This thesis is about the cultures, pedagogies and practices of beauty therapy courses, about the young women who undertake those courses, and the complex matrix of social, cultural and dispositional factors which shape their subjectivities and trajectories. Firstly, it investigates the factors influencing students' decisions to enrol on their courses. Secondly, it investigates how the gendered and classed dispositions they bring to their courses are reinforced, modified or changed by their experiences as beauty therapy students. Lastly, it explores the ways in which these processes might be embedded in different forms of violence connected to beauty practices, interpersonal relationships and education, and to the forms of social and economic injustice that adhere in these. The research was based on an ethnographic case study of NVQ beauty therapy courses in two English further education colleges. This thesis explores the methodological, epistemological, ethical and political issues involved in the research process, from design and data collection to analysis and interpretation. The study is situated in radical materialist feminism but also draws particularly on Bourdieu's theory of practice to situate the subjectivities and trajectories of participants and their engagement with beauty practices in the dynamics of agency and structure. Bourdieu's notion of symbolic violence, and its interrelationships with structural and direct forms of violence, provides a conceptual thread through this thesis linking the themes of vocational education and beauty practices. In focusing on the under-researched area of beauty therapy training, the thesis contributes to our knowledge about the gendered and classed nature of vocational education. In situating young women's engagement with beauty practices in the context of symbolic and other forms of violence, it also aims to contribute to our understanding of how these practices are implicated in violence against women.

In Bahrain where the economic and political reforms started to take place in the year 2000, the issue of women's empowerment was taken with noticeable and increased consideration by both the government and civil institutions. Along with the issuance of National Charter and the constitutional amendments, women thrived to develop their social, political, and legal status through participation in national elections and taking part in legislative and decision-making processes. Placing women at the centre of the analysis by utilising a mixed methodology of qualitative and quantitative techniques, this research investigates the perceptions of women towards the determinants of their empowerment in general and to their legal status in particular, where the codification of family law represents an intense controversy that divides Bahraini society especially the women on this matter. Educational means of empowerment appear to have a limited role on the participants' empowerment. There is still lack of awareness, interest and also self-value of participation in public particularly the political and legal spheres due to educational constrains, cultural upbringing and male interpretation to some of the Islamic teachings. One of the manifestations of the controversy over the codification of family law is that women split between the perception that it represents a factor of their enablement and between the perception that it represents a violation of Islamic Sharia and tendency towards Western and secular notions in regard with women's and family's status in a Muslim society. How women perceive the codification of family law as a determinant of their empowerment and therefore their social, legal and political empowerment is so crucial in the whole process of understanding women's and the state's efforts to improve their status, increase their influence in power relations. and increase their agency in the conservative and diverse religious and political orientations in the Bahraini society.

This thesis explores changes in the formm and function of the British Women's Liberation Movement over three decades, from the 1970s to the present day. The route into this topic is through one particular element of this movement, a global tradition of women's street protest against male violence against women called the Reclaim the Night march. For the first time providing a concise history of this march, from its European roots in 1976 to its emergence in the UK in 1977, the thesis charts the influences behind this protest, and in particular the formation of feminist theory on male violence against women. Theories from Radical and Revolutionary Feminism are analysed alongside challenges from queer theory, within a context of a resurgence of feminism and feminist activism in the UK, sometimes referred to as a third wave of feminism. The thesis uses original empirical research with feminist activists of different generations to consider how the organisation and aims of Reclaim the Night have changed over the years, from the original marches in the 1970s and 80s, during the period known as the Second Wave of feminism, to those revived in the UK since the early 2000s. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty five feminists from across England. In addition, an open, electronic survey garnered one hundred and eight responses, from across the UK, providing further activist voices. The thesis highlights that changes have indeed taken place in the methods and aims of Reclaim the Night, and within the wider Women's Liberation Movement across the UK. Focusing on the current decline of women-only space and debates around inclusion, this thesis contends that there is much of value to be learned from Second Wave theory and practice, including from Radical Feminism; arguably still highly relevant to the contemporary feminist movement as a whole.

The State of Qatar is in the process of change, a process that started only in the last decade. This change includes modernising its institutions, introducing democracy, and moving towards becoming a more open economy and society. The State authorities have introduced legislation, policies and guidelines to support and enhance these changes. Women’s rights have attracted much attention during this process and there has been concern to help and support women in taking up their place within society since there is a significant gap between the roles and rights of males and females in the State. Qatari society is conservative; it has strong Arabic and Islamic values, norms and traditions. Therefore, research into women’s issues is of great interest to the State authorities in helping them with their decision-making. Furthermore, the State lacks information, data and research regarding women’s issues and this research is the first comprehensive study to be carried out on the rights of Qatari women. The main aims of this research are to explore, examine and investigate the political, educational, work and welfare rights of women in Qatar. This includes identifying the obstacles which stand in the way of women’s rights and offering recommendations regarding measures that would help in overcoming these difficulties. The research aims to open, promote and explore issues concerning the rights of women and seeks to discover if any changes in values and norms have occurred since the new Emir took over as State ruler in 1993. Extensive fieldwork has been carried out to provide the necessary data and information; also, a framework based on system theory, and the ideas of Islam and feminism, have been used to address the aims and objectives of the research. On the basis of this work, a number of conclusions have been drawn.

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In this thesis critical social theory is used to assess the historical status of modern feminist movements, the experience of which is used in turn to assess the usefulness of certain key concepts from critical social theory. In particular Habermas' concept of the ideal speech situation is used to determine how far feminist movements fall into the tradition of earlier uni versalising social movements. This concept is used both to analyse the forms of the movements (their structures and practices) and their substantive activity in the area of political demands. The ideal speech situation indicates that feminist movements were in a state of permanent tension between competing commitments, especially universalist and particularist imperatives. This dual logic can be seen in the pursuit of a renegotiation of the publicI private divide. It can also be seen in the debates among feminists in the educational context. In conclusion, it is suggested that feminist movements were both dependent on and undermined by the tension between universalism and particularism. However, the problems raised by these movements give indications that the ideal speech situation may prove inadequate as a normative guide, particularly owing to the problems relating to fertility explored by feminism.

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The research project undertaken in this thesis is an attempt to cast light on the multisemiotic dimension of the sociocultural issue of changing gender roles and relations in Greek society, as it is represented in the Greek TV series, Σχεδόν Ποτέ (ΣΙΙ) ('Almost Never') a series explicitly revolving round gender roles, relationships, and sexual practices, and in their recontextualisations by young female viewers, based on the premise that there is a dialectical relationship between society and media.