The carole was the dominant social dance in France from c. 1100 to c. 1400. The present study aims to identify the characteristics of the dance in all its aspects. Firstly, the etymology of the term itself is reassessed and its relation to the Latin words chorus and chorea is examined. Theories about the choreography are then reviewed. The evidence, both of literary and of non-literary texts is analysed, and, on the basis of this analysis, a reconstruction of the choreography is undertaken. The lyrics and the music of the songs that accompanied the dance are identified and investigated, and relevant iconography is also surveyed. The term carole is considered in collocation and in isolation in order to refine its meaning, and to distinguish it from other dance terms. The dance itself is thereby situated more accurately in the context of French social dances of the period. Attention is paid to cognates (real and supposed), and the question of the existence of the dance in Italy and in England is evaluated in some detail. Hence not only is the choreographic aspect of the subject explored, but in doing so, the linguistic and literary dimensions are re-evaluated, and new light is shed on medieval dance lyrics and music.

No description available.

This study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the views of 36 interview respondents from eight reserves and 114 survey respondents from four reserves on the problematics of implementing violence against women treatment initiatives in reserves in Alberta, Canada. In-depth interviews with a purposeful sample of care providers working in Aboriginal communities were recorded and transcribed. A qualitative approach was used to guide the thematic analysis of the data. Major themes that emerged from the respondents included: (1) the effects of a lack of trust; (2) the need for Aboriginal content and process in the design of treatment initiatives and (3) the difficulty of garnering community support to secure Aboriginal content and design for initiatives. The purpose of the survey was to provide validation of the findings from the qualitative study and to extend the knowledge gained from the interviews. This research examines the social issues that have led to and influenced the research question that are correlated with themes that emerged from the in-depth interviews. It also discusses implications for implementing violence against women treatment initiatives in small, impoverished, isolated and traumatised communities.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon (1827-1891) was a mid-Victorian English feminist, philanthropist and artist. She is mostly known among women’s and gender historians as the charismatic leader of the Langham Place Circle and as an accomplished watercolourist long resident in Algeria. Through analysis of her personal correspondence, this thesis investigates the significance of letters in the development of Bodichon’s education – studied here in the sense of Bildung (self-cultivation). Reading letter-writing as a performative autobiographical act of self-formation, it argues that Bodichon developed her self-cultivation during her lifetime by innumerable daily habits and life choices – a phenomenon not directly accessible to historians. Simultaneously, she projected an epistolary articulation of her Bildung through the signifying practice of self-narrating by means of her epistolary “I” – within norms of cultural intelligibility and determined by the features of the epistolary genre. The analysis of Bodichon’s epistolary dialogues suggests that letters acted as educational instruments – as sources of Bildung. They functioned as forums where she acquired knowledge and exercised her critical thinking; she carved out her identity at the intersection of her feminist, philanthropic and artistic endeavours; and negotiated her autonomy – here understood as her capacity to act in accordance with her evolving self-conception. As such, this thesis claims letters as sources of agency. By reading Bodichon’s personal correspondence through the lens of Bildung, this study seeks to provide a nuanced portrait of this thoroughly studied historical figure and thus to contribute to Bodichon studies. It proposes a critical examination of the limits of her feminist outlook. In terms of women’s education, the use of Bildung as a thinking tool enables light to be thrown on informal sources of education especially for women in the context of nineteenth-century Britain. In studying letter-writing as a performative autobiographical act, this thesis also seeks to problematize the use of letters in historical investigation and thus to contribute to epistemological debates about the production of historical knowledge.

This thesis centres on the qualitative analysis of stepmothers' experiences of stepmothering, a topic that is significantly under-researched. Between May and November 2012 I undertook semi-structured in-depth interviews with 20 women who were in the position of stepmother (not all of them identified with that term), mostly from the north of England. In my core data analysis chapters I examine the stepmothers' reported experiences regarding 1) their relationships with their stepchildren, 2) their relationships with the biological/adoptive mothers of their stepchildren, 3) their perceptions of the roles of the biological/adoptive fathers in shaping steprelationships, and 4) their views of the impact of their wider families on their stepfamilies. These four areas have rarely, in some instances, never, been explored, or explored in any detail, in previous research. My first key finding is that stepmothers lead complex lives in multifaceted stepfamilies, for instance serial stepfamilies, which defy easy categorization. Secondly, the relationships between the stepmothers and their stepchildren, including with adult stepchildren, were 'complicated' at least at some point in the relationship and underwent continuous change. Thirdly, the most problematic of all relationships in stepfamilies were the relations between the stepmothers and their stepchildren's biological/adoptive mothers. Fourthly, the stepmothers reported their partners' role in managing the steprelationships as somewhat uninvolved and 'distant'. Finally, the stepmothers' biological and in-law families played important roles in the stepfamilies, either by building bridges or raising walls (Visher and Visher, 1996). The stepmothers' relationships within their stepfamily constellations were interwoven and interconnected with the relationships other stepfamily members had with each other.

This thesis seeks to explore discursive constructions of femininity in contemporary English and French cosmetics advertising. The data consists of a corpus of 495 female-targeted cosmetics advertisements from 2011, of which 249 are French and are 246 English, taken from Elle and Cosmopolitan magazine. This research uses a Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis approach, which comprises textual, visual and quantitative methods. The key constructs explored though critical linguistic analysis are: femininity as the continual pursuit of the young, ideal body; femininity as a sexual identity; a pseudo-scientific femininity; and femininity as brand consumption. The concept of 'consumer femininity', the connection made between a feminine identity and the purchase and usage of beauty products, underpins most, if not all, cosmetics advertising discourse. Through analysis of the constructs outlined above, the differences and/or similarities between the English and French cosmetics advertising data analysed are examined. As part of the analysis of femininity as pursuit of the young, ideal body, a proposed model is suggested for Problem-Solution 1atterns in French and English cosmetics advertising discourse. A cosmetic advertising slogan typology is also proffered as part of the exploration of femininity as brand consumption. Critical language research on contemporary gendered texts is emphasised throughout this thesis as a productive starting point for interrogating axiomatic assumptions about female bodies and female identity in the media.

Since the publication of the Wolfenden Report The Future of Voluntary Organisations in 1978, the UK voluntary sector has grown exponentially and become an important actor in the delivery of welfare services. In this thesis, I examine women’s reported experiences of paid and unpaid work within this sector. I investigate why women continue to outnumber men in the sector’s workforce, and identify the ways in which voluntary-sector work is gendered. To do this, I draw on twenty-eight semi-structured ‘work history’ interviews with women who were volunteers, paid staff or both within voluntary organisations in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The analysis is split into three chapters. The first explores women’s initial engagements with the voluntary sector and pinpoints the times in women’s lives when they are more likely to enter into either paid or unpaid work in the sector. The second focuses on working conditions in the sector, and examines what factors make voluntary-sector work both desirable and possible for women. The third discusses how the voluntary sector has developed since 1978 and how these changes have impacted on its predominantly female workforce, with a particular focus on changes since the 2008 financial crash. Unlike previous research, this thesis focuses on women’s work in the voluntary sector specifically. My findings demonstrate that voluntary-sector work is particularly accessible to women and more aligned to their work prioritisations, career trajectories and lifestyles. I also discuss what the persistence of gender segregation in the sector means for the women who work within it.