In the novel the Color Purple (1982), the author, Alice Walker, highlights the oppression African American women had to endure in the South, during the 1920s. It tells the story of the protagonist Celie's life, from being a sexual abused girl, to becoming an independent woman. Through Celie's collection of letters, the novel is a documentation of an African American woman's transformation from a life of oppression to finding her voice. The analysis seeks to display the connection between Celie's fight against oppression to her becoming a "masculine female". In order to investigate Celie's transformation, in this paper I explore the cause of her transformation and look more closely at the factors that that resulted in her change. This is discussed by focusing on stereotypical gender traits, role models, motherhood, the elimination of male power, and lastly, multiple forms of oppression. In the end it is concluded that Celie's liberation from the patriarchy helped her find her new identity as a masculine female.

Denna avhandling undersöker könsrollerna på arbetsplatsen i de utvalda japanska bästsäljande filmerna som producerades under de senaste tre decennierna, vilket upplevde införandet av politiska åtgärder som avser att förbättra jämställdheten på arbetsplatsen. Studien hävdar att trots de samhälleliga och politiska förändringarna i Japan under de senaste trettio åren har bästsäljande filmer behållit traditionella könsrollsskildringar. Förklaringen kan vara att det är mycket lättare att ändra regler och lagstiftningar än uppfattningen om könsroller, som länge har existerat i samhället. / This thesis examines the gender roles in the workplace featured in the selected Japanese bestseller films produced in the last three decades, which saw the introduction of policies aimed at improving gender equality in the workplace. The study argues that despite societal and political changes in Japan in the last thirty years bestseller films have perpetuated traditional portrayal of gender roles. The explanation could be that it is much easier to change rules and legislations, than the perception on gender roles, which have existed in the society for a long time.

過往研究發現性別特質在愛情關係中扮演重要角色。人們在選擇理想的愛情對象上經常反映出性別特質的互補性，例如男性化特質高的男性和女性化特質高的女性是多數人同意的理想伴侶。然而實際的關係中，女性化特質比男性化特質更能有效的預測婚姻滿意度和婚姻關係適應。這是因為女性化特質有助於人際關係的建立與維繫，女性化特質高的人展現較多自我揭露和情緒依賴，或以人際關係中的互動對象來認同自己，在關係互動中更經常表現出回應且滿足他人需求、考量他人感受等行為，係具有較高程度的關係他人-自我取向。而關係他人-自我取向是親子、密友、愛情等親密關係常見的人際行為表現，它可以增進關係親密感、滿足對方期望，以及引起對方相對回應，在過去研究中被認為是提升關係品質的重要因素。因此本研究假設，女性化特質會透過關係他人-自我取向之中介來預測愛情關係的滿意度，並進一步探討關係他人-自我取向如何影響個人在決策事件中考量伴侶的程度。本研究中以兩個樣本（共149對未婚情侶）檢驗成對情侶的徑路模型，在模型一中驗證了過去研究發現女性化特質對於關係滿意度的正向預測力，模型二則發現個人的關係他人-自我取向是女性化特質和關係滿意度之間的部分中介變項。此外，個人的關係他人-自我取向可以反映出預期的決策事件（樣本一74對情侶）和真實的決策事件（樣本二75對情侶）中考慮他人意見的程度，這樣的預測效果在只關乎情侶兩人的決策事件中最為明顯，涉及任一方普通朋友、異性友人、家人等的決策事件無此發現。而後續分析發現，在真實的決策事件中，男性的決策他人取向可以預期自己的關係滿意度，女性則未發現此現象。本研究於綜合討論中解釋這些結果，並探討影響關係品質的可能歷程。 / Past studies have shown that gender traits play an important role in romantic relationships. Complementary gender traits are desired in heterosexual mate selection since people describe masculine men and feminine women as their ideal partners. In real relationships, however, femininity works as a better predictor of both marriage satisfaction and dyadic adjustment than masculinity. Femininity, derived from the caretaker roles in society, is related to emotional expressivity and relationship development. Feminine individuals show more self-disclosure and emotional dependency, identify themselves with current interpersonal relationships, and consider others when making decisions. They are also responsive to others’ needs, displaying a high level of other-self orientation. The higher one is in the other-self orientation, the more one is concerned for others’ welfare. While high other-self orientation is not limited to feminine individuals. People, regardless of their gender traits, tend to show a high level of other-self orientation in intimate relationships, such as parents and children, close friends, and couples. Research showed that high other-self-orientation individuals enjoy better relationship quality for that they meet partners’ needs and this brings the mutual responsiveness. As a result, we postulate that other-self orientation is a mediator between femininity and relationship satisfaction, and that other-self orientation predicts the degree one considers the partner when making decisions on romantic relationships. Two path models with two samples (149 unmarried couples totally) were examined in our study. Results indicated that femininity has a positive effect on one’s own as well as his or her partner’s relationship satisfaction (path model 1) and that the effect of femininity on one’s relationship satisfaction is partly mediated by his or her own other-self orientation (path model 2). In addition, other-self orientation is positively correlated with the degree he or she considers the partner’s needs when making decisions in hypothetical events (sample 1 with 74 couples) and real-life events (sample 2 with 75 couples). Those positive correlations are found in events involving the couple without the third party such as friends, potential relationship rivals, and the family. Follow-up analysis revealed that the more a man considers his partner’s needs in real-life decision making, the more he is satisfied with the relationship. Details were discussed in the conclusion.