Given the relative lack of information about female gang membership in Canada and the hidden nature of this population, a qualitative approach for understanding the lives of female gang members, through a life course perspective guided by feminist standpoint epistemology is utilized in this dissertation. The data for this study are obtained from interviews with fifteen girls and young women who claimed youth gang membership in their lives, from the cities of Saskatoon and Edmonton. .<p>The critical feminist perspective serves as the theoretical framework for this study. It directs us to an understanding in which girls are regarded as active agents in their own lives and who are striving to better their lives albeit with the limited options available to them in the face of locally available constructions of opportunity and possibility. The analyses reflect the lived experiences of the respondents and illuminate the ways in which the personal troubles and daily lives of respondents are explicitly overshadowed by larger public issues. Through critical analysis, this study draws attention to the ways in which girls experiences of ageism, racism, classism, and sexism interact, resulting in social exclusion, isolation from social institutions, and a subsequent involvement with youth gangs. .<p>The study reveals a heterogeneity of respondents experiences especially with respect to being treated as equals by their male counterparts. From the analysis, it is evident that gangs are highly gendered groups in which gender hierarchies force girls to find ways both to create personas of toughness and independence through participation in violent activities yet also to display appropriate feminine behaviours of sexually non-promiscuous females. Importantly, the decisions to leave the gang are triggered by the negative affects of gang life. Once out of the gang, the girls under study seemed to refocus their efforts toward educational opportunities and obtaining job-related skills. In the end, my research indicates that awareness about the dangers of gang life including the negative consequences of gang membership need to form a core of prevention programs, especially those designed for younger girls and children.

This study explored the lived experiences of girls with the socially constructed labels ‘tomboy’ and ‘girly girl’. Using a prospective, life history, qualitative methodology, girls between the ages of nine to fourteen years old were interviewed up to four times over five years for an extensive embodiment project. The present study investigated girls’ narratives of the ‘tomboy’/ ‘girly girl’ dichotomy to deepen an understanding of how gender discourses affect how girls learn to live in their bodies. A total of 87 interviews were collected from 27 girls representing diverse social and cultural backgrounds as well as different urban and rural Canadian locations. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed for themes using the constant comparison method from Grounded Theory. Examining the data from a feminist poststructuralist theoretical approach, three main dimensions emerged that described these girls’ experiences of living with these labels from childhood through adolescence. The first dimension described the shared cultural stereotypes of the ‘tomboy’ and ‘girly girl’ labels. The second dimension delineated the social outcomes in terms of the privileges and consequences associated with each label in childhood and in adolescence. The third dimension highlighted girls own negotiated self experiences and identities in relation to this gender dichotomy. Through its prospective design, this research uniquely delineated the complex range of experiences girls have within gender discourses and explored how labels work to control and restrict girls’ freedom to stay connected to their self and body.

This study explored the lived experiences of girls with the socially constructed labels ‘tomboy’ and ‘girly girl’. Using a prospective, life history, qualitative methodology, girls between the ages of nine to fourteen years old were interviewed up to four times over five years for an extensive embodiment project. The present study investigated girls’ narratives of the ‘tomboy’/ ‘girly girl’ dichotomy to deepen an understanding of how gender discourses affect how girls learn to live in their bodies. A total of 87 interviews were collected from 27 girls representing diverse social and cultural backgrounds as well as different urban and rural Canadian locations. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed for themes using the constant comparison method from Grounded Theory. Examining the data from a feminist poststructuralist theoretical approach, three main dimensions emerged that described these girls’ experiences of living with these labels from childhood through adolescence. The first dimension described the shared cultural stereotypes of the ‘tomboy’ and ‘girly girl’ labels. The second dimension delineated the social outcomes in terms of the privileges and consequences associated with each label in childhood and in adolescence. The third dimension highlighted girls own negotiated self experiences and identities in relation to this gender dichotomy. Through its prospective design, this research uniquely delineated the complex range of experiences girls have within gender discourses and explored how labels work to control and restrict girls’ freedom to stay connected to their self and body.

The dramatic increase in the masculine practice of tattooing among girls in Western societies is an area of interest for feminist researchers and visual culture educators. Girls’ tattoos are perceived as diverse practices of conformity, resistance, reclamation, and empowerment, and/or as contemporary markers of femininity, sexuality, and desire. Eleven adolescent girls with tattoos from the Central Okanagan region of British Columbia were interviewed during a 12 month period in 2007/2008. Discourse analysis was employed as a method to interpret and deconstruct girls’ narratives with respect to understanding why girls have adopted traditional Western male practices of tattooing as expressions of individuality or identity. Secondly, responses were examined with respect to girls’ knowledge of potential risks involved with tattooing. The majority of participants had strong attachments to their relatives and their tattoos signified a desire to maintain that close family relationship. Research findings indicated girls’ mothers were influential in their daughters’ decisions to get tattooed and in the type of image tattooed. Girls were adamant that popular media figures with tattoos and advertisements of models with tattoos could influence or encourage girls to engage in body art. Knowledge of potential risks was learned primarily from tattoo artists and relatives, with infection indicated as the main associated risk. Participants suggested the distribution of pamphlets in school counseling centres could inform students of potential risks and provide information related to safe body art practices. Participants believed societal norms respecting girls’ behaviors and practices were different than those experienced by their mothers. However size, placement, and image of their tattoos, their own biases, and their experiences with older relatives including grandmothers and some fathers indicate that traditional Western attitudes regarding femininity and the female body continue. In spite of this, girls believe that they have the freedom to choose how they enact femininity and assert their individuality, and they believe “if guys can do it, so can girls”. As visual culture educators we need to listen to and respect the voices of girls to achieve a greater understanding of how girls experience and perform gender through their everyday practices within the popular visual culture.

Syftet med den här studien var att undersöka vilka uppfattningar ett antal pedagoger har kring mobbning mellan flickor i förskolan. Med uppfattningar menar vi om pedagogerna i förskolan anser att det försiggår mobbning mellan flickor och om de har några erfarenheter kring ämnet. De data som vi använt oss av har varit tidigare forskning inom detta område. För att inhämta vår information har vi utfört intervjuer med sex pedagoger på två olika förskolor i Norrland. Informationen från våra intervjuer har sedan behandlats och analyserats. Resultatet av intervjuerna påvisade att de flesta pedagoger direkt eller indirekt medger att mobbning mellan flickor kan vara svårare att upptäcka än mellan pojkar, detta menar de beror på att flickors mobbning är mer subtil. En av pedagogerna beskriver hur ett barn som känner sig trängd av andra barn söker ögonkontakt med en vuxen, vilket pedagogen menar är ett tecken på mobbning. Av resultatet framkommer också att två av pedagogerna har erfarenhet av mobbning mellan flickor, medan de andra pedagogerna ger något otydliga svar. De har erfarenhet av barn som blivit felbehandlade, men de inte kan ge någon konkret definition på begreppet mobbning.

Given the relative lack of information about female gang membership in Canada and the hidden nature of this population, a qualitative approach for understanding the lives of female gang members, through a life course perspective guided by feminist standpoint epistemology is utilized in this dissertation. The data for this study are obtained from interviews with fifteen girls and young women who claimed youth gang membership in their lives, from the cities of Saskatoon and Edmonton. .<p>The critical feminist perspective serves as the theoretical framework for this study. It directs us to an understanding in which girls are regarded as active agents in their own lives and who are striving to better their lives albeit with the limited options available to them in the face of locally available constructions of opportunity and possibility. The analyses reflect the lived experiences of the respondents and illuminate the ways in which the personal troubles and daily lives of respondents are explicitly overshadowed by larger public issues. Through critical analysis, this study draws attention to the ways in which girls experiences of ageism, racism, classism, and sexism interact, resulting in social exclusion, isolation from social institutions, and a subsequent involvement with youth gangs. .<p>The study reveals a heterogeneity of respondents experiences especially with respect to being treated as equals by their male counterparts. From the analysis, it is evident that gangs are highly gendered groups in which gender hierarchies force girls to find ways both to create personas of toughness and independence through participation in violent activities yet also to display appropriate feminine behaviours of sexually non-promiscuous females. Importantly, the decisions to leave the gang are triggered by the negative affects of gang life. Once out of the gang, the girls under study seemed to refocus their efforts toward educational opportunities and obtaining job-related skills. In the end, my research indicates that awareness about the dangers of gang life including the negative consequences of gang membership need to form a core of prevention programs, especially those designed for younger girls and children.

When adolescent girls growe up in the adolescence, facing physiological and psychological changes, they dress as a means to create the image of the body and to build their own social image ¢w how to be the right young girl in other¡¦s eyes. But there is no system to teach them how to change and self-shaping. When they are confronted with social demands and the capitalist or patriarchal shock, how to adjust their behavior. Online shopping has become a major shopping channel of many female students, female graduate students or the young female office workers. Today, using online shopping to purchase dress is also an important leisure entertainment to many adolescent girls. The e-shopping of PTT has become the gathering place of adolescent girls. Not only as an online shopping related information exchange field, but also become an important field of adolescent girls grow up group with emotional exchange.Shopping content and aesthetic criteria will be prevailed by e-shopping collective view. After the shopping experience, they expect supports of e-shopping. In addition to mother, sisters or classmates, colleagues, e-shopping has become an important reference, and some even replaced. The thourghts of adolescent girls are different to adult women and adolescent boyes. However, thinking and growth experience of adolescent girls have not been taken seriously, or limited to stereotype. In this study, the text of the form of direct contact with young girls in the e-shopping which comes from the real behavior are usd to understand the culture and values of adolescent girls between groups in online shopping. Through this e-shopping tunnel, the adolescent girls like through the rite of passage ceremony, into a mature woman.

Boys and Girls Club kept me out of prison. It kept me focused in school and on life; and has made me a productive citizen in the society. (Boys & Girls Club alum) This qualitative study evaluated and compared the influence of the Boys & Girls Club and Keystone Club programs on alumni in regards to their career and life experiences. Data were collected through personal interviews of each alumnus in the study. Each interview focused on the alumni’s experiences and benefits gained in either the six core areas of the Keystone Club program or the five core areas in which Boys & Girls Club members participate. The researcher asked staff from the Bryan and College Station Clubs to identify alumni for whom they still had contact information and would be likely to participate. The researcher then used the naturalistic inquiry approach to gather information regarding the experiences and benefits of alumni’s participation in the Keystone Club and Boys & Girls Club programs. The sample of convenience included 14 individuals who had participated in either program in the cities of Bryan or College Station, Texas. The major findings of the study were as follows: 1) All Boys & Girls Club alumni and Keystone Club alumni learned leadership skills through their participation in the programs; 2) All Boys & Girls Club alumni and Keystone Club alumni learned to interact with various cultures as a result of their exposure to the programs; 3) A greater number of alumni from the Keystone Club described “goal setting” as a key lesson than did alumni from the Boys & Girls Club; 4) Alumni from the Keystone Club are more likely than the alumni from the Boys & Girls Club to give back to their community. Recommendations for the clubs include the implementation of community service projects in the Boys & Girls Club program as well as helping youth identify and set goals. For the Keystone Club program, a Job Shadow Day and a College Student Shadow Day were both recommended to help students identify future careers and explore higher education.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2001. / Bibliography: leaves 124-136.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.