Using literature, official documents, interviews, and participant observation, several dimensions of rural women's autonomy in the Tilli area of Ghana's Upper East Region were studied. The three hypotheses tested were: (1) Women have been and remain jural minors. (2) Paradoxically however, they are expected to exercise considerable autonomy in specific areas. Furthermore, they demonstrate a number of individual and collective strategies which enable them to exert their will in other areas in spite of social constraints. (3) The effects of encroaching capitalism on northern women's autonomy have not been uniform. Communities in this area differ considerably from those in southern Ghana, and have been described in the literature as organized along patriarchal, patrilineal, and patrilocal lines. The research demonstrated that, indeed, women were jural minors, although their particular life circumstances were also influenced by factors such as ethnicity, social strata, age, marital status, religion, and individual personality. Certain categories of women--those pregnant or breast-feeding, the handicapped, the elderly, widows and divorcees, ethnic minority women, and women resident in the subvillages--were found to be particularly disadvantaged. Yet women were far from powerless overall, nor were they apathetic or retiring. The findings of the research both enrich the database available to development planners, policy makers, project administrators and service providers, and suggest directions for future research. At the same time, they challenge certain assumptions and generalizations about Ghanaian and African women found in both feminist and development literature.

The Canadian government's Task Force Report on Federally Sentenced Women, Creating Choices (1990), presents a clear mandate for correctional reforms that provide women-centred therapeutic programming to address the issues of women's exploitation and abuse. This shift in correctional policy away from the traditional sexist and neglectful models of previous government reports is the result of a collective effort of women's groups and community services as well as the voices of the prisoners interviewed from across Canada. How have the experiences of federally sentenced women and the principles and strategies of feminist therapy emerging from the shelters for battered women and victims of sexual violence transcended the prison context? This qualitative study of five feminist counsellors in the Prison for Women discusses their analytic frameworks, principles, and strategies for working with federally sentenced women in an institutional setting. An important concern is the impact of the prison setting on the strategies of feminist therapists. As clinically trained professionals who share a feminist ideology, the therapists have created an expert discourse on the impact of childhood sexual and physical abuse upon women's behaviour. The respondents accounts of the lives of federally sentenced women reconstruct their mental health "needs" and justify their behaviour in the context of victimization.

This study explores the political discourse on women in prison and the issue of co-corrections in Canada. Tentative propositions were generated regarding the nature of the official rhetoric, feminist position and female inmates' perspective on the treatment of Canadian female prisoners and the issue of shared services. First, provisional generalizations were developed through a review of the American literature dealing with female imprisonment and co-corrections in the United States. Subsequently, through an analysis of the major Canadian penitentiary reports, official female offender reports, relevant parliamentary debates, and an interview with a group of women in P4W, the generalizations were tested against the Canadian context. An effort has been made to develop a substantive theory of the political discourse on women in prison and the issue of co-corrections in Canada. Generally, the tentative framework generated through the analysis of the American literature and the debates on co-corrections in the United States was validated. Some peculiar Canadian features, however, did prompt a revision of the original 'model'. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

La premiere partie de la these s'interesse aux positions politiques des auteures de notre corpus. Celles-ci ont ete divisees en trois categories, soient feminisme egalitaire, radical et socialiste. Notons que les feministes radicales ont ete sous-divisees en deux categories, les feministes neutralistes et les feministes de la femelleite. Chaque chapitre est divise en trois parties. La premiere vise a donner une idee generale des questions d'interet, revendications et strategies politiques preconisees par les feministes en question. La derniere section s'interesse au lien entre le langage et l'oppression, et donc, a la facon dont le langage participe a l'oppression des femmes. La deuxieme partie s'interesse a la position theorique des feministes. La seconde typologie presente deux categories: les feministes deterministes et les feministes contextualistes. Dans le cas des feministes deterministes, elles sont persuadees que la langue porte en elle une vision sexiste du monde, et que cela contribue a maintenir les femmes dans une position de domination. Les contextualistes le langage voient plutot comme le reflet des rapports de pouvoir entre hommes et femmes. Le langage participe bien a l'oppression des femmes, mais le probleme se situe donc au niveau du discours. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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This thesis attempts to determine the needs of women serving prison terms at Prison for Women. Interviews were conducted with a sample of thirty prisoners at Prison for Women to determine what they felt their needs were and how they perceived these needs were being addressed during their incarceration. Correctional staff members were also interviewed so it could be ascertained how current programs were being delivered. It was found that while Correctional Services does recognize some of the unique needs that this population has, often they lack the initiative to develop and deliver the required services. This was especially true in the area of past sexual and physical abuse. It is not the purpose of this thesis to call for the closing of Prison for Women. Contrary to this, this paper that since this is the only institution we have for women and since the needs of the population can be identified, we can determine how to address these needs appropriately in the given setting, for lack of any alternative. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Nous examinons la carriere des agentes correctionnelles dans les penitenciers federaux pour hommes. Il s'agit d'identifier les maintes barrieres organisationnelles auxquelles font face ces agentes de correction, rendant difficile tant leur integration dans ce milieu de travail traditionnellement masculin que leur acces a des promotions. Une analyse theorique a perspective feministe de ces barrieres limitant l'integration et la promotion des femmes dans cette profession est privilegies dans notre projet de recherche. La profession d'agent de correction ayant ete par tradition une sphere organisationnelle a predominance masculine, cela a produit des valeurs et des regles a la base des fonctions qui alimentent aisement des attitudes et comportements sexistes. Dans le cadre de cette recherche, nous faisons remarquer que meme si les agentes correctionnelles augmentent en nombre, les consequences liees au "tokenism" seraient eliminees mais pas les prejuges sexistes qui sont non seulement enracines dans la culture de travail, mais dans la societe en general. Le Service correctionnel du Canada ne peut ainsi limiter ses objectifs d'integration des femmes a l'augmentation de leur nombre car nous constatons qu'il existe des failles au niveau des politiques de gestion et de la structure organisationnelle qui laissent place a de la discrimination sexiste. Ces lacunes se retrouvent tant dans les mecanismes informels de selection, de formation que de promotion et creent des obstacles a l'integration des femmes en tant qu'agentes correctionnelles. Nous avons trouve egalement que des normes et des traditions masculines sont a la base de cette culture de travail: que ce soit au niveau de la philosophie penale de traitement et de controle securitaire ou de la question d'un entrai nement adequat, ces elements necessitent que le Service correctionnel du Canada distingue entre ce qui est propre a la culture masculine de travail et ce qui est propre a la profession.

La situation minoritaire des femmes cadres de niveaux intermediaire et superieur dans les organismes publics et prives souleve de nombreux problemes auxquels on tente d'apporter remede par des mesures volontaires ou des programmes concertes. Dans la foulee des travaux de Kanter (1977), cette etude vise a verifier si les attitudes a l'egard des femmes cadres seraient d'autant plus favorables que leur nombre augmente. Par ailleurs, en tenant compte de l'etude de Harlan et Weiss (1981), les attitudes seraient moins favorables lorsque le nombre des cadres feminines atteindrait 20%. Deux etudes ont mis ces hypotheses a l'epreuve: une premiere en laboratoire et une seconde en milieu naturel. Des etudiant-e-s en administration (N = 187) ont reagi a des simulations faisant varier la force numerique des cadres feminines (9%, 20%, 35%, 50%). Les etudiant-e-s ont fait valoir, dans l'ensemble, des attitudes tres favorables a leur endroit, quelque soit leur nombre. Les attitudes de 354 gestionnaires federaux des deux sexes ont ete mesurees en fonction de quatre pourcentages: 9% et 20%, effectifs reels, 35% et 50%, effectifs hypothetiques. Pour cette etude, l'impact de la force numerique n'est conforme aux hypotheses qu'a 9% et 35%. A 20%, les attitudes sont plus favorables qu'a 9%, mais a 50%, elles sont semblables a celles obtenues a 9%. Les resultats suggerent que la proportion ideale serait de 35% et que les attitudes les plus favorables se retrouvent chez les femmes, les gestionnaires diplome-e-s dans les humanites et en administration, les plus jeunes et ceux-celles qui ont moins d'anciennete a la FPF. L'evaluation du statut des femmes cadres, de leur contribution a la culture organisationnelle et les attributions faites a leur endroit ne fluctuent pas parallelement a ces attitudes, ce qui fait ressortir des dimensions multiples du phenomene etudie. L'examen des processus psychologiques sous-jacents au changement des attitudes, a l'aide d'analyses des structures de causalite, ont revele des processus differentiels en fonction du sexe.

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