Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

This research explores how Lebanese women's rights activists use their kinship system to pursue citizenship rights and political recognition. Building on social movements, social capital, and feminist theories, I argue that Lebanese women's rights activists leverage support from their kin groups and adhere to the behavioral norms set by the kinship system in order to gain access, build capacity and advance their movement's goals and strategies. In investigating the impact of being embedded in--or autonomous from--kinship structure on activism, my research suggests that Lebanese women's rights activists interact with their kin groups at three levels. Firstly, at the level of becoming an activist, some women obtain direct support and encouragement from their nuclear and extended family, while others rise through alternative networks such as membership in a political party or a professional union. At the personal strategies level, some activists utilize their family support and kinship networks to establish their activist identities and facilitate their civic engagement, while others use collegial and professional networks. Finally, on the organizational level, women's rights organizations pursue women's empowerment in the context of their role in the family, dissolving the divide between women's rights in the sphere of legal equality and women's rights within the family. Women's relation to kinship is significant in explaining how they form their activist identity and construct their activism, regardless whether they use embedded or autonomous strategies. Activists receive empowerment and support from the family in advancing their goals and consider family members as important forces in shaping their journeys to activism. In the same vein, the kinship system contributes to determining actors' social status at the outset; its networks potentially grant activists access to the public sphere; and its name and ties endows activists with public trust and respect. Lebanese activists expand on the capabilities provided for them by their kin groups to enhance women’s status in their public as well as private roles. / text

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / This study aimed to investigate how male university students become involved in activism to end sexual violence against women. Historically, gender-based violence (GBV) prevention efforts have been a women's issue and men have not typically been part of this violence prevention picture. However, in the past two decades there have been increasing efforts to involve men. This has been motivated by growing recognition that, "while most men do not use violence against women, when violence does occur it is perpetrated largely by men and the ideas and behaviours linked to masculinity are highly influential in men's use of violence against women" (Flood 2011, p. 361). This project focuses on the Silent Protest, a campaign against sexual violence initiated in 2006 at Rhodes University. Since its inception the Silent Protest exclusively recruited women but, in 2011, men were actively invited and encouraged to participate as allies in activism to end sexual violence. This study aims to investigate the pathways through which male university students come to be involved in the Silent Protest and the meanings they derive from participation in protest activities. Men who participated in the Silent Protest were interviewed and the transcripts were analysed from an interpretative phenomenological framework. It was found that participation was motivated by an awareness of rape as a significant societal problem, a desire to make a difference, wanting emotional closure and as a result of the influence of family and friends. Participation resulted in both negative and positive experiences for male students. Positive experiences included a sense of accomplishment and pride and a sense of solidarity whilst negative experiences were feelings of helplessness, guilt and shock, feeling drained, and feeling grouped with rapists. Enhancing knowledge in this area can serve a critical role in informing outreach efforts on how best to engage and involve men in working towards ending sexual violence against women.

This study examines the relationship between divided government and women's organizations' political activity. In the literature divided government is associated with political openness leading to a decline in the repression of alternative political views and increased organizational activity. In this thesis I hypothesize that divided government is related to increased participation in political activity by women's organizations. Political activity is expected to increase during periods of divided government due to increased opportunities to influence formal government as political parties and elected officials compete for public support. This study analyzes political activity by organizations associated with the women's movement in two developed democracies, the United States and Ireland during periods of (1) divided government and (2) periods of unified government in each country. This study focuses on activity revolving around the issues of reproductive rights and violence against women, two of the most salient issues to the women's movement. Organizational activity includes participation in protests, letter writing campaigns to political elites, and the endorsement of political candidates or parties by the National Organization for Women (NOW) and The Third Wave Foundation in the United States, and The National Women's Council of Ireland and The Irish Feminist Network in the Republic of Ireland. This study examines organizational activity in two cases of unified government controlling for partisanship of the executive, and one case of divided government in each country case. The findings of this study support the hypothesis that divided government is related to an increase in political activity by women's organizations in the United States. However, more research is needed to address alternative explanations for the level of political activity of women's organizations during periods of unified government. In addition, more research is needed to address explanations of political activity of women's organizations in Ireland.

No / Global concern about feminicide -- the killing of girls or women for reasons related to gender roles – started in Latin America with the epidemic of sexualised murders and disappearances in Central America and Mexico. There, the killers walked free due to state indifference and an incompetent criminal justice system. But this book tells a more positive story from the region. Brazil has high numbers of feminicides, mostly committed by intimate partners. Yet, the state’s responses to this crime have been transformed in recent years. This is the first country study to examine in detail how strategic action by the women’s movement has resulted in significant improvements in the investigation, prosecution and prevention of domestic violence and of feminicide. This study traces the interaction between the main contributory factors to that transformation. Innovation and capacity-building in the criminal justice system has been driven by the development of norms and protocols at the inter-American level, by changes in Brazilian law and jurisprudence, and by policy entrepreneurs within the police and justice sector. Executive branch investment since the early 2000s in tackling gender-based violence created a propitious political environment. Coalitions of interest involving feminist academics, NGOs, local campaigners, bureaucrats within the state machineries for women, politicians, journalists, and criminal justice professionals were able to identify, create and use institutional spaces for change and diffuse good practices. / Research Development Fund Publication Prize Award winner, Mar 2021.

The system of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) has been the subject of feminist, critical examinations since the 1970s. Subject headings pertaining both to feminist literature and to women in general have been analyzed to determine how LCSH represents these topics. In this study, I contribute to this body of scholarship by analyzing and reporting on the nature of the LCSH subject representation of 52 core works published from 1986-1998 in the areas of feminist theory and women’s movements. These monographs were selected from the 3rd edition of Women’s Studies: A Recommended Bibliography (Krikos & Ingold, 2004). The analysis of works of/on feminist theory and on women’s movements is preceded by a pilot study of 24 core works on the topics of Communications, Film, Television, Media, and Journalism. I utilize the abstracts of these works in Krikos & Ingold (2004), as well as the works themselves, to establish the nature of each monograph’s perspective and scope. To this information I compare the LC subject headings employed in the bibliographic records representing these works in the Library of Congress Online Catalog in order to assess the headings’ usefulness as surrogate representations of these monographs in terms of accuracy, relevance, specificity, and currency. I present my findings as sets of problems and solutions illustrated with specific examples. Overall, LCSH is not able to represent adequately the 24 works in the pilot study sample or the 52 core works in the main study based on its current application. I conclude with a proposed set of subject headings as suggested by the abstracts of these works.

The main objective of this dissertation is to seek answers to three questions: 1) Why did it take so much longer for women than men to win the vote? 2) Why did it take women so long to be elected in any numbers to national legislatures?, and 3) What has been the political significance of women's entry into national legislatures? The answers are sought by examining an aspect of the development of parties ignored by most political scientists, namely the relationship between women's suffrage, party politics and patriarchal power. An empirical study on Iceland is used to examine this aspect in detail. In the period 1908- 1926, women in Iceland ran separate lists at local and national elections. The fate of the women's lists in Reykjavik is explored and so are the policies of women councillors. Iceland was not the only country to see the emergence of separate women's political organizations that ran candidates at elections. The outcome was nowhere as successful as in Iceland. Through the rise, and decline, of the women's lists and women's policies in Reykjavik, the factors that allowed women to carry out their own maternalistic politics within a male-run system are illuminated. The dissertation draws on numerous theories and postulations within political science. It also challenges many of them. Theda Skocpol's structured policy approach proves highly useful in examining the larger political environment and factors that stimulated or hindered women's politics and policies in Reykjavik. The approach does not, however, account for male power as a force on its own. The structured policy approach is challenged by providing another important factor, the role of individuals and their ideas as a political force. The conclusion is that patriarchal theories are needed within political science, and it is suggested that political parties, their origin and working methods, provide excellent starting points from which to examine male power, or patriarchy, as a political force of its own. / digitalisering@umu

The system of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) has been the subject of feminist, critical examinations since the 1970s. Subject headings pertaining both to feminist literature and to women in general have been analyzed to determine how LCSH represents these topics. In this study, I contribute to this body of scholarship by analyzing and reporting on the nature of the LCSH subject representation of 52 core works published from 1986-1998 in the areas of feminist theory and women’s movements. These monographs were selected from the 3rd edition of Women’s Studies: A Recommended Bibliography (Krikos & Ingold, 2004). The analysis of works of/on feminist theory and on women’s movements is preceded by a pilot study of 24 core works on the topics of Communications, Film, Television, Media, and Journalism. I utilize the abstracts of these works in Krikos & Ingold (2004), as well as the works themselves, to establish the nature of each monograph’s perspective and scope. To this information I compare the LC subject headings employed in the bibliographic records representing these works in the Library of Congress Online Catalog in order to assess the headings’ usefulness as surrogate representations of these monographs in terms of accuracy, relevance, specificity, and currency. I present my findings as sets of problems and solutions illustrated with specific examples. Overall, LCSH is not able to represent adequately the 24 works in the pilot study sample or the 52 core works in the main study based on its current application. I conclude with a proposed set of subject headings as suggested by the abstracts of these works.

No description available.

This exploratory case study examines the proposition that development NGOs are playing an active part in the de-politicization of Palestinian women's movements fight for independence and liberation from occupation by advancing the development projects (McMicheal, 1996) push for Western conceptions of democratisation and modernisation as being the key to economic and social development of Palestinian society, while disregarding the current state of occupation (Jad, 2003). The application of Third World feminist perspectives allows for the examination of structural and systemic forms of oppression that encourage womens struggles and names ways that women have taken action to make positive libratory social change in the face of systems of domination such as capitalism and western-led international development. Education and knowledge production are implicated in this process of NGO-led de-politicization (NGO-ization) of Palestinian womens movements. / Theoretical, cultural and international studies