In considering how women navigate the complexity and gendered aspects of the artisanal mining industry, this study seeks to unpack women's labour at step one of the global supply chain of coltan, in the post-conflict context of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Female miners are largely excluded from mine work by blurry regulatory frameworks, gendered social norms and financial disparities, however they manage to remain active labourers in the artisanal mining industry. Within a broader socio-political context of poverty, political instability and rural livelihoods, women maintain access to mine work through strategies, often premised on a gendered solidarity, such as organizing into collectives, engaging in small group collaborations and employing creative ruses to maintain the secrecy of their labour. This thesis seeks to analyze women's exclusions from mine work and the subsequent strategies they employ to circumvent those exclusions and maintain work in the mines. Based on three months of ethnographic fieldwork at artisanal coltan mine sites in Masisi Territory in the province of North Kivu, this study employs ethnographic observations, focus group and interview methodologies.

It is well-documented that adolescents tend to befriend those who share demographic characteristics like gender. Less clear is how culture connects to these homogeneous relationships. This study examines the effects of gender-typed behavior on adolescent friendships at dyadic and school levels. The friendship network data are drawn from the well-known wave 1 ‘saturation school’ component of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. I show that adolescents tend to befriend those who share similar gender-typed behavior, above and beyond simple demographic affiliation. Also, when students in particular schools exhibit more heterogeneous gender-typed behavior, the expression of gender-typed behavior homophily within schools becomes stronger, whereas gender homophily declines. The results support previous research showing cultural dispositions shape network patterns, but also provides evidence of contextual network formation processes.

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The concept of “family” has rapidly changed over the past few years. The prevalence of more and more children raised in same-gendered families has brought to mind the question of disclosure. This qualitative case study explored the disclosure practices of adolescents raised in same-gendered families in an attempt to understand how adolescents negotiate their unique family structure throughout their daily lives. The data in this study was analysed using thematic content analysis. It was found that both positive and negative experiences influence the adolescents raised in samegendered families decision to disclose and that disclosure of family structure usually takes place after careful negotiation based on the grounds of either a close relationship, common ground or a perceived urgency. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

The study explores the reproductive decision-making of eight self-identified lesbian women in same-gendered relationships as it is interested in the ways in which they construct their reproductive decisions, particularly as it relates to their gender. Four open-ended, semi-structured, joint interviews were conducted with couples who have already made the decision to parent, thereby offering retrospective accounts. Interview transcriptions were analysed by employing thematic analysis underpinned by principles of Foucauldian discourse analysis and rooted in a feminist poststructuralist theory. Three discursive themes are identified in participants' accounts namely: 1) the discourse of heterosexual gender roles; 2) the discourse of heteronormative parenting; and 3) the counter-discourse of parental responsibility and the responsible parent. In a context where lesbian mothers' reproductive decisions are often called into question and where lesbian mothers' parental roles are constructed according to gender binaries, the study concludes that in exercising their limited agency within restrictive heteronormative discourse, participants made their reproductive decisions based on their ability to care for a child in terms of pragmatic factors, their capacity to meet the child's emotional needs and to protect them from potential "othering" by segments of the society. The findings of this study carry implications for addressing the marginalisation and stigmatisation of lesbian women who wish to become parents and raise their children without having to justify their decisions purely because of their sexual identity. / Mini Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Psychology / MA / Unrestricted

Veganism (or following a PBD) is scientifically proven to be one of the possible answers to the environmental, ethical and health issues our society is currently facing. The documentary film What the Health advocates this claim and presents the tremendous impacts, meat and dairy production and consumption, have on our environment, our personal health and for the people living on our planet. The documentary’s attempt of persuading people to adopt a PBD remained unanswered and was the chosen case-study for this research on audience reception and media effects. The purpose of this research is to provide new empirical data on how the documentary film What the Health changes females’ and males’ perception of a PBD. Using a qualitative method of in-depth interviews, this study aimed to understand how the documentary film What the Health changes females’ and males’ perception of a PBD in times of the 21st century Vegan social movement. Using theoretical insights from the following theories: Framing theory, schema theory, social representation theory, social cognition theory and the concept of hegemonic masculinity, this study aimed to assess whether the documentary film What the Health contributed to perception changes among its audience. And whether gender differences were prominent.The findings of this study indicated perception changes of a PBD among its audience. Preconceptions of Veganism as a social trend or for ethical justifications were changed to understanding people’s individual motivations for attaining such a diet. Overall, no significant gender differences were detected. The social determinant of perceived restrictions within a social context were the most dominant factors of not transitioning to a PBD. Meat is undoubtedly an inherent and substantial part of people’s lives and restricting oneself from it is not perceived to be the answer to environmental, personal health and ethical issues. However, the audience was observed to admire Vegans for their discipline and strength.This study indicated that the documentary film What the Health might have an effect on its audience in the long term, which is proposed as future research respectively.

This essay analyses the representation of trauma and gendered violence in Colleen Hoover’s novel It Ends With Us. To do this, trauma theory and the notion of gendered violence are applied in the analysis, as well as Dorrit Cohn’s ideas of diary novels, dissonant narrator and consonant narrator. The findings show that the protagonist, Lily’s, way of coping with her trauma and gendered violence during her teenage years, was to keep a diary, effectively using scriptotherapy. When that was not enough, however, she actively suppressed her problems. The essay also shows that Cohn’s ideas of dissonant and consonant narrator play a part in how Lily’s development is shown throughout the novel.

Five Reform Acts passed over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries gradually increased the size of the British electorate. Negotiations over lowering property, rent, and lodging restrictions led to new Acts that slowly increased the number of Britons deemed worthy to vote. This dissertation examines the extent class and gender were relevant to those negotiations of British citizenship over the course of those five Acts. The project scrutinizes the language used in Parliamentary debates, political pamphlets, and political correspondence to reconstruct the constantly-changing conceptualization of the ideal citizen’s gendered identity in Britain and Europe. This project illuminates the rhetorical battles between the political elite and those who desired admittance to the franchise. The language surrounding those battles highlights the contradictory reasons why certain male and female populations were denied admittance. By examining all these Acts together, this project provides new insight into Parliamentary reform as a political event where the unfixed ideas of Victorian femininity and masculinity can be viewed and assessed in the context of political power.

In this study I aim to examine how flexible work conditions affect gendered norms in the workplace and in the family constellations, and through this knowledge contribute to how organizations can increase their awareness about gendered norms. The theoretical framwork is based off West and Zimmermans theory Doing Gender, with compliments from Joan Acker andthe theory of inequality regimes. The study is based of 7 semi-structured interviews with women who have flexible working conditions evolving their ability to control time, space and implimentation in thei work.  The results show that flexible work conditions can have a catalyzing effect on gendered practices in organizations. This is presented by the way the women in this study chooses to use the time they "save" buy flexible working conditions, which is mainly used for family affairs and childcare. Also by the way women express guilt towards family and work when they can´t meet the avaliability demands from the private sphere and the work sphere. Although the women in this study does not experience external expectations to take more responsibility around the home and children, it is still expressed buy them as "natural" since they have more time. This shows that the doing of gender is present in these actions. It is not based on rational divisions between men and women but rather the socially constructed idea of women being more suited for domestic work. Organizations contribute to the doing of gender by being unaware of how these norms can be reproduced through flexible working conditions. Organizations keep feeding the norm of the ideal worker which functions as a gendered process. It´s important for organizations to increase their awareness of this phenomenon in order to create structures which will promote flexible working conditions as something for everyone and not only women. I believe this study can contribute to that awareness and help organizations to start reflecting on the doing of gender in their workplace.

This thesis studies Italian journalists' perceptions and experiences of the use of gendered language in the representation of women in the Italian press. Previous research has shown that Italian media misrepresent women by producing gender stereotypes. This is, to a certain extent, related to language: Italian is considered to be a gender language, meaning that every noun, pronoun and adjective have a gender. The research questions that guide this study are: what are the Italian journalists' perceptions and experiences of gender in the articles they write?  What is the place and role of language in the journalists' evaluation of gender equality in news? What are the reasons behind the journalists' use of language when they write a piece about a woman? Using an ethnographic approach, 9 semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed following the journalistic culture perspective proposed by Hanitzsch (2007). The results show that there are many different approaches to gender, from the one suggesting to neglect gender as a category at all in the news production, to the one that sees gender as a category that is newsworthy as such and a starting point for an article. Also the role of language is interpreted in very different ways. On one side there is the idea that, compared to the gender gap being a broader social problem, language is secondary; on the other, language is considered to be able to drive a change in the society. Finally, also the reasons behind the journalists' use of language are diverse: the ethical codes do not apply to all the journalists or reveal a lack of guidelines that oblige journalists to rely on their morality, gender sensitivity, or interest to the topic of gender equality; or on the newspaper's own guidelines. The readers' assumed expectations, as well as the kind of journalism (with its requests in terms of time and space) influence the use of language with regard to gender equality. The results show also that, beside some context-dependent elements, which make Italy a specific case, there are some universal considerations that can be made. In particular, basing on these universal elements, the addition of a linguistic dimension to journalistic cultures (Hanitzsch, 2007) is suggested. In this dimension, it will be proposed to include two levels: the influence of language on social reality and the influence of journalism on language.