This thesis is concerned with a group of Chinese skilled migrant mothers’ experiences in relation to their children’s early childhood care and education in New Zealand. Utilising Bourdieu’s concept of capital, habitus and field, the current research addresses the complexity and ambiguity of the Chinese migrant mothers' lives whose social position transcends multiple fields. Because their children attend mainstream education, and the local educational system is different from those where the migrant mothers were brought up, the migrant mothers had to transcend different cultural fields. Chinese skilled migrants, who were middle class professionals in their native country, usually experienced social and financial downturns in New Zealand. Although skilled, the migrant mothers encountered difficulties in finding paid employment that matched their pre-migration job status. These mothers were more likely to give up paid work or reduce paid working hours on the birth of their children than were their male partners. The current study focuses on these transcendent experiences, encompassing both embeddedness and ambiguity across different fields by examining the interplay of class, gender, and ethnicity in the daily lives of these mothers. Traditional interpretations of cultural capital usually refer only to dominant social and cultural capital, whereas the current thesis expands the concept to include both dominant and non-dominant forms of social and cultural capital. The findings showed that the migrant mothers redefined and reconstructed the concept of capital. The migrant mothers’ attitude towards mainstream education was ambiguous and complex: covering the full spectrum from willing embracing, reluctantly following, selectively utilising to firmly rejecting. Simultaneously, the mothers promoted, criticised, and rejected various traditional Chinese practices and beliefs in order to maximise benefits for their children.

Perhaps, under the consciousness of today, “neoliberalism” has defined our world during the previous and current centuries more than any other socioeconomic system. But the evolution of this ideology, which initially aimed to enhance, or rather, reinvent capitalism and individual freedom, has, in essence, induced an unrecognized problem. I argue that neoliberalism is the catalyst for much of the hostility in this globalized society where tensions and poverty are casualties of individual and corporate prosperity. Because of this revelation, I argue that neoliberalism inadvertently instills violence that is both unseen and gendered. In order to formulate my argument, I introduce a historical chronology to the ideological origins of neoliberalism and how it manifested its way to its socioeconomic prominence. I then concentrate my attention to neoconservatism, most notably, Reaganism, with the year 1984, which I feel is the official christening of neoliberalism. From that year, I bring forth, three films about the crisis of farming in the 20th century, Country, Places in the Heart, and The River. Through these “farm crisis films,”which centers their themes around pastoral virtues, I argue that the violence conveyed in these films critiques neoliberalism. On the surface, these films demonstrate violence through an invisible and unrecognizable antagonist. But at the heart of this violence is a gendered angle that has much more to do with neoliberalism than with feminist debates. The gendered violence of neoliberalism is, in actuality, linked to the characters’ struggle to maintain some sense of autonomy, but this possibility is always uncertain because of their failure to recognize their inevitable interdependencies.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the usage and frequencies of amplifiers in the English language and whether there are differences in usage, collocations and in gender. The material used is the Swedish-English Corpus (SWENC), a collection of Swedish native speaking journalists writing in English, and the Corpus of American Soaps (SOAP), a collection of American soap opera scripts. The size of the two corpora is quite different and therefore the number of tokens varies largely, but by using normalization, the frequencies have been compared. The results show differences in frequency and collocations between the different corpora and the conclusion drawn from this study is that there in fact are some amplifier differences when it comes to gender and collocations.   KEYWORDS: adverbs, amplifiers, collocations, corpus-studies, gendered language, linguistics, normalization

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / 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. / South Africa

Traditional views regarding families are being challenged by new family arrangements. In this study I have explored the experiences of children growing up in same-gendered families, in order to inform our current understanding of how children experience the social constructedness of same-gendered families. I have utilised a narrative research design in order to present and re-present the children’s own meaning-making about being a child in a same-gendered family. I also inquired into the ways in which they negotiate the heteronormativity of society. In order to situate the broader contextual factors of heteronormativity I constructed a narrative tale, which was then developed throughout the thesis as part of the presentation to create a multivoiced, dialogical and reflexive text. From a holistic analysis of the created data, narratives were written which gives a unique and individual account of the experiences of each child that I had engaged with. Grounded in these narratives five concepts emerged, that formed my conceptualisation of the experiences of children growing up in same-gendered families. The main findings suggest that the experiences of children growing up in same-gendered families in this study are (1) that they experience different levels (or ways) of okayness, namely a level of okayness regarding having same-gender parents and a level of okayness to disclose or not to disclose their family structure, (2) children in same-gendered families are aware of others’ okayness or open-mindedness regarding same-gendered families, (3) children in same-gendered families at times show the need for openness in their relationships with others and (4), children in same-gendered families receive support from their parents, siblings, significant others, friends, class mates and other children also growing up in same-gendered families. Finally, I have also explored the interconnectedness between okayness, disclosure, awareness, openness and support and constructed a conceptual framework that serve as a theoretical forestructure against which the findings, interpretations and narratives can be viewed. / Thesis (PhD (Educational Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls, is one of the United Nations (UN) core objectives. However, the UN has been struggling with achieving gender balance in its own organisation, despite numerous attempts. Men have been in numerical dominance at the UN since inception, especially on senior positions. This case study takes place just months after the System-wide strategy for gender parity was launched by Secretary-General Guterres. It captures the initial reactions through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with five women working in one UN body at the UN Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Through these stories and experiences, this thesis aims to analyse the UN as a gendered organisation, focusing on organisational structure and culture. I argue that gendered processes of the organisational structure and culture preserve the male-dominance by having including effects on men and excluding effects on women. In this thesis I use gendered processes (Acker 1992), combined with post-structural policy analysis (Bacchi 2009) and complex systems theory (Ramalingam 2013), as analytical tools to show how equality is constructed and understood as an idea and in practice.

This is a study about how the 16 different municipalities in Värmland county are representing ​diversity and equality on their websites by use of content analysis. I analysed diversity and equality in photos of people, ​first in a general context on the municipality homepages and then on their pages related to business and work. I found that there was a substantial knowledge gap in this area (of analysing official messages through photos displayed in the municipal context), although much research has been done previously on commercial imagery, for instance in advertising. From my analysis I concluded that nearly all of the municipalities in Värmland county could and should improve on representing diversity in their photos, both on their homepages and on their pages related to business and work. Looking at representations of gender only, the county of Värmland as a whole is closing in on a almost equal representation of women and men. But with some municipalities sprawling representing only one gender, there is definitely room for improvement here as well.

This thesis explores how coloniality of heritage, denial of racialization and forced passing impact Black women in Sweden. In response, it investigates practices of self-care adopted to buffer and cope with racism-related stress. Often, we connect self-care to spa-days, luxurious masks, and spoiling oneself as capitalism has translated self-care into one if its buzzword for people to consume. It is characterized by the privatization of wellbeing rather than a collective endeavor, which feeds into a capitalist agenda (Michaeli, 2017). Queering self-care and adopting self-care as self-preservation in the words of Audre Lorde (2017), provides a holistic embodiment of Black feminist thought, especially for us facing intersecting oppressions. Healing circles as a method for this research provides a safe-space where experiences can be shared over the commonality of being Black women in Sweden. Moreover, separatist settings are found to hold therapeutic value as they limit the risks of being alienated when talking about a common identity. In extension, the healing circles of this research explore how representation in media and art provide possibilities of being included in a global community as a response to not having access to physical affinity groups. Concludingly, I suggest how healing circles can and should be integrated in gender and feminist studies as an intersectional methodology that further develops the possibilities of not speaking for the Other.

L’objectif général de cette thèse est de clarifier les processus participant au maintien de la division sexuée de l'orientation scolaire puis professionnelle. Dans une perspective socio développementale, ce travail de thèse examine d'une part la variation des représentations sex-typées des métiers chez les enfants et d'autre part, les représentations intergroupes de sexe puis les aspirations professionnelles de jeunes adultes. Plus précisément, nous avons mesuré la variation de la catégorisation sex-typée des métiers, auprès d’enfants, à différents âges, ainsi que leurs comportements (choix/rejet) face à des scenarii stéréotypés vs contre-stéréotypées puis leur métier préféré. Nous proposons dans un premier temps que ces différentes mesures révèlent l'existence d'une phase de « rigidité » relative aux connaissances puis aux comportements et aux préférences liés aux rôles de sexe, chez les élèves les plus jeunes (7 ans) comparativement aux plus âgé-e-s (9 et 11 ans). Deux études (Germes 1 et Germes 2) permettent de démontrer que ce « pic de rigidité » appliqué aux métiers s'observe vers 9 ans. Nous examinons dans un second temps les représentations intergroupes et les aspirations professionnelles de jeunes adultes en formation professionnelle à dominance féminine vs masculine. Nous postulons que nous devrions observer une asymétrie cognitive de sexe ainsi qu'une ligne de partage entre les sexes concernant les aspirations professionnelles. Ainsi, choisir une filière professionnelle à dominance féminine vs masculine ne remet pas en question le maintien de l'asymétrie sociale et cognitive entre le féminin et le masculin. Trois études permettent de valider cette hypothèse. Enfin, nous discutons des applications sociales de ce travail de thèse, sur la mise en œuvre de l’égalité entre les sexes. / This thesis aims to contribute to highlight mechanisms of educational and occupational sex segregation. In a socio-developmental perspective, this dissertation examines, on the one hand, the variation of sex-typed jobs representations, among primary school pupils, and on the other hand, the sex intergroup representations and then, the professional aspirations of young adults. More specifically, we analysed the variation of sex-typed jobs categorization, among children, at different ages, their behavior (choice / rejection) regarding to stereotyped vs counter-stereotyped scenarii and then, their preferred occupation. First, we propose that these various measures reveal the existence of a "rigidity phase" about knowledge, behaviors and preferences related to sex roles, among the youngest pupils (7 years) compared to the most elderly children (9 and 11 years old). Two studies (Germs 1 and Germs 2) reveal that this "rigidity phase" applied to jobs, is observed around 9 years. Secondly, we examine the intergroup representations and career aspirations among young adults, in female vs male vocational training. We expect to a cognitive gender asymmetry and an occupational sex segregation regarding to career aspirations. Thus, choosing a female vs male vocational career does not change the social and cognitive asymmetry between female and male. Three studies confirmed this postulate. Finally, we discuss the résults of this thesis work, to lead a proposal for social applications and intervention in the educational system in favor of gender equality.

This essay examines YouTube comments to videos with male and female streaming players of the online game League of Legends. The research carries out a critical discourse analysis with the aim to find gender relevant language in order to analyze ideologies about gender stereotypes among viewers of streamers. The results showed that comments concerning players’ bodies and appearance were more common in comments on female than male players. There was also a higher expectation for female players to match sexual stereotypes close to the imagery of avatars than for male players to do so. Female players received more comments with sexual implications. Both male and female players received offers of sexual acts, but violent acts were only aimed against women. Written comments defending female players showed that there are ideological power struggles between viewers in this specific genre and that some viewers defend the female players’ place in the scene of streamed gaming. / Denna studie undersöker kommentarer på YouTube-videos med spelare av ett online-spel vid namn League of Legends. Undersökningen för en kritisk diskursanalys med syfte att hitta diskurs relevant för kön för att utreda vilka ideologier om kön och sexuella stereotyper som återfinns bland konsumenter av sådana videos. Resultatet visar att kommentarer som nämner spelarens kropp och utseende är betydligt vanligare för kvinnliga än manliga spelare. Resultatet visade också att det fanns en högre förväntan att kvinnliga spelare skulle matcha sexuella stereotyper som liknar bilden av kvinnliga avatarer än att manliga spelare skulle göra det. Kvinnliga spelare fick fler kommentarer av sexuell karaktär. Både manliga och kvinnliga spelare fick erbjudanden om sexuella handlingar, men våldsamma sexuella handlingar var bara riktade mot kvinnor. Svar på kommentarer som försvarar kvinnliga spelare visar på en kraftmätning mellan de som tittar på manliga och kvinnliga spelare inom denna specifika genre och att kvinnliga spelares plats inom denna sfär försvaras av vissa tittare.