Feminist Conversations

Dovile Budryte is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Her research interests include gender studies, nationalism and democratization. She wrote Taming Nationalism? Political Community Building in the Post-Soviet Baltic States (Ashgate, 2005) and numerous articles about minority rights and collective memory in the Baltic states.Lisa M. Vaughn is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio. Her primary research interests are socio-cultural issues affecting the health and well-being of families, especially immigrant and minority populations in the United States. With a life-long interest in other cultures, Lisa has worked with universities and communities around the world, including Guatemala, South Africa, Denmark and the Dominican Republic.Natalya T. Riegg is a Professor of Political Science and Global Studies at the University of Saint Mary in Leavenworth, Kansas. Her fields of specialization include political philosophy, cross-cultural communication and international women's issues. She is the author of dozens of articles and a book, The Social Philosophy of Alvin Toffler (in Russian).

• Part 1 Part I. Reflecting on Trauma and Empowerment: Theories and PracticesChapter 2 Chapter 1. Revision of the Visions: Feminism and Empowerment in Post-Transitional SocietiesChapter 3 Chapter 2. From "Dirty Laundry" to a Human Rights Concern? International Norms and Gender Violence in Armenia and LithuaniaChapter 4 Chapter 3. Paradoxes of "Gender Equality" in Lithuania: Violence against Women and Equal OpportunitesChapter 5 Chapter 4. "Come Rape Us!" The Everyday Trauma of Sexual Violence in South AfricaChapter 6 Chapter 5. Losing Ground: How the Lack of Opportunity for Women to Own Land Impales the Tanzanian EconomyChapter 7 Chapter 6. Entrepreneurship: Antidote to Women's Economic OppressionPart 8 Part II. Living Trauma and Empowerment: Stories and StrategiesChapter 9 Chapter 7. Left Alone, the Widows of the War: Trauma Reframed through Community Empowerment in GuatemalaChapter 10 Chapter 8. Dolls with Jobs: A Compelling Response by Traditional KwaZulu-Natal Craftswomen in an Era of HIV-AIDSChapter 11 Chapter 9. Confined Space:The Simultaneous Installation of Art and the De-Installation of a RelationshipPart 12 Part III. Authentic Voices: Nothing Lost in Translation!Chapter 13 Chapter 10. Were All Women Born to Suffer? Understanding Resistance to Empowerment: A Lithuanian NGO Activist's PerspectiveChapter 14 Chapter 11. Women and Empowerment in Armenia: Traditions, Transitions and Current PoliticsChapter 15 Chapter 12. Zara's Travail: A Life StoryChapter 16 Chapter 13. Gender In/Equality in Egypt and ArmeniaChapter 17 Chapter 14. Addressing Trauma through Political Action: Nineth Montenegro's StoryChapter 18 Conclusion: A Conversation among the Editors

The oppression of women happens in all parts of the world and takes many forms—from domestic abuse to economic disenfranchisement and the use of violence against women as a weapon of war. But responses to trauma and women's empowerment also take diverse forms, as this important and engaging volume illustrates. Drawing on different countries and speaking from the experiences of women themselves, the contributors explore the diverse ways in which women understand and respond to experiences of trauma and violence.