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<p> <i>Twilight</i> by Stephenie Meyer and <i> The Hunger Games</i> by Suzanne Collins are two of the bestselling series of our generation. These series are meeting widespread popularity just as the contemporary feminist debate of: "Can women have it all?" is occurring around the country. Although <i>Twilight</i> and <i>The Hunger Games</i> are not considered overtly feminist texts, they have emerged in a time when women are reexamining the possibility of empowering themselves both in the public and the domestic sphere. Meyer and Collins have introduced female protagonists that deal with precisely this issue. </p><p> First, I will be outlining why cultural studies are important to discussions of popular literature, as argued by both Jane Tompkins and Cathy N. Davidson, especially in terms of female readers and writers. I will also be exploring the bestselling works of Louisa May Alcott's <i>Little Women</i> and Jacqueline Susann's <i>Valley of the Dolls</i> which emerged during the first and second waves of feminism and how they expressed a hesitation to give women a happy ending outside domesticity within their respective historical contexts. Next, I will review the current "lean in" culture of the third wave of feminism. I will also show how both <i>Twilight</i> and <i> The Hunger Games</i> continue the pattern of female protagonists that cannot be empowered unless they are wives and mothers. Finally, I will analyze how my own creative writing has been affected by cultural debates involving women's roles. Popular women's writing that emerges in the context of major feminist moments in American history shows ambivalence towards empowering women outside the home. This ambivalence is also reflected in my own writing through poetry. By first examining the work of best-selling women writers in the last two centuries and then analyzing my own writing in concurrence with the evolution of feminist ideals, I will show that women writers display a hesitant feminism despite emerging alongside progressive cultural moments in American history.</p>

A community based, cross-sectional survey was undertaken of the anthropometric status of Oromo, non-pregnant women of child bearing age in Kersa subdistrict, southwest Ethiopia. The main purposes of this investigation were to determine normative anthropometric standards and to identify their important determinants. A structured questionnaire was administered by interviewers and anthropometric measurements were completed on 473 non-pregnant women randomly selected and stratified by 5 year age categories from 8 peasant associations. Women in this study sample were light with a mean (SD) weight of 46.9 (5.3) kg. Approximately three quarters weighed less than 50 kg and 34 (7%) less than 40 kg. Women's height averaged 155.5 cm with nearly 20% under 150 cm. The mean (SD) BMI was 19.4 (1.9) kg/m$ sp2$ and 35% of the women had a BMI lower than 18.5 kg/m$ sp2$. Means for all anthropometric measurements fell below the 10th percentile of the standard, NCHS reference for black women. No consistent predictor was found across the various anthropometric outcomes. In particular, all anthropometric outcomes were stable across age categories. The relationship between these anthropometric measures and adverse maternal or perinatal outcomes need to be validated.

This study is an institutional ethnography which employs a critical race feminist theoretical framework in order to explicate the social relations that coordinate the experiences of racialized female student activists at McGill University. Interviews with students, administrators, faculty and staff, along with observations about texts, institutional language and experiences around equity at McGill make up the data for conducting this anti-racist feminist analysis. In the first part of this study, knowledge produced through the experiences of racialized female student activists – who make up the entry point of this study – exposes a disjuncture between McGill's self-portrayal as equitable and diverse and how it is experienced by some racialized women. The next part of this study explores some challenges to doing anti-racist activist work at McGill and the lack of – yet need for – an institutional memory that encourages present and future organizing to document, refer to, and build on past initiatives (successful and otherwise) around race, racism and equity. / Cette étude est une ethnographie institutionnelle qui emploie une cadre théorique féministe-critique afin d'expliquer les relations sociales qui coordonnent les expériences des étudiantes-organisatrice racialisées à l'Université McGill. Les entrevues avec les étudiantes, administrateurs, professeurs et employés, avec des observations sur les textes, la langue institutionelle et des expériences autour de l'équité à l'Université McGill constituent les données pour effectuer cette analyse anti-raciste féministe. Dans la première partie de cette étude, les connaissances produites par les expériences des étudiantes-organisatrice racialisées – qui constituent le point d'entrée de cette étude – expose une disjonction entre la façon dont l'Université se portrait comme équitable et diversifiée et comment elle est vécue par certains étudiantes racialisées. La prochaine partie de cette étude examine certains des défis au travail d'organisation anti-raciste à l'Université McGill et le manque (et le besoin) d'une mémoire institutionnelle qui encourage l'organisation actuelle et future de documenter, de consulter, et de s'appuyer sur les initiatives passées (réussie et autrement) autour de la race, le racisme et l'équité.

This thesis examines the emergence and subsequent development of feminist activist service groups in Aotearoa/New Zealand feminist movements from the 1970s to the 1990s. It specifically considers, the Women's Centres, Women's Health Collectives, Women's Refuges and Rape Crisis groups. Feminism in the groups was closely linked to the internal processes of organising as a collective based on 'women's ways of working'. The groups merged a radical feminist political orientation with a service orientation as they developed services 'for women by women'. The study was based on a qualitative analysis of published and unpublished documents of activist service groups, and open-ended interviews with 65 women discussing their experiences of working in activist service groups. Two distinct phases of change to the internal organisation of the groups between 1970 and 1999 have been identified and examined. In the first phase, (1970s - 1980s), radical feminist collective ways of working acquired the status of a taken for granted institutional norm among the groups. These groups organised as women-only collectives, utilised consensus decision-making, embodied ideals of non-hierarchy, and had aspirations of sisterhood between women. The second phase (from the late 1980s) was marked by modification of the radical feminist collective, as groups experienced internal and external pressures to adopt bureaucratic practices. Major pressures included the shift by the state to contract funding of the groups, the changing participation of paid and unpaid workers in the daily work of the groups, and the increasing formal differentiation between employers and employees. These changes were a major source of conflict and tension, as the groups modified their organisations to include differentiation of roles, specialisation of positions and formal hierarchy. At the same time groups sustained aspects of radical feminist collective organising. Dealing with differences was a major site of tension and conflict in the activist service groups. Groups implemented various strategies to address differences between women in relation to race/ethnicity, sexuality and class. A major focus of the groups was the development of bicultural relations between Māori and non-Māori. Models of biculturalrelations in the predominantly Pākehā groups ranged from increasing Māori representation in the groups, to the formation of alliances between independent groups or alliances between ethnic-specific groups in the same organisation. These strategies were mostly framed in terms of a binary opposition between oppressed and oppressor, and along a single axis of oppression. Nevertheless, the groups' attempts to 'deal with differences' between women were important in challenging assumptions of genderbased commonality between all women. In spite of these conflicts and associated changes, participants in the activist service groups attempted to maintain inclusive, non-hierarchical, empowering organisations 'for women by women'. In the 1990s, many of the feminist activist service groups continued to pursue democratic collective ways of working and to engage in a politics of difference in their organisations.

This thesis examines the emergence and subsequent development of feminist activist service groups in Aotearoa/New Zealand feminist movements from the 1970s to the 1990s. It specifically considers, the Women's Centres, Women's Health Collectives, Women's Refuges and Rape Crisis groups. Feminism in the groups was closely linked to the internal processes of organising as a collective based on 'women's ways of working'. The groups merged a radical feminist political orientation with a service orientation as they developed services 'for women by women'. The study was based on a qualitative analysis of published and unpublished documents of activist service groups, and open-ended interviews with 65 women discussing their experiences of working in activist service groups. Two distinct phases of change to the internal organisation of the groups between 1970 and 1999 have been identified and examined. In the first phase, (1970s - 1980s), radical feminist collective ways of working acquired the status of a taken for granted institutional norm among the groups. These groups organised as women-only collectives, utilised consensus decision-making, embodied ideals of non-hierarchy, and had aspirations of sisterhood between women. The second phase (from the late 1980s) was marked by modification of the radical feminist collective, as groups experienced internal and external pressures to adopt bureaucratic practices. Major pressures included the shift by the state to contract funding of the groups, the changing participation of paid and unpaid workers in the daily work of the groups, and the increasing formal differentiation between employers and employees. These changes were a major source of conflict and tension, as the groups modified their organisations to include differentiation of roles, specialisation of positions and formal hierarchy. At the same time groups sustained aspects of radical feminist collective organising. Dealing with differences was a major site of tension and conflict in the activist service groups. Groups implemented various strategies to address differences between women in relation to race/ethnicity, sexuality and class. A major focus of the groups was the development of bicultural relations between Māori and non-Māori. Models of biculturalrelations in the predominantly Pākehā groups ranged from increasing Māori representation in the groups, to the formation of alliances between independent groups or alliances between ethnic-specific groups in the same organisation. These strategies were mostly framed in terms of a binary opposition between oppressed and oppressor, and along a single axis of oppression. Nevertheless, the groups' attempts to 'deal with differences' between women were important in challenging assumptions of genderbased commonality between all women. In spite of these conflicts and associated changes, participants in the activist service groups attempted to maintain inclusive, non-hierarchical, empowering organisations 'for women by women'. In the 1990s, many of the feminist activist service groups continued to pursue democratic collective ways of working and to engage in a politics of difference in their organisations.

This thesis examines the emergence and subsequent development of feminist activist service groups in Aotearoa/New Zealand feminist movements from the 1970s to the 1990s. It specifically considers, the Women's Centres, Women's Health Collectives, Women's Refuges and Rape Crisis groups. Feminism in the groups was closely linked to the internal processes of organising as a collective based on 'women's ways of working'. The groups merged a radical feminist political orientation with a service orientation as they developed services 'for women by women'. The study was based on a qualitative analysis of published and unpublished documents of activist service groups, and open-ended interviews with 65 women discussing their experiences of working in activist service groups. Two distinct phases of change to the internal organisation of the groups between 1970 and 1999 have been identified and examined. In the first phase, (1970s - 1980s), radical feminist collective ways of working acquired the status of a taken for granted institutional norm among the groups. These groups organised as women-only collectives, utilised consensus decision-making, embodied ideals of non-hierarchy, and had aspirations of sisterhood between women. The second phase (from the late 1980s) was marked by modification of the radical feminist collective, as groups experienced internal and external pressures to adopt bureaucratic practices. Major pressures included the shift by the state to contract funding of the groups, the changing participation of paid and unpaid workers in the daily work of the groups, and the increasing formal differentiation between employers and employees. These changes were a major source of conflict and tension, as the groups modified their organisations to include differentiation of roles, specialisation of positions and formal hierarchy. At the same time groups sustained aspects of radical feminist collective organising. Dealing with differences was a major site of tension and conflict in the activist service groups. Groups implemented various strategies to address differences between women in relation to race/ethnicity, sexuality and class. A major focus of the groups was the development of bicultural relations between Māori and non-Māori. Models of biculturalrelations in the predominantly Pākehā groups ranged from increasing Māori representation in the groups, to the formation of alliances between independent groups or alliances between ethnic-specific groups in the same organisation. These strategies were mostly framed in terms of a binary opposition between oppressed and oppressor, and along a single axis of oppression. Nevertheless, the groups' attempts to 'deal with differences' between women were important in challenging assumptions of genderbased commonality between all women. In spite of these conflicts and associated changes, participants in the activist service groups attempted to maintain inclusive, non-hierarchical, empowering organisations 'for women by women'. In the 1990s, many of the feminist activist service groups continued to pursue democratic collective ways of working and to engage in a politics of difference in their organisations.

This thesis examines the emergence and subsequent development of feminist activist service groups in Aotearoa/New Zealand feminist movements from the 1970s to the 1990s. It specifically considers, the Women's Centres, Women's Health Collectives, Women's Refuges and Rape Crisis groups. Feminism in the groups was closely linked to the internal processes of organising as a collective based on 'women's ways of working'. The groups merged a radical feminist political orientation with a service orientation as they developed services 'for women by women'. The study was based on a qualitative analysis of published and unpublished documents of activist service groups, and open-ended interviews with 65 women discussing their experiences of working in activist service groups. Two distinct phases of change to the internal organisation of the groups between 1970 and 1999 have been identified and examined. In the first phase, (1970s - 1980s), radical feminist collective ways of working acquired the status of a taken for granted institutional norm among the groups. These groups organised as women-only collectives, utilised consensus decision-making, embodied ideals of non-hierarchy, and had aspirations of sisterhood between women. The second phase (from the late 1980s) was marked by modification of the radical feminist collective, as groups experienced internal and external pressures to adopt bureaucratic practices. Major pressures included the shift by the state to contract funding of the groups, the changing participation of paid and unpaid workers in the daily work of the groups, and the increasing formal differentiation between employers and employees. These changes were a major source of conflict and tension, as the groups modified their organisations to include differentiation of roles, specialisation of positions and formal hierarchy. At the same time groups sustained aspects of radical feminist collective organising. Dealing with differences was a major site of tension and conflict in the activist service groups. Groups implemented various strategies to address differences between women in relation to race/ethnicity, sexuality and class. A major focus of the groups was the development of bicultural relations between Māori and non-Māori. Models of biculturalrelations in the predominantly Pākehā groups ranged from increasing Māori representation in the groups, to the formation of alliances between independent groups or alliances between ethnic-specific groups in the same organisation. These strategies were mostly framed in terms of a binary opposition between oppressed and oppressor, and along a single axis of oppression. Nevertheless, the groups' attempts to 'deal with differences' between women were important in challenging assumptions of genderbased commonality between all women. In spite of these conflicts and associated changes, participants in the activist service groups attempted to maintain inclusive, non-hierarchical, empowering organisations 'for women by women'. In the 1990s, many of the feminist activist service groups continued to pursue democratic collective ways of working and to engage in a politics of difference in their organisations.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-02, Section: A, page: 0568. Adviser: Evelyne Accad. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 211-229) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.