Suchergebnisse

Mainstream conceptions of autonomy have been surreptitiously gender‐specific and masculinist. Feminist philosophers have reclaimed autonomy as a feminist value, while retaining its core ideal as self‐government, by reconceptualizing it as "relational autonomy." This article examines whether feminist theories of relational autonomy can adequately illuminate the agency of Islamist women who defend their nonliberal religious values and practices and assiduously attempt to enact them in their daily lives. I focus on two notable feminist theories of relational autonomy advanced by Marina Oshana and Andrea Westlund and apply them to the case of Women's Mosque Movement participants in Egypt. I argue that feminist conceptions of relational autonomy, centered around the ideal of self‐government, cannot elucidate the agency of Women's Mosque Movement participants whose normative ideal involves perfecting their moral capacity.

Objective: This study investigates whether women's agency changes with birth transitions in Egypt and if this change differs by education or rural vs. urban residence. Background: In the patriarchal context of Egypt, childbearing is almost universal and essential for women's social position; therefore, it is a potentially relevant factor for agency. However, research on the relationship between childbirth and agency is rare, and little is known about the circumstances under which childbirth might increase agency. Method: Drawing on longitudinal data from the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey (2006, 2012, 2018), this study uses fixed effects regression models to estimate the link between birth transitions and women's agency. Results: The results show that the transition from having one child to having at least two children is positively associated with women's decision-making power but not their financial autonomy or freedom of movement. This positive relationship is stronger for low-educated women and those living in rural areas than for women with at least an intermediate education and those living in urban areas. Indeed, women living in urban areas have less agency after childbirth. Conclusion: Overall, the results indicate that birth transitions might affect agency, although not across all dimensions, and that the potential positive impact on agency is substantial only for women who are more restricted to the mother role and live in more patriarchal contexts.

North Korean women's fashion has changed in the context of women's relatively recently assumed role as critical actors in North Korea's market-dependent economy. Through examination of changes in women's fashion we learn more about how the way women choose to dress can become an agentic and empowering process. The article argues that the case of North Korean women and their dress practice can inform our understanding of how women, even in the most oppressive of circumstances, develop tactics to manipulate the systems and social order that seek to control them. North Korean women have enacted upon their agency deliberately, getting away with what they can while simultaneously skilfully avoiding the dire consequences of being identified as actors who dare to disrupt the status quo. This type of agency is not always understood or appreciated by Western liberal frames and sensibilities of agency that centralise notions of individualism and freedom. This nuanced appreciation of women's agency has the potential to expand the "rights, choices and autonomy" Western discourse of women's agency in ways that are inclusive of women who live, and sometimes manage to thrive, in the face of extreme oppression. This paper is informed by the authors' field notes from trips to North Korea and by 45 in-depth interviews with North Korean refugees, regular visitors to North Korea and NGO workers.

The misalignment between economic strengthening opportunities and women's agency is especially salient given the connection between women's economic empowerment and household well-being. Using Kenya Demographic Health Survey 2014 data, we examine married women's agency in household economic decision making. Women who are less likely to characterize abusive patterns of behavior as problematic and women reporting emotional abuse are less likely to report economic autonomy in the household. Furthermore, data indicate little congruence in perceptions of wife's household economic autonomy between couples. These findings point to the need to understand the interplay among structural factors, gender, marital status, and the financial well-being of married persons.

Kabeer's simple and illustrative definition of empowerment is "the expansion in people's ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them" (Kabeer, 1999: 437). Women's empowerment, then, is conceptualized as an increase in agency over time. Little is it known about the importance of the effect of 'self directed motivations and desires' and autonomy on women's agency. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationships among women's autonomy and labor force participation along with their effects on women's agency in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. For this, we use the structural equation modeling approach. Our results reveal that women's autonomy and participation in the labor market positively influence their agency levels.

Research on women who divorce their abusive husbands typically draws on the experiences of those who have had contact with formal intimate partner violence (IPV) support services. The experiences of women who have not sought such support remain poorly understood. Drawing upon a series of longitudinal, in-depth interviews with 12 women who did not seek formal IPV services, this work illuminates women's "strategically stealthy" agency, as they navigate spousal violence, seek human connection and formal support, and eventually file for divorce. This article proposes a revision of the transtheoretical model's (TTM) preparation stage from 30 days to a flexible time frame of months and even years, which allows a more complex, agentic understanding of IPV survivors' actions, behaviors, and help-seeking efforts deployed in planning for divorce. By expanding the time frame of TTM's preparation stage, this work has broad implications for social work practice.