The number of women entering professional and managerial jobs globally has increased over the past thirty years. However, only a small percentage of texts within feminist and organisational theory specifically address the lives and experiences of professional and managerial Black African women within the workplace and family life. As such, many organisational and social research questions in this area remain unanswered. This thesis examines the work and family lives of professional and managerial Black African women living and working in Johannesburg and London. It explores how such women with relatively similar colonial histories, cultures, career and professional backgrounds handle their complex social positioning. This complexity, as discussed in the thesis, is created mainly through the way in which identity characteristics such as gender, race/ethnicity and class intersect and impact on these women when working in an environment where they are in a minority and viewed in some instances as ‘space invaders’. The impact that these complex social categories, combined with the influences of culture and history, have on their identities as career women, mothers, wives, partners and daughters is also examined. As Black African women with careers in major cities on opposite sides of the globe, these emerging and transnational elite Black African women remain a rarity and hidden gem to most – making them unique both in the workplace and in communities. In London, they are not only minorities within the UK population but minorities in their role as professional and managerial women within the corporate private sector. In Johannesburg, although part of the majority population in the country, they still remain minorities within the professional and managerial circles of that country’s corporate private sector. The method I use to gather data is the Life History approach which allows me, the researcher, to reveal my participants’ individual views and interpretation of their own work and family life experiences. I do this by conducting semi-structured interviews as a means of collecting their ‘life stories’. These stories told by Black African professional and managerial women reflect their views of reality. Through a form of Life History analysis, this mode of enquiry further reveals the importance of acknowledging difference when implementing government and organisational policies that combat barriers brought about by corporate practices and cultural attitudes within the workplace and society as a whole.

What is 'orgasmic slavery". This study interrogates the meaning of the term by analysing the racialised sexual exploitation of Black women. I examine the historical changes, differences, under-currents and complexities of the social construction of Black sexuality from the inferior position of African female slaves to the conditions of Black women in contemporary Britain. Refuting the premise that Black women are primarily sexual beings, this thesis examines the origins and consequences of this assumption. Through a literature review, the dominant British portrayal of both Black women and Black men in terms of pathological and rampant sexualities is evident. My work assesses how the British and American film industries contribute to such misconceptions. Utilising the research method of participant observation, the perceptions of men and women from different racial backgrounds about images of Black sexuality are addressed. A questionnaire survey queried opinions about the sexual proclivity and relationships of Blacks, whites, 'mixed race' and gays. Building upon this data, a pilot study that was based on images of Black sexuality and their influence upon identity and experiences, provided more information. Central to this debate were semi-structured interviews on the issues of images, identity and relationships as perceived to be related to Black female sexuality.

A qualitative investigation was conducted to explore close relatives’ experiences of symptom recognition and help-seeking for dementia. Nine participants took part in a one-to-one interview. The interviews were semi-structured and aimed to address the following topics: symptom recognition and the process of seeking information and support. Interview transcripts were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Three superordinate themes emerged from the analysis: ‘Developing the courage to act’, ‘Naming the elephant in the room’ and ‘Repositioning’. Findings highlighted how participants shifted from a position of having unspoken fears about their relatives’ symptoms to a point where they were able to address these fears and help their family member to seek help. Participants were engaged in developing representations of dementia, in line with research on the common sense model of illness representations (CSM). The findings highlighted potential areas of improvement for dementia services in the UK, including the provision of greater support for close relatives (e.g. psychological assessment and intervention). Further research, on a larger scale, is needed to determine whether the CSM provides a useful framework for understanding help-seeking for dementia.

Background: Epidemiological studies have shown that social and emotional support can protect against premature mortality and prevent illness. The longterm consequences of poor parent-child relationships on adult mental health have been a major focus of research. Much less attention has been directed towards the effects on physical health outcomes. Objective: Based on the life course model, this thesis assessed the extent to which child-parent relationships influence physical health in later life. Methods: The dissertation was based on a systematic review of longitudinal studies linking parent-child relationships and physical health in adulthood, and on secondary data-analyses of the Christchurch Health and Development Study. The role played by different confounders and mediators was discussed. The analyses were based on multivariate regression methods. Results: Most of the systematic review studies showed a positive association between poor parenting and health in later life. Supportive of the association were studies on general health relying on self-reports. Non-supportive were studies looking at mortality and rare diseases and relying on official records. Some of the studies presented their findings in relation to gender, girls being more likely to somatise in adolescence or in adulthood. An association was found for the Christchurch Health and Development Study between the quality of parent-child relationship and hospital admission or the number of doctor visits. These effects were more pronounced in females. Overall, adjusting for different confounders and mediators added some information, but did not replace the effect of the exposure variables on the outcomes. Conclusion: More research is required in understanding how the early behavioural, environmental and social factors work together in the development of long term health outcomes. Given the growing evidence of the long term effects of poor parent-child relationships, greater efforts are clearly needed in developing effective strategies for prevention and intervention.

Using a Bourdieuian approach, the main argument of this thesis is that men and women develop an embodied racing habitus that is shaped by their access to economic, social, cultural and physical capitals. This determines how much power, influence and recognition they enjoy, and positions them differently within the class and gender hierarchy of the racing field. The thesis begins with a historical and contemporary analysis of the racing field and apprenticeships as a model of learning, showing how power was held in the hands of the Jockey Club, once the sole ruling body of racing, from the mid 18th century. It governed the racing field through class privilege and through its members having access to certain forms of economic, social and cultural capital. The entry of women into the racing field began in the 1960s when women with suitable economic and cultural capital gained the right to train as racehorse trainers. Working-class men were already part of the employment hierarchy, as indentured apprentices, and it was due, in part, to a shortage of small 'boys' that working-class women were taken on as stable 'lads' or 'girls'. The equalities legislation of the 1970s meant women could be members of racing's workforce as well as gaining the right to hold jockey's licences. The process of learning to become a stable 'lad' takes place 'on the job', through practice; this means that women become accepted as workers as long as they act 'like one of the lads' and embody a certain form of masculinity. Indentured apprenticeship was abolished in 1976 and replaced by a system of modern apprenticeship. This has gone along with a change in the significance of physical capital, an increase in the division of labour, and an increased reliance on migrant workers.

This study draws on gender issues relating to the employment and family responsibilities of Thai working women in order to better understand their management of these. The study thus attempts to address key gaps in the literature through a consideration of women’s careers, the social structure in Thailand, Thai women in the labour market, equal treatment according to merit and respondents’ experiences of being working mothers. This research thereby contributes to the research on employment and the family responsibilities of Thai working women. Thus, the study is not only an examination of gender issues in relation to employment and family responsibilities, but the data collected also enables the generation of interesting new hypotheses derived from the narratives provided by women concerning the impact of these dual spheres. Moreover, this study contributes to the wider literature on gender by seeking to explore the role of working mothers as a complex aspect of women’s experiences.

The over-arching theme of this thesis is the effects of parental background on children and the effectiveness of policies designed to improve the academic outcomes of socioeconomically disadvantaged students. The first chapter of this thesis explores the causal link between the education of one generation and that of their children by using IV to account for the endogeneity of parental education and paternal earnings. The second chapter evaluates the effectiveness of an intervention designed to improve the academic success at university of students from socio-economically disadvantaged families. The third and final chapter examines the potential issues in expanding a programme targeted at financially poorer students beyond its initial pilot phase. Chapter One addresses the intergenerational transmission of education and investigates the extent to which early school leaving (at age 16) may be due to variations in parental background. An important contribution of the chapter is to distinguish between the causal effects of parental income and parental education levels. Least squares estimation reveals conventional results – weak effects of income (when the child is 16), stronger effects of maternal education than paternal, and stronger effects on sons than daughters. We find that the education effects remain significant even when household income is included. However, when we use instrumental variable methods to simultaneously account for the endogeneity of parental education and paternal income, only maternal education remains significant (for daughters only) and becomes stronger. These estimates are consistent to various set of instruments. The impact of paternal income varies between specifications but becomes insignificant in our preferred specification. Our results provide limited evidence that policies alleviating income constraints at age 16 can alter schooling decisions but that policies increasing permanent income would lead to increased participation (especially for daughters). Chapter Two is an evaluation of a comprehensive university access programme that provides financial, academic and social support to low socioeconomic students using a natural experiment which exploits the time variation in the expansion of the programme across high schools. Overall, we identity positive treatment effects on retention rates, exam performance and graduation rates, with the impact often stronger for higher ability students. Gender differences are also identified. We find similar results for access students entering through the standard admissions system and those entering with lower grades. This suggests that access programmes can be effective at improving academic outcomes for socioeconomically disadvantaged students. In Chapter Three, we compare the effects of the pilot implementation and the subsequent national roll-out of a large programme, the Educational Maintenance Allowance, in the UK which provides financial transfers to youth who remain in post-compulsory education. While piloting policies is becoming standard in policy evaluation, little is known of their external validity. Using a difference-in-difference-in-differences methodology and several cohorts of the Youth Cohort Study for England and Wales, we estimate the effect of the Education Maintenance Allowance on post-compulsory school participation both in the piloting stage and in its national implementation. We find that the pilot scheme and the national extension had an effect on post-16 schooling but that the evidence in support of the national extension is weaker.

This dissertation examines the concept of artistic genius and its workings as a functional ‘charter myth’, helping to inscribe, enhance and perpetuate discriminative practices against women within the field of literature in general and novel writing in particular. As an active agent as well as symbolic representation of some core patriarchal values such as the innate supremacy and thus justified dominance of men, the concept of genius operates in the following manner: Firstly, through its multiple mythical elements such as the untruth of its affirmations surrounding creativity combined with a paradoxical ability to nevertheless produce evidence for its seeming accuracy; its inherent narrative structure featuring a prescribed genius hero and tale and the latter’s powerful mythical allure, all of which help to push the prominence of genius despite its continued academic deconstruction. Secondly, through the subtle yet powerful gendering of the protagonist and plot pattern it provides, containing a clear blue-print for a hero with a male body complemented or opposed by a subordinate, non-genius female. This gendered mythical pattern directly affects women writers in a variety of manners. On the one hand, it assists the lastingly biased reception of women authors, pre-imposing genius-inscribed beliefs of female inferiority onto literary judgments, thus cyclically perpetuating that belief. On the other – and most importantly for this thesis – the myth of genius also has an inward bearing on many female writers, impeding their creative process and development especially through the myth’s complex interaction with self-confidence as one of the core features necessary for a successful completion of literary projects such as novels.

This thesis examines lesbian costuming and dress in contemporary British and American film and television, offering analyses of sartorial constructions of gay female identities in modern media. It uses close textual analysis and interviews with producers and consumers to examine the production, texts, and reception of selected representations, outlining current social rituals of lesbian style. Interviews were held with Cynthia Summers, Lesley Abernethy, Niamh Morrison, Catherine Adair, Janie Bryant, Tina Scorzafava and Mary Claire Hannan about their designs. Spectators answered questions and responded to photographs and a transcript. The thesis argues that the modern-day designer of lesbian costuming is subject to a contradictory triangle of demands, encompassing the need for costume to support character, resistance to stereotypes, and the recognition and perceived positive politics of identifiable lesbianism. Chapters covering Lip Service and The L Word; Desperate Housewives, Deadwood, and Mad Men, and Gillery’s Little Secret and The Kids Are All Right examine differing results of these pressures. The thesis argues that while anxiety over ‘butch’ stereotypes and heteronormative mainstream demands for assimilation play a part in the overwhelming ‘femininity’ of many examples, an increase in lesbian visibility has also paradoxically instigated a shift away from specificity in media representations through dress because lesbianism is no longer seen as a ‘story’. It suggests that lesbian authorship and using real-life lesbian styles as costume inspiration may offer a way out of the stereotype vs. ‘authentic’ imagery impasse without erasing recognisably lesbian iconography. Finally, the thesis concludes that the production, text and reception of contemporary lesbian images at times comprises a complete circuit of communication, with production decisions and everyday practices of lesbian dress both echoing and informing one another.

The family plays an integral role in Hollywood films of almost every genre. Hollywood’s renditions of the American family, however, remain largely traditional and no longer reflect contemporary reality. This thesis explores how contemporary Hollywood deals with the family, posing the question: ‘Has Hollywood created its own monolithic family model?’ The thesis demonstrates that, rather than offering a solid monolithic family model, the Hollywood family displays a tension between traditional and liberal attitudes, wanting to move forward but unable to let go of the past. The thesis places Hollywood’s representations within a wider cultural framework, utilising social history, feminism and psychoanalytic discourses. This is done through three case studies exploring the nuclear family, and a fourth extended chapter that analyses Hollywood’s alternative families. Chapter One takes as its focus the father-daughter relationship in sequels and series. This relationship is symptomatic of a shift towards a new generation in Hollywood where masculinity is not necessarily the central concern. Although the father-daughter films indicate a renewed interest in women’s familial roles they essentially demonstrate a crisis of masculinity and a traditional, patriarchal model. Chapter Two analyses the mother’s role through the films of Meryl Streep. This chapter situates a discussion of the Hollywood mother within a postfeminist society and questions whether this new generation of Hollywood has promoted a diversification of the maternal role, finding that traditionalism still dominates as maternity and ‘traditional’ femininity remain central concerns. Chapter Three explores the superhero family. This unconventional family is a further symptom of Hollywood’s new generation. That said, the unconventional is used as a tool to promote the conventional – the nuclear family. Superheroics are used to recuperate dysfunctional families and provide an easy ‘fix’ for their troubles. Chapter Four examines the prevalence in contemporary Hollywood of alternative family models. Although these are many and varied, Hollywood’s alternative families (discussed here in terms of single-parents, divorce, gay and lesbian families, the working-class family and the Black American family), ultimately conform to the standards of the nuclear norm, giving further credence to the argument that Hollywood’s families are torn between traditionalism and attempts to embrace liberalism and diversity.