Proceedings of the World Conference on Women’s Studies

REWORKING VULNERABILITIES: LINGUISTIC RESURRECTIONS OF FEMININE IDENTITY

S Barua — 2023-12-04

Language and linguistics are critical for exploring the ways in which society tends to perpetuate discrimination against women. The primary concern of this study is to analyze how female respondents understand oppressive patriarchal practices that they encounter in real life and how their language reflects their own orientation to their vulnerable position. In particular, it seeks to discover how language, as deeply embedded in the social construction of reality, helps women to mitigate patriarchal assumptions and practices thereby establishing a more egalitarian social standing. This study analyzes three narratives by female respondents from different socio-economic strata and occupations. The experiences they describe range from dress codes at work to reproductive rights and vulnerability associated with being in the public sphere. Their life experiences capture various facets of oppression including cultural imperialism, powerlessness and exploitation, but the way they use language to navigate this oppression helps with resurrecting feminine identity. The data for this study has been collected from 3 female Hindi/Assamese respondents (aged between early twenties to mid-forties for a representative sample of issues faced by women in adult life). The study uses a discourse analysis framework within a qualitative approach to explore women’s lived experiences both the private and the public sphere. The analysis shows that women’s resurrection of their social standing is made possible by their use of language, which can mitigate their vulnerabilities thereby redefining their identities in more positive light.

Keywords: patriarchal oppression, feminine identity, vulnerabilities, resurrection, language, discourse

‘THE MENTAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE INDIGENOUS TIWAS OF INDIA’

G Baruah — 2023-12-04

Adolescence is a critical period in everyone’s life, but it becomes particularly significant for an adolescent girl reaching childbearing age. The following research investigates the issues concerned in enhancing the reproductive and mental health education of adolescent girls of the Tiwas of West Karbi Anglong district in Assam, India. According to UNICEF data (n.d.), India comprises one-third of the world’s child bride population. However, unlike the tribes of Odisha, India (Pradhan, 2022) where child marriages are prevalent, there is no forced child marriage among the tribes of Assam. In contrast, the choice of marriage is usually made by the Tiwa adolescent girl herself. Early pregnancy in developed countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom is equally alarming. An adolescent girl who reaches puberty undergoes the same physical changes, fear, anxiety, and excitement when entering adulthood irrespective of their socioeconomic status. There is currently a lack of research into the reproductive and mental health of Tiwa adolescent girls in Assam. Therefore, this paper investigates the issues of reproductive and mental health faced by adolescent girls in the Tiwa community by collecting

primary data from the field. The best practices of developed nations will be studied from secondary data, to educate Tiwa adolescents about individual rights, marriage age, domestic violence and the dangers of early pregnancy. Finally, the findings will provide a counter-narrative to the common notion that child marriage is enforced in India; instead, it is chosen by the adolescent herself in many tribes of Northeast India.

Keywords: adolescent health, child marriage and pregnancy

TERESINA NEGRI: A SUCCESS STORY OF WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP BETWEEN THE 19th AND 20th CENTURIES

de Paolis Umberto — 2023-12-04

This original research focuses upon the story of Teresina Negri (1879-1974), a woman, dancer, entrepreneur and fashion designer who was able to combine inventiveness and entrepreneurial skills to achieve socio-economic affirmation. The research methodology is divided into three phases: the first consists of an acknowledgement of the documentary, bibliographic and iconographic sources related to the case study found in archives, libraries and both private and family collections in France, Italy, UK and Monaco. Next, the data obtained is structured into a narrative highlighting the various personality traits of the subject. The third phase concludes the summation of this study. Born in Italy, at sixteen years old, Teresina ran away from home to devote herself to dance. In this way she was able to gain an independence that would not have been possible for a young woman in late 19th-century Italian society. She took charge of her life, never afraid to reinvent herself and possessing the audacity to turn difficulties into opportunities. She performed for a Lumière Brothers film and then became a successful dance étoile in Belle Époque Paris. In 1920 she became a fashion designer under the pseudonym Madame GRISINA; the invisible bra she invented and patented quickly spread across international fashion, anticipating modern styles and modes of use. Negri was a business executive, she never took second place to anyone; in both public and private life she enacted the tenets of emancipation and continuously sought recognition of her rights, demanding a premarital contract based on principles of social equality. She was also a family woman: while not seeking personal fulfillment in motherhood, she cared for her sister and for her nephews as if they were her own children, providing them with the opportunity for a better life. The discovery and research about the historical figure of Teresina Negri thus offer an original contribution to the role of women in design and business, as well as being emblematic of a spirit of female emancipation and creative fervor that over almost a century stands as a unicum in women’s history.

ENCOURAGING WOMEN LEADERSHIP AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES’S ENVIRONMENT AS IMPLEMENTATION OF AKHLAK’s CORE VALUE

E Susilowati — 2023-12-04

Indonesian state-owned companies have the potential to increase Gross Domestic Product by USD 135 billion by 2025 if they can improve the status of gender equality in the world of work. The Ministry of SOEs seeks to increase women's representation in the Board of Commissioners, Management Board and one level below the Management Council, with a target of 15% in 2021 and 25% in 2023. There has also been an increased focus on the representation of young people within the Board of Directors, and below levels, from state-owned enterprises to 5% in 2021 and 10% in 2023. A survey conducted by McKinsey in 2021 on women in the workplace stated that female leaders produce more fruitful results because women are adept at navigating work/life balance, ensuring that the workload is manageable. This paper explores how to encourage women's leadership and how to empower women in MSME business within SOEs. This will achieve better results in MSME business performance, a more conducive and productive work environment and prioritize respect free from gender discrimination to create gender equality and safeguard human rights. The methodused by researchers in this study is descriptive analysis and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The results obtained in this study are the leadership of women MSME owners who receive higher BUMN support than those who do not receive. While the novelty of this study is the leadership and empowerment of women in MSMEs within State-Owned Enterprises (MSMEs)

MARRIAGE OF THE MIGHT: ARTICULATING THE INDIAN CONDITIONING TOWARDS MARRIAGE THROUGH ISMAT CHUGHTAI’S SHAHUHAR KE KHATIR’ AND ‘CHAUTHI KA JODA’

R Basu — 2023-12-04

The Indian Society has existed for centuries as a socio-sexually patriarchal society where marriage features as one of the major facets of building of the family structure. What functions as the aside to this exchange, is the perpetual subjugation of women in the pretext of providing them a ‘respectable’ social status. This Paper would take into consideration two stories written by Ismat Chughtai, Shahuhar ke Khatir’ and ‘Chauthi ka Joda’ that serve as a stark commentary on the ritual of marriage in India by exposing the multi-layered sexual discrimination, torture and oppression that comes along with it. As the subcontinent's one of the famous feminist writers, Chughtai (1915-1991) wrote with panache and depicted the tyrannies of contemporary society. Through this paper, I intend to raise questions on the Indian tradition of marriage and the sexual commercialization behind it. The stories throw light upon the duplicity of the society and how women are subjected to constant ostracization for failing to match to the standards of the society. By taking into light various ancient Indian cultural treatises on sexuality and marriage, it would like to position the stories and the method in which they develop to discuss marriage as an emblem of the culture of the society.