This study explores the internet experiences of women living in rural and regional Australia, their motives for internet uptake and use, the benefits they gain from using the internet, the difficulties they encounter in using the internet and whether the benefits are affected by technical factors, such as computer equipment and telecommunication infrastructure, availability of opportunities for developing online skills, and perceptions of the internet. Data was collected via an email snowball technique to contact women living in rural and regional Australia, resulting in participation by 40 women from throughout rural and regional areas. The research drew on the literature of internet research and media uses-and-gratifications. Although the internet is a relatively new communication technology, it has attracted a large amount of scholarly interest. However, there has been little research into internet use by individual populations. Women living in rural and regional areas of Australia experience geographical and social isolation, with limited access to goods, services and information, and could be expected, therefore, to gain significant benefits from use of the internet. However, the potential benefits of the internet could be offset by difficulties with internet use in rural and regional areas. A narrative approach was used to determine the motives for internet use by women living in rural and regional Australia, the benefits they gain from using the internet, the difficulties they encounter in using it and whether the difficulties affect the benefits they gain from internet use. The research findings show that, more than anything else, women living in rural and regional Australia use the internet to build and maintain relationships, including keeping in touch with family and friends, re-connecting with friends for the past and making new friends online. They also use the internet to facilitate involvement in community organisations, to contribute to social issues at the national, state and local level and to participate in community projects and events. In addition, women living in rural and regional Australia use the internet to undertake business and education related activities, pursue personal interests, seek emotional support and undertake practical tasks, such as finding and disseminating information, banking and shopping. However, the many benefits of the internet are offset to some extent by the many frustrations encountered in using it, particularly in regard to technical factors and developing online skills. Spam mail and viruses also cause considerable inconvenience.

Bibliography: leaves 438-482 / vii, 482 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Asian Studies, 1994

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on December 6, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation deals with three different studies of rural women in northern Sweden and Wisconsin, USA. All three of them aim at identify and elucidate pertinent aspects of women's lives in rural areas. In the first study, The Åsele study, women's work and free time activities are in the focus of investigation. The second, The Leading Light study, deals more explicitly with obstacles and problems that women meet with when trying to improve their living conditions and, finally, the Wisconsin study deals with the ways rural women organize their everyday lives. More specifically, while all three studies assume a gender and mode-of-living perspective, cultural issues, the relations between structure- agent and questions concerning the organization of everyday life receive separate treatment. Mostly qualitative methods are used in collecting data, including interviews and essays. Also questionnaires are used in order to gain a comprehensive picture of certain areas, such as activities and aspirations within the field of leisure. In the last study a reanalysis of an archived interview material, built on oral life histories, is used. The results give a complex and nuanced picture of women's lives in these areas. The farm women in the Wisconsin study have a heavy work load and contribute in different ways to the maintenance of the family. Their productive work is, however, made invisible in official statistics. The Åsele study gives a picture of a woman, who is not demanding anything special for herself, but is adapting to the traditional gender structures. Her life is organized around her home, her husband and her children. The young women intend to leave this area, which is one of the problems that the local politicians have to deal with. In the Leading light study, finally, it is above all the male representatives at the local governmental level that impede the women's ideas and ignore their propositions for change. Despite official signals of decentralisation of decision making, the bureaucratic structures seem to strengthen at the local level. Most of the women in this study praise life in the country side. The rural ideology also comprises a positive view of this mode of living. While the rural ideology is a entire male construction, the female conditions have to be problematized. This has been done in this thesis. / digitalisering@umu

Thesis (M.A.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2001. / Bibliography: leaves 158-169.

Much attention has been paid to the increasingly important role of women as social and political actors in Latin America. Though recent scholarship has examined women's activism in primarily urban contexts, this paper focuses on the case of poor rural women in Nicaragua. Based on participant observation and interview data collected over five consecutive weeks, this paper traces the pathways by which women's activism emerged in a context where traditional gender roles still predominate. These women's forms of participation—often on the basis of their interests as mothers—constitute a "politics of immediate needs” that responds to concrete matters of survival while introducing new issues of direct concern to women into the public sphere. However, community participation has also generated additional burdens for women who now juggle productive, reproductive, and activist roles. By exploring the complexities of these dynamics, this paper provides an ethnographic account of the highly nuanced contestatory process by which women enter the public sphere, collectively organize, and begin to challenge various gendered aspects of their society. / text

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Asian Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

Rural development is a serious problem in Bangladesh, and so is the situation of women. This thesis assesses the programmes offered by a particular non-governmental organization, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), which simultaneously promote rural development and improve the status of women. This assessment is achieved by examining the functioning and impact of these programmes in a single village. The study is exploratory and uses qualitative methods, employing principally unstructured but in-depth interviews. Results indicate that most village women were aware of the need for improvement in the position of women, but interest, and thus active participation, was greater among those who were widowed or divorced. For these women, the programmes did succeed in raising their income through better technical knowledge, and in some ways improved their position in the family and society. They did not, however, succeed in raising their administrative knowledge, confining them to "women's only" projects, and did little to increase political empowerment.

The study focuses on job creation for the empowerment and development of women and assessed the role of State projects in the Umlaas Catchment area of the Working for Water Project in Kwazulu-Natal. The concepts of gender, households and rural development are defined from the socio-economic and geographical perspectives. A brief review of the aims of the Working for Water Project, which sets out to increase water yield through the clearing of invasive alien plants with the main objective of employing and training people from the disadvantaged communities in order to enhance their social upliftment and empowerment is presented. The data are collected from five stakeholders viz: the women employees, the contractors, the Project manager and the household members of the women employees of the working for Water Project as well as the community members from the six settlements in which the women employees are resident. In-depth interviews with the samples, which were tape-recorded, yielded a- rich database. The data are subjected to qualitative and quantitative analyses- to assess the extent to which job- creation enhances the empowerment and development of the women employees of the Project. The analyses entail the level of involvement of women in the management of the Project, capacity building and acquisition of skills through training, the effects of income in power relation at home and community and the socio-economic impacts of the project on the empowerment of the rural women in the study area. The analyses show that: (a) many of the women resort to work because of the pressing financial needs in their homes in order to alleviate the level of poverty. Also, the Working for Water Project has significantly helped the women employees to meet their financial obligations toward themselves, their children and members of their households. (b) more women than men are employed by the Working for Water Project in keeping to its objective. However, few women occupy management positions. The Project draws on a range of age groups with almost all the women employees less than 50 years of age. (c) some of the women employees of the Project have acquired skills from the organized training and as such are more confident to manage resources not only in their primary assignment but in their life situations. However, while the Project has helped some of the women employees to organize themselves in budgeting and making choices regarding their lives, some are still constrained by traditions. (d) the men seem to be happy that their women are working since there is no evidence to support that the men did not want the women to work neither did any of the women indicate that their men raised an opposition. Thereafter suggestions are offered to guide the policy makers and the Working for Water Project in achieving their set objectives of empowering and developing the rural women in order to stimulate a rapid transformation of the rural areas in South Africa. / Thesis (M.Dev.Studies)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

Agricultural development, in Africa is seen as a vital tool for combating poverty in many households. In this thesis, agricultural development is thus seen as one of the ways in which the Millennium Development Goals 1 & 3 can be achieved. Moreover, the researcher hopes to show the link between transport and the possibilities of socio-economic development in the agricultural sector if and when transportation is facilitated. Furthermore, the need for gender equality and women’s empowerment will be emphasized in agricultural activities, particularly labour. The study draws from two women-led projects namely, the Lahlapapadi Goat Project and Kwadikwaneng Nursery in the Capricorn District of Limpopo, South Africa. To achieve the objects of this enterprise, the following tasks are undertaken. Firstly, the role of transport in women-led projects is investigated and described, particularly as regards to its possible impact on women lives. Secondly, reasons as to why women despite playing a large role in agricultural production receive very limited recognition. And thirdly, an assessment as to whether women receive adequate support from both the agricultural and transport departments for their agricultural activities is conducted. The broader context of historical ideologies around which gender roles in society are shaped will also be examined with a particular emphasis on transportation so as to show the extent to which such ideologies pose a threat to the development of women-led agricultural projects. To realize the broader objective and its underlying tasks, the researcher adopted qualitative feminist methodologies. These employ in-depth interviews, focus group discussions in conjunction with visual techniques involving photography and videography. The study’s findings revealed that women are largely not recognized for their labour due to socio-cultural factors, such as patriarchy and subsequent gender stereotyping, that force women to continue in their traditional household roles. Furthermore, transport was found to be an important tool for the improvement of food security and economic status in the lives of women particularly when it complemented the agricultural activities of rural women. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.