Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisor: Lynn C. Miller. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2004. / Title from title page screen, viewed May 23, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Charles Harris (chair), Christopher Breu, Janice Neuleib. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-163) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Oct. 22, 2007). Directed by Kenneth Allan; submitted to the Dept. of Sociology. Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-144).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [54-58]).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2008. / Title from title screen (site viewed Feb. 17, 2009). PDF text: vi, 135 p. ; 673 K. UMI publication number: AAT 3320078. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

In this essay I will defend Nel Noddings care ethics by arguing against Michael Slotes critique of it, while also presenting critique of Slotes virtue ethical version of care ethics. The essential difference between the theories is in my opinion that Noddings theory gives relations so-called ontological priority. I will be arguing that the relational ontology vies better guidance in care situations, but it is also preferrable as an metaethical fundament. I will do this by presenting a situation where Slotes virtue ethics judges an act as caring, even though that’s not necessarily the case. I will then argue that Noddings care ethics demands a more amplie picture of the situation and therefore also gives better guidance, which I argue is valid generally in moral practice. In this essay I will also present arguments against Slote by bringing to light how the feasability of his arguments and theory presupposes a so-called individualistic ontologi (unlike Noddings relational ontology). A relational ontology presupposes a relation between two (or more) individuals in a situation, while the individualistic doesn’t consider that fact. The relational ontology is important for most of care ethics advocates, which is why I contend that Noddings theory is to prefer ahead of Slotes theory. Therefore I argue for using the relational ontology also as a metaethical foundation. / I den här uppsatsen kommer jag försvara Nel Noddings omsorgsetik genom att argumentera mot Michael Slotes kritik av den och själv kritisera hans dygdetiska version av omsorgsetik. Enligt mig är den viktigaste skillnaden mellan teorierna att Noddings teori ger relationer så kallad ontologisk prioritet. Jag kommer argumentera för att den relationella ontologin ger bättre vägledning i omsorgssituationer, men också är att föredra som metaetisk grund. Jag kommer göra det genom att ta upp ett exempel som visar hur Slotes dygdetik bedömer en handling som omsorgsfull, även fast den inte nödvändigtvis är det. Sedan kommer jag argumentera för att Noddings omsorgsetik kräver en fylligare bild av exemplet och därför även ger bättre vägledning, vilket jag menar även gäller generellt i moralisk praktik. Jag kommer även argumentera mot Slote genom att belysa hur rimligheten i hans argument och teori förutsätter vad som kallas för en individualistisk ontologi, till skillnad från den relationella ontologin Noddings använder sig av. En relationell ontologi förutsätter att en relation finns mellan två (eller flera) individer i en situation, medan den individualistiska inte tar hänsyn till det. Den relationella ontologin är viktig för de flesta av omsorgsetikens förespråkare, varför jag anser att Slotes teori inte bör användas. Därför argumenterar jag för att använda den relationella ontologin även som metaetiskt antagande.

This thesis focuses upon the writings of the contemporary North American feminist theologian Mary Daly. It takes the form of a critical study of Daly's thought in terms of five tributary influences. It represents a contribution to two areas of research: the history of feminist ideas, and the ongoing methodological debate within feminism as to the possible relationship between feminist theory and 'conventional' theory. In chapter one Daly's political thought is introduced through a discussion of the influence of the tradition of radical feminism. The principle aim of this chapter is to clarify, as far as possible, the dual process of influence that exists between her thinking and the work of certain radical feminist theorists. In chapter two the influence of Beauvoirian existentialism upon Daly's thought is examined in the wake of the claim that in drawing from Simone de Beauvoir's feminist existentialist analysis of women's situation, in The Second Sex, Daly assimilates Sartrean existentialist assumptions which are problematic from a feminist perspective. In chapter three turn to address Daly's philosophical- theological debt to Thomas Aquinas and the Thomist tradition. I trace the history of Daly's dealings with Thomism, including her criticism, and briefly evaluate her continued feminist engagement with its ontology. In chapter four Daly's utilisation of Peter L. Berger's sociological theory is explored. I discuss Daly's feminist criticism of Berger's theory of 'worldbuilding' and proceed to evaluate her subsequent attempts to use Berger's work as the starting-point for a new feminist sociology of knowledge. In the fifth and final chapter the abiding influence of Christianity to Daly's 'revolutionary' theological agenda is highlighted and explored with reference to the contemporary division of theological labour between so-called 'reformists' and 'revolutionaries'. The thesis ends with a few concluding remarks about Daly's methodology with regard to 'conventional' theory.

This thesis aims to develop an analytical framework that will combine the insights of critical discourse analysis and a range of feminist perspectives on discourse as social practice. This framework is then employed in an investigation of women's participation in a number of 'communities of practice('Eckert and McConnell-Ginet 1992) previously monopolised by men. Comparisons are also made with women's involvement in organisations where they are in a majority and where a feminist ethos prevails. I argue that women often find themselves at odds with the masculinist discursive norms that masquerade as gender-neutral professional norms. This, in turn, has implications for the way in which women are perceived and judged by others, as well as for the roles they are assigned within the public sphere. With reference to selective transcripts of in-depth structured interviews with women in each of the domains under investigation, I suggest that the complex negotiations in which they engage in order to manage contradictory expectations about how they should speak and behave cannot easily be accommodated within a dichotomous model of gendered linguistic styles. Nonetheless, this is precisely how their linguistic behaviour is often 'fixed' and evaluated by others, especially by the mass media. I make reference to a wide range of texts from a variety of media in order to illustrate the role the media, in particular, play in mediating the perception of women's involvement in the public sphere and in (re)producing normative gender ideologies. The first case study focuses on women Labour MPs in the House of Commons. It includes a detailed analysis of the media coverage of Margaret Beckett's bid for the Labour leadership in 1994. It also considers whether the record increase in the number of women MPs in the wake of the 1997 general election has helped to make the Government's policy priorities more woman-friendly and/or has changed the culture of the House. The second case study on women's involvement in devolved politics briefly considers their contribution to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, before focusing in detail on the contribution made by the Northern Irish Women's Coalition to framing the Good Friday Agreement and to the structures of the new Northern Irish Assembly. The third case study compares the structure and rhetoric of the London-based Women's Environmental Network and those of male dominated environmental groups, including Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace and the relative media coverage these groups receive. The final case study compares women's involvement in the Church of England as outsiders, campaigning for women to be admitted to priesthood, and as recently ordained insiders, whose subordination within Church structures is sanctioned by canon law. A central thesis of this study is that both the institutional constraints with which women have to negotiate and the stereotypical evaluations of their performance of public sphere roles have contributed to a process of discursive restructuring, whereby the gendered nature of the public/private dichotomy has been reproduced within the public sphere. However, women are not passively positioned in relation to the institutional and other discursive constraints that operate on them. I suggest that, they, in their turn, have helped to promote a counter tendency whereby the discursive boundaries between the traditional public and private spheres are becoming increasingly weakened and permeable. The study concludes by arguing for a more socially situated theory of language and gender to account for the constant tension that exists between the freedom of individuals to make choices within discourse and the normative practices that function to limit these choices.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / Women's roles in the workplace have increased but expectations within their family roles have not diminished. Work-family conflict (WFC) occurs when work and family roles are mutually incompatible in some respect. Mothers' representations of their own particular personal contexts seem largely absent from the cultural iconography and so motivations for the study included bringing to light the phenomenological experiences of contemporary full-time working mothers by developing a rich description of their lived experience. These ideas have not been widely explored in South Africa. The study aimed to explore how full-time working mothers experience work-family conflict, including how they conceptualise their dual roles, how salient each role is to them, the factors in the work and family domains which are particularly pertinent for them and any coping strategies they might employ. The study used as a theoretical framework the model of work-family conflict developed by Greenhaus and Beutell in 1985, together with an extension from the work of Amstad, Meier, Fasel, Elfering and Semmer in 2011. The study used a phenomenological methodology. Eight middle-class, professional, full-time working mothers from the Southern Suburbs and City Bowl of Cape Town were interviewed individually, using a semi-structured interview schedule. A qualitative paradigm was used to analyse the interviews. Emotional and cognitive repercussions of WFC were many, including feelings of unsustainability. Some participants acknowledged a need to compromise in order to cope, but the current normative messages are not conducive to this. Participants aspire, not to stop working, because the role of worker is regarded as important for self-definition, but to reduce their overall load. The generalisability of this study was reduced because of its localised ambit, its small size and some similarities in socio-economic profile among the participants. Future studies could further explore the choices or strategies which are successful in reducing WFC.