Within the context of national levels of poverty, structural adjustment policies and the AIDS epidemic, this thesis analyses the experiences of children and young people in difficult circumstances in Tanzania from a gender perspective. Using the social construction of 'childhood' as the theoretical framework, the study is based on participatory, child-focused ethnographic research, which was conducted in Arusha, northern Tanzania 2000-2002. Following an overview of the global concept of childhood, the phenomenon of street children, and concepts of childhood in Tanzania, I provide a reflexive account of the research process. Based on the findings, I explore children's and adults' perceptions of the socio-cultural concept of childhood, children's different gendered experiences, and attitudes towards education. The study then examines street children's experiences of 'home' and their narratives of why they left their immediate household. In the light of the experiences of some street children who had been orphaned by AIDS and whose families and communities were unable to support them, I analyse the experiences of children from HIV / AIDS-affected households, and young people's age-related and gendered vulnerabilities to HIV infection. The contradictions and contrasts of life on the street are explored, based on children's experiences, with gender identified as a key differential. I examine the survival strategies and coping mechanisms, both materially and emotionally, that children develop in order to survive independently in the street. Using Moser's framework of 'practical' and 'strategic' needs and interests (1989) I explore ways of responding to the experiences of children and young people. Children's participation in decision-making at the local, regional, national and international levels is analysed, and I draw up a series of policy recommendations which aim to meet children's practical and strategic needs. In the light of the previous chapters, I re-evaluate the concept of street children and offer some ways forward.

No description available.

Since the end of the Second World War, race relations and immigration have become major subjects of debate in the political, social and cultural life of Britain. The presence of immigrants from Britain's former colonies and the subsequent arrival of economic migrants and asylum seekers have triggered discussion of many issues, not least those surrounding difference, assimilation, diversity and identity (Gilroy 1993). It is these particular issues (and the tensions that they engender), often articulated through the depiction of mother-daughter relationships, which are dramatized in the work of contemporary Black British female playwrights such as Winsome Pinnock, Trish Cooke, Paulette Randall, Maya Chowdry, J. B. Rose, Tanika Gupta, Rukhsana Ahmad, Jackie Kay, Grace Dayley, Jacqueline Rudet, Maria Oshodi and Zindika2. My thesis is thus about the construction of mother-daughter relationships as presented in the work of these playwrights. It places particular emphasis on how mothers and daughters negotiate their relationships, positions and identities in the context of their respective experiences as first- and second- generation female migrants in Britain.

This thesis centres on the perceptions of social work professionals involved in incest intervention in Taiwan. It is based on 39 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with respondents from three categories: social workers, social work supervisors and counsellors/therapists, from different regions of Taiwan, working in Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Centres. The gender distribution of the interviewees, 35 women and 4 men, reflects the numerical dominance of women in social work. This study shows that the majority of the respondents were assigned child protection work without consultation, reflecting the hierarchical decision-making process in Taiwanese social work, overriding staff autonomy, personal preferences and training background. Child protection work creates high pressure and necessitates joint decision making involving all related disciplines. Almost every worker interviewed felt a high level of stress and a need for support in dealing with incest/child sexual cases, perhaps due to insufficient knowledge and inadequate training. The shorter the time frame they face, the more mistakes they may make. I utilized two theoretical viewpoints, including family systems theory associated with pathological behaviours and feminist theory, to elucidate how interactions between gender and power contribute to gender inequality in intervention outcomes. My findings suggest that the current child protection procedure in Taiwan raises significant concerns. These include time-constraints in intervention and psychotherapy, the sequencing of the procedure, and lack of gender-awareness. It seems the hierarchical organisational structure directly and indirectly encourages social workers to be overreliant on their supervisors in decision-making. The relationship between the supervisor and supervisee is often inadequate, leading to many supervisees feeling undermined and discouraged from growing personally in confidence. My study found that no one particular intervention fits all cases and the therapeutic approach chosen will depend on the circumstances of the case, based on the therapist's training background, individual personality variations and experience. However, practitioners identified 'sensitivity: 'accompaniment' and 'empowerment' as effective and important. Radical changes in attitude, an incorporation of a feminist approach, a gender understanding work culture and a clear resolve to make positive changes in the fields of education, practice and reforms in legal and hierarchical structures may resolve some of the difficulties the present system of social work practice in incest faces.

Gender inequality is deeply entrenched in society. This continues to restrict women's opportunities in life and has also been widely seen as an obstacle to economic development. Wage employment is seen as important mechanism for empowering women, and also conferring benefits on the family and society as a whole. This thesis examines patterns of inequality in the food-processing and the textiles and garment industries in Ghana, the structural factors that are responsible for producing gender inequality and their impacts on the socio-economic advancement of women. Within the cross-sectoral case study, a comparative gender and social relation analysis was undertaken to explore the factors that determined the allocation of economic resources and nature of power relations within the labour market and the household. The study of occupational segregation, access to training, career advancement opportunities, decision-making authority and responsibilities, earnings and domestic responsibilities led to the conclusion that, comparatively, the majority of women do not have equal opportunities in the "feminised" food processing and textiles industries in relation to men. With some inter-sectoral variations, the disparity between men and women is also widened as a result of the influence of the size of firm. The processes are complex because they are intertwined with wider socio-demographic, cultural, economic, and legal elements. However, within this complex set of factors, employers' preference and taste for discrimination is arguments concerned with the issue most central to gender inequality in these industries. These preferences are based on the economic rationality of profit maximisation and production efficiency, which is in turn intertwined with the cultural stereotypes concerning men and women's abilities and their attitudes to work. Recommendations to address the structural inequalities which exist between men and women in these industries and in Ghanaian society as a whole are set out.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-06, Section: A, page: 2226. Adviser: Pat Gill. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-177) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

This thesis looks at the representations of four contemporary Portuguese women writers, Helia Coreia, Lidia Jorge, Teolinda Gersao and Ines Pedrosa in literary histories, press critical commentaries and digital media. This study analyses how far a gendered critical view is present inch of the three different media and whether any alternative contextualisation exists that allows for a non-gendered, universal critical representation of female authorship. The process of canonisation within the Portuguese cultural field is studied here, following the fundamental changes in the critical landscape over the past thirty years, especially the new possibilities offered in electronic media. This thesis explores the juxtaposition between an elitist institutionalism, which can be found in academic, press and online criticism, and the presence of alternative critical voices in cultural criticism, that would adequately represent female authorship and open up the critical debate, so the traditional constructions of cultural value, such as a division into popular and quality literature, can be re-evaluated.

<p> This study is aimed at exploring a better understanding of gender-biased context in digital games. Based upon a female analysis of <i>Tomb Raider </i> series, this study attempts to compare the appearance and figure of female characters in video games by researching the representative game. A focus group with a group of women from different countries has been used to better understand how women feel and react to female images in the video game <i>Tomb Raider</i> and figure out how female protagonist Lara Croft changed in the video game. The thesis attempts to offer a better understanding of biased context in video games and to compare differences in dressed figures of female characters through the <i>Tomb Raider</i> series. From this, the sexualization of female figures and their images of power has positively changed during last two decades. Ultimately, the connotation of this thesis is to discuss the possibilities of negative effects on audiences in digital games, typically for the young generation.</p><p>

This thesis studies the intersection of crafts and feminism in the Swedish context by focusing on two events organized in Stockholm in the spring of 2018: a feminist market and a #MeToo tagging event. The thesis focuses on the relationship between crafts and contemporary feminism in the Swedish context, in particular how feminism is expressed and done through crafts as well as what kind of feminism is expressed and whom it can be said to represent. Moreover, the thesis explores possible connections between Swedish feminist crafting and activism. Based on field notes from the two events as well as recorded material from six interviews with seven women from the two events, this thesis suggests that there exists a feminist crafts movement in the Swedish context. Moreover, this thesis shows that there are many ways in which crafts may be feminist, such as when crafts are used to convey explicit feminist statements, when they are placed in public or when they empower women. The kind of feminism expressed through crafts has women as its subject, though without specifying if this includes all women or only certain kinds of women. As demonstrated by the visitors and exhibitors at the feminist market and the tagging event, this feminism seems to mainly attract white, middle-class women and feminists. The question of whether feminist crafts in general, and these two events in particular, are connected to activism cannot be easily determined and it is thus argued that what is of importance is not if these two events can be labeled as activist, but rather if they can be understood as events that make a difference. As a result, this thesis suggests that feminist crafts reflect a broader Swedish feminist discourse that, despite acknowledging the importance of intersectionality, fails to analyze how sex/gender intersect with ethnicity and race. A critical discussion is thus needed within the feminist crafting community where the issue of homogeneity within the community is prioritized. More specifically, this thesis suggests that the community ask itself how it can change, and what actions could be taken in order to make feminist crafts more attractive to a wider group of feminists. Likewise, they should also reflect on the underlying factors as to why this community is homogenous and why it fails to attract a more diverse crowd of feminists. / Denna studie undersöker intersektionen mellan hantverk och feminism i den svenska kontexten genom att fokusera på två evenemang som organiserades i Stockholm under våren 2018: en feministisk marknad och en #MeToo taggning. Uppsatsen fokuserar på relationen mellan hantverk och samtida feminism i den svenska kontexten, framförallt i form av hur feminism uttrycks och görs genom hantverk liksom vilken typ av feminism som uttrycks och vem den kan sägas representera. Dessutom utforskar uppsatsen möjliga kopplingar mellan svenskt feministiskt hantverkande och aktivism. Baserat på fältanteckningar från de två eventen liksom inspelat material från sex intervjuer med sju kvinnor från de två evenemangen så föreslår denna uppsats att det existerar en feministisk hantverksrörelse i den svenska kontexten. Dessutom visar uppsatsen att hantverk kan vara feministiskt på många olika sätt, så som när hantverk används för att förmedla explicita feministiska åsikter, när de tar plats i offentligheten eller när de stärker kvinnor. Den typ av feminism som uttrycks genom hantverk har kvinnor som sitt subjekt, dock utan att specificera om detta inkluderar alla kvinnor eller endast vissa grupper av kvinnor. Besökarna och utställarna vid den feministiska marknaden och taggningen visar att denna typ av feminism främst attraherar vita medelklasskvinnor och -feminister. Frågan om huruvida feministiskt hantverkande i allmänhet, och dessa två evenemang i synnerhet, är kopplade till aktivism kan inte besvaras enkelt och därför argumenterar uppsatsen för att det är viktigare att fokusera på om dessa två evenemang kan sägas göra skillnad snarare än om de kan tillskrivas en form av aktivistetikett. Som sitt resultat så föreslår denna uppsats att feministiskt hantverkande reflekterar en bredare svensk feministisk diskurs som misslyckas med att analysera hur kön/genus är sammanflätat med etnicitet och ras, trots att den erkänner vikten av intersektionellt tänkande. En kritisk diskussion inom den feministiska hantverksrörelsen är därför nödvändig, där frågan om rörelsens homogenitet bör prioriteras. Mer specifikt så föreslår denna uppsats att rörelsen bör fråga sig själv hur den kan förändras och vilka åtgärder som kan tas för att göra feministiskt hantverkande attraktivt för en bredare grupp av feminister. På samma sätt bör den feministiska hantverksrörelsen också reflektera kring underliggande faktorer till varför den egna rörelsen är homogen och varför den misslyckas med att attrahera en mer mångfaldig grupp av feminister.

Sammanfattning Syfte och frågeställningar Studiens syfte har varit att undersöka läroböcker i ämnet idrott och hälsa för grund- och gymnasieskolan ur ett genusperspektiv. Frågeställningarna är: ● Hur framställs pojkar och flickor i läroböcker i idrott och hälsa? ● Finns det motsätningar mellan läobökerna och läoplanens vädegrund? Metod Studien är en kvantitativ bildanalys samt en kvalitativ textanalys där bilder och texter i läroböcker utgör det empiriska materialet vilket har bearbetats utifrån Hirdmans genusteori. Urvalet av läroböcker kom att omfatta tre stycken, där en var för grundskolan årskurs 7-9 och två för gymnasiet, Idrott 1 &amp; 2. Läroböckerna valdes efter att det gjorts en sökning i Adlibris databas på idrott och hälsa, där tre böcker av intresse dök upp. Resultat Resultatet visar att det finns en ojämn fördelning mellan de båda könen, där pojkar är mer representerade än flickor. Det finns normer som fortfarande finns kvar från förr där skolans värdegrund hamnar i skymundan och där jämlikhetskravet inte nås. Bildanalysen visar detta bland annat genom att det endast var flickor som var klädda i badkläder på bild. Pojkar och flickor framställs ofta i stereotypa könsroller och således framställs de på olika sätt, exempelvis som att flickor inte tycker om tävlingsmomentet i idrotter, medan detta i pojkarnas fall driver dem till att idrotta. I delar av läroböckerna är det dock könsneutralt vilket är framträdande i textanalysen. Slutsats I läroböckerna råder det inte jämställdhet mellan flickor och pojkar, då pojkarna är överrepresenterade. Således finns där en motsättning mellan läroböckernas utformning och skolans värdegrund som den kommer i uttyck i läroplanerna för grund- och gymnasieskolan. Textanalysen visar att det i böckerna finns en dikotomi mellan könen, och att gamla föreställningar om vad som anses vara manligt och kvinnligt fortfarande råder. Böckerna visar även på att idrottens historia i stor utsträckning lever kvar, hur idrotten har styrts av män och varit skapad för män, och att kvinnorna kommit i andra hand.