Thesis (Ph.D.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-274). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

This thesis utilizes an historical sociology approach to examine women’s organizations in Canada between 1930 and 1955. I consider their responses to changes in women’s lives among three key areas: birth control, sex education and motherhood in the context of macro level events in Canadian society. This research utilizes a moral regulation framework to consider the ways in which the discourses, images and programmes of women’s organizations such as the National Council of Women and the Women’s Institutes created a space for norm-based adaptations to women’s intimate lives during the mid-twentieth century in Canada.

The thesis considers three women conferences arranged by the National Council of Women of Sweden (NCWS) in Stockholm at the turn of the 20th century. NCWS was a branch of the International Council of Women and at its height it was an umbrella-organisation for about forty Swedish women organisations. The focus is on the role of the conferences as arenas for women who wanted to prove their ability and competence in society. The content, the form and the function of the conferences are analysed. The question whether the conferences arranged by the NCWS reflected the ideas, dilemmas and strategies of the bourgeois women’s movement is addressed. A larger historical development is illuminated – the formation of the bourgeois women movements for the public sphere in the process of modernity. The thesis explores different theories and shows how the concepts of class, gender, public sphere, modernity and trans-nationalism were dealt with at the conferences. The women conferences have been treated as manifestations; as a quintessence of the ideas and ambitions of the movement. The thesis asserts that the ideology of the movements was formulated and expressed not only in spoken words, but also in festivities, symbols and sisterhood. The class identity was manifested in the form of which the conferences were conducted. On the one hand, the conference women showed loyalty to the conservative society and the rigid class position. On the other hand, the conference initiators wanted to improve women’s opportunities of becoming citizens and to move the boarders between the public and the private. Ideologies such as Internationalism and Scandinavism became important in creating a collective identity.

This thesis is designed to analyze the relations between the Egyptian women&rsquo / s NGOs and the state in Contemporary Egypt through the interviews conducted with members and administrators of eleven selected women&rsquo / s NGOs based in Cairo. The main aim is to show how these NGOs with different aims and different working areas build their relations with the state, what kind of problems they face and how they cope with them as well as, if there are any, elaborate the relation patterns between the state and different women&rsquo / s NGOs in different fields. The sample of the research consists of twenty-seven women, members and administrators, from eleven women&rsquo / s organizations based in Cairo. The women&rsquo / s organizations that constitute the subject of this research study were selected out of the leading advocacy, research, charity and development NGOs in Cairo. Within this framework, the thesis is mainly based on the qualitative data of the in-depth interviews and the interpretations of the responses given by the interviewees. On the other hand, in order to better analyze and understand existing relations between the state and women&rsquo / s organizations in contemporary Egypt, women&rsquo / s activism and NGOs and their shifting relations with the state will be examined historically as well.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The study outlines five areas of intervention in the development of women studies and politics on the continent. Firstly, it examines the problematic construction and the inclusion of women in the narratives of the liberation struggle in South Africa. Secondly, the study identifies the sphere of intellectual debates as one of the crucial sites in the production of historical knowledge about the legacies of liberation struggles on the continent. Thirdly, it traces the intellectual trajectory of Charlotte Maxeke as an embodiment of the intellectual contributions of women in the struggle for liberation in South Africa. In this regard, the study traces Charlotte Maxeke as she deliberated and engaged on matters pertaining to the welfare of the Africans alongside the prominent intellectuals of the twentieth century. Fourthly, the study inaugurates a theoretical departure from the documentary trends that define contemporary studies on women and liberation movements on the continent. Fifthly, the study examines the incorporation of Maxeke's legacy of active intellectual engagement as an integral part of gender politics in the activities of the Women's Section of the African National Congress. In the areas identified, the study engages with the significance of the intellectual inputs of Charlotte Maxeke in South African history. / South Africa

<p>The study outlines five areas of intervention in the development of women&rsquo / s studies and politics on the continent. Firstly, it examines the problematic construction and the inclusion of women in the narratives of the liberation struggle in South Africa. Secondly, the study identifies the sphere of intellectual debates as one of the crucial sites in the production of historical knowledge about the legacies of liberation struggles on the continent. Thirdly, it traces the intellectual trajectory of Charlotte Maxeke as an embodiment of the intellectual contributions of women in the struggle for liberation in South Africa. In this regard, the study traces Charlotte Maxeke as she deliberated and engaged on matters pertaining to the welfare of the Africans alongside the prominent intellectuals of the twentieth century. Fourthly, the study inaugurates a theoretical departure from the documentary trends that define contemporary studies on women and liberation movements on the continent. Fifthly, the study examines the incorporation of Maxeke&rsquo / s legacy of active intellectual engagement as an integral part of gender politics in the activities of the Women&rsquo / s Section of the African National Congress. In the areas identified, the study engages with the significance of the intellectual inputs of Charlotte Maxeke in South African history.</p>

<p>The study outlines five areas of intervention in the development of women&rsquo / s studies and politics on the continent. Firstly, it examines the problematic construction and the inclusion of women in the narratives of the liberation struggle in South Africa. Secondly, the study identifies the sphere of intellectual debates as one of the crucial sites in the production of historical knowledge about the legacies of liberation struggles on the continent. Thirdly, it traces the intellectual trajectory of Charlotte Maxeke as an embodiment of the intellectual contributions of women in the struggle for liberation in South Africa. In this regard, the study traces Charlotte Maxeke as she deliberated and engaged on matters pertaining to the welfare of the Africans alongside the prominent intellectuals of the twentieth century. Fourthly, the study inaugurates a theoretical departure from the documentary trends that define contemporary studies on women and liberation movements on the continent. Fifthly, the study examines the incorporation of Maxeke&rsquo / s legacy of active intellectual engagement as an integral part of gender politics in the activities of the Women&rsquo / s Section of the African National Congress. In the areas identified, the study engages with the significance of the intellectual inputs of Charlotte Maxeke in South African history.</p>