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This dissertation explores the experiences of British Muslim women of Pakistani ethnic origin living in Slough in the south-east of England in matters related to maITiage, divorce and everyday life by looking into their private and social worlds in a diasporic space. Pakistanis in Britain have seen a shift in their identity from being cast as south Asians to Muslims. Women belonging to this immigrant group are increasingly being seen as 'Muslim' with an automatic inference of their being oppressed victims. When these women exhibit agency dispelling the victim image, it is read within the sole perspective of religiosity framing them only as 'Muslim women' and ignoring other facets of their being. Their experiences as British citizens and members of an ethnic minority community, the rootedness of their regional affiliations in Pakistan, class, age and their location at intersections of historical and geographical movements are subsumed by an essentialized understanding of their being Muslim. An investigation into the strategies of British-Pakistani Muslim women in Slough negotiating issues of space, clothing, language, education, employment, religiosity, ethnicity, identity, and most importantly, marriage and divorce calls for a reconsideration of notions of subject and agency. Drawing on feminist interpretations, the thesis recasts these women as 'strategizing-agentic' subjects who exhibit agency drawing from diverse even oppositional traditions. Ethnographic research methods are used to generate qualitative data that details the experiences of British-Pakistani Muslim women in Slough.

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The current study examines the influence of religious affiliation and practice on family patterns and labour market activity for women in Western Europe, focusing on Britain and France. While both countries have experienced a sharp decline in institutionalized forms of religion over the past decades, differences in family and fertility behaviour on the basis of religiosity seem to persist. Although previous studies documented a positive correlation between religion and both intended and actual family size, there is still uncertainty about the different routes through which religion affects fertility, how structural factors are involved in this relationship and whether and how this relationship has changed along with the process of religious decline. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring the interrelationships between religion, educational attainment, female labour force participation, union formation and fertility levels. The data come from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), which contains 18 waves from 1991 to 2008, and the French survey of the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP), which was initially conducted in 2005. By following trends in fertility differences by religious affiliation and practice across birth cohorts of women, it is found that religious differences in fertility are not only persistent across birth cohorts, there is also a growing divide between non-affiliated and religiously practicing women who maintain higher fertility levels. Religious differences in family formation patterns and completed fertility are also explored, taking into account the interaction between education and religiosity. It appears that the effect of education on fertility differs by level of religiosity, as higher education is less likely to lead to childlessness or to a smaller family size among more religious women. The findings on the relationships between family and work trajectories by level of religiosity also point to a reduced conflict between paid employment and childbearing among actively religious women, although these patterns vary by religious denomination and by country.

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Of the works of all the great British authors of the 19th century who wrote either consciously, or unconsciously, on the social ills of the time few can reach the same level of eloquence as the novel, Hard Times, by Charles Dickens. Through a close examination of this work by Dickens; the "Preston Lockout" on which Hard Times is based; along with the influence of Thomas Carlyle, this thesis will attempt to show that Dickens was an influential participant in the social reforms of Victorian England. This influence in social reform manifested itself through Dickens’ novels; his magazines Household Words and All the Year Round; and his many speeches on social injustice. While he advocated social reform, he did not advocate specific social reform legislation. Instead, it was through his enormous popularity as the foremost British author of his day that the influence was wielded for the eventual betterment of the working classes in Victorian England. And finally, by using the works of Carlyle and other contemporary authors and comparing them to Hard Times, the reader will see the influence that his peers had in the development of the socio-political philosophy of Dickens. / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English / "May 2006." / Includes bibliographic references (leaves 65-71).

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The social, revolutionary upheavals that frequently exploded on the American scene during the past ten years provided a contemporary, if not sophisticated, framework for the teaching of English history to secondary students. The insights gained from this relational approach emphasized two specific issues during the eras in which England developed into a modern nation: (1) historical events set the stage for social dissatisfaction; and, (2) parliamentary actions reflected the awareness levels that gradually seeped into the social consciousness of the English politic. In isolation, five of these societal insurrections, the Peasant Revolt of 1381, the Ket Uprising in 1549, the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685 and the Jacobin Revolt of 1715 not only focused attention on the prevailing conditions in England at five particular periods of history, but insured a sufficient span of time, 369 years, for a more accurate analysis of revolutionary activity, of changes in legal practices and of an evolution in social consciousness.

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