Despite significant change in women’s lives in recent decades, the prevailing ideology of motherhood is predominantly based on nineteenth-century ideals. Underpinned by a socially-constructed, idealised version of womanhood, the dominant paradigm promotes an essentialist model of maternal excellence largely grounded in the early childhood context; that of the ‘good mother’. Amidst deviancy discourse that has historically beleaguered women who failed to fulfil prescribed standards of good mothering, this thesis contends that the ideology of motherhood that remains dominant requires substantial revision. Central to this is the need to understand the range of historical factors that shape and influence cultural, and thus, personal understandings of the role of a good mother. Accordingly, the literature reviewed is subjected to critical analysis, examining stereotypical depictions of women that have historically typified the archetypal ideal. Particular consideration is given to sociological, psychoanalytic and feminist accounts of motherhood, mothering and the mother-daughter relationship. Therein, the focus of this study involves assessment of the degree to which the cultural meaning attributed to being a good mother influences personal perceptions and the lived experience of mothering. While the literature reviewed provides a useful foundation for considering the likely impact the ideology of motherhood has upon the lives of contemporary women, it also highlights that the maternal perspective has been noticeably absent from much of the literature. Given the centrality of the maternal role in reproducing existing conditions of mothering, and indeed, the mother-daughter relationship (Chodorow, 1978), this study is perhaps long overdue. Based on a case study involving twelve Melbourne mothers, this thesis highlights both the commonalities and considerably divergent experiences of motherhood and the mother-daughter relationship in the postmodern context.

This thesis examines the role of women depicted in advertisements and aims at evaluating to what degree the advertising industry adapts to the changes of women’s roles in society. The focus of the research lies on Germany. Advertisements of four German brands are analyzed and compared with the role of women in the German society in order to answer the question to what degree the German advertising industry does take into consideration the role of women in the German society. Nivea, Persil, Fa and Triumph are leading German brands, which target women and thus depict them in their ads or refer to them in the ads’ texts. Advertisements for the time period 1950s till 2000s are analyzed on the basis of content analysis. The long timeline permits to evidence the changes of the depiction of women over time.   The results of the content analysis which is quantitative in nature is undertaken to analyse the advertisements show that the depiction of the women in the ads depends on the decade and also differs from brand to brand, meaning that there is no linear development in the roles depiction of women in advertisements. This is especially visible when compared to previous researches presented in the theoretical chapter. Furthermore, previous researches show a linear development, women have typical roles in each decade and these roles change over the decades in a certain way: Women are mainly shown in “classical” roles in the decades ‘50s till ‘70s and in more varied roles since the ‘80s. The research at hand, however, shows that the ads from the 1950s to the 1970s show more diverse roles of women than the last three decades. Furthermore, only two of the four brands’ ads during the ‘50s to ‘70s depict women in classical roles and that not for all these three decades. Therefore, the results of this study are not in line with the ones found by past researches.   The results of the content analysis are qualitatively compared with the role played by women in the German society. From the comparison it becomes visible that the German advertising industry adapts to the role of women in the society but only to a certain extent. The analysis shows that the adaption of the brands’ advertisements differs from brand to brand and from decade to decade. In some decades the ads depict women as they are in society, others show a more “modern” image of the women and other decades’ ads show an antiquated image of women. In whole, no linear development of the adaption of the advertising industry to the role changes of women in society is visible. Overall, the results provide an understanding of how German women are portrayed in German advertisements over time and shed light on the adaption of the German advertising industry to role changes of women in the German society.

Thesis (M. A.(African Languages)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / This study focused on identifying and analyzing the perceptions of Sepedi poets on women. This qualitative, descriptive research was conducted to determine if there were any discrepancies between role perceptions and role expectations. Data was collected from texts (poetry books) in the form of poems that poems which portrays negative perceptions of poets on women. Poems were selected randomly and analyzed to expose their perceptions on women. The study has exposed the prejudices that were unfairly inflicted upon women through poetry. The findings revealed that there is a need to rehabilitate authors, poets in particular to write positive about women, perceive women as capable and gifted beings. If this social ill is left unattended, it may result in confusion and role conflict among members of the society, which can ultimately transgress the attainment of credible and aesthetic element of literary work.