The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between the glass cliff phenomenon and two forms of sexism: hostile sexism (HS) and benevolent sexism (BS). Glass cliff refers to the tendency to endorse a woman candidate for a normally desirable, high-status position at the time of downfall or when things are not going well. A questionnaire package was first administered to a working people sample (N = 328) with diverse occupational backgrounds. Based on the analyses and findings, to be able to eliminate the potential confounding effect of the order of the scales in the package, the study was repeated on a student sample (N = 147). Finally, analyses were repeated after the data from both samples were combined. Results showed no evidence for 1) the presence of glass cliff and 2) the presence of a relationship between glass cliff and two forms of sexism. The results from both samples were discussed, presenting some plausible explanations for the findings. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are also presented.

This thesis argues that Western feminist theoretical models of identity can be productively complicated by the insights of postcolonial feminisms. In particular, it explores ways that Western feminist theory might more adequately sustain a focus on 'women' while keeping open a space for differences such as race and nation. Part One identifies a number of themes that emerge from recent Indian feminist scholarship on the intersections of sex, gender, race, nation and community identities. Part Two uses these insights to look critically at the work of four Western theorists, Rosi Braidotti, Judith Butler, Donna Haraway and Luce Irigaray. I argue that strategies which privilege sexual difference as primary cannot deal adequately with differences such as race and nation. But I also argue that strategies which privilege destabilizing identity can be equally constrained by the logic of dualisms which has made it so difficult for feminists to sustain a focus on women and their differences. Part Three discusses how the insights to be drawn from Indian ferninisms might be taken on board by Western ferninisms in order to develop more complex models of power, identity and the self. Throughout the thesis I draw on a Foucauldian understanding of power as productive, and on Foucault's insight that subjects and identities emerge, not through the imperatives of a single symbolic system, but through the intersection of multiple networks of discourses, material practices and institutions. I argue that, by attending to women's complex location within intersecting landscapes of gender, nation, race and other community identities, feminist models of identity can dispense with a logic of dualisms in order to redefine, and not only destabilize 'women' as the subject of/for feminism. This requires working against purity on three levels. First, it requires a model of power that gives up on the search for pure, power-free zones and works instead with the instabilities power produces as it both enables and constrains women. Second, it requires seeing 'women' as a complex, impure category that bleeds across the apparently coherent borders of identity categories such as gender, race and nation, and contesting discursive constructs of 'Woman' as the pure space of origin upon which these apparently discrete categories stand. Third, it requires the development of alternative models of the self that take these complex, impure spaces as a valid and valorised position from which to act and to speak.

Chapter one examines literature on the prevalence and effects of gender-based violence during war on women and men. Research indicates that physical, psychological and socio-cultural consequences of gender-based and sexual violence are fundamentally linked and have a differential impact on men and women's identities. Despite research demonstrating psychological symptoms of post traumatic stress as a result of these experiences, it is argued that applying a western medical model to survivors from non-western countries may not be the most comprehensive way of understanding their experiences. A model that accounts for the cultural context, gendered differences and identity impact is proposed. Very few studies reviewed addressed resilience and coping in survivors of gender based violence indicating a gap in the psychological literature. Chapter two explores African women's experiences of violence during conflict and seeks to identify its impact on mental health. It also provides an understanding of the roles of resilience, coping and identity in African refugee women. Results identified a complex relationship between resilience, access to rights and support and identity in African refugees living in the United Kingdom. It also recognised cultural and societal influences in Africa and experiences in the UK as influential factors. Results from the study support the move toward an holistic model of understanding refugee women's experiences. The study also reveals the importance of support services assisting women to utilise a resilience framework to assist rebuilding their identities in order to maintain resilience. Chapter three provides personal reflections on the research journey and process. Methodological and ethical issues related to conducting research with refugees are discussed. The paper also draws on emerging themes from a reflective journal, which highlights the challenges and positive experiences of the researcher whilst volunteering for a local refugee centre. It also makes suggestions about further considerations of these issues by Clinical Psychologists within research supervision processes.

Although child labour has been around since ever, it is only recently that the topic has captured economists' consideration. Theoretical contributions to its understanding are only starting to be published. Most researchers have concentrated their energy on empirical studies based on utility-maximising framework. This thesis would hopefully contribute to this understanding throught statistical evidences from three West African coastal countries: Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire and Benin. In this thesis, school attendance is examined in as much details as child labour. In the African context where almost all child labour occurred within family enterprises, child labour would be judged foremost by its deterrent effect on human capital-building activities. Using fully comparable datasets, we first analyse and compare our Ghanaian and Ivorian findings. These two neighbouring countries could be seen as participants in a "natural experiment" since they share similar ecological, ethnographic and geographical environments but differ on one extremely important point, their modern institutions, especially their schooling systems inherited from their respective former colonial powers. We would see how different education systems shape not only schooling behaviour, but child labour force levels and characteristics. Then, using a completely different type of household survey, we will analyse child's allocation of time in a broader framework in which we have information on hours spent on an exhausitive list of activities, including time spent on home study. These detailed data would enable us to examine to which extent child labour has a deterrent effect not only schooling participation, but also on the human capital-enhancing home study.

Access to family-friendly working time arrangements is unequally spread both within and between workplaces, leaving many working parents with difficulties in combining employment with family responsibilities. The British and German governments have started to address this problem, but have done so in different ways. Focusing on time allocation in the work/family interface and its implications for gender and employment relations, this thesis explores the differences between the British and German government strategies to improve access to family-friendly working time arrangements for working parents, and how variation can be explained. As the flexibility requirements of employers and employees often diverge and can be in conflict, the thesis further investigates to what extent the German and British policy strategies were designed to empower working parents to access the time flexibility they need. It applies an empowerment perspective to the analysis of policy choice and design and draws on the policy making literature to analyse cross-national variation. Between 1997 and 2005, the incoming centre-left New Labour and ‘Red-Green’ governments both introduced information campaigns and employment rights to improve access. The lack of economic incentives for the provision and take-up of family-friendly working time arrangements reduced the overall empowering potential of the British and German strategies. Although similar at the level of policy choice, employment rights and information campaigns varied at the level of policy design with different implications for access. The thesis concludes that family-friendly working time policy did not achieve a significant redistribution of control over working time to employees in either of the two countries. This can be in part explained by a strong employer lobby and opportunities to influence policy choice and design, but also by the ‘competitive advantage’ of childcare services over family-friendly working time policy, directing government resources to more ‘employer-friendly’ reconciliation policies.

The number of women entering professional and managerial jobs globally has increased over the past thirty years. However, only a small percentage of texts within feminist and organisational theory specifically address the lives and experiences of professional and managerial Black African women within the workplace and family life. As such, many organisational and social research questions in this area remain unanswered. This thesis examines the work and family lives of professional and managerial Black African women living and working in Johannesburg and London. It explores how such women with relatively similar colonial histories, cultures, career and professional backgrounds handle their complex social positioning. This complexity, as discussed in the thesis, is created mainly through the way in which identity characteristics such as gender, race/ethnicity and class intersect and impact on these women when working in an environment where they are in a minority and viewed in some instances as ‘space invaders’. The impact that these complex social categories, combined with the influences of culture and history, have on their identities as career women, mothers, wives, partners and daughters is also examined. As Black African women with careers in major cities on opposite sides of the globe, these emerging and transnational elite Black African women remain a rarity and hidden gem to most – making them unique both in the workplace and in communities. In London, they are not only minorities within the UK population but minorities in their role as professional and managerial women within the corporate private sector. In Johannesburg, although part of the majority population in the country, they still remain minorities within the professional and managerial circles of that country’s corporate private sector. The method I use to gather data is the Life History approach which allows me, the researcher, to reveal my participants’ individual views and interpretation of their own work and family life experiences. I do this by conducting semi-structured interviews as a means of collecting their ‘life stories’. These stories told by Black African professional and managerial women reflect their views of reality. Through a form of Life History analysis, this mode of enquiry further reveals the importance of acknowledging difference when implementing government and organisational policies that combat barriers brought about by corporate practices and cultural attitudes within the workplace and society as a whole.

What is 'orgasmic slavery". This study interrogates the meaning of the term by analysing the racialised sexual exploitation of Black women. I examine the historical changes, differences, under-currents and complexities of the social construction of Black sexuality from the inferior position of African female slaves to the conditions of Black women in contemporary Britain. Refuting the premise that Black women are primarily sexual beings, this thesis examines the origins and consequences of this assumption. Through a literature review, the dominant British portrayal of both Black women and Black men in terms of pathological and rampant sexualities is evident. My work assesses how the British and American film industries contribute to such misconceptions. Utilising the research method of participant observation, the perceptions of men and women from different racial backgrounds about images of Black sexuality are addressed. A questionnaire survey queried opinions about the sexual proclivity and relationships of Blacks, whites, 'mixed race' and gays. Building upon this data, a pilot study that was based on images of Black sexuality and their influence upon identity and experiences, provided more information. Central to this debate were semi-structured interviews on the issues of images, identity and relationships as perceived to be related to Black female sexuality.

A qualitative investigation was conducted to explore close relatives’ experiences of symptom recognition and help-seeking for dementia. Nine participants took part in a one-to-one interview. The interviews were semi-structured and aimed to address the following topics: symptom recognition and the process of seeking information and support. Interview transcripts were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Three superordinate themes emerged from the analysis: ‘Developing the courage to act’, ‘Naming the elephant in the room’ and ‘Repositioning’. Findings highlighted how participants shifted from a position of having unspoken fears about their relatives’ symptoms to a point where they were able to address these fears and help their family member to seek help. Participants were engaged in developing representations of dementia, in line with research on the common sense model of illness representations (CSM). The findings highlighted potential areas of improvement for dementia services in the UK, including the provision of greater support for close relatives (e.g. psychological assessment and intervention). Further research, on a larger scale, is needed to determine whether the CSM provides a useful framework for understanding help-seeking for dementia.

Background: Epidemiological studies have shown that social and emotional support can protect against premature mortality and prevent illness. The longterm consequences of poor parent-child relationships on adult mental health have been a major focus of research. Much less attention has been directed towards the effects on physical health outcomes. Objective: Based on the life course model, this thesis assessed the extent to which child-parent relationships influence physical health in later life. Methods: The dissertation was based on a systematic review of longitudinal studies linking parent-child relationships and physical health in adulthood, and on secondary data-analyses of the Christchurch Health and Development Study. The role played by different confounders and mediators was discussed. The analyses were based on multivariate regression methods. Results: Most of the systematic review studies showed a positive association between poor parenting and health in later life. Supportive of the association were studies on general health relying on self-reports. Non-supportive were studies looking at mortality and rare diseases and relying on official records. Some of the studies presented their findings in relation to gender, girls being more likely to somatise in adolescence or in adulthood. An association was found for the Christchurch Health and Development Study between the quality of parent-child relationship and hospital admission or the number of doctor visits. These effects were more pronounced in females. Overall, adjusting for different confounders and mediators added some information, but did not replace the effect of the exposure variables on the outcomes. Conclusion: More research is required in understanding how the early behavioural, environmental and social factors work together in the development of long term health outcomes. Given the growing evidence of the long term effects of poor parent-child relationships, greater efforts are clearly needed in developing effective strategies for prevention and intervention.

Using a Bourdieuian approach, the main argument of this thesis is that men and women develop an embodied racing habitus that is shaped by their access to economic, social, cultural and physical capitals. This determines how much power, influence and recognition they enjoy, and positions them differently within the class and gender hierarchy of the racing field. The thesis begins with a historical and contemporary analysis of the racing field and apprenticeships as a model of learning, showing how power was held in the hands of the Jockey Club, once the sole ruling body of racing, from the mid 18th century. It governed the racing field through class privilege and through its members having access to certain forms of economic, social and cultural capital. The entry of women into the racing field began in the 1960s when women with suitable economic and cultural capital gained the right to train as racehorse trainers. Working-class men were already part of the employment hierarchy, as indentured apprentices, and it was due, in part, to a shortage of small 'boys' that working-class women were taken on as stable 'lads' or 'girls'. The equalities legislation of the 1970s meant women could be members of racing's workforce as well as gaining the right to hold jockey's licences. The process of learning to become a stable 'lad' takes place 'on the job', through practice; this means that women become accepted as workers as long as they act 'like one of the lads' and embody a certain form of masculinity. Indentured apprenticeship was abolished in 1976 and replaced by a system of modern apprenticeship. This has gone along with a change in the significance of physical capital, an increase in the division of labour, and an increased reliance on migrant workers.