Doctor of Philosophy / Responsible Government began in New South Wales in 1856. Direct participation by women began 70 years later in 1925 with the election of Millicent Preston-Stanley. Her first speech questioned whether Parliament was a fit place for women. Another significant milestone was reached after another 70 years when female MLAs in the Fifty-first Parliament constituted 15% of the Legislative Assembly and female MLCs made up 33% of the Legislative Council. In the 1990s there was no formal barrier to the participation of persons on the basis of their sex but no scholarly study had addressed the question of whether the Parliament’s culture was open to all gender orientations. This study examines the hypothesis that the Parliament informally favoured some types of gender behaviour over others. It identifies ‘gender’ as behaviour rather than a characteristic of persons and avoids the conflation of gender with sex, and particularly with women exclusively. The research used interviews, observation and document study for triangulation. The thesis describes the specific context of New South Wales parliamentary politics 1995-1999 with an emphasis on factors that affect an understanding of gender. It explores notions of representation held by MPs, analyses their personal backgrounds and reports on gender-rich behaviours in the chambers. The study concludes that gender was a significant factor in the behaviour of Members of the Parliament. There were important differences between the ways that male and female MPs approached their roles. Analysis of the concept of gender in the Parliament shows that some behaviours are more likely to bring political success than are others. The methodology developed here by adapting literature from other systems has important strengths. The data suggest that there is a need for many more detailed studies of aspects of gender in parliaments.

<p>The purpose of this dissertation is to map and analyze the spatial and temporal variation in women’s political representation at both the national and local level. In the dissertation it is argued that women’s political representation is the outcome of the interplay between structures, institutions and actors. The perspective is a comparative one, in which quantitative analyses and more qualitative case-studies complement each other. When analysing spatial variation a mainly quantitative approach is taken, while the case-study approach is applied to the temporal variation.</p><p>The first empirical chapter examines whether female representation in the lower houses of the world’s parliaments co-varies with other indicators of the political situation of women in order to ensure the validity of the analysis. In the second empirical chapter female representation in parliaments of the world during the post-war period is analyzed. In the third empirical chapter the focus narrows down to women’s political representation in Western Europe during the post-war period, where both the national and local level is analysed. The fourth empirical chapter consists of case studies of six countries. Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands feature high female representation; France, Greece and Ireland low female representation. In the fifth empirical chapter women’s political representation at the local level in Norway and Sweden is analysed during the post-war period. In the sixth empirical chapter the temporal variation in female representation in a number of Swedish municipalities is analysed, from the introduction of female suffrage in 1921 until 2002.</p><p>The result is that both structures, institutions and actors are necessary to explain the spatial and temporal variation in female representation. There is no direct link between structures and female representation. The structure does affect the actors and co-varies with the institutions, but successful actors as entrepreneurs might boost female representation. Actors are important. The increase in female representation cannot be seen as an automatic process taking care of itself. Conscious actors are necessary both to affect and to monitor the development. An unfavourable structural context might be compensated for by actors and institutions which favour female representation.</p>

After the Bolshevik assumption of power in 1917, the arguably much more difficult task of creating a revolutionary society began. In 1919, to ensure Russian women supported the Communist party, the Zhenotdel, or women’s department, was established. Its aim was propagating the Communist party’s message through local branches attached to party committees at every level of the hierarchy. This dissertation is an analysis of the Communist party’s Zhenotdel in Petrograd/ Leningrad during the 1920s. Most Western Zhenotdel histories were written in the pre-archival era, and this is the first study to extensively utilize material in the former Leningrad party archive, TsGAIPD SPb. Both the quality and quantity of Zhenotdel fonds is superior at St.Peterburg’s TsGAIPD SPb than Moscow’s RGASPI. While most scholars have used Moscow-centric journals like "Kommunistka", "Krest’ianka" and "Rabotnitsa", this study has thoroughly utilized the Leningrad Zhenotdel journal "Rabotnitsa i krest’ianka" and a rich and extensive collection of Zhenotdel questionnaires. Women’s speeches from Zhenotdel conferences, as well as factory and field reports, have also been folded into the dissertation’s five chapters on: organizational issues, the unemployed, housewives and prostitutes, peasants, and workers. Fundamentally, this dissertation argues that how Zhenotdel functioned at the local level revealed that the organization as a whole was riven with multiple and conflicting tensions. Zhenotdel was unworkable. Zhenotdel’s broad goals were impeded because activists lacked financial and jurisdictional autonomy, faced party ambivalence and hostility, and operated largely with volunteers. Paradoxically, these volunteer delegates were “interns,” yet they were expected to model exemplary behaviour. With limited resources, delegates were also expected to fulfil an ever-expanding list of tasks. In addition, Zhenotdel’s extensive use of unpaid housewife delegates in the 1920s anticipated the wife-activist movement of voluntary social service work in the middle to late 1930s. There were competing visions for NEP society, and Zhenotdel officials were largely unable to negotiate the importance of their organization to other party and state organizations. Overall, this suggests that although the political revolution was successful in the 1920s, there were profound limits to the social and cultural revolution in this era.

After the Bolshevik assumption of power in 1917, the arguably much more difficult task of creating a revolutionary society began. In 1919, to ensure Russian women supported the Communist party, the Zhenotdel, or women’s department, was established. Its aim was propagating the Communist party’s message through local branches attached to party committees at every level of the hierarchy. This dissertation is an analysis of the Communist party’s Zhenotdel in Petrograd/ Leningrad during the 1920s. Most Western Zhenotdel histories were written in the pre-archival era, and this is the first study to extensively utilize material in the former Leningrad party archive, TsGAIPD SPb. Both the quality and quantity of Zhenotdel fonds is superior at St.Peterburg’s TsGAIPD SPb than Moscow’s RGASPI. While most scholars have used Moscow-centric journals like "Kommunistka", "Krest’ianka" and "Rabotnitsa", this study has thoroughly utilized the Leningrad Zhenotdel journal "Rabotnitsa i krest’ianka" and a rich and extensive collection of Zhenotdel questionnaires. Women’s speeches from Zhenotdel conferences, as well as factory and field reports, have also been folded into the dissertation’s five chapters on: organizational issues, the unemployed, housewives and prostitutes, peasants, and workers. Fundamentally, this dissertation argues that how Zhenotdel functioned at the local level revealed that the organization as a whole was riven with multiple and conflicting tensions. Zhenotdel was unworkable. Zhenotdel’s broad goals were impeded because activists lacked financial and jurisdictional autonomy, faced party ambivalence and hostility, and operated largely with volunteers. Paradoxically, these volunteer delegates were “interns,” yet they were expected to model exemplary behaviour. With limited resources, delegates were also expected to fulfil an ever-expanding list of tasks. In addition, Zhenotdel’s extensive use of unpaid housewife delegates in the 1920s anticipated the wife-activist movement of voluntary social service work in the middle to late 1930s. There were competing visions for NEP society, and Zhenotdel officials were largely unable to negotiate the importance of their organization to other party and state organizations. Overall, this suggests that although the political revolution was successful in the 1920s, there were profound limits to the social and cultural revolution in this era.

The purpose of this dissertation is to map and analyze the spatial and temporal variation in women’s political representation at both the national and local level. In the dissertation it is argued that women’s political representation is the outcome of the interplay between structures, institutions and actors. The perspective is a comparative one, in which quantitative analyses and more qualitative case-studies complement each other. When analysing spatial variation a mainly quantitative approach is taken, while the case-study approach is applied to the temporal variation. The first empirical chapter examines whether female representation in the lower houses of the world’s parliaments co-varies with other indicators of the political situation of women in order to ensure the validity of the analysis. In the second empirical chapter female representation in parliaments of the world during the post-war period is analyzed. In the third empirical chapter the focus narrows down to women’s political representation in Western Europe during the post-war period, where both the national and local level is analysed. The fourth empirical chapter consists of case studies of six countries. Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands feature high female representation; France, Greece and Ireland low female representation. In the fifth empirical chapter women’s political representation at the local level in Norway and Sweden is analysed during the post-war period. In the sixth empirical chapter the temporal variation in female representation in a number of Swedish municipalities is analysed, from the introduction of female suffrage in 1921 until 2002. The result is that both structures, institutions and actors are necessary to explain the spatial and temporal variation in female representation. There is no direct link between structures and female representation. The structure does affect the actors and co-varies with the institutions, but successful actors as entrepreneurs might boost female representation. Actors are important. The increase in female representation cannot be seen as an automatic process taking care of itself. Conscious actors are necessary both to affect and to monitor the development. An unfavourable structural context might be compensated for by actors and institutions which favour female representation.

The main purpose of this thesis is to explore the complexities involved in engendering local governance and to identify strategies to encourage gender equitable partnerships between stakeholders in local governance in Third World countries. Local governance refers to the dynamic yet complicated process of interaction between state and non-state actors involved in local level development processes. Considering the invisibility of women in local governance, this study focuses heavily on women's agency, that is, the way women redefine and reconstruct identities and interactions in engendering local governance despite the given constraints. The central argument in this thesis is that engendering local governance requires transformation of structures and processes of governing at the local level so that they recognise and are responsive to differences between men and women in their values and responsibilities. Relevant institutions should then integrate these differences in policies and in managing development at the local level. Fieldwork in North Sumatra, Indonesia highlighted how the interlocking of public and private patriarchy complicates the engendering of local governance. Both within and beyond the household there are constraints put on women that impede their participation in local governance. Analysis of case studies of perwiridan (Moslem women's religious grouping), SPI (Serikat Perempuan Independen/ Union of Independent Women) and women working in local government found that relationships at the household level significantly influence gender relations in local governance. Reproduction of images of 'good' and 'bad' women is one of the most effective instruments to subordinate and control women in North Sumatra, meaning that it is not easy for women to formulate and defend their personal interests. Women often experience severe threats of physical, psychological and verbal violence when they attempt to influence formal decision making at the local level. Based on a further case study of the implementation of decentralisation, this study also found that decentralisation does not automatically bring local government closer to women due to the interweaving of structural, cultural, and financial barriers local government faces in implementing gender mainstreaming policies in North Sumatra. The intertwining of gendered structures of local government and gendered construction of the community contribute to the marginality of women in service delivery and in public decision making at the local level. This study rejects the assumption that women are passive recipients in local governance since they contribute significantly in fulfilling household and community needs and interests. Through knowledge and understanding to construction of power at the local level, women creatively produce and use alternative strategies which are based on their sexuality and traditional gender roles in challenging and transforming gender inequity at the local level and in improving the quality of everyday life. By raising women's self esteem, confidence and solidarity in reconstructing gendered relations at the household and community levels, women's grassroots organisations open up alternative arenas for political expression for women which is crucial for the realisation of good local governance.

Doctor of Philosophy / Responsible Government began in New South Wales in 1856. Direct participation by women began 70 years later in 1925 with the election of Millicent Preston-Stanley. Her first speech questioned whether Parliament was a fit place for women. Another significant milestone was reached after another 70 years when female MLAs in the Fifty-first Parliament constituted 15% of the Legislative Assembly and female MLCs made up 33% of the Legislative Council. In the 1990s there was no formal barrier to the participation of persons on the basis of their sex but no scholarly study had addressed the question of whether the Parliament’s culture was open to all gender orientations. This study examines the hypothesis that the Parliament informally favoured some types of gender behaviour over others. It identifies ‘gender’ as behaviour rather than a characteristic of persons and avoids the conflation of gender with sex, and particularly with women exclusively. The research used interviews, observation and document study for triangulation. The thesis describes the specific context of New South Wales parliamentary politics 1995-1999 with an emphasis on factors that affect an understanding of gender. It explores notions of representation held by MPs, analyses their personal backgrounds and reports on gender-rich behaviours in the chambers. The study concludes that gender was a significant factor in the behaviour of Members of the Parliament. There were important differences between the ways that male and female MPs approached their roles. Analysis of the concept of gender in the Parliament shows that some behaviours are more likely to bring political success than are others. The methodology developed here by adapting literature from other systems has important strengths. The data suggest that there is a need for many more detailed studies of aspects of gender in parliaments.

This thesis seeks to increase recognition of contemporary Palestinian women’s cinema and locates it firmly within the Palestinian film industry. I argue that Palestinian women’s cinema has created and developed a nuanced cinema whilst sustaining and enhancing the Palestinian film industry. The twenty-first century has undeniably witnessed the vigorous development of a Palestinian women’s cinema and the number of Palestinian women filmmakers and films is still on the rise. Scholars have often focused on increasing worldwide recognition of mainstream Palestinian films directed and produced by well-known Palestinian filmmakers. This has resulted in the marginalisation of Palestinian women’s cinema within an already marginalised Palestinian film industry. I locate Palestinian cinema, in the introduction, as a transnational cinema and I also explain my rationale for placing women’s film under the category of “women’s cinema”. In order to offer a comprehensive analysis and to understand and examine the corpus of films in this thesis, I firstly provide an overview of the historical and contemporary background of Palestinian popular arts and cinema, highlighting Palestinian women’s participation. In chapter 2, I discuss women’s roles in Palestinian politics in order to trace women’s positions and roles in political public life because it is difficult to separate activism from social life and thus from cinema, as these three intersect and mutually influence one another. In chapter 3, 4 and 5 I argue, through detailed discussion and analysis of this body of work that, unlike Palestinian cinema at large, Palestinian women filmmakers embody, interweave and reflect on the complex and often contradictory contemporary and historical issues taking into account ideologies and socio-cultural differences in a complex geopolitical space (e.g. sexual restrictions, power and authority, femininity and masculinity, restriction on movement and hyphenated identities). I also argue that these women filmmakers are interested in developing responses to what they see as heterogeneous and hyphenated Palestinian identities while adapting traditional and modern filmic styles. Here I have studied their works thematically as this provided greater insight into the social and historical contexts of contemporary Palestinian lives. I argue that films by Palestinian filmmakers living inside Palestine focus and revolve around socio-culturally sensitive and underrepresented issues of love and sexuality (chapter 3), violence and power (chapter 4). I also argue that hyphenated Palestinian filmmakers, in this case, Palestinian American filmmakers, explore through their work themes of displacement and the imagined homeland by reflecting on historical events and also through examining the different ‘journeys’ of their hyphenated characters, both internal and geographical. I study the films in this thesis within contemporary discourses on culture, cultural capital, discourses of power, identity, migration and diaspora, exile, feminist debates, gender politics, postcoloniality and borderlands.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-17T19:34:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2014-08-29. Added 1 bitstream(s) on 2015-06-18T12:47:30Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000820529.pdf: 5107111 bytes, checksum: 676f290ebbe49b1eb9e147c543440c45 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Demochargia: Dilma Rousseff e seu primeiro ano de mandato pelas charges jornalísticas teve como objetivo verificar de que forma a presidente Dilma Rousseff e seu primeiro ano de mandato foram representados nas charges de cinco jornais brasileiros. Justifica-se este estudo pelo ineditismo da chegada de uma mulher à presidência de um país que há pouco mais de 80 anos sequer reconhecia o sufrágio feminino, num jogo de separação entre espaço público e privado, que, fortalecido pela mídia, colocava a mulher como um ser atuante apenas no espaço privado do lar. A escolha da charge como ferramenta de análise deste estudo deu-se por sua importância no contexto editorial do jornal, sendo ela essencialmente opinativa e crítica, bem como por sua natureza humorística, cujo uso de estereótipos e a satirização de figuras públicas, em especial, políticas, é bastante frequente. Assim, foram analisadas charges de um jornal de cada região do país: Zero Horo (Sul), Folha de S. Paulo (Sudeste), Correio Braziliense (Centro-Oeste), Jornal do Commercio (Nordeste) e Diário do Amazonas (Norte), publicadas ao longo de 2011, totalizando um corpus de 332 charges. Para análise, utilizamos o método de conteúdo. Após a categorização do material, os conteúdos mais expressivos foram interpretados de acordo com as questões de pesquisa formuladas a partir de nosso objetivo geral, bem como do referencial teórico. Como principais resultados podemos destacar que os temas mais explorados pelas charges ao longo do primeiro ano de mandato de Dilma Rousseff foram as sete trocas de ministros e as relações de Dilma com base aliada, principalmente com o Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro (PMDB). A representação de Dilma foi baseada em principalmente duas estratégias, o clichê mulher dona de casa, sendo ela muitas vezes representada com vassouras nas mãos, fazendo uma faxina ministerial, e a postura séria e assertiva de Dilma, representada... / Demochargia: Dilma Rousseff and her first year of presidential term by journalistic editorial cartoons aimed to verify how President Dilma Rousseff and her first year of presidential term were represented in five Brazilian newspaper editorial cartoons. This study is justified by the uniqueness of the arrival of a woman to the presidency of a country that just over 80 years even recognize womens suffrage, in a game of separation between public and private space, which, strengthened by the media, put the woman as a being active only in the private space of the home. The choise of editorial cartoon as an analysis tool of this study was given its importance in the newspaper's editorial context, it being essentially opinionative and critic, as well as his humorous nature, whose use of stereotypes and satirization of public figures, in particular, policies, quite frequently. Thus, a newspaper editorial cartoons of each region of the country were analyzed: Zero Hora (South), Folha de S. Paulo (Southeast), Correio Brasiliense (Midwest), Jornal do Commercio (Northeast) and Diario do Amazonas (North), published in 2011, totaling a corpus of 322 editorial cartoons. For analysis, we use the method of content analysis. After categorizing the material, the most significant contents were interpreted according to the research questions formulated from our overall objective as well as the theoretical framework. As main results we can say that the themes explored over the editorial cartoons throughout the Dilma Rousseff's fisrt year of presidential term were seven trades of ministers and relations with Dilma's allied base, especially with the Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro (PMDB). The representation of Dilma was based on mainly two strategies, the cicle housewife woman, she is often pictured with brooms in hand, making a ministerial cleaning; and the seriuos and assertive stance of Dilma, represented in editorial cartoons with a certain...

M.A. / The year 1976 will always go down the history of South Africa as the pinnacle and turning point in the country’s politics by the unwavering stand took by the students, males and females alike in the education field to fight apartheid in all its forms. It was during this time that the borders of South Africa became sieve to its youth when they fled to neighbouring states to join the outlawed ANC in a special and only mission to unseat apartheid by way of military action, which, by then seemed the only option. In this mission, these women had to be like any liberation soldier whose main intention was to fight for his/her country and liberate its people from all forms of oppression. The entry and active participation of women who, largely were in their teens and of school going age, in MK was a great contribution and sacrifice that the South African women ever ventured into in a quest to liberate their country politically. This was a watershed in the history of the military or army in this land, because, for the first time, such a step of joining an army did not go along with remuneration package whatsoever attached as an incentive. These women saw MK as their last option and a difficult choice to make in the face of the suppression, torture and cold blooded killings they had to deal with regularly from the apartheid security forces. It was the peaceful mass protest actions by students, residents and workers against the unjust apartheid policies that finally led to the adoption of the armed struggle which women joined in an attempt to make a contribution. Their involvement in the liberation struggle was sacrifice in any definition in the sense that most of them had to abandon their schooling, their dreams, families, comfort of their homes to venture and forage into the unknown foreign lands to prepare to take part in a war or open confrontation against the well trained, well equipped and sophisticated SADF. These women ventured into this with the full knowledge of the repercussions and risks that went along with their actions that they stood to suffer greatly. Yet, they saw that as the only viable solution to their own circumstances they faced rather and opted to take the risk than to stay in the highly unsafe townships and locations which were supposed to be their safe homes.