Women’s Voices and Patriarchal Hegemony of the Edo Period in Shinju Tenno Amijima (1720)

The Edo Period (1603-1868), known as the feudal era, lasted for nearly three centuries in Japan. Confucian teachings applied in all sectors of life had a great influence on the expansion of the patriarchal system in Japanese society at this time. Under the strict control of the Tokugawa shogunate government, the implementation of social class stratification was firmly established, including in the hierarchical relationship between men and women. The period of peace that occurred throughout the Edo period had contributed to a conducive situation for the rapid development of Japanese culture. Male artists were very dominant in the development of Japanese culture, and they were centred in big cities during this period. On the other hand, this era had become a dark age for women who did not get the opportunity to speak and create as men did. The female figures of the Edo period were presented in the works of male writers. This study focuses on examining women’s voices in the works of these male writers in the period. After exploring research on this period’s literary works, we found that these studies have various focuses related to the disclosure of women during the period, starting from the representation of women, their relationship with a male and other female characters, to their roles and positions. This research will contribute to discussions on gender, history, and literature, as well as on the way women's voices in this work serve a purpose in supporting the patriarchal hegemony that occurred in the period. We aim to reveal women’s voices in a male writer's play Shinju Tenno Amijima (1720) by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725) through a feminist critique approach. To explain women's voice and patriarchal hegemony, we apply the concepts of silence from Olsen (2003) and hegemony from Antonio Gramsci. The results of this study indicate that women’s voices raised in this play are the ones who support men's interests and are subject to patriarchal values. This play consistently displays the exclusion of women's voices of opposition and defiance. This work also shows its existence as a locus for the dominant values emphasized for women in the Edo period.

A Global Silence: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis of Aboriginal Mothering Through Domestic and Family Violence

Aboriginal women globally face extreme risk of violence and their exposure to domestic and family violence (DFV) and state sanctioned violence is increasing. Attention to the impact on Aboriginal mothering is lacking and is underpinned by issues of social justice. This study employs Critical Interpretive Synthesis to examine the evidence on Aboriginal mothering through DFV. Serrant-Green’s Silences Framework was used to structure the critique, understand its problematics and generate an argument to counter the evidential silence. From 6,117 search results, ten publications were reviewed, only four of which substantially addressed Aboriginal mothering in the context of family and domestic violence; a conspicuous absence from the literature about Aboriginal women, children, and mothering. Studies addressing Aboriginal women’s experience of DFV did not credit the issue of mothering. Equally, studies that did address mothering through violence were generally not inclusive of Aboriginal women. Silence, therefore, sits at the nexus of DFV, Aboriginal women, and mothering. While violence against Aboriginal women is acknowledged as a social ill, inattention to mothering in research represents a disregard for Aboriginal women’s mothering identities and roles. Aboriginal women’s voice and citizenship are critical to addressing this issue.

Backlash against the #MeToo movement: How women's voice causes men to feel victimized

Three studies examined whether perceived increases in women's "voice" (i.e., being heard and taken seriously about sexual assault) contributes to perceptions of bias against men. In Study 1, both men and women who perceived women to have greater voice related to sexual assault perceived greater victimization of men. This relationship was stronger for relatively conservative participants. In Study 2, relatively conservative (but not relatively liberal) participants who read about #MeToo perceived greater men’s victimization than those in the control condition. Study 3 examined responses to perceiving that men are victimized by #MeToo. For relatively conservative (but not liberal) men, perceptions of men’s victimhood lead to less willingness to work alone with a woman and less willingness to combat sexual assault (relative to a control condition). Thus, while the #MeToo movement brings awareness to issues of sexual assault, it also generates backlash among the more conservative and may accentuate gender disparities.

The gendered experience of voice in Canadian radio and beyond: Toronto, Canada

Feminist media scholars have historically centered gender and identity on the body and visual texts, with the voice exercised as metaphor - immaterial or interpreted solely as the words spoken. Representative of agency, the voice gets defined as what is being said rather than how one is saying it. My thesis addresses this gap through an earoriented analysis of women’s voice within the Canadian radio and podcasting industry. Centred on the experiences of individual women in Toronto’s broadcast soundscape, I bring a feminist phenomenological approach to my work to explore the intersection of voice as both material sound -an extension of the body and thus individual identities- and the weight of the women’s voice as politically and historically coded. I aim to expand my work beyond the individual experiences of the women within the broadcast industry and into the broader discourse surrounding gendered representation for the future of our Canadian media soundscape.

The gendered experience of voice in Canadian radio and beyond: Toronto, Canada

Feminist media scholars have historically centered gender and identity on the body and visual texts, with the voice exercised as metaphor - immaterial or interpreted solely as the words spoken. Representative of agency, the voice gets defined as what is being said rather than how one is saying it. My thesis addresses this gap through an earoriented analysis of women’s voice within the Canadian radio and podcasting industry. Centred on the experiences of individual women in Toronto’s broadcast soundscape, I bring a feminist phenomenological approach to my work to explore the intersection of voice as both material sound -an extension of the body and thus individual identities- and the weight of the women’s voice as politically and historically coded. I aim to expand my work beyond the individual experiences of the women within the broadcast industry and into the broader discourse surrounding gendered representation for the future of our Canadian media soundscape.

Building Back Better, Gender Equality, and Feminist Dilemmas

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected men and women differently, exacerbating existing gender inequalities across a range of areas including health, education, and livelihoods. Globally, the levels of gender-based violence have increased. Consensus exists in policy circles that emergency response and recovery plans should consider both the immediate and longer-term gender impact of Covid-19, and without effective measures, the progress made to date on gender equality will not be sustainable. But has this crisis led to a moment when gender power hierarchies in our economies, politics, and society can be renegotiated? In this article, we explore: what does building back better look like if gender equality was at its core? What kinds of feminist dilemmas arise with respect to how we frame women’s voice and agency as we advocate for transformative systemic change? We start with a vision for building back better with a gender lens; and move on to discuss the gender-specific impacts of Covid-19 that exacerbate the vulnerabilities of women and girls. In connection with the latter, we discuss the feminist dilemmas that arise with respect to discourse on women’s agency, representation, participation, and the key issues that we need to consider for transforming systemic gender power hierarchies.

SPEECH ACT STRATEGY UTTERED BY EMMA WATSON AND MALALA YOUSAFZAI AS THE INSTRUMENT OF EMPOWERMENT

Women’s voice has been heard by the society for the past few years. There are a lot of movements created by women to support each other, for example, Women’s March, Time’s Up, #MeToo, and HeForShe. This movement will lead to more recognition of women in various expertise. Consequently, those amazing women are able to meet in one situation. The certain situation leads women to do a conversation. The conversation between women also includes different kinds of speech acts. This study aims to find the speech act uttered by Emma Watson and Malala Yousafzai as the instrument of empowerment. The result of the study shows that Emma Watson and Malala Yousafzai are mostly using directive speech acts in their speeches. The purpose of the directive speech act is to make people do something. Emma and Malala use directive speech act to empower people to accomplish something. The use of the directive speech act also related to the third-wave feminism movement. This movement establishes women to be bold, empowered, and brave. So, the third wave of feminism also influences Emma and Malala as bold and empowered women. They empower other people to do something through their speech act because they are empowered, women.

The World Literature and Women’s Voice in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970) and Han Kang’s The Vegetarian (2007)

This study seeks to investigate the women’s voice in the world literature depicted by ethnic female authors from African-American and Korean descent. Gaining international recognition in the world literature, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eyes (1970) and Han Kang’s The Vegetarian (2007) reveal different social-cultural conditions about how women are presented in their respective nation. Morrison presents the life of colored women struggling with racial discrimination in the predominant white society. Meanwhile, Kang employs the symbolic food of meat and vegetarianism to reveal the women’s voice against social conformity. Applying écriture feminine or women’s writing in the analysis, both Toni Morrison and Han Kang scrutinize the stereotypical representation of women as passive, obedient, and lacking. In examining the two works, some steps were done: 1) having close reading towards the text to analyze the representation of women; 2) doing the socio-cultural analysis in connection to the women’s voice; 3) drawing the conclusion about the significance of world literature to the women’s voice. This study finds that the world literature has its significant contribution as the windows for global readers to understand women’s issues portrayed in two different nations. Not only to present women’s voice, ethnic female authors such as Toni Morrison and Han Kang indeed share the local culture through their novels. With this condition, the world literature enables to break the barriers of male Western authors as the center by offering room for female writers from non-Western countries.

Strengthening Women’s Inclusion in Social Accountability Initiatives

In the last 20 years, social accountability initiatives have facilitated the inclusion and participation of marginalised groups in governance processes. This Policy Briefing focuses on how and what factors prove effective in strengthening women’s voice in processes holding public service providers accountable. We argue that initiatives must: (a) build technical and other forms of capacity amongst women; (b) change formal rules on women’s inclusion; (c) apply political economy analysis to unpack power dynamics, identify actors in favour of gender equality, and build a network in support of women; and (d) make long-term funding commitments for sustainable change in gender-biased norms.