced by reproductive justice scholarship. Taking Turkey as a case-study, in-person interviews (n=26), a survey (n=162) and online discourse analysis find that the qualitative aspects of work, situated within broader economic and social policies, affect reproductive justice via the extent to which personal and parental decisions can be enacted during pregnancy, postpartum and childrearing periods. Inadequate wages and inflexibility, within a context of low childcare provision and high unpaid labour burdens negatively impact maternal employment and health outcomes. Informality may appear to provide flexibility, but can come at the cost of legal employment rights and healthcare access. Exclusion from certain social protections further erode direct and indirect reproductive rights of foreigners and ethnic minorities.

Micro-factors such as employment opportunities, potential and real income; tempo-spatial realities of jobs, and household budget dynamics along with wider macro-factors such as the general economic outlook of a country; employment protections for pregnancy and carers; welfare policies; and inflation and currency issues should be analysed within gender justice. They affect the pregnancy and postpartum experiences of women, they affect women’s ability to reconcile desired fertility choices with actual fertility choices and they affect the autonomy of mothers where employment conditions are harsh or rigid. Gender justice scholarship and policies should consider maternal health/wellbeing and employment, as well as how quality and location of employment.

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Our paper addresses the drivers of and limitations to automation and technological upgrading in the apparel and footwear industries and their effects on men and women’s employment, quality of work and patterns of gender segregation.

Paper long abstract:

Our paper addresses the drivers of and limitations to automation and technological upgrading in the apparel and footwear industries and their effects on men and women’s employment, quality of work and patterns of gender segregation. We use case studies of two apparel and two footwear factories in Indonesia based on factory visits and interviews with employers, technology specialists, workers and worker representatives. We find evidence that automation is integrating more men into production through the deskilling of sewing in footwear and in the operation of automatic and semi-automatic machines in both apparel and footwear production. Low wages remain an important cornerstone of firm strategies to maintain competitiveness and automation has not promoted a sharing of gains through “high-road” practices. While the reduction in the physical demands of certain shopfloor tasks weakened the traditional rationale for the gender division of labour, we did not identify corresponding shifts on the shopfloor.

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The paper analyses how associations may impact women’s entry into occupation, occupational mobility, care work, acquiring information, questioning violence and expansion of social space within the given power dynamics through case studies of workers engaged in specific occupations in Kolkata, India.

Paper long abstract:

The role and functioning of different form of networks are crucial for everyday survival and livelihood strategies, especially in a poor developing country like India. However, the gender homophily of network structure ensures that information regarding upward mobility is free-flowing in men’s networks, which may not be the case for the ties that women possess.

In India, while women’s workforce participation has been largely debated, the role of networks remains underexplored.

Given this lacuna, The study analyses the importance, usage and limitations of networks for women through case studies of women workers in Kolkata engaged in or entering into domestic work, driving and sex work. Following Naila Kabeer's categorisation, we have divided women's ties into 'given' ties, i.e. family and kin ties and 'chosen' ties, i.e. ties outside family and kin.

In-depth interviews reveal that the formation of cross-cutting ties across classes can be crucial for occupational mobility or access to support or information that does not eliminate the power dimensions embedded in such networks.

Women domestic workers and trainee drivers with the double burden of productive and reproductive work suffer from a lack of time, hindering the expansion of their social sphere and keeping them dependent on family and kin members for support in care work or monetary help.

In contrast, sex workers lacking the support of kin ties consider work acquaintances and customers as 'friends' and receive support during financial, monetary, and health-related crises and even 'familial affection' within the embedded power dimensions of heterogenous networks.

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Paper short abstract:

Is there such a thing as an inventory of possibilities of disaster responses that can make visible gendered experiences from a social and cultural world view? This raises questions about power expressions, and integration of gender and justice framings from a social and cultural world view.

Paper long abstract:

Is there such a thing as an inventory of possibilities of disaster responses that can make visible gendered experiences from a social and cultural world view? This paper uses the test case of the unprecedented 2023 Cyclone Freddy disaster in per-urban Soche Hill of Blantyre – Malawi – to interrogate power biases in disaster responses, socially and culturally accepted framings of climate justice, and implications for gender justice. We deploy multilevel interviews, storytelling, and observations to explore social and cultural constructions of disasters, inclusion and exclusion of actors and what this means for gender and locally constructed assumptions of justice. Preliminary results show the making of vulnerability is a function of historical and neoliberal continuities that marginalize women. Related power bias privileges state actors on the one hand, and international actors on the other hand as architects of disaster frames and responses. This power bias, however, has been exclusionary to social and culture views of disaster, including gender, leading to narrow as opposed to a broad-based construction of disaster and responses. Whereas women express vulnerability more than men, insights from disaster camps show disproportional allocation of responsibilities to women which has been accompanied by gender blind interventions from state and non-state actors. Ultimately, this paper reflects on how justice lens can be integrated in disaster responses for a sustainable understanding of disasters across gender. It also centres on the possible inventory of possibilities on how gender particularly women can be integrated and made visible in disaster framing and responses.

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Drawing from the literature on homocapitalism and informalization of the commercial surrogacy industry, we explore the pragmatic limits of the ongoing struggle of queer rights in India towards marriage equality and the right to have an offspring that exacerbates the exploitation of surrogates.

Paper long abstract:

In October 2023, the Supreme Court justices in Delhi ruled against the writ petitions for same-sex marriage equality. The five-judge bench headed by Justice Chandrachud ruled against claims by gay partners to marriage, surrogacy and adoption and inheritance and employment benefits, by adopting the liberal pretext that the fate of the queer community is to be decided by Parliamentary procedure. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has declared that the decision ‘‘to not give homosexuals the right to adopt a child is also a good step.’’ In this paper, we will explore the formation of Hindu-homocapitalist modernity as a species of cosmopolitan governmentality by exploring the ‘reproductive assemblage’ of outlawed yet flourishing surrogacy services and practices from the perspective of subaltern women. The frontiers of International Human Rights have reached a limit in India when it comes to the exploitation of subaltern women for their reproductive labour. Neoliberal rationality orders these two species of human rights: the right to reproduction through surrogacy finds validation through a queer rights industry and homonormative modernity. Appropriation of reproductive justice by gay capitalism exacerbates the marginality of subaltern women. Their decision to act as a gestational surrogate for social reproduction is rendered invisible.

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Advocating for a transnational policy shift away from neo-Malthusian strategies, urging India to critically reassess its gendered construction of citizenship in order to facilitate citizen's right to sexual and reproductive health.

Paper long abstract:

This paper critically examines India's Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) evolution, exploring the interplay of its colonial past and global population politics. From the National Programme for Family Planning in 1952 to the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the study adopts a dual framework, contextualizing India's SRHR within colonial and transnational contexts.

The postcolonial lens reveals gendered citizenship dynamics impacting marital relations and nationalist shifts. Analyzing the 19th-century 'Age of Consent' debate and post-independence Family Planning, the paper highlights evolving dynamics influenced by eugenics, neo-Malthusian ideals, and the global women's movement. Examining the institutionalization of Family Planning by the Family Planning Association of India (FPAI) and post-World War II transnational networks exposes the impact of global politics, aid, and population control on India's FP policies.

The paper underscores the consequences of numerical targets, financial incentives, and the 1960s population crisis, leading to the targeting of marginalized women and perpetuation of neo-Malthusian ideas. Tracing ICPD, MDGs, and SDGs, it challenges the ICPD-centric perspective, revealing shifts in FP objectives and nuanced influences. Evaluating India's current SRHR landscape with NFHS data, the study advocates for a transnational policy shift away from neo-Malthusian strategies, urging India to critically reassess its gendered construction of citizenship for a holistic realization of sexual and reproductive health rights.

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This paper examines how power asymmetries impact indigenous and Dalit women’s use of alternative media to share narratives on environmental justice, sustainable development, and climate change. It asks whether alternative media can reach its transformative potential by impacting hegemonic power.

Paper long abstract:

Alternative media is increasingly a strategic tool in environmental justice movements. However, the digital public sphere reproduces hegemonies of social structures; racial, ethnic, economic and gender imbalances marginalise those already on the peripheries (Suzina and Pleyers 2016; Gurumurthy and Chami, 2019; Harvey 2020). This paper examines how power asymmetries impact indigenous and Dalit women’s use of alternative media to put forward their perspectives on environmental justice, sustainable development, and climate change. The research lies at the crossroads of digital media and environmental justice, using their shared concepts of reclaiming power, justice and citizenship. This research contributes a feminist perspective on alternative media’s transformative potential – to impact hegemonic power and to bring new voices into the mainstream.

I examine whose knowledge is valued; who creates knowledge; and how production of alternative knowledge challenges dominant discourses in media and policy about environmental justice. Using participatory methods of power analysis and critical discourse analysis over a period of six months, I analysed the practices of two Indian organisations. These methods centred the specific needs of each organisation – the women’s collective’s need to understand their trajectory of media making, and a filmmaking for conservation fellowship’s challenge of including more women. Emerging findings suggest that alternative media must address patriarchal views of women’s role in public spaces, resources and personal networks as barriers. Simultaneously, women’s narratives actively position indigenous and Dalit women’s knowledge systems -- traditional farming practices, seed diversity, and heritage skills – as alternatives to development beyond a neo-liberal agenda.