In this qualitative study I explored how postgraduate psychology students treat gender in their accounts of their future profession, using a social constructionist framework. I considered how this group of future psychologists drew upon gendered accounts in three different settings in which they found themselves within the profession. These included exploring how participants constructed their own gendered identities in their narratives of how they came to be pursuing professional training in psychology; how gender featured in their accounts of therapeutic processes and interactions with clients; and finally, their reflections on gendered participation in the broader field of psychology. Interview data from two semi-structured focus group discussions with 12 postgraduate psychology students was analysed using social constructionist thematic analysis. Three main themes were identified that related to participants’ gendered accounts according to their personal, professional and more general constructions of gender, namely: 1) psychology as a profession of choice; 2) setting the scene within psychology in terms of gender, which was divided into: a) a construction of gender from the psychologists’ perspective, and b) psychologists’ construction of gender from their clients’ perspectives. The third and last main theme was 3) Increased competition for females as a consequence of women’s empowerment. This study intended to contribute to the expansion of existing literature by addressing the issue of gender and its related aspects in the field of psychology in a South African context, given the dearth of extended research conducted in developing countries so far. The findings supported those of previous studies to an extent, but mainly redressed the perspective of gender through the identification of new themes. By looking into postgraduate psychology students’ constructions of their own gendered accounts it appeared that upcoming psychologists viewed gender in complex ways, instead of typically reported notions of difference, inequality and inferiority or superiority. In this way, the benefit of understanding professional development within the field of psychology served as a valuable point of departure in understanding debates around how gender was implicated in the clientele psychologists serve. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Psychology / unrestricted

This paper analyses the characters Mina and Lucy in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, showing how they are juxtaposed in terms of femininity. By using feminist criticism and the concepts of the angel in the house, monstrous femininity, and the virgin/whore dichotomy, this paper explores how Mina represents the self-sacrificing, supportive, and wifely angel in the house, while Lucy represents the sexual, disobedient, and powerful monstrous female. This is analyzed through Mina’s interactions with the men, as well as through her view on femininity, and through Lucy’s interactions with the men and with Mina. This paper then explores how these differing gender roles lead to different outcomes for the two women. Mina is excluded but is able to be purified from vampirism while still alive. In contrast, Lucy, being a threat to British Victorian femininity, has to be killed and mutilated before her memory can be purified. How well the women fit into the male community’s view of the Victorian female ideal, with Mina fitting it the best, is found to be the reason for why Lucy suffers a worse fate than Mina.

Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva hur kurdiska kvinnor rekonstruerar könsroller, normer och värderingar i spänningsfältet mellan den kurdiska kulturen och det svenska samhället utifrån en hedersdiskurs. Utifrån syftet har studien diskursanalys som metod och teori med stora, och stundtals nationella, diskurser i fokus. Empirin i studien består av tidigare forskning och sex semistrukturerade intervjuer med kurdiska kvinnor. Kvinnorna i studien deltar fritt oberoende av varandra och de har blivit tillfrågade om de vill delta via bekanta eller på kurdiska forum i sociala medier. Resultatet uppnås genom en kategorisering av den insamlade empirin där fyra olika teman har skapats; Att tillhöra kollektivet, kvinnans möjliga identiteter, våldskapitalet i den kurdiska kulturen och för nationen. Studiens teori och metod består av en diskursanalys inspirerade av Foucault med begreppen identitet, subjektsposition och makt i fokus liksom Bourdieus teori om symboliskt kapital. Inledningen av studien belyser Kurdistans bakgrund och ett perspektiv på det kurdiska samhällets uppbyggnad. Det teoretiska perspektivet är kontextberoende och består av en hedersdiskurs som förekommer på nationell nivå liksom på kollektiv nivå i det kurdiska samhället. Den internationella forskningen kretsar kring patriarkala samhällen med könsroller, våldsnormer och hederskultur i fokus. Den nationella forskningen belyser intersektionella perspektiv utifrån makt, klass och i viss mån etnicitet. Resultatet visar att kvinnan är ett objekt, att våldet är norm och att nationsbyggandet är viktiga principer inom den kurdiska kulturen. Studien problematiserar till viss del även Islams påverkan på den kurdiska kulturen liksom betydelsen av avsaknaden av ett eget moderland för kurder. I studiens slutdiskussion konstateras att Sverige och svenskarna till stor del saknar kulturkompetens vilket skulle kunna vara ett viktigt verktyg för ett framtida samhällsbyggande då flera olika kulturer ska förenas och vävas in i en och samma samhällsgemenskap. Det konstateras också att det behövs mer kunskap kring kulturella skillnader avseende normer och värderingar vilket rimligtvis behöver forskas mer kring för att svenska myndigheter ska kunna förstå hur ett framtida arbete mot hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck ska bedrivas liksom hur verksamheter som främjar jämställdhet ska organisera sitt arbete. / The purpose of this study is to describe how Kurdish women reconstruct gender roles, norms and values in the field between the Kurdish culture and the Swedish society from an honour discourse view. With this purpose the study use discourse-analysis as method and theory with large and occasionally national discourses in focus. Empirical data in this study derives from earlier research and from six semi-structured interviews with Kurdish women. The women of this study participate freely independent of each-other and has been asked if they want to attend via acquaintances or at Kurdish forums in social media. Results are achieved by categorisation of the collected empirical data into four designed themes; to belong to the collective, possible identities for women, violence capital in the Kurdish culture and for the nation. The study´s theory and method consists of a discourse analysis inspired by Foucault with the concepts of identity, subject position and power in focus as well as Bourdieu´s theory of symbolic capital. The introduction of the study elucidates the background of Kurdistan and a perspective on the structure of the Kurdish society. The theoretical perspective is context-dependent and consist of an honour-discourse that exists on a national level as well as on the communal level in the Kurdish society. International research shed light on patriarchal societies with focus on with gender-roles; violence norms and honour-culture. The national research accent intersectional perspectives regarding power, class and to some extent ethnicity. Results show that women are objects, violence is a norm and building of a nation are important principles within the Kurdish culture. The study also problematizes to some extent the influence of Islam on Kurdish culture and that the absence of their own country is of importance. In the concluding discussion it is observed that Sweden and the Swedes substantially lack cultural-competence which could be an important tool for society-development in the future when several different cultures need to be joined together in the same social community. It is also concluded that more knowledge about cultural differences in regards to norms and values is necessary which reasonably should be more studied as Swedish authorities needs to understand how future work against honour-related violence and oppression should be conducted as well as how activities that promotes equality should be organised.

This dissertation evaluates the career and work of the underappreciated Austrian-Jewish-American novelist, dramatist, essayist and screen writer Gina Kaus (1894 - 1985). The dissertation's approach is interdisciplinary in nature, drawing from the fields of German, American, exile, literary, feminist, performance, global, cultural as well as film studies. The unusually diverse corpus of Kaus's work in both the literary and filmic medium makes such an interdisciplinary approach indispensable. The dissertation argues that Kaus's specific female and little visible exile experience was shaped and accompanied by a significant, social, cultural, political, linguistic and geographical change. It reconstructs and consciously reinserts Kaus' transatlantic accomplishments into the larger exile history. My dissertation offers close reading of Gina Kaus's second play Toni (1928) and positions her piece within the larger landscape of the Weimar Republic and Vienna during the 1920s. The analysis incorporates a feminist reading, which focuses on the performances of gender and the representation of femininity and illustrates the destabilization of gender and sexual identities during the Weimar period. The analysis of Die Überfahrt (1932), Kaus's second bestseller novel, discusses her novel as a Zeitroman (novel of the times). It contextualizes her book in terms of its readership and the literary market while examining it as a comment on the political, financial and social circumstances of 1920s Weimar culture. A thorough investigation of two films for which Kaus invented the story and collaborated on the screenplay, namely The Wife Takes a Flyer (directed by Richard Wallace, USA, 1942), an Anti-Nazi comedy, and Three Secrets (directed by Robert Wise, USA, 1950), a melodrama, challenges the persistent idea that Kaus's work for Hollywood was incapable to live up to her earlier literary and theatrical successes as an author of the Weimar period. My particular focus on the representation of femininity and female agency sheds light on how the émigrée Kaus, who had been known as an ardent feminist in Europe, successfully managed to subvert ideas of heteronormative gender and power discourses even within the restrictive limits of the Hollywood apparatus. The dissertation further investigates the understudied text form screenplay and the practice of screenwriting. It examines for the first time various unpublished film script versions of the The Wife Takes a Flyer and Three Secrets and thus promotes the film script as a textual form worthy of investigation and integration in both literary and film studies. The script analysis pays attention to the collaborative nature, considers the various versions and revisions the script underwent, offers a comparison to the movies and evaluates the script in its multi-functionality, style, and aesthetics. The scripts also give insight into the ways in which Kaus's exilic consciousness permeates her scriptwriting. My close analysis of Kaus's autobiography, which was published in 1979 and targeted at a German-speaking readership, uncovers the ways in which exile is reflected in the practice of autobiographical writing. The dissertation focuses foremost on the narrative strategies as well as omissions in Kaus's attempt to re-inscribe herself into the literary and artistic scene of Vienna and Berlin; and her effort to position herself among the prominent and predominantly male German-Jewish diaspora in Hollywood. I also shed light on her ability to adapt to the United States and her decision to remain and become a citizen. Her perception of exile as an opportunity, rather than as a limitation is an important new aspect in the existing exile research. Among the Jewish-German exile community in Hollywood, Gina Kaus had a truly transnational career and deserves more credit for her filmic works.

Evangelical women pursing Higher Education often experience a unique tension between their personal aspirations and gender role ideology. Understanding the gender climate in in the evangelical community and its impact on female students is pivotal to effectively preparing and teaching evangelical females. In this presentation I describe how I use transformational learning theory and concepts from drawn from gender sensitive mentoring to foster leadership development in evangelical women pursing higher education. Vignettes based on student experiences are used to illustrate the tension of personal aspirations and gender role ideology that evangelical women experience when pursuing their undergraduate degree. I suggest that gender sensitive teaching is needed to appropriately prepare evangelical women to pursue both their professional and personal priorities. This presentation provides participants with examples of teaching methods, activities, and assignments used in the classroom to help women navigate the gendered messages they receive regarding their personal and professional aspirations.

This essay explores the way pedagogues in school age educare centre reason when it comes toworking with counteracting traditional gender roles in their work. Studies show that there are shortcomings in the work of gender equality in schools and pre-schools and that there are stereotypical gender roles among students. Studies also show that pedagogues have difficulty using the knowledge they possess on the subject in practice. To investigate how the schoolage educare pedagogues respond to this, I have started from the questions ”What are the pedagogues views on working with gender equality and counter acting traditional gender roles?”, ”What working methods do the leisure time pedagogues assume work to counteract traditional gender roles?” and ”What difficulties do the pedagogues experience in working with just that and what conditions are needed?”. To get the answers to these research questions, I have used a qualitative method where I conducted interviews with pedagogues from two different school age educare centres. The results show that the pedagogues have managed to find a number of ways of working to get the students to participate in activities outside those that are stereotypical for their gender. The pedagogues consider themselves tohave a gender-mindset in their work, but it’s still based on a male norm. This theory of themale norm is based on Yvonne Hirdman´s (2003) theory of gender order in society. Furthermore, the study also shows that the pedagogues do not consider themselves to have theright conditions to continue developing the work but need more time for discussion, amongother things. / Denna uppsats undersöker hur pedagogerna i fritidshemmet resonerar kring att arbeta med att motverka traditionella könsroller i sitt arbete. Tidigare forskning från skola och förskola visar att det finns brister i jämställdhetsarbetet och det finns stereotypa könsroller bland eleverna. Forskningen visar också att pedagogerna har svårt att använda sig av den kunskap de besitter inom ämnet i praktiken. För att undersöka hur pedagogerna i fritidshemmet ställer sig tilldetta har jag utgått från frågeställningarna ”Vad har pedagogerna för syn på att arbeta med jämställdhet och att motverka traditionella könsroller?”, ”Vilka arbetssätt anser pedagogerna på fritidshemmet fungerar för att motverka traditionella könsroller?” samt ”Vad upplever pedagogerna för svårigheter i arbetet med just det och vilka förutsättningar behövs?”. För attfå svar på dessa forskningsfrågor har jag använt mig av en kvalitativ metod där jag genomfört intervjuer med pedagoger på två olika fritidshem. Resultatet visar att pedagogerna lyckats hitta ett antal arbetssätt för att få eleverna att delta i aktiviteter utanför de som är stereotypa för sitt kön. Personalen anser sig ha ett genustänk i sitt arbete, men tycks ändå utgå från enmanlig norm. Denna teori om mannen som norm utgår ifrån Yvonne Hirdmans (2003) teoriom en genusordning i samhället. Vidare visar undersökningen också att pedagogerna inte anser sig ha de rätta förutsättningarna för att fortsätta utveckla arbetet utan behöver bland annat mer tid för diskussion.

The thesis deals with the construction of pictures of women who experienced with prison institution represented through films. From a gender perspective, the thesis analyzes how these structures are depicted and reflected as a part of the characters' stories in selected Czech and Czechoslovak films. The thesis consists of five parts. The first part introduces the theoretical background, then the second part focuses on the topic of gender and prison, or better said on the prison service in the Czech Republic. Part of this specification includes also the topic of power and women's crime; a large part is devoted also to gender-normative ideas in the institution of prison and the depiction of these topics in media (film). The fourth empirical part deals with methodological bases and the research methodology itself. The last fifth part presents the research and its results. The films reproduce the gender normative images of women thereby constantly anchoring them or disproving the concrete ideas about what the "right" and "desirable" women should be in order to be accepted in society. Linking women and the restrictive establishment of prison is one of the taboo-themed topics across the whole society. The thesis investigates how this topic is presented to the Czech and Czechoslovak film audience. Key...

Master thesis The Czech Women's view on representation of women in advertisement focuses on the way advertisement reproduces gender stereotypes and sexism in the society. The analysis examines the view of female audience on this matters. The role of advertisement, gender roles and gender stereotypes, sexism and feminism are introduced in the beginning of this thesis. Main traits of sexism in advertisement are described. Possible impact of stereotyped and sexist advertisement on its viewers is demonstrated by introducing results of field related analyses. Based on interviews' analysis with selected group of women it was discovered that women view the representation of women in advertisement to be heavily stereotyped. Women in advertisement are reduced to the following categories: physically attractive and carefree, homemaker, naive and dull, and last but not least sex object. Even though female responders are able to identify some negative impacts of this stereotyped representation of women on both women's and men's lives, their concerns are undermined by their attitude towards advetisement which they do not consider to be capable of changing public attitudes and values. Female responders are convinced that gender discrimination against women is still present in the Czech Republic and advertisement...

No description available.

Natural disasters and conflicts are not gender neutral. They have a different impact on women, girls, boys and men, deepening and intensifying already existing, socially constructed, cultural norms and gender roles. However, crisis represents a “turning point” that shakes balances and traditions, unbalancing the fixed social structure, leaving room for women to exit the crisis empowered, rather than wounded. A systemic integration of a gender-sensitive approach into humanitarian and disaster reliefs operations wound tackle pre-existing inequalities, ensuring an effective quality response and recover from disasters.