Melodrama does not only point to a type of aesthetic practice but also to a way of viewing the world. This thesis is inspired by the idea proposed by Christine Gledhill (1988) that at the core of cultural negotiation in melodrama is gender representation which is the cultural product resulting from the linking of textual and social subjects. Central to this negotiation is the figure of the woman which has long functioned as a powerful and ambivalent expression of the male psyche. In the context of Malaysian cinema, film critics and reviewers tend to use the term ‘melodrama’ in the pejorative sense, usually referring to female-centred films. What is significantly comparable between Western and non-Western perceptions, however, is that melodrama is examined in terms of gender, class, and more recently, race and ethnicity. This thesis examines the construction of female protagonists, within the backdrop of both urban and rural settings, through the use of melodrama as an aesthetic mode in selected Malaysian-Malay films from the early 1990s to 2009. The general approach is the employment of textual analysis based on concepts of film melodrama and informed by contextual information and social history. Thematically, Malaysian-Malay films of the period between the early 1990s and 2009 that focus on female protagonists largely depict the woman in the capacity of independent-minded personas negotiating patriarchal rules in the pursuit of vocational, romantic, and sexual emancipation. This typology of female protagonists comprises the urban, the romantic and the sexual woman. The problematisation of the female protagonist in this manner reveals the dimensions of social change and defines the new role of women in Malaysia’s market economy from the 1990s to the new millennium.

The 16 publications included in this thesis are the results of a programme of research between 1993 and 2009 into the labour market and labour market-related impacts of the large-scale spatially concentrated losses of industrial jobs in Great Britain from the 1970s to the 1990s. The British conventional wisdom has been that labour market recovery was relatively quick, and that the effects were not particularly profound. Continuing labour market distress was mainly ascribed to labour ‘supply-side’ factors rather than to locally deficient labour demand. The research challenges these views. It draws particularly on the British Keynesian tradition, and on authors such as J. F. Kain, John Kasarda and William Julius Wilson from the USA, which experienced similar job losses around a decade earlier. Issues covered include the statistical measurement and spatial variation of unemployment and related economic disadvantage, unemployment disguised as sickness, long-term unemployment, migration and lone parenthood, and there is also analysis of policies on employment and social inclusion. The research shows that ‘Travel-to-Work Areas’ (TTWAs) do not correctly identify the employment ‘fields’ of residents of areas of high unemployment. They have biased errors due to imbalance between commuting inflows and outflows, and obscure the main variation in unemployment on the urban-rural dimension. Three papers on Incapacity Benefit (IB) analyse the dynamics of change in the stock of claimants, investigating the roles played by health status and labour market conditions. The most recent of these papers examines whether the striking fall in IB claims in Glasgow and other former industrial areas in 2003-08 was the result of official interventions or of improving labour market conditions, concluding that it was mainly the latter. A key ‘supply-side’ assumption was that being unemployed in itself makes people less ‘employable’ – the theory of ‘state-dependence’. The paper on long-term unemployment radically challenges this interpretation. It points out that the literature on the relationship between long-term and short-term unemployment has generally failed to consider the appropriate time-lags or the behaviour of the standard measure of long-term unemployment. It shows that the phenomenon which the theory of state-dependence purports to explain does not occur to any significant extent. Outmigration and housing abandonment are significant effects of local job loss. The paper on housing abandonment demonstrates a statistical relationship across England in 1997 between social housing surplus and ‘real unemployment’, while a further paper challenges the view that there was no longer a deficiency of demand for labour in Glasgow and the Clyde Valley in the 1990s by investigating migration patterns. It demonstrates that net flows between individual Scottish areas and the rest of the UK were to a substantial extent determined by changes in labour demand. A new finding is that little adjustment to employment change occurs through migration within Scotland. The large increase in lone parenthood in Great Britain since the 1960s has been strongly correlated across areas with male worklessness. The US literature suggested that this relationship is causal, and this thesis is investigated in two papers. The earlier of these was the first comprehensive published application of this interpretation to the modern British case. A further paper concludes that falling male employment accounted for around half the rise in lone parenthood in Great Britain in 1971-2001. Two of the papers present a comprehensive picture of the geographical distributions of the different groups of disadvantaged people in the labour market, showing that they all conform to a similar pattern which in turn is related to deficient labour demand.

In recent decades, domestic abuse has been transformed from a private concern and personal tragedy into a key public issue across the globe. In the UK this has culminated in a contemporary policy focus on violence between intimate partners as one of a multitude of forms of violence against women. Consequently, much research has focused on the abuse of women in intimate relationships in attempts to understand the problem and formulate appropriate state responses to it. Feminist principles have guided much of this work, and both devolved and central UK governments accept the feminist analysis of the problem: domestic abuse is the result of perpetuating gender inequalities in the social, public realm. Public services such as health, education and social work, as well as the criminal justice system, seek to respond to the needs of women fleeing their abusive partners, and public money covers the cost of many Women’s Aid refuge places. However, some women’s immigration status precludes access to publicly funded services, and subsequently their options for support and ability to exit abusive relationships is constrained. Despite overt policy statements which recognise the universal nature of domestic abuse and the way in which it will affect very high proportions of women irrespective of their race, colour or creed, state support is therefore conditional. The experiences of women who are prevented from automatically accessing public services because of their immigration status has become of increasing concern in the Scottish context since the dispersal of thousands of asylum seekers during the last decade, as well as the rising number of women entering the country on spousal visas. This study therefore examines experiences of help seeking and escape from abusive relationships from the perspective of this particular group of women. Of central concern is the process of problematisation: the way in which issues are transformed from private matters into public concerns, warranting state intervention and investment, and the way in which this transformative process shapes the policies which proceed from it. Therefore, the study investigates the problematisation of domestic abuse in Scotland; the avenues of support it offers as a result of this process; and how this very problematisation shapes women’s personal experiences of help-seeking and escape from abusive partners. First a comparative discourse analysis of documents from Scotland and New Zealand illustrates how different definitions of ‘the problem’ result in differentiated public responses; then, drawing on data collected during in-depth interviews with participants at policy level, workers in support services, and individual women themselves, women’s journeys through and away from abusive relationships, as well as the social and political contexts which shape them, are discussed. Two key themes emerge from this piece of research: the operation of silences within a policy context; and the way in which this is dominated by hierarchical values, systems and processes. The thesis concludes that there is scope for a practical application of the findings which could enrich policy understanding and output in Scotland, to the benefit of women who are, at present, one of the most marginalized groups in Scottish society.

The figure of the grandmother is a rhythm which repeats itself throughout Caribbean literature. The Caribbean literary grandmother owes a great deal to a history of hardship under slavery and post-emancipation struggles for self-realisation and empowerment. This thesis explores the repeating theme of theme of the grandmother-headed-household in literary works from Guadeloupe to Jamaica. The novels of Simone Schwarz-Bart, Joseph Zobel, Cecil Foster, Zee Edgell, Alvin Bennett, Cristina Garcia and Pablo Medina are interrogated in this space to reveal the importance of the grandmother character as the backbone of the works. Other novels from the region will also be utilised as secondary texts to further demonstrate the timeless nature of the grandmother's primary role in cultural retention and in the writer's imagination. Social-history provides an invaluable backdrop for understanding some of the dynamics involved in the West Indian family relationship and family structure. Theories as produced by theorists from within the region will be drawn upon alongside theories produced outside the Caribbean. These theories are included because they allow for a culturally distinct reading of Antillian literature that does not imprison the subject as reductionist, Eurocentric theory does. The combination of these theories , will thereby allow the importance of the grandmother character to come through, not as a dysfunctional copy of European models, but rather as a character constructed within a unique cultural contexts on distinct cultural codes. The premise of this thesis is the deconstruction of boundaries by highlighting the repeating grandmother rhythm. The established barriers serve to segregate works into groups based on language, nationality, gender, and ethnicity. Therefore, reading along the restrictive lines established by the latter has disallowed the rich understanding that an interdisciplinary study which crosses genre, gender, and lines of ethnicity reveals.

This study investigates women's experiences of unemployment in Glasgow and will contribute to a literature in which there are very few studies on women's unemployment. The thesis seeks to challenge the marginality of women's unemployment in sociological discourses. The research is based on interviews with forty unemployed women and sixteen women engaged on Employment Training schemes in Glasgow. The research questions the assumptions and discourses of the mainstream sociological literature on work and unemployment. It highlights the ways in which these sociological discourses draw upon and give legitimacy to existing gendered ideologies about female roles. Contrary to the dominant sociological paradigm which marginalises the importance of women's unemployment, the evidence presented in this thesis demonstrates that waged work is a central and valued part of women's social identity. The data shows that in unemployment women lose their economic identity and this has a detrimental impact upon their social and domestic identities. Women's domestic role did not compensate for the loss of their paid employment. Rather, the experience of unemployment made women value waged work more.

Primarily through a case study of the Petauke District this thesis examines the perceptions of local men and women as a basis for examining the significance of the social construction of masculinity for the transmission of HIV/AIDS in heterosexual marriages in rural Zambia. Further, it explores participants' perceptions regarding two possibly key dimensions to the transmission of HIV/AIDS in heterosexual marital relationships in rural Zambia. These are the interconnections between masculinity and gender based violence as a factor in the risk of infection, and male attitudes to the use or neglect of condoms as a measure of protection against the risk of HIV/AIDS transmission. This case study is set primarily in a postmodern social constructionist theoretical context. This provides a sensitive means of registering the variety of concepts, perceptions, interpersonal interactions and broader social conditions which feed into masculinity as a social construction. It also facilitates a fine-grained analysis of how notions of masculinity are both context-specific and shift across time. While largely focusing on the illustrative significance of stakeholders' accounts in Petauke District, the study also provides an account of wider socio-economic conditions and the spread of HIV/AIDS, as a backdrop, and a critique of salient features of current health promotion responses. The case study uses qualitative methods, involving the use of individual interviews and focus group discussions with a sample of thirty men and thirty women, respectively, who were previously or are currently married. A thematic approach is used to analyse the data collected in the field. The study findings reveal that study participants perceive Petauke district to be undergoing a process of social transformation and it is thus on a 'cultural crossroads'. This is as a result of the growing influence of the media, education, intermarriages and social mobility. This has given birth to new social values which all have an influence on the social construction of masculinity. Challenging traditional and contemporary hegemonic modes of masculinity is perceived as one of the main tools that should be used to address the association between the social construction of masculinity and the risk of HIV/AIDS transmission in heterosexual marital relationships. This includes addressing the intersection between domestic violence and the risk of HIV/AIDS infection and promoting the use of condoms against the risk of infection in marital relationships. The study concludes by drawing out the implications for health promotion policy and practice. It discusses the need for health promotion to work with male and female stakeholders, and undertake programmes that have as a key strategy the deconstruction of harmful beliefs and ideologies associated with masculinity, in order to address male HIV/AIDS risk taking behaviour in marital relationships in rural Zambian communities.

The thesis works from the conceptual premise that the parent-child relation is constitutive of both subjectivity and narrative form in the Victorian novel: the role of the orphan, the dislocation of the family and the drive to reconstitute it, are primary concerns and condense complex issues of narrative structure, genealogical failure, and the problematisation of parental roles. There have been valuable feminist readings of specific family positions in the Victorian novel, such as ‘the mother’ or ‘the daughter’, but there is still a lack of analyses which locate narrative and thematic concerns in the dynamic interplay between parental and childhood desires: the relation between two or more subjects. I look at four novels in detail: Charles Dickens’ Dombey and Son and Little Dorrit, and Wilkie Collins’ No Name and Armadale. The thesis shows how parent-child relationships are mediated through gendered conflicts: it is, in fact, almost impossible to isolate singular relationships for analysis; the family is a gestalt, becoming greater than the sum of its parts. Throughout the novels repudiated family members, or strange family ‘doubles’, become the focus for the movement of the plot: the way in which fantasy operates across a family group, rather than as an intrasubjective phenomenon, is a key concern. The analyses of the literary texts will demonstrate the processes of transformation that familial desires and fantasies undergo in the characters and in the novels themselves. The concept of generational inheritance, central to the aesthetics and psychologies of the Victorian novels considered here, motivated my turn to psychoanalytic theory. I do not limit my use of psychoanalysis to one model, instead using a dialogical approach dictated by the novels themselves; I incorporate aspects of Jean Laplanche’s theories of ‘general seduction’, in addition to Sigmund Freud’s own writings and later psychoanalytic ideas of inheritance and influence. The ‘family’ is the structuring force for the four novels under consideration. Without always attempting to create a ‘realistic’ psychology of character, Dickens creates competing worlds of personal, familial and social fantasy. The family is a site of anxiety, an anxiety which is not wholly contained, or controlled, by the narrative. Collins likewise engages with the question of inheritance, but, increasingly throughout his writings, he prioritised the emergence of female agency in the wake of a persecutory paternal narrative.

This thesis examines the impact of intimate partner abuse on women‟s experiences of the workplace, a topic that has been under examined within the UK. Taking a pro-feminist perspective, and drawing on Foucault‟s conceptualisation of power, the thesis examines the gendered power relations that survivors negotiate in their relationships with their abusive partners and work colleagues in order to sustain their employment. The thesis also addresses a major gap in the literature, namely the experiences of women in professional and/or managerial occupations and the coping strategies they employ in order to sustain their employment. The thesis draws on 29 in-depth qualitative interviews conducted with survivors of intimate partner abuse who predominantly were employed in skilled, professional and/or managerial occupations. These interviews were conducted via telephone, face-to-face and the internet. Adopting a symbolic interactionist approach, coupled with a Foucauldian perspective on power, it is argued women in professional and/or managerial positions adopt different coping mechanisms to women in unskilled employment in order to sustain their employment. Furthermore, it is argued that for some women disclosure of abuse within the workplace can prove to be a positive coping strategy. However, for those women in managerial positions, it could seriously jeopardise their authority within the workplace. It is also argued that disclosure could undermine the coping strategies that women adopt in order to survive and sustain their employment. This thesis also argues that earning an income and assuming the role of breadwinner within an abusive relationship does not necessarily grant women economic independence, that gendered power relations are far more complex than previous arguments propose. Finally, this thesis not only contributes towards our theoretical and empirical understanding of gendered power dynamics operating within abusive relationships, but it also has a practical application by informing the development of workplace policies and practices regarding intimate partner abuse.

Human reproduction should not be viewed independently from social reproduction, for to do so limits the perspective of the observer. This thesis examines the limitations of previous studies of human reproduction from an anthropological, psychological, medical and sociological view point. It proposes an alternative feminist perspective which looks at the totality of the pregnancy experience as expressed by the women themselves. Although all women perceive fundamental experiences in common, related to their status as women in male dominated societies, it is argued that there are significant socially determined differences between women in the way they react to these experiences. To establish the extent to which all women have pregnancy experiences in common and to which they have different experiences, two separate groups of women (South Asian and indigenous British) were selected for study. These women were interviewed twice during their pregnancy (using a questionnaire and in—depth interviewing) in an attempt to determine their expectations and experiences of the maternal health services and the extent to which their social class, ethnic background and parity, shaped these experiences. Differences in utilisation of services emerge which are based on the women's social class, length of education, cultural background and parity. Tensions are apparent between lay beliefs about health and illness in pregnancy and the medical model which treats all pregnant women as potentially pathological. The clinical model of pregnancy overlooks the social meaning of pregnancy to the woman and her social network and thus is inadequate in this respect. Inevitably, the amount of support and advice pregnant women receive from their social network varies considerably and is closely related to social class and cultural background. The thesis concludes with suggestions for structural changes in society which are necessary if women are to have autonomy over their actions (particularly in relation to reproduction). These changes involve the erosion of sex, class, and race differences in society, which at present ensure that certain groups are better able to manipulate services to their needs. A list of practical recommendations is detailed suggesting specific points which, if implemented, would make women's future pregnancy experiences richer and more rewarding.

This thesis has addressed an ongoing debate on gender differentiation in employment which has been concerned to analyse why women's economic activity should be constructed as more marginal than men's and why women's employment should be so concentrated in low paid, low skilled jobs. The research has examined the nexus of women's paid and unpaid work and how the form of the organisation of the family and familial ideology undermines the crucial importance of paid employment both to women and the family, whilst the form of the organisation of the labour process often undervalues the real competences women have. The research makes plain the contribution of women's paid and unpaid work. It has been focussed as a case study, on the experiences of a sample of women clothing workers who were made redundant. The case study provides material on the organisation of the clothing industry and the nature of women's jobs there; on employer's strategies for restructuring and rationalising the labour process - which includes factory closure, and the impact and meaning of job loss in the context of patterns of female economic activity, women's familial role and the conditions of the female labour market. As such therefore, it is a study not just of job loss, but of the nature of women's work. The thesis concludes that women's paid employment remains differentiated and marginalised whilst women are employed as cheap labour and whilst that is endorsed by men's claim to a breadwinner's wage. The sexual division of labour within the family contributes to the construction of women as cheap labour. However the wage form, as an unequal wage, sustains those familial relations.