Since the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000 it has become a frequently repeated argument that the participation of women makes peacebuilding processes more sustainable. Women’s involvement in peacebuilding is often connected to a long-term perspective, despite this little research have been carried out to examine how long-term peacebuilding is exercised in practise, leaving the understanding of the concept incomplete. This study aims to address this research gap by posing the following research question: “What type of peacebuilding activities are women’s organisations in Liberia carrying out?”. The main material consists of semi-structured interviews with representatives from Liberian women’s organisations. The study concluded that the women’s organisations were conducting both reconstructive and transformative peacebuilding and thus indicated that women’s organisations have the potential to play a significant role even in long-term peacebuilding endeavours. They exercised peacebuilding through activities such as rebuilding relationships, promoting establishment of democratic institutions, promoting popular support for democracy and peace, advocating for fulfilment of core state functions, promoting economic development, promoting respect for human rights, providing local capacities for conflict resolution and resolving underlying causes of conflict. This study also found that women’s organisations were engaging in the prevention of electoral violence as a form of peacebuilding activity, which has not been identified by previous research.

This thesis examines the history of the University of Queensland Women Graduates’ Association (UQWGA) from 1920 to 1979. The association was established by a small group of women graduates in Brisbane in 1920, and from that time they maintained links with graduate women throughout Australia and internationally. These links were formalised in 1922 when the Australian Federation of University Women was formed and immediately affiliated with the International Federation of University Women. The UQWGA aimed to connect and support graduate women locally as well as promote the values of the IFUW which included international friendship and peace. The history of women’s organisations in Australia has attracted little scholarly attention. This thesis contributes to the growing body of research on the women’s movement from the end of World War I to the emergence of women’s liberation in the 1970s. The members of the UQWGA believed that through their university education they had developed the skills and knowledge to contribute to the betterment of society. University education had also instilled in them a sense of privileged that was a motivating factor in their mobilisation. The UQWGA provided a supportive and stimulating space for graduate women that encouraged their endeavours in professional and public life. The actions and approach of the UQWGA reflect those of other mainstream women’s organisation up to the mid-1960s. The organisation promoted its agenda through ‘polite lobbying,’ utilising methods that were respectful of established systems and processes. The UQWGA established and maintained supportive relationships with other organisations, both men’s and women’s, and with the University of Queensland. The association was primarily concerned with issues of the status and position of graduate women, but members felt that their contribution would also be valued in the wider community. This thesis aims to locate the work of the UQWGA in the context of the women’s movement in Australia, including how it reacted to the altering women’s movement of the 1970s when it changed its name to the Australian Federation of University Women – Queensland.

This thesis examines the history of the University of Queensland Women Graduates’ Association (UQWGA) from 1920 to 1979. The association was established by a small group of women graduates in Brisbane in 1920, and from that time they maintained links with graduate women throughout Australia and internationally. These links were formalised in 1922 when the Australian Federation of University Women was formed and immediately affiliated with the International Federation of University Women. The UQWGA aimed to connect and support graduate women locally as well as promote the values of the IFUW which included international friendship and peace. The history of women’s organisations in Australia has attracted little scholarly attention. This thesis contributes to the growing body of research on the women’s movement from the end of World War I to the emergence of women’s liberation in the 1970s. The members of the UQWGA believed that through their university education they had developed the skills and knowledge to contribute to the betterment of society. University education had also instilled in them a sense of privileged that was a motivating factor in their mobilisation. The UQWGA provided a supportive and stimulating space for graduate women that encouraged their endeavours in professional and public life. The actions and approach of the UQWGA reflect those of other mainstream women’s organisation up to the mid-1960s. The organisation promoted its agenda through ‘polite lobbying,’ utilising methods that were respectful of established systems and processes. The UQWGA established and maintained supportive relationships with other organisations, both men’s and women’s, and with the University of Queensland. The association was primarily concerned with issues of the status and position of graduate women, but members felt that their contribution would also be valued in the wider community. This thesis aims to locate the work of the UQWGA in the context of the women’s movement in Australia, including how it reacted to the altering women’s movement of the 1970s when it changed its name to the Australian Federation of University Women – Queensland.

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This thesis explores the lives of a group of fifteen exceptional women who were dedicated to the cause of advancing girls and women in sport and physical activity. Over several decades, they worked in a voluntary capacity to transform women in sport through practice and policy development. Moreover, they aligned such unpaid work with personal and local experiences of volunteering that eventually led to their participation in international sport circles and policies. The key settings for their voluntary service came from their roles in the emergence and maintenance of two international women‘s sport organisations – International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Girls and Women (IAPESGW) and WomenSport International (WSI). In addition, their voluntary roles were so substantial that they were inextricably interwoven within all aspects of their lives. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to explore the participants‘ relationships with sport volunteering, in the particular settings of IAPESGW and WSI, whilst analysing the role of volunteering in their lives. The study utilised a holistic framework to gain an in-depth understanding about the women‘s commitment to the cause and how volunteering fits into their lifestyle. As there were no models from the sport volunteering field that were appropriate for this study, the research drew upon and developed Hustinx and Lammertyn‘s (2003) non-sport model called the Collective and Reflexive Styles of Volunteering (SOV). The SOV was valuable because it offered a multi-dimensional approach to explain how, why, and when the participants got involved with advancing women‘s sport and physical activity, and how their involvement related to and influenced their wider lifestyles. A critical realist and social constructionist philosophy was employed to have a greater understanding of the women‘s realities, and life history interviews were conducted to gain a greater understanding about how they constructed their knowledge about themselves, sport, and the world around them. The study illustrated the complexity of the women‘s volunteer participation. The findings suggested that their sport passion and identity guided many of their actions and activities throughout their life, such as choices for higher education and within professional work. In addition, the findings showed that it was their personal experiences and gained knowledge about gender disadvantages in sport that initially stimulated and then repeatedly reinforced their interests and commitment. Although these had strong impacts on the women‘s entrance into and commitment to the cause, the findings highlighted that the women had to identify the conditions of their relationships, family, and types of paid work to be compatible with levels of volunteering. The study concluded that sport researchers can benefit from examining volunteers from a holistic perspective to gain a better understanding of the conditions under which individuals make such an extreme, voluntary contribution to sport.