This thesis is concerned with understanding why women have such low participation rates on international management assignments. It questions the assumption that the main explanation for this phenomenon lies with factors extraneous to the home country organisational context; for instance, foreigners' prejudice; family constraints and women's own lack of interest. In view of the lack of research evidence to show that women fail once on international management assignments, the thesis explores the role of Human Resource Management practices within the home country headquarters' context, as a key factor in determining women's representation. In particular, it examines the role of the selection system for international assignments in limiting women's opportunities in this area. The research study takes a UK perspective due to the minimal research undertaken on women in international management within this country. A multi-stage research design was used in order to ascertain, firstly, the participation rate of women in international management and key barriers via a survey of UK-based international organisations. Semi-structured interviews were then held with women expatriates and International HR Directors as a result of which the focus on home country selection systems for international management assignments was developed. The main stage of the research consisted of an in-depth case study of the selection process for international management assignments within three organisations with differing levels of representation of women in international management positions. The case studies explored how the operation of different systems might lead to greater or lesser use of individual preferences by selectors, with resultant impacts on the numbers of women entering international management positions. The analysis of individual selectors' preferences was carried out with the use of Repertory Grid technique. Inherent gender bias in the constructs elicited from the Grids was analysed using Schein' s Descriptive Index. The main contribution of the thesis is the development of a conceptual model identifying a typology of selection systems for international management assignments which will assist both academics and practitioners to analyse the potential for bias within existing selection systems.

M.Sc. (Med.), Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2009 / OBJECTIVE: To explore gender-related differentials of HIV prevalence in Limpopo Province, South Africa. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study, data collected by the Rural AIDS and Development Action Research (RADAR) Program for the purpose of a controlled community trial in Limpopo Province. The study population consisted of 798 young men and 992 young women aged 14 to 25 years old. Subjects were tested for the presence of HIV antibodies and answered structured questionnaires. Logistic regression was used to examine risk factors related to gender differentials of HIV prevalence. RESULTS: The prevalence of HIV infection was 5.8% in men and 12.4% in women. Women often had older partners, while men had much younger partners or partners of a similar age. Men with primary education and reporting as students showed a reduced risk of HIV infection whereas unemployed women showed an increased risk of HIV infection. Sexual debut at the age of ≤ 16 was associated with increased risk of HIV infection among both sexes. A significantly higher HIV prevalence was found in women with more than four lifetime sexual partners, young women having an age difference of three to 9.9 years from their sexual partners, women having non-spousal sexual partners of 22 to 26 years of age, and women reporting no regular financial support. Frequency of sex of six to 20 times was a marker of increased risk of HIV among men. CONCLUSIONS: The risk of HIV infection was higher in young women than in men. The increased risk of HIV infection in women might be explained by social and behavioural factors that lead young women to select older partners, and is perhaps also a result of the biological susceptibility of women to HIV infection.

No description available.

From the simple electronic vibrator to the complex assemblages of cybersex, sex and technology have always intersected. The dynamic relations between sexuality and technology are constantly changing along with the ways in which human beings achieve psychological and bodily pleasure through these devices. Sex machine, a term that denotes an automated device that can assist human in the pursuits of sex, has been broadly defined as therapeutic and pleasure machines in the West. Large numbers of sex machines have been documented in Europe and America starting from the nineteenth century, and were widely produced and utilized by medical practitioners, sex toy makers and individuals throughout history. This research focuses on three kinds of sex machines that have been produced and represented visually in recent years: fucking-machines, teledildonics and humanoid sex machines. By using the poststructuralist approach of combining the material and symbolic dimensions in the analysis, the thesis aims at investigating the cultural significance of sex machines by studying how they are identified, represented and produced as cultural text/artefact in the Euro-American subcultural sexual context. Through a queer reading of sex machines, the project will explore how sex machines re-configure the way we understand body, gender, sexuality and technology in the human pursuit of pleasure and desire.

<p>Abstract</p><p>Syftet med föreliggande uppsats är att uppnå förståelse för unga kvinnors relationer till mat och ätande, samt att finna troliga teoretiska förklaringar till detta förhållande. Det empiriska materialet utgår ifrån sex kvalitativa intervjuer med flickor mellan femton och nitton år, samt en kvantitativ undersökning vilken innefattar drygt sextio informanter. </p><p> Resultatet av det empiriska materialet visar att respondenterna i huvudsak uppfattar mat positivt, men att den samtidigt i varierande utsträckning kan ge upphov till negativa och paradoxala känslor. Att äta ger upphov till känslor av njutning och avkoppling, men kan samtidigt leda till att man känner ånger och skuldkänslor, samt att den egna självuppfattningen påverkas negativt. </p><p> Respondenterna uppger att den primära motivationen till att avstå ifrån mat med högt innehåll av socker eller fett är att de är rädda för att gå upp i vikt, känna ångest eller få sänkt självrespekt, medan det som motiverar till att äta är att det ger dem känslor av välbehag, samt dämpar känslor av stress eller oro. </p><p> Respondenterna uppger att de tror att det är mycket vanligt att unga tjejer har ett komplicerat förhållande till mat och ätande, samt att man vill banta för att bli smalare. Slutligen upplever respondenterna att deras förhållande till mat och ätande influeras av media, men att det också påverkas av den kultur som råder i den egna umgängeskretsen</p>

This essay will analyse Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice from a feminist point of view, the emphasis being on how the environment and nature can reflect femininity and the relationships between men and women. The nature portrayed within Pride and Prejudice can also be looked at from a gender perspective in order to help understand how Jane Austen used nature to reflect the realities of gender differences in her society.

Abstract Syftet med föreliggande uppsats är att uppnå förståelse för unga kvinnors relationer till mat och ätande, samt att finna troliga teoretiska förklaringar till detta förhållande. Det empiriska materialet utgår ifrån sex kvalitativa intervjuer med flickor mellan femton och nitton år, samt en kvantitativ undersökning vilken innefattar drygt sextio informanter. Resultatet av det empiriska materialet visar att respondenterna i huvudsak uppfattar mat positivt, men att den samtidigt i varierande utsträckning kan ge upphov till negativa och paradoxala känslor. Att äta ger upphov till känslor av njutning och avkoppling, men kan samtidigt leda till att man känner ånger och skuldkänslor, samt att den egna självuppfattningen påverkas negativt. Respondenterna uppger att den primära motivationen till att avstå ifrån mat med högt innehåll av socker eller fett är att de är rädda för att gå upp i vikt, känna ångest eller få sänkt självrespekt, medan det som motiverar till att äta är att det ger dem känslor av välbehag, samt dämpar känslor av stress eller oro. Respondenterna uppger att de tror att det är mycket vanligt att unga tjejer har ett komplicerat förhållande till mat och ätande, samt att man vill banta för att bli smalare. Slutligen upplever respondenterna att deras förhållande till mat och ätande influeras av media, men att det också påverkas av den kultur som råder i den egna umgängeskretsen

This paper outlines interview based, qualitative research that was conducted with six male youth who were previously students in my Social Studies 11 class. Within two separate, semi-structured interviews, participants were asked to discuss student resistance to anti oppressive pedagogy that focused on gender, and their understanding of masculinities. The initial purpose of this research was to find a relationship, if any, between acts of student resistance and the construction of masculinities. Participant perceptions of masculinities evolved as the dominant theme within the interviews. These discussions revealed that student understandings of masculinity were often entrenched in hegemonic language, yet contradictions were exposed between their rote definitions and personal narratives. Further, the use of media as a discourse became a venue for complicating essentialist understandings of masculinity, and for exposing multiple, fluid, versions of masculinities. Within these discussions of multiplicity, race and sexuality became two intersections of identity that took precedence. Also the intersection of teacher identity and the reading of identity terms emerged as a salient interpretation for gender discussions in the classroom. Throughout this write-up of the research are methodological considerations surrounding power, the construction of masculinity and race, and the further entrenching of heteronormativity, in the form of methodological interludes. Finally, within the conclusion, I consider the implications for practice and future directions for research in masculinities.

No description available.

The focus of this dissertation is a social and cultural theoretical analysis of the empirical data regarding the prison abuse that occurred at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by American forces. I provide the following: an examination of the photographs of abuse that were leaked to the press in the fall of 2003; an analysis of both Lynndie England’s and Sabrina Harman’s courts-martial (two of the “rotten apples”); a discussion of the body associated with punishment and torture, and also as marked in ways of identification; and an assessment of additional representations regarding prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. Throughout this analysis, I use gender as a lens to understand Abu Ghraib and the subsequent courts-martial. It is important to note that I gained access to and was intimately involved as a graduate researcher for Dr. Stjepan G. Mestrovic, an expert for the defense, and experienced the events of the trials themselves, first-hand and during closed counsel and open session. The empirical data provided is drawn primarily from first-hand qualitative research that involved participant-observation of two trials, interaction with soldiers and officers, and analysis of both documents pertaining to the trial as well as the photographs of abuse themselves, among other things. I incorporate cultural studies, feminist and sociological theory (modern and postmodern), and feminist philosophy so as to provide a theoretical analysis of the abuse at Abu Ghraib and the subsequent courts-martial focused on gender and sexuality. The result of this dissertation is a social and cultural theoretical analysis of the empirical data regarding the prison abuse that occurred at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by American forces, where women, gender, and sexuality are shown to be important criteria for examination. Specifically, the results of this project highlight areas that current analyses of the abuse at Abu Ghraib have left out: how women fit into American military politics, how gender functions as power within the military, how gender is socially constructed in the military in terms of heterosexuality, and how both gender and sexuality are used as weapons by the American military. This kind of examination is useful in future policy considerations for the military and for detainee treatment, where analyses of women, gender, sexuality, and power have been so far neglected in any serious way, and even by sociologists Phillip Zimbardo and the application of his Stanford Prison Study to the events of Abu Ghraib.