The original purpose of this study was to answer the following research question: How do women and girls navigate the HIV/AIDS situation in Mozambique? I used constructivist grounded theory, combined with the African philosophy of Ubuntu, as the approach to guide this study. I sensitized myself theoretically with the critical feminist theory of intersectionality to ensure I recognized important data during my collection process. Because grounded theory studies are developed inductively from a corpus of data, and evolve as data collection takes place, I discovered that participants’ concerns went beyond HIV/AIDS and involved a bundle of oppressions. Therefore the problem that participants faced, at a broad conceptual level, was gender oppression. As a result, my study shifted slightly in that I aimed to understand how women and girls managed their lives in relation to gender oppression, how they become socialized into a context that systematically makes room for social and political dominance over them, how they cope with the manifestations of dominance, and how, if ever, they control the situational and characteristic realities of gender oppression. Consequently, I developed a grounded theory about how women and girls manage gender oppression in Mozambique. The basic social process in this theory is called Putting On and Taking Off the Capulana, which can be understood as how women and girls become socialized into gender oppression in Mozambique and how they inch their way out. The four main categories that comprise this theory include: (a) Putting On the Capulana, (b) Turning a Blind Eye, (c) Playing the Game, and (d) Taking Off the Capulana. Second level processes under Putting On the Capulana, for example, include processes such as Adapting to Patriarchy and Living with Violence, which demonstrate how women and girls navigate a context saturated in oppressions. Third level processes, such as being robbed of sexual self-determination and accepting inferiority, explain the consequences of these processes that women and girls are forced to live through. This is a theory, grounded in the data and privileging the voices of women and girls in Mozambique, that is reflective of a constructivist feminist approach and Ubuntu philosophy. I argue that this study provides a nuanced understanding of the complexity of gender oppression in Mozambique, which can assist in developing relevant and meaningful policy. / Graduate / 0569 / 0573 / 0733 / lntomm@uvic.ca

Resilience and post trauma responses often coexist, however, for the past decades, the trauma paradigm has served as the dominant explanatory framework for human suffering in post-conflict environments, while the resilience of individuals and communities affected by mass violence has not been given equal prominence. Consequently, mental health interventions in post-conflict zones often fail to respond to local realities and are ill equipped to foster local strengths. Drawing primarily from trauma, feminist and structural violence theories, this study strengthens understanding of adult resilience to traumatic exposure by examining the resilience of Quechua women in the aftermath of the political violence in Peru (1980-2000), and their endurance of racially and gender-targeted violence. The study uses a cross sectional survey to examine the resilience and posttraumatic responses of 151 Quechua women. Participants were recruited from an urban setting and three rural villages in Ayacucho, Peru. The study examines the associations between resilience, past exposure to violence, current life stress and post-trauma related symptoms as well as the individual and community factors associated with the resilience of Quechua women. In doing so, this study makes a unique contribution by simultaneously examining posttraumatic responses and resilience in a post-conflict society, an area with a dearth of research. Results indicate that resilience was not associated with overall posttraumatic stress related symptoms, but instead higher resilience was associated with lower level of avoidance symptoms and therefore with lesser likelihood of chronic symptoms. Findings also demonstrate that enhanced resilience was associated with women’s participation in civic associations, as well as being a returnee of mass displacement. Lower resilience was instead associated with lower levels of education, absence of income generated from a formal employment and the experience of sexual violence during the conflict. These results were triangulated with qualitative findings, which show that work, family, religion, and social participation are enhancing factors of resilience. The study highlights the courage and resilience of Quechua women despite persistent experiences of everyday violence. The importance to situate trauma and resilience within historical processes of oppression and social transformation as well as other implications for social work practice and research are discussed.

Background: Men’s violence against women is a serious and extensive problem in the Indian society that affects the lives of these women entirely. The level of violence against women occur independent from all classes and ages. The estimated number of unknown cases is high and the uncertainty regarding number of victims is large. On a global perspective, the situation is even more confusing since the definitions of what makes a violent act varies substantially between countries and can range from anything between psychological, physical to sexual violence. Aim: To describe Indian nurse’s experience of caring for women exposed to gender-based violence.  Methods: A qualitative study with semi-structured interviews was conducted. The interviews were made in four different hospitals in Mumbai, India. Five separated interviews were conducted with duration between 30-45 minutes with working nurses who all have experience in caring for women exposed to violence. Data was analyzed using content analysis described by Graneheim and Lundman (2004). Results: The data analysis revealed four main categories: Nurse patient relationship, Nurses ability to detect gender based violence, a part of the nursing process, Challenges in the nursing profession and Management of emotional impact. The nurses talked about the importance of building a trustful relationship and to observe the patient in order to identify violence. Challenges as language barriers, getting the women to open up about their situation and getting emotionally affected while caring for the women were described. Family support and teambuilding were of importance in order to handle these challenges. Discussions:  It can be very difficult for women who have been exposed to violence to seek help. It is therefore important for the nurse to create a trustful relationship in order to get the woman to open up about her situation. However, studies show that nurses often get emotionally stressed from work and that many newly graduated nurses are thinking about leaving the profession. For this reason it is important that nurses get support in coping with the emotional impact and stress that comes from work. / Bakgrund: Mäns våld mot kvinnor är ett allvarligt och omfattande problem som har en stor påverkan på kvinnors liv i det indiska samhället. Nivån av våldet mot kvinnor sker oberoende från samhällsklass och ålder. Den beräknade siffran för mörkertal är hög och osäkerheten kring antalet offer är stor. Globalt sett finns stora oklarheter kring problemet då definitionen på vad som utgör en våldsam handling varierar avsevärt mellan länder och kan omfatta alltifrån psykologiskt och fysiskt till sexuellt våld. Syfte: Att beskriva indiska sjuksköterskors upplevelser av att vårda kvinnor utsatta för könsrelaterat våld. Metod: En kvalitativ studie med semi-strukturerade intervjuer utfördes. Intervjuerna gjordes på fyra olika sjukhus i Mumbai, Indien. Fem separata intervjuer som varade mellan 30–45 minuter utfördes med yrkesverksamma sjuksköterskor med erfarenhet av att vårda våldsutsatta kvinnor. Datamaterialet analyserades med hjälp av innehållsanalys beskrivet av Graneheim och Lundman (2004). Resultat: Dataanalysen resulterade i fyra huvudkategorier: Relationen mellan sjuksköterska och patient, Sjuksköterskans förmåga att upptäcka könsrelaterat våld – en del av omvårdnadsprocessen, Utmaningar i sjuksköterskeprofessionen och Hantering av känslomässig påverkan. Sjuksköterskorna beskrev vikten av att skapa en tillitsfull relation och att genom observation identifiera våld. Utmaningar som språkbarriärer, att få patienten att dela med sig av sin situation och emotionell påverkan beskrevs. För att hantera dessa utmaningar ansågs stöd från familjen och teamarbete vara viktiga aspekter. Diskussion: Det kan vara väldigt svårt för kvinnor som har blivit utsatta för våld att söka hjälp. Det är därför av stor vikt för en sjuksköterska att skapa en tillitsfull relation för att få kvinnan att dela med sig av sin situation. Forskning visar dock att sjuksköterskor ofta drabbas av emotionell stress och att många nyutexaminerade sjuksköterskor funderar på att lämna yrket. Av denna anledning är det viktigt att sjuksköterskor får stöd i att hantera den emotionella påverkan och stress som drabbar dem i det dagliga yrket.

Women infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) are at high risk of myriad conditions, especially gender-based violence (GBV). GBV can be a hindrance to treatment adherence, which is pertinent to improving the health of people living with HIV. The purpose of this longitudinal research study was to assess the effects of GBV on treatment adherence among HIV infected women, with specific focus on when the violence occurred (recent or lifetime) and the stratifying type of GBV (sexual, physical, and psychological). The health belief model (HBM) served as a theoretical groundwork. Participants were selected from secondary data, collected by the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS), and divided into 2 groups: HIV-infected women who have experienced GBV and HIV-infected women who had not. Survival analysis, specifically the Cox proportional hazards model, was used to determine whether sexual, physical, or psychological GBV and recent or lifetime GBV influenced treatment adherence along with race, income, education, and substance use. Physical GBV was found to lower adherence, and childhood physical violence had a more significant effect on adherence than recent violence. Previous drug use, smoking, and missed doses in the past 30 days were strong predictors of non-adherence. Future research should explore barriers to adherence based on the type of abuser as well as comorbidity of other conditions. Identifying and addressing issues and conditions that impact women infected with HIV can improve their quality of life while providing help for other challenges these women face throughout their lives. Treatment Adherence Among Women Infected With Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Thesis advisor: M. Brinton Lykes / During the last two decades of the 20th century the Peruvian internal armed conflict affected thousands of Quechua-speaking campesinos [peasants], including those in the community of Huancasancos. The pre-existing socioeconomic conditions strongly informed the conflict’s origins and help us to understand how its legacies have unfolded. This feminist participatory action research (PAR) dissertation was conducted with Andean women knitters from Huancasancos. Through this process the participants and I explored how organizing through a women’s knitting association could be one way to identify and face challenges in their community, including the social and emotional legacies of the armed conflict as well as ongoing structural gender and racial violence. Through participatory workshops we collectively analyzed topics related to the research focus, and the knowledge that we co-constructed was the primary dissertation data. These collective reflections were subsequently analyzed using a constructivist grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2014) and were complemented by 16 individual interviews and field notes. The major findings of this dissertation reflect the urgency that Andean women feel about confronting material poverty. Also prevalent were Andean women’s experiences of gender racialized violence, experiences that limit their capacity to face their material poverty and improve their living conditions. Finally, these findings also confirm that the concept of “organizing-as-women” has been introduced into rural Andean towns by outsiders. As ideas from outside of the community, they typically fail to incorporate ways of organizing that already exist in these communities. Similarly, transitional justice and its mechanisms are experienced as having been introduced from outside the community and as disconnected from Andean people’s lived experiences of the armed conflict and its wake. The findings of this study yield important implications for professionals interested in working in transitional justice settings, particularly those working in cultural contexts different from one’s own. The study has additional implications for those who work with Andean and other indigenous women who have experienced the violence of armed conflict and continue to experience ongoing gender and racial marginalization. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

Women infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) are at high risk of myriad conditions, especially gender-based violence (GBV). GBV can be a hindrance to treatment adherence, which is pertinent to improving the health of people living with HIV. The purpose of this longitudinal research study was to assess the effects of GBV on treatment adherence among HIV infected women, with specific focus on when the violence occurred (recent or lifetime) and the stratifying type of GBV (sexual, physical, and psychological). The health belief model (HBM) served as a theoretical groundwork. Participants were selected from secondary data, collected by the Women’s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS), and divided into 2 groups: HIV-infected women who have experienced GBV and HIV-infected women who had not. Survival analysis, specifically the Cox proportional hazards model, was used to determine whether sexual, physical, or psychological GBV and recent or lifetime GBV influenced treatment adherence along with race, income, education, and substance use. Physical GBV was found to lower adherence, and childhood physical violence had a more significant effect on adherence than recent violence. Previous drug use, smoking, and missed doses in the past 30 days were strong predictors of non-adherence. Future research should explore barriers to adherence based on the type of abuser as well as comorbidity of other conditions. Identifying and addressing issues and conditions that impact women infected with HIV can improve their quality of life while providing help for other challenges these women face throughout their lives.

Researchers and practitioners have increasingly focused on institutional responses to campus gender-based violence/harassment, yet they have paid far less attention to graduate student experiences than to undergraduate student experiences. Graduate students operate in a different context from undergraduates, and therefore specific knowledge of gender-based violence/harassment in the lives of graduate students is needed. The purpose of this exploratory, nonexperimental study was to better understand the prevalence of adult gender-based violence/harassment and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) among graduate students, as well as to understand the relationship between those experiences and participants’ mental health and academic functioning. The study’s theoretical framework combined critical adult learning theories with cognitive perspectives on adult learning, including the neurobiology of trauma. Data used in the current study were originally collected as part of an institutional campus climate survey on gender-based violence; responses from n = 684 of the randomly selected participants were used in the current study’s analyses. Participants commonly reported both adult gender-based violence/harassment experiences and ACEs. The results of two OLS regressions indicated that experiencing more types of adult gender-based violence/harassment or more types of ACEs was associated with higher levels of negative affect and lower levels of mindfulness. Among participants who experienced gender-based violence/harassment in graduate school, independent samples t-tests showed that individuals who reported at least occasional academic functioning difficulties had lower levels of mindfulness and higher levels of negative affect than those who did not experience difficulties. Overall, the findings suggest the need for trauma-informed policies and practices within graduate education and higher education in general.

This thesis examines the ways in which my artistic practice is creating a space for victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault to share, gain catharsis, and spark discussions. As a survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault, I have often felt there was no space for me to voice the many emotions that come with my experience. After creating and sharing autobiographical work about my story, many women have shared their stories of survival with me. Through these many conversations, I knew that we needed to create a space to share these stories. I have created this space through the To(get)her project. To(get)her is a collaborative performance and installation in which women from a variety of backgrounds destroy and transform wax guns with kitchen and cosmetic tools such as waffle irons, hair dryers, high-heeled shoes, curling irons, and meat tenderizers. These wax guns act as a metaphor for the violence that happens to many women on a daily basis. One in three women will encounter domestic violence and one in five women will be raped in their lifetimes in the United States. Not only are many of our bodies attacked mentally, physically and sexually, but the government also stakes claims on our bodies. With 138 representatives and 22 senators voting against the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and many of those same politicians also voting against stricter gun regulations it is apparent that these politicians do not see it as problematic that women’s bodies are so often targets. Further, in the current political climate it is imperative that people in the United States understand the importance of VAWA, and that it is a necessary bill that will be up for reauthorization in 2018. There have been six iterations of the To(get)her project. Through these performances, over 75 self-identifying women have been a part of the project, sharing their stories and igniting discussion about violence against women. When women come together, their connections are empowering, fierce, sometimes gentle and always meaningful.

This study explored the effects of a gender-based violence prevention program called Owning Up on a group of middle school students in Tampa, Florida. The majority of participants were African-American at-risk youth who voluntarily participated in the intervention. This study is novel in that it is one of the first to empirically validate curricula that addresses an array of aggressive behaviors. A mixed methods design was used to gain insight into significant changes over time, as well as treatment integrity throughout the implementation. Findings from the study found females to be more aggressive than males on all forms of aggression across time. Additionally, results suggest that minimal gains were found between pre- and post-test administrations indicating that the intervention with this particular group may have not been effective. Cultural fit, systems-level issues, and problem-solving tactics are discussed to explain the findings.

Esta dissertação se propõe a analisar as significações atribuídas ao conceito \"violência de gênero\" nas decisões de 2ª Instância do Tribunal de Justiça de São Paulo, em casos de violência doméstica e intrafamiliar contra as mulheres, no âmbito da Lei Maria da Penha. Utilizando o conceito de enquadramento de Judith Butler, propomos a existência de um enquadramento de subordinação de gênero que significa as mulheres como mais vulneráveis à violência doméstica e menos passíveis de proteção. Apresentamos as teorias de Silvia Federici e Carole Pateman para fundamentar esta afirmação. Analisamos as teorias de Alda Facio, Carol Smart Rebecca Cook e Simone Cusack para compreender o poder do Direito em institucionalizar enquadramentos e disputar a produção de significados. Com isso, analisamos a metodologia de Facio para compreender como disputar os significados dentro do Direito pensando em propor enquadramentos de emancipação feminina. Realizamos uma análise de conteúdo das decisões selecionadas e identificamos duas principais significações relacionadas à \"violência de gênero\": uma delas afirma que a esta violência se dá em relação a mulheres especificamente vulneráveis em relação a seus agressores, e a outra presume que todas as mulheres são vulneráveis à violência de gênero. Utilizando as teorias e a metodologia antes estudadas, analisamos tais significações tendo em vista sua possibilidade de produzir um enquadramento de emancipação feminina. / This dissertation proposes to analyze the meanings attributed to the concept of \"gender violence\" in the decisions of the Second Instance of the Court of Justice of São Paulo, in cases of domestic and intrafamily violence against women, under the Maria da Penha Law. Using the \"framework\" concept of Judith Butler, we propose the existence of a framework of gender subordination that means women as more vulnerable to domestic violence and less amenable to protection. We present the theories of Silvia Federici and Carole Pateman to support this statement. We analyze the theories of Alda Facio, Carol Smart Rebecca Cook and Simone Cusack to understand the power of Law in institutionalizing frameworks and disputing the production of meanings. With this, we analyze the methodology of Facio to understand how to dispute the meanings within the Law thinking of proposing frameworks of feminine emancipation. We perform a content analysis of the selected decisions and identify two main meanings related to \"gender violence\": one of them states that this violence is in relation to women specifically vulnerable to their aggressors, and the other assumes that all women are vulnerable to gender-based violence. Using the theories and methodology previously studied, we analyze these meanings in view of their possibility of producing a framework of feminine emancipation.