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My thesis focuses on indigenous women’s intersectional resistance in Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea, from the onset of Spanish colonialism until the present day. Resistance has received scant academic attention and is under-theorised. The gendered aspects of resistance are even more deeply in shadow. Furthermore Spain’s former African colonies are themselves often ignored in Hispanic Studies. Taking these gaps as a starting point, I query, in this thesis, the relationship between gender and resistance to oppressive regimes. I focus on constructions of gender and how they influence both the tactics of resistance that women employ and the punishments dealt to activists. I also look at how women’s participation in resistance activities challenges hegemonic gender norms. Drawing on Spanish government colonial archives and fieldwork conducted in Equatorial Guinea, the Saharawi refugee camps in Algeria and the occupied zone of Western Sahara, and amongst the Saharawi and Equatoguinean diaspora in Europe, I argue that not only is gender central to understanding resistance to dictatorial regimes and colonialism, but also that scholars of authoritarianism must consider gender when assessing how such regimes maintain power. Secondly, I contend that globally hegemonic constructions of gender and particularly of ‘gender equality’ are essential to the international geopolitics that allow the continuation of the Obiang dictatorship in Equatorial Guinea and the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of international migration in shaping the national and gender identities of Spanish women, who migrated to England between 1940-1992. The thesis examines the process of construction of these women's national and gender identities in their country of origin. However, international migration means a change of socio-cultural and linguistic context that may call into question these women's notions of femininity and national identity. Thus, the thesis analyses in considerable detail how different women migrants use aspects of their cultural heritage as frameworks in shaping their national and gender identities in England. This thesis is structured in three main parts. The first part deals with the theoretical decisions taken in this thesis and also questions the categorisations of migrants found in the literature. The first part positions the thesis within a theoretical framework and a specific research design used in this study. One appendix expands on the decisions which are taken. The second part analyses the constructions of gender and national identities in Spain before migration. It examines political ideology and definitions of femininity imposed on Spanish women via the Catholic Church, the school and the government. Women's narratives reveal the shaping of Spanish gendered identities, in different social classes and generations. The third part examines the role of the Spanish and the British governments in the movement of Spanish migrants to the UK and the ways their policies treated male and female migration differently. However a major emphasis is placed on how women in their own accounts of their experiences tried to transform these discourses - and the discourses on femininity - which confronted them. The conclusion includes reflections on the implications of this study for the existing literature concerning gender, international migration and processes of identity formation.

This thesis concerns the contexts and choices associated with the wearing of the hijab in Britain, beginning with the impact of events such as 9/11. For many in the West, the hijab has become perceived as a symbol of Islam and as a result hijab wearing women who were living in Britain were identified as being connected with those who had carried out the 9/11 attacks in the United States. There was evidence from this research that there was an increase in first time hijab wearing, particularly in those between the ages of 25-39, however, 9/11 had not been directly responsible for this increase, but the higher profile of Islam due to the attacks had encouraged the women to find out about the religion for themselves and the rulings that related to them. Sales of the hijab have increased along with a more defined Islamic fashion consciousness and a desire by the women to wear what they regard as Islamic dress. This feminist standpoint research, although carried out by a white, non-Muslim from a middle-class background gave the women the opportunity to talk about their lives and explain the wearing or non-wearing of the hijab. A number of related themes were identified: Religion/religious community; Education; Family and friends; Clothing industry/fashion; and 9/11, although the thread that ran through all of these themes was the notion of choice. The women described wearing or not wearing hijab as their choice, although some had more influence from others. When choice theory was examined in relation to the wearing or non-wearing of the hijab it could be seen that although rational choice theory, lifestyle choices, family, habitus and individualization could tell us something about why the women made the choices they did, it was the interplay between individualization and tradition that gave the most accurate explanation as to why these women were making their choices. These theories did not tell the whole story however, and the conclusion discusses a reinterpretation of the Islamic teachings occurring in Britain with the women interpreting the Qur'an and the religious texts for themselves before arriving at their own conclusions as to what they should be wearing. This reinterpretation is driving the changes in behaviour for many Muslim women in Britain.

This thesis is a study of working women in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire. It aims to 'tracks' the experiences of young female embarking on their first job and their subsequent lives via the oral testimony of Rugby inhabitants. Oral evidence has been used, which has provided a unique resource. Over one hundred interviews were conducted with Rugby women which discussed their background, childhood and school days, starting work, employment experiences, finding a husband and their lives after marriage. The oral testimony is used to create a 'cameo' of national experience during the period and poses questions as to how young Rugby girls were affected by national events. First, the thesis concentrates on the question of 'choice' for girls upon leaving school compared with the opportunities offered in the town, and how a number of factors influenced their decisions when seeking employment for the first time for example, parental influence, financial considerations and the prospects for future education and training. Secondly, the future lives of the young girls are explored by focusing on the ramifications of their 'choices' and how important it was for girls to have made the 'correct' decision. For example, different employers are discussed in relation to promotion and the training of a skill, the earning possibilities when comparing factory and clerical work and the possibilities of finding a suitable marriage partner. Lastly, the female 'powerbase' is discussed in relation to the home and workplace. The thesis suggests that married women found themselves in an ambiguous position of having moral authority and power in the home, whilst being unable to match this in the workplace.

This thesis argues that the strategic use of popular media texts and their technologies are reflective of how the Japanese women I interviewed are able to explore new and diverse cultural practices, reaffirm those practices they are familiar with, and offer a forum from which to confidently construct and contest personal and social boundaries. Everything in life changes, but the fact that we are social beings embedded in social networks remains the same. Media practice changes too, as do the purposes to which it is put and how it meets the needs of the user. Media use remains constant in the lives of my interlocutors, despite the changing technologies and the changing circumstances of their lives and their families. Because of its quotidian nature, media practice supports the continuous formation of the Japanese self and it encourages particular expressions of agency. This thesis is also a direct response for the need for an agenda of research that increases our understanding of how media aids in the production of self and subjectivity.

Networks of debt and credit formed a cornerstone of the early modern economy. Nearly all members of society participated in these networks, including women. In northwestern Europe, the resulting debt litigation, and what this can tell us about women's economic roles within and outwith the home, has been well documented and discussed by a number of historians. Yet similar roles played by women in Scotland have received far less attention, particularly for much of the period between 1560 and 1700. This is despite extensive runs of sources with evidence relating to a greater variety of women than many comparable English sources. In these Scottish sources, the roles of not only widows are visible, but also the roles of female domestic servants and married women. The presence of married women in these debt cases, and evidence that they were actively transacting debts both with and largely independent of their husbands, is perhaps the most important aspect to highlight of the records consulted for this study, as in the majority of similar records for this period in northwestern Europe the presence of married women was hidden due their husbands bearing the legal responsibility for their actions. With this veil lifted in some of the Scottish sources, this study is able to engage with women of all marital statuses and so present as clear an image as possible of women's economic roles in the Scottish towns of Edinburgh, Haddington, and Linlithgow between 1560 and 1640. No studies of debt and credit have yet focussed on these three communities in the early modern period, despite the significant volume of extant records which exist for these communities and allow for the fullest examination of women's networks of debt and credit yet conducted in Scotland. This thesis will use evidence taken from debt cases, testaments, and a tax survey to first determine the reasons for which women contracted debts and then use these reasons to explore and assess the role of women in work. These roles include the import, export, and sale of ready-made merchandise, the production and sale of ale, beer, and lace, the rental of property, and the lending of money. It will also explore how female domestic servants emerged and functioned in debt and credit networks, particularly with regard to Edinburgh and its large population of female servants. Further, this thesis brings to light the various marital and social statuses of the women who performed these activities, and proves that whether married, widowed, or never-married, women were vibrant participants in the debt and credit networks that spanned social divides during this period.

This study focuses on Malay Muslim academic women in dual-career families in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, Malaysia. I conducted semi-structured, in-depth face-to-face interviews with ten married academic women, five single female academics and three single male academics, while ten husbands of the married women were interviewed via email. The context in which modern Malay Muslim women operate is a complex one. On the one hand, Islam and the Malay adat (customary law), constructed as central to the ethnic identity of Malay Muslims, prescribe specific gendered expectations for women and men in both the private and public spheres. On the other hand, the state and global competition demand that women participate in the economy as well as in broader societal contexts. I explored how my respondents strategised in both employment and family life within the boundaries of their identity as Malay Muslim women. My study emphasised central aspects of Malaysian modernisation in relation to women, namely: education, employment, marriage and family, as well as family and working responsibilities and coping strategies. I found that access to education and the acceptance of women in employment had led my participants to pursue careers. With a recognised educational and career background, they had a degree of independence within marriage and in the formation of a family. After marriage, all these women had to abide by the accepted norms of gender, accepting their secondary position within and outside the family. At the same time, they revealed the importance of support networks in terms of family members, spouses and government policies, as well as being dependent on other women’s reproductive labour (e.g. childcare centres or domestic helpers), in helping them to balance their family and career commitments. I argue that the women had some autonomy based on their education and employment, but this remained a subordinated category. Complications arose because the women still needed to manage and negotiate their position within their identity as Malay Muslim women and the patriarchal system ingrained in their culture. While Malaysia’s drive for modernisation has improved women’s lives, it has not radically transformed the patriarchal order.

The principal objective of this project is to explore the lives of the 1960s generation of Chinese women (those born in the 1960s), paying special attention to the social shaping of gender and generation. In China, the sea change in the social economic and political life in the last sixty years has afforded successive generations with different life experiences, producing a society that has now been deeply marked by strong generational cleavages. Under the shadow of the Cultural Revolution generation, there is no existing systematic research about the 1960s generation. Taking those aged between their 40s and 50s as the most illustrative group to reflect these changes, I argue that my research on the 60s generation of Chinese women is not just to give them their own identities and to fill the knowledge gap, but also to provide a fruitful line of enquiry for modern Chinese history and society in generational and gendered context. Drawing upon interviews with four groups of the 60s generation women, I explore and interpret the data to reveal how gender and generation affected their daily existence at different stages of their lives: childhood, youth and adult years, focusing on themes such as political movements, parents, education, relationships, marriage, children and work. Through reflexive scholarship and investigation, this project contributes to the understandings of the gender and generational impact of social change in China.

Kuwait has changed dramatically over the last 50 years and simultaneously the world has changed in terms of economic and financial factors, globalization, technology, and religion. These changes have implications for the lives of women in terms of a range of factors such as clothing, relationships, sexuality, childhood, and parenting. This thesis aimed to explore how women make sense of themselves in the context of this changing world taking three different perspectives. In line with this, three inductive empirical studies were carried out in Kuwait using open-ended in-depth interviews as the methodological tool and thematic analysis as the analytic approach. Reported meaning making experiences were shared on culturally sensitive topics providing new insights to contribute academically in this under-researched field. Study one explored taboo issues related to the women’s sexuality and relationships (aged 19-27). The aim was to examine reasons as to why young Muslim Kuwaiti women engage in pre-marital sexual relationships and how much their modernized thoughts influence their personal desires even if they are aware of the consequences in societal norms and rigid restrictions. Results indicated that women engage in romantic relationships and continuously feel the need to “balance” between their secretive personal sexual desires and the Islamic Sharia law of Kuwait. Having relationships in this changing world creates issues around sexual guilt. This creates tensions and implications for women including “a clash” of their two selves when managing two identities. Study two involved a sample of unmarried Muslim Kuwaiti women (aged between 22-55). The aim was to understand the causes of the increased rates of divorce and spinsterhood in an Islamic context that stigmatizes single women. Results indicated that women demand to remain single for reasons such as the demand for independence in their patriarchal context and the desire for new marital expectations. Being unmarried in this changing world creates cultural rebound effects explained in women’s senses of social and family pressures, clothing, sexual liberation, and the Kuwaiti feminist roles in today’s changing world when transgressing taboo. Conflict is created when choosing between being socially invisible because their desires for “women’s independency” is neglected in Kuwait, or being socially visible in a “negative light” for choosing to remain unmarried within their Islamic context. Yet still, they are not willing to give up their independent identities in order to fit in with traditional or marital expectations. Study three looks at the views of religious, traditional, and modern Muslim Kuwaiti mothers today and their relations with their children, specifically in raising daughters (aged between 5-13). The aim was to explore socio-cultural patterns of change allowing a richer understanding of Muslim Kuwaiti mothers in current generations in comparison to the past. Results indicated that mothers are continuously normalizing cultural taboos and social stigmas in terms of emotional and intellectual aspects. Tension was apparent when reflecting on the veil, education, and social life in a changing world. The mothers did face some challenges by living in an “old” traditional space, yet in a “new” modern time. With that, they desired stronger daughters (with a future that does not mirror theirs). Overall, this thesis shows that living in a changing world in Kuwait challenges women’s identities when reflecting upon social identity approach and self-categorization theory. This creates tension of self and identity. Women when describing their sexual relationships, being unmarried, or bringing up their daughters experienced a sense of clash of self and identity when balancing between desired selves and social identities.