ABSTRACT This article examines the labor force participation of educated women in Kerala, a southern Indian state renowned for its remarkable achievements in social and human development. Using primary data collected from 300 women, the study analyzes their educational attainment, labor force participation, and employment conditions. The findings reveal that most respondents completed their education in government or government‐aided institutions as full‐time or regular students. The estimated labor force participation rate (LFPR) among the sampled women is 68.7%, indicating that this proportion of women is either employed or actively seeking employment. The LFPR is considerably lower among Muslim women than among Hindu women. A probit regression model was employed to identify the determinants of female labor force participation. The results show that age, higher educational qualifications, the number of earning members in the household, being Hindu, the father's level of education, and vocational training have a positive and significant influence on women's labor force participation. In contrast, larger household size, higher educational attainment of the mother, the self‐employment status of the father or husband, and attendance at private‐aided educational institutions are associated with a lower likelihood of labor force participation. The study also highlights several barriers to women's participation in the labor market, including family responsibilities, inadequate job‐related skills, and difficulties in securing suitable employment. To improve female labor force participation, it recommends expanding access to affordable childcare services, promoting flexible work arrangements, strengthening vocational training and career counseling programs, enhancing professional networking opportunities, and reforming the regulatory framework to facilitate women's employment.
ABSTRACT Trans* is an umbrella term that is used to describe people who identify with a gender that is different from their assigned sex at birth. There has been a marked increase in young people presenting to child and adolescent mental health services due to a lack of specialist gender clinics in the United Kingdom. This article describes a personal journey and discusses the challenges of supporting these youngsters and their families within a UK context. Trans* young people are at greater risk of experiencing mental health issues than their cisgender peers. To identify existing findings in research regarding comorbid mental health issues and coexisting problems facing young people who identify as transgender. To support C.H. in sharing her story and experience of treatment in child and adolescent mental health services. To look to the future while navigating a polarization of public and clinical opinion. One of the authors, C.H., identifies as transgender and will describe her personal experiences from child to adult and more recently drawing on the research she has conducted for her PhD, which also supports her experiences and focuses specifically on the development of her situational gender fluidity model. The narrative was developed using coproduction between CH and mental health professionals and a researcher. One of the authors supported CH during her adolescence in a Tier 4 inpatient CAMHS service. The paper concludes with some suggestions and implications for future practice such as the need to raise awareness of the issues facing young people and reduce the stigma, discrimination and isolation that has been described in the recent literature, highlighting how gender diverse support should be more inclusive and affirming to the individual.
ABSTRACT This article examines transmasculine pregnancy as a critical lens through which to analyze the intersections of cisnormativity, reproductive governance, and reproductive citizenship within healthcare systems. While existing research has documented barriers faced by transgender populations, less attention has been paid to how institutional and policy frameworks regulate trans reproductive experiences. Drawing on qualitative data from in‐depth interviews with trans men and transmasculine individuals in Brazil, this study explores how access to reproductive care is structured across clinical, administrative, and legal domains. The findings demonstrate that barriers extend beyond interpersonal discrimination and are embedded in the institutional, technological, and bureaucratic organization of reproductive health services. Participants reported recurrent forms of misrecognition, including misgendering, exclusion from health information systems, and challenges in civil registration processes. These dynamics reveal how cisnormativity operates as a governing logic that shapes the recognition of reproductive subjects and conditions access to rights. The article argues that reproductive citizenship is differentially constituted, with transmasculine individuals occupying a marginal and conditionally recognized position. By highlighting the gap between formal policy inclusion and lived experience, the study underscores the need for structural transformations in health systems and contributes to broader debates on gender, reproduction, and public policy.
ABSTRACT Digital communication has facilitated freedom of expression in various contexts worldwide. Digitalized communication is a form of expression that has become the norm worldwide despite cybercrime and other challenges. Communication preferences for social media determine attitudes to reporting crime. Factors such as policy failures, geographic location, and socio‐economic status have significantly discouraged victims from reporting crimes to the police in South Africa. Gender differences in access to mobile technology and the internet are pronounced in sub‐Saharan African countries. Many women in low‐income countries do not own a mobile phone. Apparently, South Africa’s actual gender‐based violence statistics are unknown due to underreporting. The purpose of the study was to examine the perceptions of secondary victims of gender‐based violence to determine their preferred method of reporting gender‐based violence, their perceptions of safety residing in close proximity of a police station, and their perceptions of the manual recording of witness statements by the Police. A purposive sampling technique was used to recruit 45 secondary victims of gender‐based violence residing within 2 km of the nine police stations in Soweto Township. Interview schedules were administered to participants. Ethical considerations were adhered to, and the trustworthiness criteria were applied. Thematic content analysis on Atlas ti yielded three dominant themes, namely, digital communication, mobile application, and unsafe. The Mere Exposure Effect, which posits that repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to familiarity and liking, was used to interpret data. Findings showed that participants preferred reporting crime through social media and felt unsafe despite living near a police station.
ABSTRACT Menstrual justice is deeply interconnected with water justice, yet these topics remain largely siloed in policy and research—particularly in Canada, where water access is often assumed to be a non‐issue. However, existing literature reveals that inadequate water and infrastructure significantly affect menstrual hygiene, dignity, and health, which are key to achieving menstrual justice. While much of the research on menstruation and water is focused on the Global South, the reality of water access, infrastructure, and injustices for menstruators in the Global North, particularly in Canada, remains vastly overlooked. In Canada, unhoused individuals, incarcerated populations, and Indigenous peoples disproportionately experience water insecurity in addition to facing limited or costly access to menstrual supplies. Without access to clean water and hygiene resources, menstruators face heightened risks to their health and safety, while also being denied the ability to manage their monthly cycles with dignity, thus perpetuating gender inequality. Through an examination and analysis of the existing literature, this paper discusses the issues and interconnections of menstrual and water justice, highlighting the historical focus on water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and menstrual hygiene management (MHM) in the Global South, and the vast oversight of these issues in the Global North. Specifically in Canada, where the issues of menstrual and water injustices are contextualized within broader structures of settler‐colonialism, patriarchy, racism, and capitalism, thus illustrating how systemic inequities shape access to water and the experiences of menstruation.
ABSTRACT The legalization of same‐sex marriage in 2005 signaled a new relationship between queer people and the Canadian state. Governments and queer communities moved from contention to collaboration, framing queerness through pride and celebration. Two decades later, state communications on Instagram, X (formally Twitter), Facebook, and LinkedIn continue to prioritize celebratory imagery. This study examines this process of queer reconstruction and asks: What image comes to mind for governments when they think of a queer person? To what extent do these images reflect the lived realities of 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians? The findings show that governments most often portray 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians as “smiling queers”: palatable, accepting, and diverse. This imagery sustains multicultural ideals while concealing histories of state‐sanctioned homophobia. By situating government communications within queer reconstruction, the study demonstrates how queerness has been recast from deviancy to marketable citizenship and argues that transforming the image network requires centering queer agency and lived experience as the basis of representation.
ABSTRACT The study aimed to investigate the cultural and gender differences in the attitudes of Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs toward homosexuality. A self‐reporting questionnaire was completed by 519 participants. A significant difference was discovered between Jewish and Arab individuals, with those who had prior familiarity with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community having more favorable attitudes toward LGBT people. Religiosity was found to be the most influential factor in the prediction and was adversely connected with a positive attitude toward LGBT individuals. The implications of the findings were discussed, particularly regarding members of the Arab (especially women) and Jewish (mainly males) communities. These findings suggest that contact effects hold even in culturally contested contexts and that the typical gender pattern in sexual prejudice—with women more accepting than men—may not be universal.
ABSTRACT With an emphasis on Tanzania, this essay explores the legislative and policy barriers to girls' education and their broader implications for inclusive economic growth and poverty alleviation in emerging nations. The paper examines how Tanzania's path toward sustainable development is hindered by high fertility rates and rapid population growth that outpace economic development (factors that primarily result from girls' and women's limited access to quality education), drawing on a recent World Bank analysis of the country's demographic issues. Based on the existing theoretical and empirical studies, women's and girls' education is crucial for promoting fertility and demographic shifts, which are vital to economic growth and resilience. Although ensuring girls' protection, including their right to education, is a universal legal framework, it becomes meaningful only when national and international laws and policies are consistent in defining “a child” within these frameworks. Inconsistencies in the definition of the term implicitly perpetuate problems such as early marriages that eventually restrict their educational access and prolong poverty. To achieve Tanzania's demographic and economic objectives, this paper argues in favor of a unified legislative framework that clarifies the definition of “a child” at both national and international levels and supports girls' rights to education. To create the conditions for a significant demographic shift and inclusive growth, the essay ends by suggesting policy changes to address early marriage, enhance educational access, and standardize definitions across legislation.
ABSTRACT In India, the government has imposed stringent restrictions to prevent prenatal sex determination (PNSD). The marginal workers from rural India often migrate solo for economic activities, leaving their wives (referred to as LBWMs, left‐behind wives of migrants) behind at the place of origin. The present study aims, firstly, to analyze the association of various sociodemographic factors with LBWMs' PNSD preference and, secondly, to identify the predictors of the PNSD preference. A cross‐sectional survey of 328 LBWMs selected from 25 villages across two rural blocks in the Patna district was conducted. Binary logistic regression was employed to determine significant predictors of PNSD preference. About 70% of the LBWMs reported a willingness to know the gender of the fetus. A critical finding was that the “son preference” in LBWMs is associated with their PNSD preference. “Women's autonomy” was found to be the strongest predictor (AOR = 2.21, 95% CI = 1.69–3.43), followed by “Self‐help group membership” (AOR = 2.20, 95% CI = 1.65–4.29), “husband's literacy” (AOR = 1.72, 95% CI = 1.12–2.31), and “LBWM's literacy” (AOR = 1.32, 95% CI = 1.16–3.34). Furthermore, “son preference” (AOR = 0.39, 95% CI = 0.25–0.81) was also found to be a significant determinant of the PNSD preference. The present study offers a unique and novel lens regarding the PNSD behavior of one of the socially vulnerable subsets of women. The study reports a positive association between “son preference” and PNSD preference, affirming that the existing restrictions are on the right track. However, the study suggests that it is high time to raise awareness among LBWMs regarding PNSD and discourage sex‐selective abortions.
ABSTRACT Although the Supreme Court's decision in Supriyo v. Union of India (2023) concerning marriage equality rights of same‐sex couples has gained public attention, couples continue to face legal invisibility as the Court left the question of legal recognition to parliament. This study examines the legal challenges faced by same‐sex couples in India in accessing marriage, family formation, healthcare and housing rights and seeks to understand their lived experiences in the context of limited legal recognition. It highlights how the lack of recognition deepens social vulnerability while also exposing couples to discrimination and, in some cases, abuse. Semi‐structured, in‐depth interviews were conducted with 25 couples recruited via snowball sampling, and data were thematically analyzed. The findings reveal that the participants continue to face legal blockades in exercising their rights, underscoring the need for urgent legislative reform.
ABSTRACT Sex work in Zimbabwe exists in a contradictory legal landscape of partial criminalization that renders sex workers vulnerable to stigma, violence, and economic insecurity. While the act itself is not outlawed, related activities such as solicitation, brothel‐keeping, and living off earnings are criminalized, deepening marginalization. This study employs feminist public policy analysis, using qualitative data from 52 sex workers, two focus groups, and 15 key informant interviews across five cities. Findings challenge reductive views of sex workers as either victims or deviants, instead framing sex work as a survival strategy shaped by exclusion from formal labor markets, gendered economic precarity, and urban inequalities. Participants describe navigating unsafe, client‐controlled spaces marked by criminalization, violence, and health risks yet also demonstrate resilience and agency through collective action and adaptive practices. Criminalization is shown to exclude sex workers from social protections, as starkly revealed during COVID‐19 relief efforts. Earnings remain below poverty levels, with stigma compounding barriers to healthcare and justice. In response, this paper proposes a “Decent Regulation” model, anchored in recognizing, humanizing, dignifying, and organizing sex workers. This rights‐based framework offers a pragmatic policy alternative that aligns with Zimbabwe's socio‐cultural realities and international human rights standards. Urgent legal reforms are needed to reconcile national policy with the lived experiences of sex workers.
ABSTRACT Sexual assault remains an alarmingly widespread societal problem. This bibliometric analysis aims to map the scientific production on sexual assault in the last decade. A total of 1828 research articles extracted from the Scopus database and published between 2012 and 2022 were investigated. The study presented a detailed overview of the research output of sexual assault, identified knowledge gaps, and recommended future directions. Visualizations and statistical analyses focused on publication volume and growth, authorship patterns, journal sources, institution productivity, country productivity, and citations, topical emphasis based on keywords, and highly cited articles. Key findings show sexual assault literature growing exponentially in recent years at an 18% annual rate, but with imbalances in author visibility and influence as well as geographical concentration of scholarship in Western institutions. Conceptual content centers on gendered experiences described at an individual level using precise assault terminology rather than abstract detectors of social forces enabling violence. Opportunities exist to consolidate knowledge and address disparities by facilitating collaboration across siloed authors not fully engaging peer work to date as well as diversifying institutional participation globally.
ABSTRACT The present study aims to explore how Muslim families adapt to and negotiate gender roles amid contemporary sociocultural transformations. Employing a qualitative interpretative phenomenological approach, it draws on semistructured interviews with 15 participants: five married couples and five children from different generations, and analyzes the data thematically using an NVivo‐style framework. The findings reveal two key themes: collaboration and equality within the family and negotiation between tradition and modernity. Although traditional gender roles remain influential, there is a clear movement toward more egalitarian structures, driven primarily by education, career advancement, and technological exposure. Spouses actively renegotiate domestic and childcare responsibilities, reflecting evolving expectations of partnership. Meanwhile, children express strong aspirations for gender equality and recognize distinct generational contrasts. The study concludes that families function as active agents in redefining gender identities, emphasizing the need for intergenerational dialogue and policy initiatives that harmonize cultural values with modern societal demands.
ABSTRACT Masculinity significantly influences men's health‐seeking behaviors, yet its intersection with legal frameworks and healthcare access in Sub‐Saharan Africa remains underexplored. This mixed‐methods study investigates how gender norms and structural barriers influence healthcare experiences among 60 middle‐aged men (aged 30–60 years) in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Quantitative surveys assessed symptom‐related health‐seeking behaviors, perceptions of masculinity, and legal knowledge, whereas qualitative interviews provided in‐depth insights into lived experiences and systemic constraints. Findings indicate that hegemonic masculinity norms discourage healthcare utilization, with 49.9% of participants rarely or never seeking medical care despite experiencing symptoms, due to perceptions of weakness and expectations of self‐reliance. Financial constraints (50%), mistrust in healthcare providers (30%), and bureaucratic hurdles (36.7%) were the primary factors further impeding access. Additionally, 58.3% of participants lacked awareness of their legal healthcare rights, limiting their ability to navigate the system effectively. Discriminatory policies, including spousal consent requirements for specific medical procedures (23.3%), further restricted access and reinforced systemic gender biases. These findings underscore the need for gender‐sensitive and legally informed healthcare reforms that address both cultural norms and structural limitations. Key recommendations include expanding male‐friendly health services, improving legal literacy, and streamlining bureaucratic processes. Integrating masculinity‐informed approaches into healthcare policy may foster more inclusive systems, encourage timely healthcare engagement among men, and reduce gender‐based health disparities in Cameroon and similar contexts.
ABSTRACT This brief report provides preliminary findings on the challenges faced by academics, community workers, and other individuals involved in LGBTQ+ rights activism and research in Southeast Asia (SEA), with larger shares of participants from the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Descriptive statistics showed that the mean number of reported challenges across the region was 4.68 (SD = 3.00; range = 0–11). The most common challenge was “Lack of funding, safe spaces and proper facilities,” followed by “Existing laws and policies that marginalise local LGBTQ+ communities” and “Too reliant on Western knowledge and findings.” While the pattern of common challenges was alike among hostile and non‐hostile countries, participants from hostile countries reported higher frequency for most challenges. Fisher's exact tests revealed no differences in number of challenges in terms of age, gender identity, sexual orientation, country group, academic status, and number of years involved in LGBTQ+ work. Our findings call for more robust investment in comprehensive landscape research on the implications of intersecting challenges in LGBTQ+ rights activism and research across SEA, which is crucial to developing an inclusive regional roadmap for LGBTQ+ equity missions.
ABSTRACT This narrative review critically examines prevalent myths about pornography in Malaysia, including the beliefs that it is harmless, non‐addictive, empowering for women, or an appropriate form of sex education. Drawing from local and international empirical studies, the review highlights the sociocultural and psychological risks associated with pornography consumption. In the Malaysian context, evidence indicates early exposure among youth, links to sexual aggression, compulsive usage, unrealistic sexual expectations, and negative impacts on emotional well‐being, relationships, and body image. Furthermore, pornographic content often disproportionately portrays women as targets of aggression. Pornography use is also associated with diminished relationships and sexual satisfaction. It may provide misleading and unrealistic portrayals of sexuality when used as a source of sex education. These myths hinder public awareness, prevention efforts, and policy development. The review calls for culturally sensitive education, stronger digital safeguards, and improved mental health support to address problematic pornography use and encourage more informed public discourse in Malaysia.
ABSTRACT The study examines the phenomenon of Superwoman Syndrome among Indian working mothers, framing it not as an individual failing but as a structural outcome of gendered expectations, workplace bias, and institutional inadequacies. It aims to understand how these interconnected pressures shape women's health, dignity, and emotional well‐being. A convergent parallel mixed‐methods design was employed, integrating quantitative data from 191 survey respondents and qualitative insights from 31 semi‐structured interviews. Quantitative analyses (chi‐square, correlation, regression) identified key associations, while qualitative data were analyzed thematically using a constructivist grounded approach. Results reveal consistent associations between workplace bias, health compromises, and dignity erosion. Qualitative narratives highlight recurring themes of Motherhood as Perpetual Labor , Compromise as a Way of Life , and Emotional Burnout and Social Undermining . The integrated analysis indicates that structural inequalities, rather than individual limitations, propagate the myth of the “Superwoman.” The study proposes policy interventions such as affordable childcare, flexible work arrangements, and workplace sensitization to address gendered structural inequities. The study incorporates structural gender inequality and politics of care to theorize Superwoman Syndrome within the Indian socio‐cultural context, thereby contributing to feminist scholarship and policy discourse on women's work and well‐being.
The Supreme Court of India's ruling against legalizing same‐sex marriage, despite decriminalizing homosexuality, underscores the reluctance of predominantly heteronormative and homophobic Indian society to accommodate and integrate homosexual relationships culturally. This article endeavors to analyze how contemporary Bollywood movies based on LGBTQIA+ issues, like Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (2019) and Badhaai Do (2022), are projecting such interstitial status of homosexual adults in Indian society. Undertaking a thematic analysis, the article divides the trajectory of representations of homosexuality in these films into three stages: firstly, homosexuality is framed as a deviant choice of individual protagonists, closeted away from their families, simmering with heteronormative expectations; secondly, homosexual protagonists become affect aliens when they voluntarily come out or their desires are inadvertently revealed amidst the heterosexual fetishes of their homophobic families; finally, consecrating Bollywood's happy ending tradition, the homosexual protagonists reconcile with their families when their choices of same‐sex partners are acknowledged, but such relationships remain as open secrets, instead of being culturally validated within the mainstream heteronormative society. This article posits that Bollywood LGBTQIA+ films, rather than liberating homosexual individuals from heteronormativity and everyday sexism, encourage complacency, portraying them as affect aliens perpetually traversing concentric closets of shifting contours.
Transgender individuals in India face entrenched economic marginalization, often being pushed into informal “survival” activities such as sex work and begging. This study examines how participation in these survival economies affects the economic empowerment of transgender persons in Delhi‐NCR. Drawing on primary survey data of 335 trans persons, the analysis employs descriptive statistics and an ordered probit model with marginal effects to assess empowerment across multiple domains, including income, employment, savings, and financial autonomy. Results show that engagement in survival economies is strongly associated with significantly lower economic empowerment, whereas higher educational attainment and income levels are linked to improved outcomes. The findings are interpreted through feminist economics, which highlights systemic gendered exclusion, and structuralist informality theory, which frames survival economies as structurally produced rather than voluntarily chosen. Together, these perspectives underscore that transgender disempowerment is rooted in systemic exclusion from formal education, labor markets, and financial systems. Policy implications include enforcing antidiscrimination protections in employment, expanding inclusive educational opportunities, and advancing financial inclusion initiatives tailored to transgender communities. While the study is limited by its cross‐sectional design, regional scope, and absence of intersectional variables such as caste and religion, it contributes robust quantitative evidence to a field dominated by qualitative research. Ultimately, the study advances scholarly understanding of transgender economic marginalization as a structural condition and calls for systemic reforms to foster substantive inclusion and economic justice.
Workplace sexual violence is a critical issue that undermines the safety, dignity, and professional integrity of employees, particularly women, in various sectors. Despite comprehensive approaches—including the National Employment Policy, legal frameworks, workplace policies, cultural attitudes, and enforcement mechanisms—the problem persists and is sometimes not reported. This study aimed to critically examine the current employment policy in Tanzania for its effectiveness in addressing workplace sexual violence among women. The study utilized a systematic literature review, adhering to the PRISMA flow diagram, to assess the efficacy of employment policies in combating workplace sexual violence against women in Tanzania. It reviewed 20 recent peer‐reviewed journal articles and 5 government and organizational documents, focusing on legal protections, enforcement mechanisms, cultural influences, and underreporting. Findings indicate persistent issues in addressing workplace sexual violence in Tanzania. Weak enforcement of policies, inadequate legal protections, ineffective implementation, and cultural norms contribute to underreporting and mishandling of cases. Lack of awareness and education among employers and employees exacerbates the problem, perpetuating a culture of impunity. To improve policy effectiveness, Tanzania needs comprehensive reforms. Recommendations include robust training programs promoting zero tolerance, strengthened enforcement with adequate resources, community‐based initiatives challenging cultural stigmas, and regular monitoring to assess and enhance policy impact. These measures are crucial for combating workplace sexual violence, safeguarding employee safety and dignity, particularly for women, and upholding professional integrity in Tanzanian workplaces.
