An examination of historical and textual evidence supporting the thesis that the tenth-century Old English Exeter Book (Exeter Dean and Chapter MS. 3501) may have been compiled for, or even in, an Anglo-Saxon female monastic foundation or mixed-sex double house. The Exeter Book poems, many with female subjects, have been studied extensively, but rarely treated as components that unite to form a deliberately compiled, cohesive anthology. This study examines four main subjects: women's participation in both Latin and vernacular textual culture in the early Middle Ages in past and present scholarship; the history and structure of the codex; a summary of evidence indicating the possibility of the Exeter Book's production in or for a woman's monastic foundation or a double-house; a survey of the female figures in the Book and the effect of a "gendered" reading on the study of the codex as a unified document.

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The purpose of my study was to describe the lived stories of four Metis women in the form of collective narratives. And, as a Metis woman, I have reflected on the collective narratives as a way of interpreting and making meaning out of our lived stories in order to gain knowledge. The literature which I reviewed as I came to understand the parameters of my study included the stories of Metis women which have been published in literary forms. As well, I reviewed literature pertaining to stories as an expression of human existence, the study of meaning in stories, and stories, meaning and knowledge. The research was conducted using a qualitative research design. The participants and I engaged in conversations, and the stories which emerged formed the content of my data. After I was given approval from my participants to use their lived stories, I created the collective narratives as an expression of how I understand our stories. The stories were presented as three collective narratives: identity, family and soul murder. Then, I reflected on each of the collective narratives as an example of how I make meaning and gain knowledge.The findings from my study suggest that the stories emerged in a collective manner and that I, as a Metis woman, view our stories collectively and not as singular entities. As well, my reflections present a written account of how I make meaning from the collective narratives as a way to gain knowledge. As a cultural insider, I may be presenting a perspective in understanding our lived stories which has not been articulated in the past. The main contribution which this study may provide is an opportunity to begin to understand the loss and the absence of voice of some Metis women.

People marry with the intention of remaining married until death. However, marriages are more likely to end in divorce than by death (Popenoe & Whitehead, 1999). This phenomenological narrative qualitative study seeks to gain an understanding of the lived experience for women who have experienced a divorce and the growth they may have gained through their grief The specific research question to be answered was; how did the women live, believe, experience, articulate, feel, and grow through the divorce experience?Ten Caucasian, middle to upper middle-class women, aged from 48-73 years volunteered to be interviewed in the study. Participants had been legally married and divorced. There were eight themes that emerged from the participant's narratives; dating reflections; married life; support/lack of support; self perceptions; family; emotions; growth; and future. The Sandwich Model of Divorce: Grief and Growth was developed from the eight themes of the study. The model was place in a sandwich formate to represent the layers of a person's life that has an impact on divorce.The major findings for this study suggested the participants did in fact have personal growth through grief and were transformed as a result of the experience. However, the participants did not recognize the growth since many areas of growth occurred in what the participants considered to be everyday life and survival. Growth occurred in different stages of their dating, marriages, divorces, and current lives. Implications for this study suggest women can emerge from divorce with personal growth, but the nature of the personal growth depends on the value women place on their roles as people. Better pre-marital counseling, understanding gender roles within the context of dating and marriage, providing mentors and changing societal stigmas may assist women to experience greater personal growth through the grief of divorce. / Department of Educational Studies

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This project explores how 17th-century English women writers used dedicatory epistles. The three case studies here represent different modes in which women writers interacted with readers: manuscript, print, and commercial print. By looking at their paratexts, we can see how, by employing common conventions of transmittal like gift exchanges, parental legacies to children, and patronage these women created spaces for themselves from which to speak as authors. Lucy Hutchinson’s two manuscript dedicatory epistles offer unique insight into the techniques one early modern English women writer utilized to contextualize, to justify, and ultimately to promote her texts to her readers. Hutchinson rewrote the Puritan cause collectively as a failed English utopia, ultimately cast down by the English rabble more concerned with material prosperity than with their souls’ condition. Margaret Cavendish published in print under her own name from 1653 to 1671 when such an activity was contrary to female conduct norms. Cavendish frequently included several dedicatory epistles within a single book, each one using conventional language in an unconventional manner. She used many common social and literary conventions, such as the format of the letter and the language of patronage, in flamboyant ways to highlight her unique status and thus her right to participate in “properly masculine” fields such as scientific commentary. Her epistles explored the limits of the “work” introductory paratexts could accomplish. Because Aphra Behn’s livelihood depended upon her ability to appeal to the literate public generally and the upper classes in particular, her dedications are universally political. Situating her printed dedicatory epistles published between 1673 and 1689 within their original sociopolitical and historical milieu allows us to examine how Behn adapted her rhetoric, use of humor, political commentary, and patron choices throughout this period. Putting these three women’s works and their writing processes into conversation, I argue, provides an overview of the process early modern English women writers utilized to create and to secure a place for women in the literary marketplace as producers of viable commercial products. More broadly, this project explores of the tactics of early women writers as they began creating for women the possibility of possessing a national literary voice, rather than focusing solely each woman’s individual sociopolitical and literary negotiations.

Despite dramatic increases in female participation rates, a notable and persistent feature of the Canadian labour market is the highly unequal distribution of men and women across occupations. The focus of the current paper is how to explain the observed occupational distribution of women across occupations. In particular, we assess the evidence put forward in support of the standard view within the economics profession--the human-capital notion of 'occupational choice'--and compare its explanatory power with a non-competitive approach to women's labour market opportunities, based on the notion of a labour market characterised by job rationing. / While occupational decision-making remains ill-understood, there are several reasons for believing that the subject will become more noteworthy in coming decades, not least the rumblings of the 'comparable-worth' lobby. Our investigation points to a lack of economic research in this important area, both at the aggregate level and the level of individual occupations, and suggests that greater attention should be paid not simply to empirical validation of existing theories of occupational decision-making, but also that more detailed scrutiny might be given to the few results which are available. We argue that 'discrimination' is still a powerful force within the labour market, and that women's sudden access to non-traditional occupations owes far more to shortages of men in individual markets than is typically acknowledged.