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A survey of the first two decades of the French Communist Party's propaganda reveals a wide range of female imagery, from the androgynous, Soviet-style militant of the 1920s to the fashionable, feminine figure of the 1930s. Earlier scholars noting this discrepancy argued that the Party first adopted the Soviet "new woman," based on the Marxist principle of absolute gender equality but rejected it just over a decade later in order to broaden their appeal to the French masses. These studies, however, were restricted by the limited access to the French Communist Party's interwar-era archives. Using recently-digitized Party meeting records, reports, letters, and propaganda material, this MA thesis takes a second look at the Party's attitude toward gender roles and mobilizing women in the interwar period (1920 – 1939). Finding that female Party members directed the work among women according to a complex internal logic which justified dropping the Soviet new woman for a more conventional model, this thesis argues that the Party's changing stance on gender roles reflected the strength of the French republican notions of gender and politics which shaped the Party's response to the Soviet model of womanhood.

The focus of my study is the creation of a special topics American literature or Women's Studies course about the women writers of the Beat Generation; this course provides students with a variety of explorations of women's writing during and after Post World War II America. This period saw many changes in terms of women's roles as they challenged the mid-20th century societal constructs. My research examines the women Beat writers by centering on their distinct women's discourse and how their voices challenged the patriarchally-driven canon of Beat Generation writers. To accomplish this task, my research focuses on expanding the Beat Generation literary canon beyond the male Beats by creating a digital archive of the women writers of the Beat Generation. As a feminist digital humanities project, this Women Writers of the Beat Generation Omeka website can be used as a resource for undergraduate students to research the work of these women writers and, as a result, elevate the women's prominence in the Beat literary canon. While the women are no longer a postscript in Beat Generation scholarship, the curriculum I developed for undergraduate students expands the general notion of Beat Generation writers usually covered in literature survey courses and exposes students to the Beat women's texts. The scholarship done in the past that brought the women's work to the forefront has not always impacted undergraduate teaching, and this Women Writers of the Beat Generation website and the focused curriculum provides students have a new way to discover the women Beats' work. This dissertation discusses how the Open Educational Resource materials including the interface, digital database, metadata, and the Omeka website can assist undergraduate students studying the women writers of the Beat Generation. Using open-source software called Omeka, this project's website provides a single space to research the work of the women Beat writers, elevating the women's importance in the Beat literary canon.

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A majority of adolescents and young adults report inconsistent use of safe sexual behaviors and contraception methods due to a variety of influencing factors. These practices can lead to limited future reproductive choices and can spread communicable disease in the population. The purpose of this study was to determine if a woman's decision to use a specific type of contraceptive method is influenced by her partner's attitude toward preventive sexual health practices. A secondary purpose was to analyze women's attitudes towards safe sex and contraceptive practices as independent entities of disease and pregnancy in the reproductive cycle. A literature review was conducted from the following databases: CINAHL, ERIC, Medline, and PsycInfo. Initial search criteria terms included contraception, male partner, influence, decision-making, intimacy, and relationship. Results were limited to scholarly journals/peer reviewed articles published no earlier than 1996. Overall, findings were inconclusive if a relationship exists between women's choice of contraceptive method and their partner's attitude towards safe sex and preventative health practices. In conclusion, further research analyzing intimate partner relationships and their influence on sexual health practices can provide insight into creating a plan of preventative care tailored to each individual.

<p>This research examines the role of narrative within two Women's Shelters in Hamilton, Ontario. Utilizing a critical interpretive framework and drawing on anthropological approaches to narrative theory, I examine how front line shelter workers engage with the women they serve through, listening, interpreting and representing their clients stories and how they use these stories to provide direct service. Front line workers interpret clients' stories through various lenses, including, cultural and personal. Dominant discourses of homelessness, abuse, addictions, sex trade and mental health issues can be stereotypical and can limit human potential. Cultural narratives influence how we think about issues like homelessness and abuse and workers' own embodied subjectivities will influence how they understand each individual story. Shelter work can be very challenging, but the reality is that shelters are often the first place that women go when they need help and front line shelter workers have an opportunity to provide workers with much more than just basic needs. throughout this thesis, I argue that listening to clients stories is one of the most important things that shelter workers do and that by taking advantage of narrative moments front line shelter workers provide important opportunities for women to heal from the abuse and trauma that they have been through.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)