The purpose of this study is to analyze picture books from a gender perspective. The books are found in a book box that the libraries send out to preschools. This study is based on the following questions: How are boys and girls portrayed in picture books? Do the picture books encourage or discourage the principles of equality found in the Curriculum for the Pre-School and the equality work conducted in the preschools? I performed a qualitative text and picture analysis of 12 picture books. I used Maria Nikolajeva and Kajsa Wahlströms schedule of typical masculine and feminine qualities and activities when analysing the picture books. I reached the conclusion that in the vast majority of the books boys and girls are portrayed with qualities that are both typical masculine and feminine. Only a few books in the book box portray the boys and girls characters in a stereotype manner. Hence, as a conclusion, the analyzed picture books discourage the traditional stereotype gender patterns and therefore encourage the principles of equality as described in the Curriculum for the Pres-School.

Coming to terms with breast loss and its effect on body image, femininity and self-esteem are major issues confronting women who have lost a breast to cancer. Furthermore, messages from the media, cosmetic industry and health care profession perpetuate the 'beauty myth' affecting the self-esteem of breast cancer patients. This emphasis on the aesthetic often takes precedence the grief associated with losing a body part that for many women is strongly linked to their self-concept. Based on interviews with nine breast cancer survivors in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Montreal, Quebec, three issues will be addressed: first how the cultural influences that support and perpetuate the 'beauty myth' affect breast cancer survivors; how, as a result of this issue, the grieving process is hindered and third, the experiences of women treated for breast cancer within the medical system. Implications for social work will also be discussed.

Thesis (Psy. D.)--Indiana University of Pennsylvania. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 74-77).

Thesis (D. Ed.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (M.A.)--Bowling Green State University, 2006. / Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 38 p. : ill. (some col.) Includes bibliographical references.

In this work intends to grow a reflection it remains in that measured the use of the myth as metaphor to think on her the feminine, it can limit or powerful the educational work. The thematic accuses X woman in the universal history he/she has as conductive thread the myth of Pandora, in what refers to the blame attributed to the woman and the blames that the women carry as reflex of a Jewish-Christian education in times of modernity or the triple day of work reflex of the life of this century. As theoretical reflectors " of analysis, he/she appears the gender, tends socially in view the attempt of understanding of the relationship built between men and women, as well as of the construction of the woman teacher's feminine subjectivity. Divided in four moments, the work begins with a narrative fictitious maid starting from real facts. Further on, teacher Ethos's character that will dialogue with the protagonist of the history about the human's propositions appears, what is worth the own narrator's internal dialogues and explicit the authors that go being introduced in your ideas along the narrative. The third part is the interviews (real) with teachers that talk about some of your existences. Finally, after the analysis of the interviews, the absolution of Pandora and the presentation of the categories observed in the interviews it works as backdrop for a reflection on the subject's formation and the use of the Greek myth as possibility of to think on him and to bring to the surface searches on the human, in the case of this work, the woman. / Neste trabalho se propõe desenvolver uma reflexão sobre em que medida o uso do mito como metáfora para se pensar sobre o feminino, pode limitar ou potencializar o trabalho docente. A temática culpa X mulher na história universal tem como fio condutor o mito de Pandora, no que se refere à culpa atribuída à mulher e as culpas que as mulheres carregam como reflexo de uma educação judaico-cristã em tempos de modernidade e/ou a tripla jornada de trabalho reflexo da vida deste século. Como "refletores" teóricos de análise, aparece o gênero, tendo em vista a tentativa de entendimento da relação socialmente construída entre homens e mulheres, bem como da construção da subjetividade feminina da mulher professora. Dividido em quatro momentos, o trabalho inicia com uma narrativa fictícia criada a partir de fatos reais. Mais adiante, surge a personagem do professor Ethos que vai dialogar com a protagonista da história sobre as proposições do humano, o que valida os diálogos internos da própria narradora e explicita os autores que vão sendo apresentados nas suas idéias ao longo da narrativa. A terceira parte são as entrevistas (reais) com professoras que falam sobre algumas das suas vivências. Por fim, depois da análise das entrevistas, a absolvição de Pandora e a apresentação das categorias observadas nas entrevistas funciona como pano de fundo para uma reflexão sobre a formação do sujeito e o uso do mito grego como possibilidade de se pensar sobre ele e trazer à tona prospecções sobre o humano, no caso deste trabalho, a mulher.

This thesis critically explores the role of consumer culture in young women’s understanding of self. Drawing on media and cultural studies literature as well as post-structuralist and critical perspectives, this study asks: how does consumer culture guide or influence a young woman’s way-of-being in everyday life? Despite arguments that consumer culture, underpinned by neoliberal principles of personal responsibility and individualism, has become the institution of reference for young women, consumer research on the experiences of women, and from feminist perspectives, is generally sparse. Moreover, claims that consumer culture may covertly subjugate young women by encouraging practices of self regulation are in contention with consumer research that emphasises consumption as a means of self-expression and agency. Therefore, a qualitative, feminist study was conducted in which, over 18 months, fifteen women, aged 20 to 34, engaged in multiple in-depth interviews. The data generation process typically consisted of four interviews over a nine-month period: the first interview covering life history and background was followed by an in-home ‘show-and-tell’ interview about the participant’s ‘stuff’. The third interview addressed participants’ engagement with digital technologies also through a ‘show-and-tell’ approach and the final interview was semi-structured, addressing themes emerging from previous interviews. This generated 50 interviews lasting two hours on average, as well as data from observation, photographs and engagement with social network sites. From a critical thematic analysis, four significant findings emerged. Firstly, in relation to being a woman, participants felt pressure to ‘have it all’ in terms of both traditional (e.g., getting married, raising children, being attractive) and progressive (e.g., achieving career success) ideals. Whilst some disagreed that women continue to be subjugated, most participants experienced a sense of mounting pressure and expectations compared to men and subscribed to neoliberal principles of personal responsibility in combatting gender inequality. Secondly, participants reflexively experienced being a consumer as an unavoidable, often burdensome and anxiety-provoking position that encouraged the making of the self through appearance, as well as adherence to hegemonic feminine ideals. A consumer orientation was further reinforced by increasingly pervasive digital spaces, particularly social media, infused with advertising and consumption. From this, a third finding emerged related to the understanding of self: participants often experienced or expressed a sense of self as a task, an individualistic project for which they felt responsible. Constantly comparing themselves to others to benchmark the project of the self, participants worked to continually craft a story of success and agency despite unpredictability of the life course and contradictory events sometimes conspiring. Moreover, participants who did not feel they had achieved career goals placed greater emphasis on crafting an ideal appearance. The fourth finding addresses the importance of others in understanding the self. Rather than experiencing an ‘identity’ as formed individually, participants looked to others (e.g., family, peers, media, ideologies) to understand the self. Focusing on the opinions of others was associated with anxiety, which varied in degree but was part of all participant accounts. This study suggests that consumer culture is indeed an institution of reference for young women as they experience a sense of self through consumption practices, increasingly digitally mediated. In this sense, the findings align with theorisations in consumer research. However, for the participants of this study, the experience of living the subject position ‘consumer’ is anxiety provoking, particularly in light of postfeminist, neoliberal discourses that encourage experiencing the self as a ‘project’ for which the individual is responsible. As reflected in the data, a self-as-project orientation triggered anxiety given disjointedness between the desire to manage or control the self fostered by dominant discourses, and the impossibility of doing so as reflected by lived experience. This positioning engendered alienation from the self and therefore anxiety that was further sparked by increasing individualism and competition with others; feelings of shame and envy; and a forward-looking temporal positioning. Therefore, findings suggest that consumer research’s conceptualisations of ‘identity’ as a ‘project’ in which individuals can express themselves through marketplace resources is problematic, if not further perpetuating the subjugation of women by rendering them as ‘free’ to consume their way into being. This calls into question individual agency and the role of cultural influences in the making of subjects. Therefore, findings suggest that, from an emancipatory perspective, consumer research examining processes of subject constitution might be more productive to understandings ‘identity’ and the ‘self’ in a particular space and time, with attention to implicit power relations.

From Introduction: The ideal of femininity which developed in Renaissance painting, was a visual and psychological type which was to become the Western European Christian formula of the feminine. This type has survived until the present day, so a discussion of its origins can be revealing for us in the twentieth century, especially as it has been neglected in traditional art historical works. In this essay, the changes in the image of the feminine, in just under three hundred years of Florentine painting, starting with Giotto1. and ending with Raphael~· will be covered. The images will be taken from the wo rk of artists who were Florentine in training, who worked in the city or who were strongly influenced by the Florentine style of painting. I have divided the paintings I have studied into three sections. In the Religious section the paintings are mainly of Mary. The Mythological images refer to Greek and Roman myths and the humanistic interpretations of them. Finally, the Portrait and Genre images are selected on the following basis: In the genre paintings they are sometimes part of works related to religion or mythology, but, in their handling, the painters treat the figures as real human beings rather than holy or mythological figures. In others they are bona fide portrait representations. 3. I have made the above distinction because I expect that the gap between religio-mythological images and portraits will give some indication of the difference between the ideal and the reality for women of that time. The images will be analysed and changes noted in favoured types, gestures, expressions, movements, placing in the composition, relationships to others, favoured themes, costume, colour and symbols. I will point out as I proceed the effects that these elements had on the mood and tone of each image.

ALBUQUERQUE, Rachel Montenegro Matos. Vozes femininas: negociando sentidos sobre o feminino em contexto de conversa terapêutica. 2015. 87f. – Dissertação (Mestrado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-graduação em Psicologia, Fortaleza (CE), 2015. / Submitted by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2015-12-14T17:09:30Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_dis_rmmalbuquerque.pdf: 649623 bytes, checksum: b71ee4d34c1fc776b9ae44837b4f6788 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo(marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2015-12-14T17:29:38Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_dis_rmmalbuquerque.pdf: 649623 bytes, checksum: b71ee4d34c1fc776b9ae44837b4f6788 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-14T17:29:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_dis_rmmalbuquerque.pdf: 649623 bytes, checksum: b71ee4d34c1fc776b9ae44837b4f6788 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / A proposta dessa pesquisa foi procurar compreender como os discursos sobre o feminino são construídos e negociados em um grupo psicoterápico no contexto de um serviço de saúde mental. Como também conhecer que discursos são produzidos pelas mulheres nas trocas conversacionais no grupo, como o grupo confere sentido ao feminino, às relações de gênero e ao lugar da mulher na família, na sociedade e no contexto do grupo e no ambiente do CAPS. Procuramos compreender de que forma as mulheres descrevem, avaliam e legitimam o mundo feminino e que termos utilizam para afirmar ou recusar tal mundo e em que circunstâncias. Também procuramos identificar que ações estão sendo produzidas a partir desse conversar terapêutico e como as práticas do feminino no grupo estão atravessadas por relações de poder. Para essa pesquisa, lançamos mão principalmente de uma psicologia social discursivamente orientada, alinhada à epistemologia construcionista social, focalizando o modo como as mulheres participantes do nosso estudo dão sentido ao ser mulher. Neste enquadre epistemológico compreende-se o mundo social como uma construção coletiva e privilegiam-se as diferentes formas de interação e linguagem que histórica e culturalmente constroem o conhecimento do mundo. Os principais autores utilizados nesta pesquisa foram: Margaret Wetherell, Jonathan Potter, Benedito Medrado, Nigel Edley, Kenneth Gergen, Emerson Rasera, Carla Guanaes. Esta pesquisa analisou quatro sessões de terapia de grupo que aconteceram no contexto de um CAPS geral do tipo III, com a participação de 07 pacientes do sexo feminino. As sessões foram transcritas e submetidas a uma análise do discurso. Observou-se a forma como essas mulheres se posicionam diante de diferentes temas que surgem no grupo, a forma como lidam e resolvem dilemas ideológicos e também identificamos os repertórios interpretativos utilizados por elas ao falar do feminino. Nas trocas dialógicas percebemos um movimento constante ora de adesão, ora de afastamento de versões convencionais do que é ser mulher, de agir de modo feminino, contribuindo em alguns momentos para a manutenção do estado de assimetria de gênero, mas em outros, abrindo espaço para novas construções e versões mais igualitárias de gênero.