The aim of this study is to investigate and describe the perceptions women has of being in middle management position in male-dominated industries. Five qualitative semi-structured interviews have been conducted, and the empirical material analyzed from a phenomenographic perspective. The analyzed data resulted in four categories; Job satisfaction is strengthened by the feeling of security, the Organization task-orientation has a negative impact on the leadership, Traditional notions of masculinity and femininity requires adaptation, Good leadership requires some special features. Conclusion show that women in middle management-positions perceived to have strong support in their management role in the male-dominated industries, however, there are indications that these industries also require a certain type of leadership behavior. Women consider themselves even perceive a shift in the focus of what should be prioritized depending on which department they are in. Male-dominated departments often leads to down prioritizing relationship-oriented tasks, as the women think is an essential part of leadership

This thesis focuses on the ways in which cloth and clothwork are represented in Old French romance in order to highlight how they relate to feminine voice, expression, and identity. By focusing mainly on medieval romance from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the field of research is narrowed to a period in which vernacular literature was redefining literacy. On the basis that literacy is not confined to the ability to read and write in Latin, clothwork is presented as a medium of literate expression, that being a form of readable knowledge or communication not codified in written word or language, and in the works of such authors as Marie de France, Chrétien de Troyes, and Jean Renart, amongst others, the presentation of clothwork fits this classification. My research focuses on gendered performance and gendered objects highlighting the divide between masculinity and femininity in materiality. Beginning with a contextualised and historical understanding of feminine clothwork, authority, and gendered biases in the Middle Ages in France, the Virgin Mary's associations with clothwork leads into an exploration of how the identities of women are tied to the cloth that they work or possess. From this basis, feminine voice in clothwork comes to the forefront of discussion as seemingly inaudible women make themselves heard through the use of needles and thread, telling their stories in cloth and tapestry. Throughout this study, an exploration of mother-daughter relationships is highly significant to the comprehension of feminine education and tradition in clothwork. The chansons de toile included in Le Roman de la Rose ou de Guillaume de Dole by Jean Renart underline the dichotomy and tension between oral and written culture, tying feminine voice to feminine clothwork and exploring the representation of this in the written text. Finally, Christine de Pizan's intimation of the importance of feminine tasks and brilliance concludes this study in order to better understand the ways in which the literature of the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance departs from the medieval presentation of clothwork as a typically feminine activity underlying and encapsulating a woman's identity and expressive power.

Few women in academia occupy the leadership role of chief information officer (CIO), yet little is known about the underlying causes for gender disparity in this role. The purpose of this causal comparative study was to investigate whether gender stereotypes may impact perceptions about managerial characteristics of CIO candidates in academic settings. The theoretical foundation for this study was Schein's 'Think Manager, Think Male' paradigm and Acker's gendered organization theory. Data were acquired from 48 hiring officials from four-year public, private, and nonprofit colleges, universities, and research institutions in the Northeastern region of the United States who completed the Schein Descriptive Index. Data were analyzed using ANOVA to determine whether gender of the hiring authority was associated with the perceived managerial skills of male, female, and non-gender-specific CIO candidates. Data analysis revealed no significant difference in male and female hiring officials' ratings of male, female, and non-gender-specific CIO candidates. The findings demonstrated the theoretical construct of Schein's 'Think Manager, Think Male' paradigm are outdated and Acker's gendered organization theory persistently exists where males' dominant in organizations and roles deemed masculine. Implications for positive social change in the area of public policy are increasing awareness to hiring officials and women seeking the role of CIO in academia about other factors such as age, ethnicity, and experience that may affect candidate selection in the role of CIO.

Women in antebellum New Orleans have often been memorialized as Voudou queens, slave-torturers who continue to haunt houses, prostitutes, and light-skinned concubines to wealthy, white men. This study focuses on women’s contribution to New Orleans’s economy through the hospitality industry as female bar owners from 1830-1861. In addition, it provides an overview of the role that alcohol and beverage consumption patterns played among men and women of all races, classes, and cultural backgrounds in antebellum New Orleans. Antebellum tourists, in addition to cotton and sugar, were an important source of income for many New Orleanians before the Civil War. As bar owners, these women profited from male-dominated spaces while providing for themselves, and in some cases, their families. A study of the hospitality industry in antebellum New Orleans is essential to those studying both economic and social histories of the city during the antebellum era.

<p>The aim of this thesis was to study the strategies that Kamraterna (‘the Comrades’), an association for Stockholm’s policemen, and the Swedish Policemen’s Union employed in order to solve the issue of women in police service in the years 1957-1971. I have dealt with the attitudes they had to women in police service and the conceptions of gender that were expressed. The trade unions’ way of trying to solve the issue of women’s service and position in the organisation and Kamraterna’s actions vis-à-vis their female members have also been in focus. Finally, I have also studied the way in which the police profession was made masculine and feminine and how this could be used as a part of the strategies. </p><p>Women’s entrance into the police profession on the same terms as men created and made visible the gender structures in the police force. The male police officers saw their rights threatened, if the female labour could be judged differently and hence be promoted more rapidly. This conflict made conceptions of male and female qualities visible, and above all in Kamraterna, a struggle was started to maintain male police officers’ privileges and rights. </p><p>The unions emphasised that women would have to be employed on equal terms and that equal pay must imply equal work. Women were however considered to be best suited for social police work and work with women and children, while men were chiefly associated with the parts of the profession involving physical strength and violence. It was difficult to implement the principle of equal terms in practice, since there was a basic idea that women were different. Both Kamraterna and the Swedish Policemen’s Union used dual closure in order to solve this dilemma. Kamraterna’s usurpation was intended to influence the police commissioner and to unite the members, including the women, thereby creating a collective unity about the issue of the female police officers’ posts and work. They tried to remove the women from foot patrol work by having them relocated to other departments with civil duties. In this way they endeavoured to keep the patrol work as an exclusively male area by resorting to exclusion. When the National Police Board started experimental work in 1969 with female police officers being stationed in special units with civil duties, the Swedish Policemen’s Union supported this effort and tried to see to it that the instructions were followed. The Policemen’s Union thus employed exclusion. Excluding women from parts of the profession meant that the unions used a demarcationary strategy resulting in a gendered division of labour being created rather than the women being entirely excluded from the police profession. The patrol work was the part of the police profession that women ought not to have access to, and this was linked to masculine qualities and symbolism. Words like physical strength, strenuous service and violence were related to the patrol work. The uniforms and weapons underscored the masculine connotations of the patrol work. A hegemonic masculinity was created here, which could be used as a means for excluding female police officers. The women’s uniforms looked different and their weapons were not the same, which should have made it more difficult for them to be regarded as real police officers. </p>

This study explored adolescent girls‟ subjective experiences of being young mothers in school, focusing on their personal and interpersonal relationships within their social contexts. Participants included 15 young black mothers aged between 16 and 19 years from three high schools in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. Conducted within a feminist social constructionist framework, the study adopted an exploratory qualitative structure. Data were collected through life histories that were analysed within a thematic narrative framework. The narratives revealed that the young mothers found motherhood challenging and overly disruptive of school. Although contexts of childcare emerged as pivotal in how young mothers balanced motherhood and schoolwork, these were also presented as characterised by notions of power and control. Because of the gendered nature of care work, the women who supported the young mothers with childcare dominated the mothering spheres. The schools were also experienced as controlled and regulated by authorities in ways that constrained the young mothers‟ balancing of school and parenting. Equally constraining to a number of adolescent mothers were structural challenges, for example, parenting in spaces that lacked resources. These challenges were compounded by the immense stigma attached to adolescent motherhood. The study recommended that the Department of Education work closely with all the parties concerned in ensuring that pregnant learners benefit from the policy. It is necessary that educators are encouraged to shift attitudes so that communication with adolescent mothers is improved.

The aim of this thesis was to study the strategies that Kamraterna (‘the Comrades’), an association for Stockholm’s policemen, and the Swedish Policemen’s Union employed in order to solve the issue of women in police service in the years 1957-1971. I have dealt with the attitudes they had to women in police service and the conceptions of gender that were expressed. The trade unions’ way of trying to solve the issue of women’s service and position in the organisation and Kamraterna’s actions vis-à-vis their female members have also been in focus. Finally, I have also studied the way in which the police profession was made masculine and feminine and how this could be used as a part of the strategies. Women’s entrance into the police profession on the same terms as men created and made visible the gender structures in the police force. The male police officers saw their rights threatened, if the female labour could be judged differently and hence be promoted more rapidly. This conflict made conceptions of male and female qualities visible, and above all in Kamraterna, a struggle was started to maintain male police officers’ privileges and rights. The unions emphasised that women would have to be employed on equal terms and that equal pay must imply equal work. Women were however considered to be best suited for social police work and work with women and children, while men were chiefly associated with the parts of the profession involving physical strength and violence. It was difficult to implement the principle of equal terms in practice, since there was a basic idea that women were different. Both Kamraterna and the Swedish Policemen’s Union used dual closure in order to solve this dilemma. Kamraterna’s usurpation was intended to influence the police commissioner and to unite the members, including the women, thereby creating a collective unity about the issue of the female police officers’ posts and work. They tried to remove the women from foot patrol work by having them relocated to other departments with civil duties. In this way they endeavoured to keep the patrol work as an exclusively male area by resorting to exclusion. When the National Police Board started experimental work in 1969 with female police officers being stationed in special units with civil duties, the Swedish Policemen’s Union supported this effort and tried to see to it that the instructions were followed. The Policemen’s Union thus employed exclusion. Excluding women from parts of the profession meant that the unions used a demarcationary strategy resulting in a gendered division of labour being created rather than the women being entirely excluded from the police profession. The patrol work was the part of the police profession that women ought not to have access to, and this was linked to masculine qualities and symbolism. Words like physical strength, strenuous service and violence were related to the patrol work. The uniforms and weapons underscored the masculine connotations of the patrol work. A hegemonic masculinity was created here, which could be used as a means for excluding female police officers. The women’s uniforms looked different and their weapons were not the same, which should have made it more difficult for them to be regarded as real police officers.

As of 2011 a revolutionary ‘movement of movements’ is emerging coterminous with environmental crises and various other crises including corporate globalization. This study sheds theoretical and empirical light on the origins of the movement of movements. Employing gendered, ethnicized class analysis, this study investigates Karl Marx’s (1867) central discovery in Capital volume one, chapter 32 that corporate concentration and organization impels workers to resist and become a revolutionary class for themselves. Data is derived from investigation into the social movement La Via Campesina’s (‘the peasant way’) struggle against Monsanto Corporation in India, the European Union and Brazil during two periods of Monsanto’s concentration (1996–1998 and 2007–2011). Findings indicate that, in the process of Monsanto’s concentration, there was a leap forward in the formation and actions of the movement of movements. This study concludes that corporate concentration and global organization significantly impels the formation of the movement of movements. / Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)

This study explored adolescent girls‟ subjective experiences of being young mothers in school, focusing on their personal and interpersonal relationships within their social contexts. Participants included 15 young black mothers aged between 16 and 19 years from three high schools in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. Conducted within a feminist social constructionist framework, the study adopted an exploratory qualitative structure. Data were collected through life histories that were analysed within a thematic narrative framework. The narratives revealed that the young mothers found motherhood challenging and overly disruptive of school. Although contexts of childcare emerged as pivotal in how young mothers balanced motherhood and schoolwork, these were also presented as characterised by notions of power and control. Because of the gendered nature of care work, the women who supported the young mothers with childcare dominated the mothering spheres. The schools were also experienced as controlled and regulated by authorities in ways that constrained the young mothers‟ balancing of school and parenting. Equally constraining to a number of adolescent mothers were structural challenges, for example, parenting in spaces that lacked resources. These challenges were compounded by the immense stigma attached to adolescent motherhood. The study recommended that the Department of Education work closely with all the parties concerned in ensuring that pregnant learners benefit from the policy. It is necessary that educators are encouraged to shift attitudes so that communication with adolescent mothers is improved.

This practice-led research creates innovative menswear designs for formal white dress shirts, within boundaries of contemporary mainstream wearability. As a result of an historical analysis, a conceptual spectrum is developed to scope the possibilities of the contemporary white dress shirt, from the orthodox menswear shirt to the many variations of the women’s blouse. Within this spectrum for the white shirt, the possibilities for innovation are discussed in terms of a threshold position between the shirt and the blouse - a position that parallels that of the dandy figure who subversively confronts dress norms of the day. This position is then explored in relation to an acceptable/ ‘wearable’ aesthetic which I have labelled ‘Neo-Dandy’. White shirts from contemporary menswear designers are then examined relative to this aesthetic. In doing so, this examination highlights the white dress shirt as a garment that is ripe for experimentation. My own creative design process is then described as taking up the challenge of Neo-Dandy design innovation for the contemporary white dress shirt. On this archetypal garment, different styles and varying degrees of detailing were tested. A range of ‘concept shirts’ were produced, tested and documented, with each shirt succeeding to various degrees in achieving a Neo-Dandy aesthetic. Based on this range, a list of design principles for achieving this aesthetic are identified. The weighting is 60% for the design objects (a collection of men’s white dress shirts that explore wearability and design innovation within a Neo-Dandy aesthetic) and 40% for the design discussion (exegesis and supporting appendices).