The modern scholarship of women has relied on anecdotal evidence from the literature of Sidonius Apollinaris and Gregory of Tours to describe women's lives in fifth- and sixth-century Gaul. Rarely has it been noted that the anecdotes demonstrate behaviours that are part of formulaic descriptions employed by the authors. Sidonius represented life in late fifth-century sub-Roman Gaul as still very Roman. This illustrates Sidonius' conservatism and his attempt to hold onto Roman ideals in the face of a new Germanic reality in Gaul. Sidonius references women in terms of traditional Roman virtues and images of a dutiful wife. By the late sixth century, with the descendents of Clovis established as rulers of the Frankish kingdoms, Roman Gaul was a distant memory. Gregory of Tours wrote a narrative history about the world as he saw it, from his episcopal see in Tours. This was a Germanic and Christian world and the women he wrote about exemplify these realities. In spite of the differences there is much that is comparable between the two authors. Sidonius and Gregory had similar motivations for writing guided by a common set of rules and regulations. Their similar purpose reflects their status and role as leading men in a changing and unstable society. The validation of their own lives, choices, and traditions in the face of cultural change marks out their literature. There is a continuity between the authors that demonstrates universality in the portrayal of women found in both classical and Christian traditions. This is the belief that behind every good man is a good woman and that domestic harmony is a sign of a man's authority to rule, preach, or govern. My purpose is to analyse the representations of women in the context of the author's literary aims and personal goals. The accounts of women are construed to fit the themes of Gregory's history or Sidonius' letter or poem, not to represent the women. It then follows that if, and when, the author's anecdotal information on women is used as evidence for social history, the author's context and his connections to each woman must first be understood. This will permit a reinterpretation and re-evaluation of the evidence on women's lives from the literature of Sidonius Apollinaris and Gregory of Tours.

Cette thèse a pour but de clarifier les définitions les plus courantes des micro-entreprises dirigées par des femmes (MEDF); de comprendre le débat entourant le sujet; de comparer ces entreprises à celles du secteur formel ou moderne; et d'étudier leurs difficultés et leurs fonctions dans le cadre de l'économie générale d'un pays en voie de développement (PVD). Le PVD en question est le Mexique, le contexte spécifique de l'étude est la ville de Mexico D.F., et l'étude de cas portera sur un cours de formation donné par une Organisation Non Gouvernementale (ONG) locale appelée Mujeres en Accion Sindical (MAS). La thèse cherche à analyser si les femmes qui ont suivi ce cours sont économiquement mieux établies, soit en étant salariées soit en lançant leur propre MEDF. La conclusion générale de l'étude est que le niveau de formation est important et aide les femmes dans la recherche d'un emploi; cependant, il ne peut le garantir car cet emploi ne dépend pas seulement de la formation, mais aussi d'autres variables importantes dans le contexte de Mexico D.F. Effectivement, le nombre de femmes qui travaillent après la formation du MAS est relativement faible à cause de la diversité et de l'intensité des obstacles auxquels les femmes doivent faire face pour trouver du travail, et ce, indépendamment du niveau de formation.

Much research has been conducted on the issue of the under-representation of women in math, science and engineering careers. This research has largely focused on a single factor and has usually taken the form of survey research. Little research has taken a holistic approach, nor has it looked exclusively at young women who have recently begun a program in math, science or engineering. The present study was qualitative in nature and it took a holistic approach to the study of the under-representation of women in math, science and engineering in order to gain a better understanding of the influences involved in this decision. This study focused on three factors which are involved in the decision to continue in math and science and they include Interpersonal Influences, Contextual Influences and Intrapersonal Influences. Thirteen in-depth interviews were conducted with young women who were in their first or second year of a math, science or engineering program. Interviews focused on these three factors. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Cette thèse se propose de comprendre le débat sur l'avortement au plan international en analysant le contenu discursif des Rapports des Conférences sur la population des Nations-Unies. Une comparaison a été établie entre les rencontres de Bucarest 1974, de Mexico 1984 et celle du Caire en 1994. Au Caire, le débat sur l'avortement a été un sujet dominant, ce qui justifie son analyse approfondie. Considérant l'importance politique de la liberté de décision des femmes en la matière, la thèse tente de répondre à la question suivante: Quels sont les discours qui dominent le débat sur l'avortement lors de la conférence du Caire et que suggèrent-ils sur la représentation des femmes en tant qu'individus? Notre hypothèse est que dominent deux types de discours dans le débat sur l'avortement au plan international: un discours scientifique et un discours religieux. Ils s'opposent idéologiquement en évoquant des arguments moraux ou rationnels, et présentent le "problème de la surpopulation" ou le "caractère sacré de la fécondité" comme des vérités. Des idées de Michel Foucault, en particulier celles qui rendent compte de la relation entre sexualité et politique, ont servi comme schéma de réflexion. Les discours ont été replacés dans un schéma analytique plus vaste qui porte sur le bio-pouvoir ou la "technologie politique des individus", ce qui permet de mieux comprendre l'évolution historique du contrôle des populations et de la planification familiale. On s'aperçoit ainsi que les discours dominants qui s'opposent dans le débat sur l'avortement, ont tout de même quelque chose en commun: une vision limitatrice de l'individualité des femmes.

Traînant les vestiges du passé, notre société actuelle est de fait marquée du sexisme lequel est repérable dans tourtes ses structures et ses stratifications, y compris l'appareil judiciaire. Sous ce prisme, nous avons voulu vérifier in globo si l'introduction du SPM en cour, que ce soit à titre de défense ou qu'il soit utilisé contre la femme en situation de demanderesse/défenderesse, pouvait s'inscrire dans ces pratiques d'oppression contre les femmes. De quelles représentations sociales des femmes et de leur cté participe cette agence de contrôle social? Pour éclairer cette zone d'ombre, il fallait nécessairement mettre en lumière ce que la reconnaissance du syndrome prémenstruel (SPM) par les tribunaux signifiait et impliquait autant pour les femmes directement impliquées dans le processus judiciaire que pour celles en général. De ces considérations, il s'agissait enfin de se positionner par rapport à la pertinence du SPM dans le champs de la transgression et de son usage en cour sous quelque forme que ce soit. À cette fin, nous nous sommes servi/e/s de 6 transcriptions judiciaires, relevant des instances criminelle et civile, à l'intérieur desquelles nous avons effectué une analyse documentaire. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Les études portant sur la criminalité des femmes se sont souvent attardées sur les causes de leur déviance. Nous avons voulu aller au-delà des explications de leur criminalité en axant notre recherche sur les représentations des femmes criminelles. Plus précisément, notre objectif de recherche est d'examiner le discours médiatique afin d'en ressortir les images populaires d'une femme "maricide", c'est-à-dire d'une femme qui tue son conjoint. Ce travail fera l'examen du traitement médiatique des femmes "maricides" dans une période historique donnée: soit la fin du XIXe siècle jusqu'au début du XXe siècle. Nous voulons retracer et reconstruire l'image médiatique des femmes qui ont tué leur conjoint à cette époque. Il s'agit d'une analyse journalistique des cas de sept femmes qui ont été condamnées à mort pour le meurtre de leur conjoint en Ontario de 1871 à 1946: l'objectif de recherche étant de dégager comment se construit l'image de la femme "maricide" à travers les médias. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Objectives. To describe the support needs of high risk women; and to develop and evaluate a decision aid to meet their decision making needs. The Ottawa Decision Support Framework was the conceptual framework that guided the needs assessment and decision aid development and evaluation. Setting. Urban breast health clinic for women at high risk of breast cancer. Methods. The support needs of high risk women were identified using a self-assessment survey completed before and a satisfaction survey completed after a consultation visit with breast health practitioners. Guided by six key considerations for the development of decision aids, a breast cancer prevention decision aid was designed to address high risk women's informational and decisional support needs. The evaluation included a pre-test with 10 high risk women using the decision aid alone and a before/after study with 17 high risk women using the decision aid combined with decision support counselling. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

The purpose of this study is to understand how individual characteristics and traits in high ability women with eating disorders interact with contextual factors such as the family, social context and culture. The participants in the study are four high ability women. Three at the time of data collection, have been suffering from an eating disorder and one participant has been in recovery for a number of years. The qualitative design of the study allows for the emergence of common themes among the participants. Through in-depth interviews, experience sampling methodology and artifacts an understanding emerges of the individual and contextual factors that each perceived was associated with the development of her eating disorder. Results of the study indicate that high ability women possess the following individual factors that contribute to the development of their eating disorder: caring and nurturing others but not themselves, hypersensitivity, over-excitability, perfectionism, harm avoidance, reward dependence, shame, guilt and a sense of ineffectiveness and the lack of an identity. The most significant finding of the study is that individual factors in all the women were discordant with the family context in which they were raised. Specifically, the family features of emotional inexpression, a high achievement orientation, an enmeshed style of parenting and a chaotic environment. The poorness of fit between each woman and her family was associated with the development of her eating disorder. Finally what emerged from the present study was that the reciprocal interaction among individual and contextual factors explained the development of each woman's eating disorder. The concluding chapters present and discuss the common themes that emerged regarding the factors which interacted in each woman's life, leading her to turn to an eating disorder in order to cope. Recommendations are made to educators, psychologists and parents to work to create a goodness of fit in the lives of all women, in particular those with high abilities.

Through extracting accurate formalized versions of the subject's actions, motive, and experiences to describe and explain their retirement phenomenon, this study attempted to capture the substance and nuance of the opinions of women athletes now retired who competed in the Olympic canoeing discipline of sprint racing as members of the Canadian National Canoe Team between 1984 to 1998. Whether smooth or problematic, retirement necessitates a degree of adjustment which is thought to be dependent on the individual's perception of retirement itself. In this regard, the qualitative methodology, borrowing from phenomenology and free from predetermined theories, concentrated on the subject-experience and assumed the importance of understanding the retirement experience, as it is known to, and in the words of the women who lived the experience. In addition, the choice of focusing on only one National Team permitted a fuller contextualization of the retirement phenomenon within a specific sport environment. A short demographic questionnaire was initially given to the study participants to ascertain basic information. This was followed by an open-ended in-depth interview, using a semi-structured format, to obtain information pertaining to the specific reasons and circumstances affecting their retirement, as well as the manner in which they reacted to, and deal with their retirement from the National Canoe Team. Data collection and analysis were undertaken simultaneously which ensured a systematic effort to verify and refine existing themes. Data were submitted to a systematic process which enabled the reduction of the vast quantity of data into manageable segments. Coding of the data served to separate, compile, and organize the data, while comparing the events, experiences, actions, and interactions for similarities and differences. Through content analysis, both inference and interpretation were used to give meaning to the transcripts. The end result was the emergence of themes from the data, each theme internally consistent but distinct and separate from all other themes identified. The inductive examination of the relationships present within and among the identified themes allowed for developing interpretations and explanations of the phenomenon under study. In an effort to capture and understand the essence of the retirement experience, a schematic representation was drawn which encapsulates the major patterns found in the women's narratives regarding their retirement experiences. The patterns are located on a continuum which reflects the inter-relationships of the experiences and reactions. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This thesis explores the meaning of embodied existence in the discourse of difference feminism and in the articulation of feminist theological ethics. Specifically, the analysis centres on the embodiment of maternity, both as it has been depicted in the tradition of philosophical and theological thought and as contemporary feminists debate its significance. The salient question guiding this inquiry springs from a set of questions that have been energetically explored throughout the history of philosophy. What is the significance of the female body to the enterprise of intellectual discourse? To spiritual transcendence? To the capacity to reason? To the way in which ethics is perceived and "done"? In general, the tradition has tolerated the inclusion of female embodiment only insofar as it gave flesh to expressions of human depravity. Building on the work of Mary O'Brien, principally in The Politics of Reproduction, this thesis extends the original questions by exploring the meaning of maternal embodiment within the theoretical and structural creations of Western thought. The first chapter outlines the contemporary debate among several feminist writers regarding the place of difference in feminist theorizing. Each of these authors is particularly concerned with the dualistic encoding of Western society that has relegated woman to the periphery of meaning-making. The analysis reveals that, from differing standpoints, motherhood emerges in their work as the inscribed and fundamentally subverted foundation of patriarchal ethics. In chapter two, the thesis details Mary O'Brien's philosophy of birth as itself a dialectical encounter with the traditional themes and methodologies of masculine theory construction. The analysis reveals how Mary O'Brien retrieves a universal experience as a theoretical and concrete basis for feminism without rendering it static and resistant to change. O'Brien reworks some of the seminal concepts of philosophy and ethics in order to validate the material experiences with which women are variously familiar. The third chapter compares each feminist account with Mary O'Brien's work, drawing on strengths and weaknesses and on the complementary links that can be deduced. The use of predecessor theory, the tension between material existence and abstraction, and the feminist quest for subjecthood and autonomy feature prominently in this dialectical encounter. Finally, chapter four compares a traditionally inspired "theology of the body" by Benedict Ashley with feminist theological views of embodiment offered by Beverly Wildung Harrison and Lisa Sowle Cahill. Harrison and Cahill, it is revealed, bridge Ashley's quest to theologize embodied existence with Mary O'Brien's affirmation of birth as a resource for profound ethical insight. The thesis also draws out important links between Mary O'Brien's understanding of maternity and the clarion wisdom of feminist theological ethics.