Government social interventions hold considerable power over what choices and opportunities impoverished households have available to escape the oppressive socioeconomic trappings of poverty. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service's Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) is one such program. While there are many positive mission statements of social governance, this study focused on the regressive potential for oppressive institutional policies and practices. Theoretical frameworks guiding the study were Pierce's 1979 model of oppression and Crenshaw's 1989 intersectionality theory. The quantitative design's hypothesis and research question focused on whether significant relationships exist between LIHTC project placement and highest concentrations of six commonly recognized socioeconomically oppressive conditions, each separately defined by U.S. Census demographics and American Housing Survey (AHS) structured-interview data. Mann-Whitney U tests showed non-significant differences between the two source dataset's separate identification of socioeconomically oppressive conditions across Minnesota's Twin City metropolitan area. Spearman's rho and Cohen's standard show similarly significant results from both pairings of AHS and Census data with the LIHTC project database. Results support conclusions that LIHTC project placement most often maintains external socioeconomic oppressors in the lives of program residents. Implications for positive social change hinge on the realization that social interventions may not be entirely anti-oppressive. In such cases, these conclusions should lead policymakers to change or replace programs so that interventions are not an accessory to the subjugation of service users to oppressive circumstances.

This    qualitative research investigates the social positions of Peruvian female migrants in the Catalan labour market in Spain. It questions how social categories interactin order to determine the social positions of individuals, a nd how the positions can be related to a global  world structure.   Four unstructured life story interviews with  Peruvian women resident in  Catalonia were realized in December 2014. The interviews and two previously made studies have then been reviewed by a narrative analysis. The research formed a theoretical framework of intersectionality interpreted by Nina Yuval-Davis, and a globalization and female migration theory by Saskia Sassen.  The analysis with the  implementation of theories showed that nationality has a particularly strong influence in the intersection of social categories, though one must understand how all the identifications lay imbedded in each other in order to determine the social position of each individual. It was  also concluded that an intersection of the identifications of the individuals interacts with global structures in order to determine the  social positions of the study participants in the Catalan labour market.The city of Barcelona  could through the lives of the four Peruvian females be seen as an economic centre that demands cheap labour by migrants, and where the social positions in the labour market can show a division of core and peripheral countries.

At the height of their popularity in the 1990s, there were 140 feminist bookstores in the US and Canada (Onosaka 2006). Today, in 2017, there are thirteen left. Feminist bookstores began opening in the 1970s promoting ideas about lesbian separatism, woman only spaces, and nurturing a feminist community. Although many functioned as for-profit stores, many also operated community centers and non-profit organizations. Feminist bookstores provide an excellent site for scholars view decades of social movement organizing merging theory, practice, activism, and academics. As a social movement organization, feminist bookstores as are the quintessential node of academia and activism. Of the thirteen bookstores left, only two are located in the US South: Charis Books and More is in Atlanta, GA and Iris Books is in Gainesville, FL. During my yearlong ethnography, I gathered archival data, field notes and ethnographic data, interview data, and oral histories This is the first comprehensive ethnography of feminist bookstores which looks at the ways feminist theories are used by social movement organizations to create, maintain, and alter collective identities and to reach feminist movement goals. Through my study of these two bookstore owners, workers, and boards, I illuminate the social organization of feminist social movement organizations in the South. In chapter two, I show how the bookstores see the existence of a tangible space to allow for contestation about collective identities and “home work” as a successful social movement outcome. In chapter three, I find that participants believe that southern identity, which is steeped in understands of the past, have created a need for the bookstore’s longevities and for progressive communities. In chapter four, I demonstrate that due to the unique positioning of the histories of racism and slavery in the South, these feminist organizations believe a central problem of feminism is to actively name and confront racism within both the South and feminism. In the fifth chapter, using two gender disputes a decade a part, I argue that the narrative of gender progress understood as inclusion of queer issues as well as transgender and gender variant identities touted by many scholars (Whittier 1995; Jagose 1996; Armstrong and Crage 2006) inaccurately represents the intricacies within practices of feminism. When it comes to feminist identities, politics, and civil rights discourses, our current political climate has illustrated that there is not room for linear narratives of progress—within movements or individual identities. Focusing on the combination of histories and demographics, with an emphasis on race and queerness, this project analyzes how the US South provides a complex space to understand the challenges of intersectional and white feminist communities and social movements.

This thesis examines selections of Appalachian women’s personal narrative as well as Affrilachian Poetry written by Kentuckians Bianca Spriggs and Nikki Finney. This project’s goal lies in resisting oppression and erasure of Appalachian culture’s heterogeneity. Contrary to constructions of Appalachians as lazy, complacent, and white, many Appalachians organize communities of resistance from within the region itself. Challenging these representations, I argue that Appalachian feminists as well as Affrilachian poets create countercultures that disrupt monolithic, colonialist, and unquestioned constructions of Appalachia.

By focusing on women’s lived experiences of family abuse, this thesis argues that state policy shows a lack of understanding of the nature of family abuse in one of Scotland’s largest minority communities: South Asian Muslims. Through a combination of a critical exploration of mainstream conceptualisations of domestic abuse, empirical research and policy analysis, I argue that by focusing on one-dimensional explanations such as gender and culture, state policy and some research evade the more practical and structural issues that operate against women. By adopting an intersectional approach, I focus on the complex interplay between factors such as socio-economic status and structural inequalities at the micro- and macro-levels bound up with experiences of family abuse. Through in-depth interviews with South Asian Muslim women, this thesis highlights the specificity and complexity of South Asian Muslim women’s experiences of family abuse within the home, framed through the impact of kinship structures and immigration status. Furthermore, my focus on the macro- as well as the micro-level brings to light structural inequalities and harmful policies, such as immigration rules, that act as additional constraints on women in abusive relationships. This thesis then examines women’s strategies and choices within abusive relationships by exploring the relationship between agency and oppression. I identify a crucial point: access to resources, such as economic support, ultimately shapes women’s strategies, including if, when and how to exit. I do not posit an overarching theory to explain family abuse, nor do I offer one key solution to the problem. I do, however, argue for nuanced and sensitive policymaking not only for South Asian women, but for all marginalised women, By underlining the specific experiences of one group of women I emphasis that needs are likely to differ in other groups of women.

Cette thèse se propose de rendre compte de l’oeuvre de Marie-Louise Taos Amrouche (1913-1976) comme prise de parole, engagement et écriture des identités multiples. Pour faireressortir de nouveaux aspects en lien avec la problématique de la parole des femmes parl’écriture, une analyse socioculturelle contextualisée et historicisée est privilégiée. L’enjeu estde montrer comment la carrière d’Amrouche, de sa venue à l’écriture à sa projection dans lepaysage littéraire français, est traversée par des obstacles liés aux origines et au genre. Uneapproche intersectionnelle permet notamment de (re)penser les différentes dominations – ladiscrimination de genre et de « race » et la problématique des identités plurielles – sans leshiérarchiser et en mettant à jour les mécanismes d’oppression et les stratégies de résistance dusujet écrivant.Pionnière sur l’écriture de sujets sensibles à son époque, Amrouche n’est pas seulementécrivaine mais également cantatrice des chants berbères. Cette thèse démontre, par ailleurs,comment l’écriture et le chant se font simultanément et traduisent le même besoin celuid’accord entre : la prise de parole d’une femme « indigène » sous la colonisation, la recherchedes origines berbères et la part de l’héritage chrétien et français. Est particulièrement mise enlumière la façon dans laquelle Amrouche devient un sujet hybride résultant de plusieursidentités créées par l’Histoire coloniale et postcoloniale : elle refuse de choisir entre lesidentités multiples, ne voulant en brader aucune au profit d’une autre. La recherche d’unaccord im/possible ressort ainsi comme la métaphore privilégiée pour qualifier ses luttes etson écriture. / This dissertation aims to take stock of the work of Marie-Louise Taos Amrouche (1913-1976), in its capacity to speak out, engage politically, and write multiple identities. Acontextualized and historicized socio-cultural analysis is favored in order to bring out newaspects in conjunction with other research on women’s voices in writing. I hope to show howthe development of Amrouche’s career, how she began writing and her arrival into the Frenchliterary scene, is crossed by obstacles tied to constraints related to her origin and her gender.An intersectional approach allows us in particular to (re)think different types of dominationsuch as race and gender discrimination, according to themes of plural identities, withoutinternal hierarchies, and to take an up-to-date approach to mechanisms of oppression and thewriting subject’s capacity for strategies of resistance.Pioneer of writing on sensitive subjects of her time, Amrouche is not only a writer but also asinger of traditional Berber music. I intend to show the interrelatedness of song and writingand their mutual translating of the same call to find an agreement between the “indigenous”woman’s need to speak out from under colonization, the search for Berber origins and the roleplayed by Christian and French heritage. I thus shed light on the way in which Amrouchebecomes a hybrid subject resulting from the many identities created out of colonial andpostcolonial History: she refuses to choose between multiple identities, not wanting to sell offone in exchange for another. The search for an im/possible agreement thus emerges as thepreferred metaphor characterizing her struggles and her writing.

Internet memes are exemplary forms of user-generated content in the age of social networking and user participation. This study draws attention to the work of an intersectional feminist community on Instagram who make use of this platform to discuss their personal politics via image macro memes. The community is made up of femmes who typically blend politics, pop culture, and a personal perspective into their content. This practice is identified as a contemporary feminist use of new media and is explored in relation to a theoretical reading of the current Third Wave of feminism as “embodied politics”. The theory of “disciplinary power” by Michel Foucault, and connections between disciplinary power with systems of oppression and social media are also employed to construct an understanding of feminist memes as a means of embodied resistance to disciplinary norms. This study seeks to explore how Internet memes are harnessed as a feminist mode of discourse, and why feminist meme creators (or “memers”) are motivated to use memes in this way. Therefore this research locates an intersection between digital culture and feminist use of new media. The research explores the possibility that Internet memes can serve as a creative and effective mode of feminist discourse in resistance to various forms of marginalisation - which occur both online and offline.

[pt] A presente dissertação tem como proposta discorrer sobre o trabalho doméstico no Brasil, com enfoque na trabalhadora doméstica. Inicialmente abordou-se sobre o patriarcado no Brasil e sua influência na sedimentação das atuais relações sociais, com enfoque nas relações de trabalho. Em seguida, discorreu-se sobre a problemática da interseccionalidade entre raça e gênero, e os desdobramentos decorrentes. Por fim, foi feito um estudo crítico sobre o trabalho doméstico no Brasil, abordando sobre suas bases históricas, o desenvolvimento normativo, os direitos previstos na legislação brasileira, as condições de preconceito e discriminação ainda existentes em relação à trabalhadora doméstica. A presente pesquisa revelou que apesar de todos os avanços no campo do trabalho doméstico no país, a doméstica ainda é vítima de muito preconceito e discriminação, restando ainda a necessidade de implementação de ações que venham a mudar tal panorama, que na prática revela-se prejudicial a todos. / [en] This dissertation is to discuss proposed domestic work in Brazil, focusing on domestic worker. Initially approached about patriarchy in Brazil and its influence on sedimentation of current social relationships, focusing on labor relations. And then considered the issue of intersectionality between race and gender, and the consequences resulting therefrom. Finally, studied deeply upon the domestic work in Brazil, showing its historical basis, the regulatory development, rights under Brazilian law, the prejudice and discrimination that still affects the domestic workers. This research revealed that despite all the advances in the field of domestic work in the country, domestic workers are still victims of prejudice and discrimination, resulting in the need to implement actions to change that situation, which in fact proves to be harmful to all.

Intersectionality can advance an understanding of the gap created by the lack of an integrated treatment of diversity in teacher preparation research. Intersectionality is a frame that explores the complexities of the interactions of markers of difference. It holds great potential as a concept for preservice teachers’ understanding of diversity because it can inform collaborative efforts with diverse stakeholders and facilitate preservice teachers’ understanding of diverse learners. The researcher uses the term “intersectional competence” to describe preservice teachers’ understanding of diversity and how students, families, and colleagues have multiple sociocultural markers that intersect in nuanced and unique ways. In this study, the researcher drew from the literature on intersectionality in special education and the research on collaborative teacher preparation to identify preliminary indicators of the intersectional competence construct. The purpose of this study is to identify the indicators that best capture intersectional competence and to develop and validate an instrument that uses these indicators to measure preservice teachers’ intersectional competence. The instrument included two subsets of items. Subset A was a survey designed for preservice teachers to self-report their intersectional competence and Subset B consisted of items of a case-based measure of preservice teachers’ intersectional competence. A mixed-methods sequential exploratory design was applied to develop and validate the instrument. In the qualitative phase, the researcher began by collecting data that strengthens the theoretical basis for validating the instrument (i.e., interviews with focus groups, consulting with experts, and cognitive interviews or pre-testing). The second stage of the study involved the quantitative analysis of the results of pilot testing the items in subsets A and B.

Women who live in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside experience some of the most devastating health problems among residents of British Columbia. While crack cocaine use has been associated with many of these problems, we lack an understanding of how women who use crack cocaine experience these health problems and what they do to manage them. Informed by tenets of intersectionality and social geography, a critical ethnographic approach was used to examine the scope of health concerns experienced by women who are street-involved and use crack cocaine, the strategies they used to manage their health, and the social, economic, political, personal, and historical contexts that influenced these experiences. Data were collected over a seventeen month period and included a cross sectional survey (n=126), participant observations, and interviews (n=53). The women described experiencing poor physical and mental health throughout their lives; many of which were preventable. Respiratory problems, anxiety, sadness and insomnia were the most frequent concerns reported. They endured severe economic deprivation, unstable and unsanitary housing, and relentless violence and public scrutiny across a variety of contexts including their homes and on the street. These experiences were further influenced by structural and interpersonal relations of power operating within the health care, legal, and welfare systems. The women engaged in a several strategies to mitigate the harmful effects of factors that influenced their health including: (a) managing limited financial resources; (b) negotiating the health care system; (c) managing substance use; and (d) managing on your own. These strategies were influenced by the types of concerns experienced, perceptions of their most pressing concern, the nature of interpersonal relations with health care providers, and the limited social and economic resources available. Changes in the organizational policies and practices of the welfare, legal, and health care systems are needed to improve women’s health. Possible strategies include increased access to welfare and safe, affordable housing, safer alternatives to income, and improved collaboration between illness prevention and law enforcement programming. New approaches are required that build on women’s considerable strengths and are sensitive to ways in which gender, race, and class can disrupt opportunities to access services. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Nursing, School of / Graduate