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Alleviation of poverty has become a major issue in the agenda of many countries and there is a search for a cure for this issue in social policy environment. For the last few decades, i.e., since the establishment of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, microcredit programmes have been used an important tool that is used to combat increasing poverty in both developing and developed world. The importance of this tool also comes from the fact that the target group of microfinance institutions is mainly women. The popularity of this poverty alleviation tool has reached to Turkey at the very beginning of 2000s. In this context, whether and/or to what extent microcredit is effective in taking women and their families out of poverty becomes a major question. Based on the assumption that poverty is a multidimensional issue, the main aim of this thesis is to explore the relationship between micro credit and poverty. This relationship will be understood by looking deeply at women&rsquo / s lives through semi-structured interviews with beneficiaries of Diyarbakir office of Turkish Grameen Microcredit Programme. As a result of this study, it is found that a few women become entrepreneurs and engage in economic activities. Rather, they generally apply for microcredit for consumption concerns, for payments of other debts and to expand their current business. Therefore, microcredit remains insufficient to end people&rsquo / s poverty since it do not provide a transformative and structural power to the poor.

The ever-growing digital takeover of society fosters new platforms for opinion formation, transforming the traditional way of interacting and practising activism. However, while online activism has been successful in western parts of the world, its importance has not been as widely acknowledged in places such as Central Asia in relation to feminism. Consequently, this study aims to draw attention to the online activism on feminism within the context of Tajikistan and, through attitudes expressed on Instagram, examine the present-day obstacles that women face. Coloured by patriarchal values and limited space for feminism, Tajikistan provides an interesting case for studying the former and situation of activism on gender equality in general. This study was carried out through the qualitative content approach where 38 Instagram posts containing various aspects of women and gender, were analysed through the lens of patriarchy and women's empowerment. The findings revealed attitudes condemning patriarchal norms and calling for greater gender equality and empowerment of women. Said implied a distressing situation for women in Tajikistan, suggesting very few transformative steps, while the prevalence of online activism insinuated, minor, but significant steps for the feminist struggle in Tajikistan.

The research study focuses on the prejudices women encounter in both the church and society concerning the recognition of their leadership potential. Women’s leadership is largely defined by men in their cultural context. The church also imposes expectations on traditional African churchwomen, which seem contradictory to what the Word of God teaches. This condition is ironically supported by men who do not necessarily go to church because of their cultural convictions. Thus, the dissertation argues extensively that this untenable situation needs to be challenged. The study interacts with Biblical texts that are often subjected to erroneous interpretation drawn in support of oppressive cultural practises and used to militate against women leadership. The approach is not entirely subjective as it considers the perspectives of some renowned African theological writers, readers as well as women role models in exploring the extent of women’s burgeoning in leadership positions in the Assemblies of God (AoG) church in the O R Tambo district Eastern Cape, South Africa. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Theological Ethics)

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The objective of the thesis is to discuss how the theoretical and organisational premises of the gender approaches of development programmes affect their possibilities to empower women and to enhance gender equality. This will be done through a study of the gender approaches of six development programmes for democratic and economic governance in the water and sanitation sector located in Angola, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay and Philippines respectively. The programmes strive towards the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals and are financed by the Spanish Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund. The programmes‟ gender approaches are defined as: the way the programmes interpret the concepts of women‟s empowerment and gender equality; the way they incorporate the concepts into their programme design and organisational structure, and; the activities and strategies implemented to enhance women‟s empowerment and gender equality in the programme areas. The analysis of the gender approaches of the programmes will be centred on the five theoretical assumptions which together state that a) a gender approach based on a collective postulation, with; b) adequate mechanisms for women‟s influence and; c) a purposeful involvement of men, backed-up by; d) adequate resource and responsibility allocation, and; e) a gender integrated design enabling evaluation and monitoring, is more probable to empower women. The main findings of the thesis are that: 1) all of the six gender approaches of the programmes are fundamentally individualistic and driven by efficiency rationales; 2) women‟s possible influence is generally limited and partial because of inadequate scope of participatory spaces; 3) men are not considered in any of the gender approaches; 4) the responsibility allocation for gender issues is the most important organisational feature for the implementation of the approaches, but it is weak in the majority of the programmes; 5) the integration of gender in the programme design and the funding mechanisms appear to not affect the implementation directly. Based on the results of the thesis it is concluded that both the theoretical and organisational premises of the gender approaches create small possibilities for the programmes to empower women and to enhance gender equality. The results also point to what appears to be fundamental structural weaknesses in the present gender interpretation, integration and implementation of international development agencies.

Women today continue to struggle against male-dominated values and norms, and male prejudices, both in society and the Church. This balance of power needs to be altered to free women from the domination of men. The strategies proposed in this dissertation are based on the Christian ethic of justice and equality. Their implementation, I argue, would empower women to resist oppression, independently of men, to achieve liberation and equality so that male-dominated ideologies and structures could no longer oppress. A case study of women ministers in the Methodist Church of Southern Africa revealed discrimination against, and the limitation of the ministries of women clergy. The ethical dilemma of the Church appearing to follow, rather than to lead society on such issues was noted. The attainment of the liberation of women is dependent solely upon themselves and the extent to which they are prepared to take responsibility for their own lives. / M.Th. (Theological Ethics)

Women today continue to struggle against male-dominated values and norms, and male prejudices, both in society and the Church. This balance of power needs to be altered to free women from the domination of men. The strategies proposed in this dissertation are based on the Christian ethic of justice and equality. Their implementation, I argue, would empower women to resist oppression, independently of men, to achieve liberation and equality so that male-dominated ideologies and structures could no longer oppress. A case study of women ministers in the Methodist Church of Southern Africa revealed discrimination against, and the limitation of the ministries of women clergy. The ethical dilemma of the Church appearing to follow, rather than to lead society on such issues was noted. The attainment of the liberation of women is dependent solely upon themselves and the extent to which they are prepared to take responsibility for their own lives. / M.Th. (Theological Ethics)

In this work I have used Pierre Bourdieu's concept of habitus as a springboard to examine the Pauline tradition in the light of Zimbabwe-African, cultural, legal and social attitudes to women. I have highlighted the conflict between the practices defined by Zimbabwean Constitutional law regarding the status of women and what is the actual situation on the ground, also considering the role of the church in confronting or conforming to the cultural norms. I have likewise highlighted the conflict in the Pauline tradition where one hand women are given more active roles in the church than could be expected according to the customs of the time, but on the other hand are still bound by an oppressive tradition. I have concluded by suggesting how the church can act in order to break free of this oppressive tradition and bring about change in the habitus of the society. / New Testament / M. Th. (New Testament)

In this work I have used Pierre Bourdieu's concept of habitus as a springboard to examine the Pauline tradition in the light of Zimbabwe-African, cultural, legal and social attitudes to women. I have highlighted the conflict between the practices defined by Zimbabwean Constitutional law regarding the status of women and what is the actual situation on the ground, also considering the role of the church in confronting or conforming to the cultural norms. I have likewise highlighted the conflict in the Pauline tradition where one hand women are given more active roles in the church than could be expected according to the customs of the time, but on the other hand are still bound by an oppressive tradition. I have concluded by suggesting how the church can act in order to break free of this oppressive tradition and bring about change in the habitus of the society. / New Testament / M. Th. (New Testament)