The thesis Framing of Me Too Campaign in Selected Czech Media examines how selected Czech newspapers and magazines represented the Me Too movement. This movement is considered to be an example of hashtag activism which relates to sexual harassment and gender based violence. This thesis draws both from theoretical and analytical concept of media framing. Using qualitative analysis based on grounded theory approach - more specifically open and axial coding - the research aims at identification and description of news frames that appears in analysed articles. The sample is composed of selected articles published at newspapers and magazines, including Hospodářské noviny Lidové noviny, Právo, Blesk, Reflex, Blesk pro ženy and Respekt. Axial coding stage revealed ten news frames which were integrated into three major categories: (1) Social consequences of the Me Too movement (2) Me Too in the context of Czech Republic and (3) Film festivals (and awards) in the light of the Me Too movement.

By taking the recognition of persons as rights-holders in the framework of international human rights into account, this study directs its attention to women in protracted refugee situations, restricted to stay in camps also when their human rights are at risk due to various forms of violence. The question in focus is the following: To what extent may there be a risk that women in a refugee camp context, distinguished by a protracted refugee situation, do not become visible as rights-holders and entrusted to act with regard to international human rights and the problem of violence against women, especially domestic violence? The research process has taken the form of a continuous dialogue with the material for the study, a dialogue directing attention to material from an established international human rights system on one hand and material dealing with a local refugee camp context on the other. The study finds its entry-point primarily in the context of the international human rights treaty the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), including the work of the CEDAW Committee as a treaty body, and also the international mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its causes and consequences. Due to the presence of a variety of justice mechanisms in the camps, certain aspects of a local customary law tradition are also addressed. The existence of an unlocked legal door for women to take actions in family law matters, or in cases of gender-based violence is something not to take for granted. The hindrances could lie deep in the legal system practiced. It could be an issue of not being entrusted by the structure of the system to act in person, as woman, with a legal capacity and by own right before the law. The study underlines the importance of sharpened awareness and analysis of the presence of a complex legal context and a variety of customary law traditions in the camps. It appears from the study that for women in a refugee camp to be able to act as rights-holders and claim human rights as laid down in human rights conventions, the issue of visibility is not only a matter of training in presenting facts on the ground in front of local authorities. To be visible in addressing the problem of gender-based violence and gaps in protection of human rights in a refugee camp context is first and foremost an issue for women to be recognized the right to act in legal matters. It is an issue of having the freedom of expression and to be recognized the social and legal status to act in their own capacity in front of the local legal structures, including the local customary law context, and to address international human rights monitoring mechanisms, such as the CEDAW Committee or the Special Rapporteur.

The centrepoint of this thesis is an action research project, the Maternal Alienation Project (MAP), implemented during 2002 and 2003 in Adelaide, South Australia. Resourced by two government-funded community health services, it was established to improve organisations’ (health, welfare and legal) and systems’ responses to the newly termed ‘maternal alienation’. MAP was situated within a tradition of feminist participatory and action research. It was designed to work on three levels: practice, systems and policy-making, and research. The outcomes, processes and events of MAP at the different levels of its operation are examined in the thesis through the employment of a gendered analysis drawn mainly from materialist feminism and standpoint theories. Post-project interviews and focus groups provided further data to the fieldnotes written throughout MAP, and the project’s formal and informal documents. A recent example of a contested gendered concept, “maternal alienation” was first identified and named in 1999 as a component of gender violence (Morris 1999). It forms part of a spectrum of violence perpetrated in households, and had been identified within domestic violence and child sexual abuse. It is a term for the range of tactics used by mainly male perpetrators, predominantly the mothers’ intimate partners and the children’s fathers or step-fathers, to deliberately undermine the relationship between mothers and their children. The mother-blaming discourses and degrading constructions of mothers conveyed to children and those in the family’s orbit are strongly related to wider socio-cultural constructions of women and mothers. The thesis examines theories of gender, gendered organisations and gender violence. It develops the concept of an abusive household gender regime, characterised by perpetrators’ imposition of a coercive and abusive regime on household members, and particular patternings of gendered relations. Comparisons are made between household and organisational gender regimes, which are also viewed in relation to the local gender order at the time of MAP. It was found that services that lack an analysis of gender are likely to re-inscribe the dynamics of maternal alienation in their responses to families. Language was found to play a significant part in addressing maternal alienation, particularly in developing congruence between language and women’s and children’s “lived” experiences. The principles that were developed were founded on supporting mothers and rebuilding their relationships with children, and making visible the tactics employed by perpetrators, thereby reducing their power to coerce and increasing their accountability. The concept of maternal alienation and MAP itself were attacked by a coalition of men’s rights and Christian Right lobbyists. This compromised the operations of MAP, and of its key supporters, managers of feminist and gender-aware organisations. In many ways these attacks, played out at a macro level, reflected the techniques and dynamics of maternal alienation at a micro level. This thesis raises questions about the strategies that feminist organisations need to develop to more effectively pursue feminist agendas, and to re-invigorate a women’s movement. / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2008

The dissertation analyzes obstacles and potential in democracies, specifically Canada, Sweden, and United States, to effectively address empirically documented harms of pornography. Legislative and judicial challenges under different democratic and legal frameworks are compared. Adopting a problem-driven theoretical approach, the reality of pornography’s harms is analyzed. Evidence shows its production exploits existing inequalities among persons typically drawn from other forms of prostitution who suffer multiple disadvantages, such as extreme poverty, childhood sexual abuse, and race and gender discrimination, making survival alternatives remote. Consumption is also divided by sex. A majority of young adult men consumes pornography frequently; women rarely do, usually not unless initiated by others. After consumption, studies show many normal men become substantially more sexually aggressive and increasingly trivialize and support violence against women. Vulnerable populations—including battered, raped, or prostituted women—are most harmed as a result. The impact of attempts to address pornography’s harms on democratic rights and freedoms, specifically gender equality and speech, is explored through the case studies. Democracies are found to provide more favorable conditions for legal challenges to pornography’s harms when recognizing substantive (not formal) equality in law, and when promoting representation of perspectives and interests of groups particularly injured by pornography. State-implemented approaches such as criminal obscenity laws are found less effective. More victim-centered and survivor-initiated civil rights approaches would be more responsive and remedial—a finding with implications for other politico-legal problems, such as global warming, that disproportionately affect disadvantaged populations traditionally largely excluded from decision-making.

Power imbalances and gender-based violence (GBV) have increasingly been cited as important determinants putting women at risk of HIV infections. Studies have shown that globally one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime. The study explored working women’s perceptions of power, gender-based violence and HIV-infection risks. A qualitative, explorative study was conducted among female employees in an airline business in Namibia. Five women participated in in-depth, face-to-face interviews. The findings show that all of the participants experienced power imbalances and GBV in their intimate relationships. All of the women reported emotional or psychological abuse, whilst the majority were subjected to economic abuse, followed by physical abuse, and two alleged having been sexually abused. The study concludes with specific recommendations for the development and successful implementation of workplace policy and programmes to protect and promote women’s rights. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Behaviour Studies in HIV/AIDS)

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Sweden's gender equality work has historically been a success in many ways, but honour-based violence and oppression is not debated or identified as a Swedish social problem. What is the effect of differentiating between different social problems that fall into the same category? The present thesis aims to deepen the understanding of how men's violence against women is understood at a time when Sweden is considered to be in the forefront of gender equality policy issues. The present thesis therefore examines how honour-based violence and oppression is defined in Sweden, and how Swedish authorities work to prevent and combat the violence. By examining the image of victims of honour-based violence, on which the definition and the work are based, power dynamics within the discourse are also made visible. By using critical discourse analysis as a method and by using theoretical concepts, two government reports on honour-based violence and oppression in Sweden, and a handbook aimed at professionals in the school system are analyzed. The present thesis shows that the Swedish authorities' definition makes a distinction between honour-based violence and oppression, and men's violence against women. It is mainly explained as a problem based on culture, unlike men's violence against women, which is described as a social problem. This is made visible by Swedish authorities through a focus on foreigners in the work of preventing and combating honour-based violence. The definition and the work analyzed in the present thesis contribute to making it more difficult for victims of honour-based violence to identify themselves as "Swedish". Throughout the texts there is a stereotypical image of both victims and perpetrators of violence as being foreigners: people with dark colored hair and dark colored eyes. It is important to analyze and problematize how Swedish authorities choose to express themselves but also how they choose not to. In this way, we can critically examine how authorities contribute to the construction of a social reality and also reproduce unequal power dynamics in society.

Aim: The aim of this study was to broaden the understanding of the role of communitygroups in the prevention of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Bolivia. Therefore, this work assessed the connection between community group membership and the justification ofphysical IPV among women in Bolivia. IPV justification was chosen as an outcome, as it is strongly correlated to IPV experience. Methods: Data from a quantitative survey by the World Values Survey involving 988 womenin Bolivia was used for the analysis. To assess possible confounders, bivariate analysis was conducted. Logistic regression analysis between women’s community group membership andtheir justification of physical IPV has been performed. Results: The results indicate that 19.6% of women in Bolivia partly or always justify IPV.There has not been a significant association between community group membership and IPVjustification. The factors that were significantly associated to IPV justification in the final model were age and educational level of the women. Women aged 50 + had lower odds ofjustifying physical IPV than women aged 18-29 (OR 0.59, 95% CI: 0.35-0.97, p= <0.05). Similarly, women in the highest educational group had lower odds of justifying IPVcompared to women in the lowest educational group (OR 0.63, 95% CI: 0.41-0.98, p= <0.05). Conclusion: The association between community group membership and IPV justification inthis study was insignificant. This could be due to limitations in the study design. Futureresearch in the area should conduct studies with focus on different types of community groups singularly.

Les violences sexuelles ont de fortes répercussions sur la santé mentale des victimes. Aussi bien en temps de paix qu’en temps de guerre, les femmes payent un lourd tribut à la suite de ces violences. L’accès au traitement troubles anxiodépressifs liés à ces actes de violence est souvent limité dans les pays à faible revenu à cause de plusieurs facteurs. Le présent mémoire se propose de réfléchir sur les possibilités de traitement des troubles mentaux liés aux violences sexuelles chez les femmes en contexte de soins de santé primaires. Objectifs Cette étude a pour objectifs d’identifier les outils pour le dépistage et la prise en charge des troubles anxiodépressifs chez les femmes victimes de violences sexuelles au Congo Kinshasa et de proposer un modèle de psychothérapie à distance pour la prise en charge de ces victimes de violences sexuelles. Résultats Il existe des plateformes digitales de traitement des troubles anxiodépressifs utilisant la thérapie cognitivocomportementale ayant fait leurs preuves. Nous avons proposé un modèle de psychothérapie à distance s’intégrant dans le système de santé congolais en contexte de soins de santé primaires. Conclusions Malgré les obstacles à l’implantation des technologies digitales en Afrique, l’usage des plateformes à distance de thérapie web est une option envisageable dans la prise en charge des troubles anxiodépressifs chez les femmes victimes de violence sexuelle en RDC. L’intégration des plateformes de thérapie à distance dans les soins de santé primaires pourrait contribuer à diminuer efficacement la prévalence des troubles anxiodépressifs consécutifs aux violences sexuelles. Mots-clés : violences sexuelles, troubles anxiodépressifs, thérapies à distance, soins de santé primaires. / Sexual violence has a strong impact on the mental health of victims. In both peacetime and wartime, women pay a heavy price as a result of such violence. Access to treatment for mental disorders related to the consequences of such acts is often limited in low-income countries due to several factors. This paper aims to reflect on the possibilities of treating mental disorders linked to sexual violence in women in the context of primary health care. Objective Identify tools for the screening and management of anxiety-depressive disorders among women victims of sexual violence in Congo Kinshasa and propose a remote psychotherapy model for the care of these victims of sexual violence. The presentation of two articles, one of which is a narrative review providing an inventory of digital technologies for the treatment of anxiety-depressive disorders in Africa and the other a protocol on the acceptability of treatments for anxio-depressive disorders by digital technologies in the context of care primary health care was carried out. Results We have demonstrated the existence of digital platforms for the treatment of anxiety-depressive disorders using cognitive-behavioral therapy in the West. We have proposed a remote psychotherapy model that fits into the Congolese health system in the context of primary health care. Conclusions Despite the obstacles to a good establishment as well as the problems related to mental health in Africa, the use of remote web therapy platforms appears beneficial in the management of anxiety-depressive disorders. The integration of these platforms into primary health care could effectively help reduce the prevalence of anxiety-depressive disorders resulting from sexual violence. Keywords: Internet Based Intervention, Online, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress, depression, third countries, gender-based violence.

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