Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Cancer is a major public health concern in both developed and developing countries; it accounts for 13% of all deaths globally, of which 70% occur in middle- and low-income countries. In Nigeria, over 10 000 cancer deaths and 250 000 new cases of cancer are recorded yearly. Breast cancer is the second most common cancer worldwide, after lung cancer. It is the most common type of cancer diagnosed in women and the most common cause of death worldwide. Late detection and diagnosis of breast cancer leads to high mortality rate. In Nigeria certain cultural taboos are associated with breast cancer, which lead to poor information dissemination to women in rural communities. Breast self-examination (BSE) provides an inexpensive method for early detection of breast tumours. Knowledge and awareness about Breast Self-Examination are critical to promote consistent practices when the people concerned are empowered with the needed information to acquire the knowledge and skills which will inform practice of any health issue. In Nigeria it was reported that the number of women at risk of breast cancer increased progressively from 24.5 million in 1990 to about 40 million in 2010. This number is projected to rise to over 50 million by 2020, should the trend continue unabated. The current study explored the understandings of breast cancer and prevention, with particular emphasis on BSE practice among rural women, and developed an empowerment programme to promote uptake of this practice in a rural community in a south-western state of Nigeria. The study was framed in the Health Belief Model and Kieffer’s empowerment process. Participatory action research was used as study design and approach; and utilized both qualitative and qualitative methods. The sample for quantitative phase comprised 345 women aged 20 to 60 years, selected from 5 communities using a cross-sectional procedure. Data gathering instrument was a questionnaire. Summative statistics were calculated using the SPSS program. The sample for qualitative phase comprised of 95 women who were selected from the respondents to the quantitative phase. The data was collected through focus group discussion. The qualitative data was subjected to thematic analysis. Three themes that emerged for qualitative analysis which are: knowledge/awareness of BSE, practice and appeal for intervention, and misconception and fear. The survey results showed that a large proportion of the respondents (75.1% and 76.5%) had low levels of knowledge about BSE and did not practice BSE. Also, about 77% of the respondents expressed one form of barrier or another to BSE practice. However, despite these inadequacies, 87% of the respondents were ready and willing to improve their health if empowered with the right information and motivation. The empowerment program informed by the quantitative and qualitative phases and the stages of change with the full participation of the women. The program consisted of hands-on physical demonstrations, BSE pamphlets, and mnemonic songs were identified media of disseminating knowledge and practice of BSE. These media became the platforms for the empowerment programme developed for the women. A day was also set aside, just as is done for immunisation, for BSE practice and other women’s health issues to promote the prevention of breast cancer in the community. The “Physical demonstration” intervention resulted in an increase in the correct BSE practice from 23.5% at the beginning of the study, to 85.3% post the intervention. The “other intervention” resulted in 80% to 94.7% of participating women being able to practice correct physical step-by-step performance of BSE. The participatory approach contribute to a high levels of participation by women in Iddo local Government which led to the increase in the correct Breast Self–Examination as stated above.

Women’s involvement in the fishing sector has been overlooked. The underlying cause of many global conflicts is a lack of access to natural resources. For that reason, it is important to empower women in natural resources. Empowering women to work leads to better growth in third-world countries. Moreover, studying women’s empowerment and gender equality is fundamental to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Women and girls in Tanzania are subjected to discrimination and violence. This study aims to understand women’s role in the fishing sector, their challenges, and how civil society organization works with women’s empowerment in Mwanza, Tanzania. To understand these questions, this study will be based on a case study and use qualitative method to answer the questions. The analytical framework used in this thesis is Kabeer (1999:2005). To understand women's challenges and the view on gender equality in the fishing sector in Mwanza, 28 respondents were interviewed. The study came to the conclusion that women are facing serval challenges for that reason, they can not participate in the fishing sector. However, the government and the village councilors can overcome these challenges.

Consumers and the society as a whole are increasingly demanding companies to take their social responsibility and work actively for gender equality. Companies have therefore begun to use feminist messages in their advertising, also known as femvertising. Femvertising canbe described as advertising that strives to challenge norms about gender roles and body ideals, as well as empower women to achieve gender equality. If companies are not perceivedas genuine in their femvertising and use feminist messages to increase their sales, this can be classified as femwashing. The aim of this study is to examine young adults’ attitude towards femvertising and femwashing. Thus, young adults’ general attitude, the correlation between attitude towards femvertising and femwashing, and also which factors that can affect young adults’ attitude are investigated. Based on previous research, seven hypotheses were formulated. The data collection method for this study was a quantitative digital survey. There sult shows that young adults generally have a positive attitude towards femvertising and a negative attitude towards femwashing. The correlation between attitude towards femvertising and femwashing can be considered as strong. Gender, political opinion and identification as a feminist or not are factors that can influence young adults’ attitude towards femvertising and femwashing. Specifically, women, left-wing sympathizers and feminists tend to be more positive towards femvertising and more negative towards femwashing, compared to men, right-wing sympathizers and non-feminists. The result also shows that women are more positive to femvertising and more negative to femwashing because they tend to be both feminists and left-wing sympathizers to a greater extent than men. Based on theory about gender in the media, postfeminism and advertising, the result is analyzed and discussed. / Konsumenter och samhället i stort ställer allt högre krav på att företag ska ta sitt sociala ansvar och aktivt arbeta för jämställdhet. Företag har därmed börjat använda feministiska budskap i sin marknadsföring, även känt som femvertising. Femvertising är marknadsföring som strävar efter att utmana normer kring könsroller och kroppsideal samt stärka kvinnor för att uppnå jämställdhet. Om företag inte upplevs genuina i sin femvertising och istället utnyttjar feministiska budskap för att öka sin försäljning, kan detta klassas som femwashing. Syftet med denna studie är att kartlägga unga vuxnas attityd till femvertising och femwashing. Därmed undersöks unga vuxnas generella attityd, sambandet mellan attityd till femvertising och femwashing samt vilka faktorer som kan påverka unga vuxnas attityd. Baserat på tidigare forskning utformades sju hypoteser. Datainsamlingsmetoden för studien var en kvantitativ digital enkät. Resultatet visar att unga vuxna generellt har en positiv attityd till femvertising och en negativ attityd till femwashing. Sambandet mellan attityd till femvertising och femwashing kan konstateras vara starkt. Kön, politisk åskådning och identifiering som feminist eller ej är faktorer som kan påverka unga vuxnas attityd till femvertising och femwashing. Specifikt tenderar kvinnor, vänstersympatisörer och feministeratt vara mer positiva till femvertising samt mer negativa till femwashing, i jämförelse med män, högersympatisörer och icke-feminister. Resultatet visar även att kvinnor är mer positivatill femvertising och mer negativa till femwashing på grund av att de tenderar att vara både feminister och vänstersympatisörer i större utsträckning än män. Utifrån teori om kön i media, postfeminism samt marknadsföring analyseras och diskuteras resultatet.

Abstract The purpose of this research is to examine if female interests have been included in different levels of water governance in Cuamba municipality, Mozambique in order to understand if gender equality and women empowerment is being addressed at the grassroots level. In Sub-Saharan Africa women generally have the responsibility of fetching water and are therefore directly affected by the quality and accessibility of water and sanitation services. Though gender mainstreaming and policies addressing gender equality has been adopted in Mozambique, the actual difference that these measures have made to the lives of women in Mozambique is questionable.  A qualitative single case study has been conducted, by interviewing government institutions, the private sector and civil society actors at district and municipality level in Cuamba. The findings reveal that it is the municipality government, FIPAG and the traditional leaders that are the main actors with the power over the distribution of water in Cuamba and through a joint effort the water situation has improved a lot in recent years. The interest in water among women was mainly focused to having a water source while the main interests among men was to have a shorter distance as well as shorter queues to the water source. An abductive method of the analytical framework consisting of four dimensions of water governance and rethinking em(power)ment, gender and development has been used to guide the analysis of the findings in a more comprehensive manner thus investigating the power structures in each dimension of water governance with a focus on women empowerment. The result indicates that women living in the urban areas were more empowered in all notions of power due to better access to information and education thus giving them more time and individual knowledge to collectively and individually demand power over the distribution of water. Due to lack of empowerment among women living in the rural areas, these women demanded less regarding the distribution of water and had less individual understanding of water governance. Furthermore the interests among women living in the rural areas were mostly included in the decision-making processes as it generally concerned having access to a clean water source. As the women in the urban areas demanded more and had more interests in water governance it became clear that the female interests in the urban areas were not included in decision-making. By including more women in decision-making bodies in water governance and putting more emphasis on education for women these issues could be addressed.

THESIS ABSTRACT In this thesis, I attempt to identify major obstacles that are challenging the implementation of international human rights treaties in Afghanistan. With a focus on the treaties that promote women’s rights and prevent violence against women in a post-conflict situation. There are several obstacles including lack of rule of law and the existence of customary practices in Afghanistan. Despite these challenges, there are national legislations and policies that promote women’s rights and empowerment in Afghanistan. However, for women’s empowerment, it is not sufficient to have supportive laws and policies, but there is need for a systematic transformation of patriarchal structures by conducting a thorough gender analysis and ensuring gender mainstreaming. The Afghan government, as part of its commitment to the international community, has to take measures for removing obstacles and ensuring the implementation of human rights treaties in order to pave the way for women’s empowerment in Afghanistan.

<p>The Westsaharian women are a civic group that during their soon to be thirty years as refugees in the Westsaharian camps in south western Algeria have become empowered as citizens and advanced strongly in political representation. In theory, empowerment of women’s democratic citizenship has been described as a complex phenomenon. To gain an understanding about this in this study, I have described the women’s perceived access to resources and attitudes, and in what way these factors play a role for their active citizenship. This has been done by the use of Axel Hadenius’ theory about the democratic citizenship and Jo Rowlands’ theory about which resources that are to be considered as essential for women’s empowerment. To be able to perform the study, a case study was performed in the Westsaharian refugee camps during April-May 2004, followed up by a second during October-November 2004.</p><p>The study shows that there are resources and attitudes within both human and social capital that the women perceive to play a significant role for their active citizenship. These factors make the women take part in societal activities, strive to reach higher political positions, and work for a common civic development as women and as Westsaharian citizens. The result of the study further shows that there are contextual inhibiting and encouraging factors that the women perceive to affect their resources and attitudes that play a significant role for their active citizenship. </p>

India is the world’s largest democracy, one of the fastest growing economies and an enormous market for newspapers. It is also a country with deeply rooted gender biases where women are highly discriminated and marginalized at all levels of the society. The media is considered an important agent of power. Therefore this study focuses on how and to what extent the three Indian newspapers Hindustan Times, The Hindu and Times of India report on and approach gender inequality and women’s empowerment issues. How do journalists look upon their role and the role of the press in the women’s empowerment process? A quantitative content analysis was performed during five weeks (October 18 –November 21, 2010) and 69 articles that highlight gender inequality and women’s empowerment were found, collected and coded. This content analysis is combined with a qualitative method. Two informant interviews and six respondent interviews with journalists are included in the study. The most common main topics of the articles found were Law and amendments, Women’s movement, Political power, Reproductive health and Development. Five out of six interviewed reporters believe that their newspapers have a major impact on its readership and all six respondents were of the opinion that their newspapers encourage reporting on these matters. Although they believe that media’s overall influence is limited. The Hindu and Times of India report more on gender inequality and women’sempowerment issues than Hindustan Times does and some of the respondents express that The Hindu promotes development journalism more than the other two newspapers do.

Media in Nairobi is segmented when it comes to news and information; different media target different audience groups in the society through their preferred channels in search of news and information.     In Kibera, the biggest slum area in Nairobi and in whole East Africa, the urban slum community radio station Pamoja FM only works for the citizens living within Kibera. We aimed to find out how the youth in Kibera perceive the efficacy of the radio station as a viable source of news and information. We wanted to establish how important this radio station is to them as a tool of empowerment and knowledge to the youth.   Through semi-structured interviews with the youth in Kibera we carried out a qualitative research study during ten weeks, from October until December in 2011. We walked the field in Kibera to gather as much data as possible, and our findings were very interesting.   Key theories used in this study included the participatory communication model, the media dependency model and the uses and gratifications model.   The findings indicated that Pamoja FM has a great influence in the community as it is considered the most important source for news and information for the youth in this slum, and provides a platform that meets their needs as active participating audiences to the content supplied by the radio station. The radio is accredited to have changed the citizens´ way of thinking about tribalism since the post-election violence in 2007; the young women have assertively declared their space by playing a more proactive role in the community and audiences are empowered with home-grown problem solving skills that have bettered their lives and in pursuit for peace.

<p>This Minor Field Study examines whether or not Batswana female master students at the University of Botswana, due to their university education, have become more politically aware and critical towards their national political system. Botswana has been chosen as a critical case on the basis of the country’s long lasting democracy and the Botswana’s positive attitude towards their government.</p><p>The research takes off in theories such as democratic and critical citizen’s theory and feminism. Based on these theories, an analytical framework with the core assumption that female university education creates politically critical women, has been developed. The study is based on ten qualitative interviews with female master students. The interview questions concern the respondent’s political awareness, participation and their perceptions of political institutions, regime principles and governmental performance.</p><p>The findings of the study are that university education makes women more politically aware, empowered and active, although we have found no significant correlation between university education and a rise in criticism among the interviewed women. However a majority of the respondents that actually have been affected by their education declare that they have become more politically critical.</p>

No description available.