Women Worldwide: Interplay between Church and Society and the Gender Paradox

This article analyzes the findings of women and gender issues presented in the recently published World Christian Encyclopedia, 3rd edition (2019). In addition to a brief illustration and discussion, I address two complex issues regarding women inspired by WCE-3, namely, the interplay between church and society and the gender paradox in World Christianity.

Introduction to the Special IBMR Issue on the World Christian Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition

Forty years ago, David B. Barrett, then based in Nairobi, Kenya, put the finishing touches on the first edition of the World Christian Encyclopedia. A second edition was produced in 2001, and now a third edition is in circulation, prepared between 2015 and 2019. This special issue of the IBMR reflects a core part of the methodology of the World Christian Encyclopedia, namely, interaction with World Christianity from different disciplinary perspectives and geographic locations. This introduction to the issue features reflection on articles on global Catholicism, missions, women and gender studies, religious freedom, Christianity in the Middle East, and refugees.

Druze Women and Gender in Druze Society: A Systematic Literature Review

This systematic literature review on Druze women and gender in Druze society reviews central conceptual themes from existing publications to chart future research trajectories. Using a meta-ethnographic methodology, this literature review covers Druze women’s experience of gendered realities in higher education, economic participation, marriage, family life, and health. Our systematic literature review allows us to offer two propositions on existing published knowledge pertaining to Druze women and gender in Druze society. First, we propose that scholarship on Druze women and gender in Druze society constructs Druze women’s experience of gender as not only discursive but material. We incorporate the process of women’s relationship with prohibitive mechanisms of gendered space and men’s experience of masculinist subjectification into an existing term: the spatialization of everyday life. Second, quantitative analysis reveals a disparity in publications between Israel and other countries such as Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. We propose that this disparity relates to the concept of “Druze particularism” while emphasizing their difference vis-à-vis Islamic religion and Arab culture. We suggest that future research thoroughly covers other national contexts and inter-national comparisons of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and the diaspora, especially in education, economy, and health. Future research trajectories could include examining contemporary sociolegal research on the legal regime that governs family life, research on Druze men from an explicitly feminist perspective, or publications of influential Druze women.

The Gender of Knowledge in Forensic Drama of Late Imperial China

In late imperial China practitioners of forensic investigation in legal cases were predominantly male. While crime literature frequently features female characters, the question of how this literature represents the gender dimension of forensic knowledge remains unanswered. This paper aims to answer this question with an examination of a number of late imperial era theatrical works that depict how forensic knowledge differed across the male and female divide. It argues court-case literature increasingly valorized male forensic knowledge and its relevance to the state legal system. At the same time, these theatrical pieces signify female forensic knowledge following two literary traditions, namely, the commendation of exemplary women and the condemnation of “wanton women.” Investigating these theatrical works at the interstices between court-case literature, women’s history, and forensic history, this paper suggests that the representations of forensic knowledge in Chinese drama accord with major developments in the history of women and gender in premodern China.

Barriers and Facilitators to Participation in Long-Acting Injectable PrEP Research Trials for MSM, Transgender Women, and Gender-Nonconforming People of Color

We collected 216 responses from sexually active MSM, transgender women, and gender-nonconforming (GNC) people of color through a web-based survey to understand the facilitators and barriers to research participation in a hypothetical LAI PrEP trial. In adjusted models, these items were found to be significantly associated with research participation likelihood: ever participated in HIV research study; comfort with taking daily pill; comfort with providing urine sample; and concerns over potential side effects of shot. Asian participants were more concerned about others knowing they were being recruited than were Black and Latinx respondents F(2, 216) = 3.98; p < .05. Asian respondents were also less comfortable with being recruited at organizations serving communities of color than Black and Latinx respondents, F(2, 216) = 5.10; p < .05. Cisgender respondents were more comfortable with being recruited by a friend or colleague than were transgender/GNC respondents, F(1, 215) = 4.8; p < .05.

The women of N. K. Jemisin: Representations of women and gender roles in the science-fantasy The Fifth Season

The following paper deals with representations of women and gender roles in science-fiction and fantasy. It briefly discusses the issue in these genres in general, but it is primarily concerned with one specific example, i.e. N. K. Jemisin’s science-fantasy novel The Fifth Season. The paper’s main aim is to highlight the changing nature of representations of women in science fiction and fantasy and pay tribute to a literary work depicting women from a modern perspective. Thus, it presents the analysis of said novel from the perspective of feminist criticism and gender studies, focusing on how the novel explores through its main and side women characters, ideas of representation, biological sex versus “gendering”, and related notions of femininity, gender roles and gender stereotypes and myths.

Women, Violence, and Gender Dynamics during and after the Five Patani-Siam Wars, 1785–1838

This article examines five wars that occurred on the Malay-Thai Peninsula in the period 1785–1838 and the deep impact they had upon women's lives during and after the conflicts. Constituting the majority of surviving refugees, women rebuilt their lives in the wake of war through business and trade in Malaya, as Islamic teachers in Mecca and Southeast Asia, and as servants and slaves in Bangkok. In each of these settings, women encountered new forms of agency and newfound challenges, shifting cultural values that regulated decisions and actions, and evolving perceptions of the qualifications for leadership. Focused upon the political demise of the Patani Sultanate, a state with a long history of female rule, this study is of particular relevance to scholarly debates concerning women in contemporary warfare because of its transnational focus with keen attention to women in a variety of Islamic spaces and contexts, its aim of dispelling the pervasive notion of Muslim women as lacking agency, and as a point of comparison for the present armed conflict still raging in Southern Thailand that has claimed more than five thousand and continues to impact women and gender dynamics in the region.