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This goal of this study is to discern the ways in which women's subjectivities have changed through the processes of decolonisation, modernization, and nation building between the 1930s and 2000 in rural Dominica. The relationship between the shifting conditions of colonial and postcolonial life in its material, political, social, and cultural aspects, and the change in the discourses that relate to proper behaviour (moral discourses) are examined. I have explored the ways in which women position themselves with relation to these discourses (which could be called moral discourses), through how they employ them in their representations, and how they negotiate them, engaging them in the creation of what could be called an 'ethics of self.' The research, carried out over a one-year period in the village of La Plaine in Eastern Dominica, involved participant observation in the village; life history interviews with women of three generations; the analysis of skits and pageants; and documentary research involving primary and secondary sources. Several discursive themes emerged in the analyses: women's use of accounts of the past to critique the present, in what I have called critical nostalgia; the change in values epitomized by the notion of respect that formed the basis of local relations and which has begun to disappear with the change in governance and economic relations; the ambivalences involved in gender relations, especially those associated with expectations of women towards men and women's autonomy from men that derive from historical circumstances of colonization and decolonization; and the celebration and discursive dissemination of values that associate femininity with the political entity that Dominica has become. Differences found between women's expressions in both the discourses they engaged with, and in the particular ways they used them to frame their experiences, were related mainly to age and socio-historical changes, but also to socio-economic background.

This research was carried out between June and July 2008 among migrant labour women who work in the clothes manufacturing industries of Lesotho. It aimed at uncovering the effects that women's absence in families has on their families, basing itself on the assumption that women employees of manufacturing industries of Maseru are migrants from rural areas whose families remain in the rural areas. The three main findings in the research are that; men do not remain in rural areas but migrate and work in the manufacturing industries in Maseru as well, while children remain behind in the care of either maternal or paternal extended family. Secondly, this set up (men migrating with their wives) has enhanced marital relationships of migrant labour women, while children of migrant labour women have been affected negatively by being separated from their mothers. A third finding that emerged in this study is that women indulge in extramarital affairs even when they live and stay in the same place with their husbands. Finally, this paper recommends strategies that may ensure that mothers and children maintain a healthy relationship and it makes suggestions pertaining to the spread of HIV in the manufacturing industries. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2008.

This is an examination of the position of Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg (1633--1694) with regard to contemporary societal gender-paradigms, which were the conditions under which she produced her literary work; these same conditions are also reflected in her texts. / The first chapter includes a methodological discussion and establishes the importance of applying a socio-historical approach in order to better understand the situation of women in the Baroque period, and of Greiffenberg in particular, in order to answer the question, how it was possible for the author to write and publish at a time that generally excluded women from such activities. / The second chapter provides a brief biography of Greiffenberg and a review of secondary literature, with the main focus on the positioning of the poet within patriarchal society. / The socio-historical framework includes the religious, social, and legal position of women. These include: the hierarchy of power based on gender-roles, definitions of women in marriage, educational paradigms, as well as characteristics typically attributed to women. An analysis of the moral and theological view of women, as outlined by Martin Luther and presented in sermons by Johann Michael Dilherr, evaluates the general conditions for women during the Baroque period and the specific position of Greiffenberg (chapter three). With a similar aim in mind, chapter four examines the genre of "Hatisvaterliteratur" through the example by Wolfgang Helmhard von Hohberg. / This provides a framework for the investigation of Greiffenberg's expressions of her views regarding gender politics. She made the restrictions placed on women a topic in both her published and unpublished texts. She also developed strategies to overcome these restrictions. She found the courage to act against the proscribed role for women by defining her writing as God's will and thus based her profession on a higher authority. She also affirmed the gender-paradigms, while at the same time transgressing their boundaries, whereby she was able to negotiate the roles of both a woman and a publishing writer at a time when one identity conflicted with the other (chapters five and six).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-155). / Microfiche. / x, 155 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

Georges Duby and Michelle Perrot’s work, Histoire des femmes en Occident, Antoine Prost and Gérard Vincent’s work A History of Private Life as well as Chantal Antier’s work Les Femmes dans la Grande Guerre and Carol Mann’s work Femmes dans la Guerre, show that women have been largely ignored in the annals written about the twentieth century. This period was one marked by two World Wars, which had an enormous impact on women, especially in terms of their roles in society. These events resulted in women moving from the home to the world of work. These writers acknowledge that women in the twentieth century were mostly excluded from history. In contrast to others who have written about this time, these writers consider women and their roles in society and how these roles have changed as a consequence of the historical events of the time. Marie-Paul Armand was a popular writer of French fiction. At first glance her novels seem to be enjoyable historical, romantic fiction for readers who enjoy sentimental love stories. However on closer examination one can see that she rigorously researched the period in which her novels are set. These novels reconstitute the reality of women’s lives during the twentieth century. In her first award-winning novel La poussière des corons, Armand depicted the life of her main character, Madeleine, through the various stages of a woman’s life from her birth at the turn of the century, early childhood, adolescence during the First World War until old age in the 1960s. This novel mirrors the life of a woman in working class French mining society from the beginning of the twentieth century until the fifties and sixties when Western women underwent an unprecedented metamorphosis of their role. These novels would appeal to a wider readership than works by Historians with the same subject matter.

Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis examines the social determinants of women's health status, health knowledge and knowledge and use of health services in a peri-urban area, using Kbayelitsha in Cape Town, South Africa as a case study. It argues for the importance of women's health as a specific focus, looks at some trends in women's health internationally over the past two decades and reviews the main factors affecting women's health. Some key issues in women's health of special relevance to developing countries such as South Africa are discussed. There is a special focus on newly urbanised women in peri-urban areas. Against this background the results of a community-based survey, preceded by indepth interviews, and conducted amongst 659 women in Kbayelitsha in 1989 and 1990 are presented. Data collected were statistically analysed using unIvariate,, bivariate and multivariate analysis. A number of priority social and health problems are identified: poverty; poor environmental conditions; lack of education, partlcularly skills training appropriate for finding work and the subordinate social status of women. Major health concerns included reproductive tract infections, especially sexually transmitted diseases, infertility, contraceptive use and ante-natal care during pregnancy. There were inadequacies in cervical screening conducted by health services and deficiencies in respondents' knowledge of AIDS. cervical smears and where to obtain various health services . Young, newly urbanised women, living in the poorly serviced and unserviced informal housing areas were partlcularly vulnerable in their socio-economic and health status within a peri-urban African community such as Khayelitsha. They also had poorest health knowledge and least knowledge of where to acquire health services. Some recommended interventions focussing on certain of these areas are suggested. It is argued that changes in the provision of women's health services within a primary health care setting can only be part of the process of improving women's health. Improvements in women's economic status and their social status are fundamental to any initiatives to improve their health status.

Submitted to the faculty of Arts in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 1982. / The study is concerned with the role of rural women in society. It focuses on a typically agricultural, grass-root community where the forces of traditional Zulu culture are still at work in family and clan relationships. This traditional way of life is retained and enforced through the most powerful institutions of religion and politics. Thus the authority structure and religious philosophy permeate interpersonal relationships giving them a character which is distinctively rural. Architecture, mode of dress, dietary habits and household settlement attest to the rurality of the community. This is an exploratory case study of a small section of a larger commu= nity, and which section represents the overall ~eneral character of the community. Although typically rural in terms of value and normative system, nevertheless it is already being steadily exposed to elements of an industrial society e.g. a money economy, agricultural technology, formal schooling and outmigration of male workers. We therefore see in this microcosm two forces at work - traditional as well as modern. The research population is representative of a traditional community in transition. The study focuses on role-behaviour of rural women and its implications for development. The research group is already partially exposed to the effects of rural development. To what extent their present role affords them meaningful participation and benefit from their community's changing status will be revealed with greater clarity as their particular role-behaviour,within their given environment, is analysed. With respect to rationale for choosing this particular group, we can argue that they are the most suitable respondents on whom to do research which focuses on rural behavioural patterns, on the one hand, and social change and development on the other. The population is neither totally isolated in its rural social system nor influenced by forces of modernisation to the extent that the basic cultural ~radition is effaced.

The primary objective of this study is to find, statistically, how the women of Portland lived out their lives. By exploring the role of ethnicity, work and family, and the inter-relationships of these variables, upon their life choices, it is hoped a picture of women will result that can be used as a base for further interpretations on the community of women and the role they play in society. The study is based on data gathered from the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Federal Manuscript Census Schedules for the city of Portland and East Portland and utilizes a sample of 8,012 women, aged fifteen years or older, comprising the entire adult female population of the city during the census years of 1860, 1870 and 1880. The information coded for each woman includes age, marital status, ethnicity, occupation, whether or not she was head of a household, the number of children present in the home, her husband's ethnicity and a rough categorization of his occupation, the type of family residence. The data was then interpreted using a simple cross-variable program. The introduction sets the theoretical framework for the study and places it in the historiography of women and the family. Chapter I is a brief survey of the community of Portland and the development of its various institutions to use as a backdrop for the general statistical picture of women developed in Chapter II. The differences apparent in the various ethnic groups and changes over the three census periods for marital status, and intermarriage tendencies are investigated in Chapter III, and Chapter IV deals with family structure. Chapter V covers general work trends for women, cites several of the larger occupational cohorts and compares Portland's female labor force to several other urban areas for 1880. Appendix A is an explanation of the methodology employed and some of the problems encountered in the study. Appendix B is the entire collection of charts extrapolated from the data by the program used. It should be noted that all of the data was not utilized in this study, and even more information can be gotten from the data by the use of a more sophisticated program. The author hopes to rework the data at a later date for a more in-depth study.

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