This study is an intensive examination of the role, position, and perceptions of women school board members in Texas as they perceive them. The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions which women school board members have concerning their role, function, and relationships as they serve on school boards in Texas and to determine if sex prejudice does exist. There were eight basic questions to which the study sought answers. The findings indicate that the perceptions of women board members are not influenced by age, marital status, parental status, educational level, and years of experience. They also revealed that only a small minority of the Texas school board women responding had experienced instances of sex discrimination. Doubt was expressed through the responses of the women as to whether or not superintendents encourage the election of a man as board president. Size of the school district was found to have no effect on the number of women board members serving. It was found to be a factor in whether or not a woman was designated chairman of a board committee as only the larger districts were likely to have women serving in this capacity.

No description available.

Thesis (M.Arch.)--McGill University, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references.

Canada's first Parliament Buildings, built in 1859--65 and destroyed by fire in 1916, were the nation's most prominent symbol of national identity and its most celebrated public space. Built into its fabric was an exclusively masculine definition of public persons, one which, at the end of the nineteenth century, women challenged in both subtle and overt ways. / This research examines the design of the Parliament Buildings as a multi-faceted building type, a complex mix of domestic, office and legislative design where both public and "private" spaces intersected. It overlays official documentation of the buildings with a rich variety of sources---archival photographs, newspaper articles and women's columns, letters, journals---to show how women transgressed the architectural prescription which placed them on the political periphery in the Ladies' Gallery, as observers and objects of observation. These sources show that, in fact, women altered and created spaces and initiated influential networks of their own both in and outside of the Parliament Buildings. By illuminating the primacy of the "political hostess," this research argues that women were not relegated to the sidelines, but appropriated---and practiced politics from within---the most privileged of spaces. / This methodology, by examining the interior organization and actual use of the Parliament Buildings, opens new possibilities for the study of legislative buildings and public buildings in general as dynamic systems of relationships rather than uni-dimensional building types. By showing how women challenged the spatial demarcations of gender and power and transformed the meanings associated with parliamentary and public spaces not initially intended for their use, we can draw a picture of the larger role women in Canada played as "public architects."

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis explored the relationship between community adult education and social action. The study investigated how LEAD (Leadership Education for Action and Development), a non-governmental organisation based in the Western Cape, has empowered women to assume leadership and take social action in their communities.

This master's thesis studies Utländska biblioteket, a 19th century foreign literature subscription library in Karlskrona, Sweden. The aim of the thesis is to investigate Utländska biblioteket between 1835–1864. The material consists primarily of primary sources from the archive of Utländska biblioteket. The main primary sources are the library's accounts book, its minutes, and two book catalogs. Using analytical tools from Jürgen Habermas, feminist criticism of his ideas and from Pierre Bourdieu, as well as results from previous research on older library forms and female organization in the 19th century, the thesis answers questions relating to the library as a society, its members and its book collection. The investigation shows that Utländska biblioteket was a subscription library as well as a book circle. Based on its regulations, it should be viewed as a sort of public sphere, but in reality Utländska biblioteket was an exclusive group, consisting of a socially homogenous group of people who in large extent knew each other. Its members were in large part female and aristocratic. The reading of foreign literature and the focus on quality, can be viewed as an act of distinction. Utländska biblioteket was, compared to other similar libraries, unusual primarily because of its large female membership. This is in the thesis explained through the viewing of the library as a female organization, where the male members in part play a role as acting agents in the library's contact with for example book dealers. Also, the book collection shows proof of a certain female subject interest. Based on these facts, Utländska biblioteket can be viewed as a female counter public, where women created a space for themselves where they, through the literature and through the membership in a society, could reflect on their identities, as well as make claims on what a woman was and could do. This is a two years master's thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

This thesis explored the relationship between community adult education and social action. The study investigated how LEAD (Leadership Education for Action and Development), a non-governmental organisation based in the Western Cape, has empowered women to assume leadership and take social action in their communities.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.