This dissertation is a scientific biography of Astrid Cleve von Euler. She was Sweden’s first female Ph.D. graduate in the natural sciences (1898) and pursued a scientific career in spite of formal and cultural limitations. Though she failed to secure a professional position as a scientist, she published numerous papers throughout her life. The dissertation studies her life in general and analyses her research in particular. How did her research change over time in relation to the rest of her life? How did established scientists receive her research? How did her status as a woman on the fringes of academia affect her research? Sociologist Thomas F. Gieryn’s concepts of boundary-work and credibility contests are important analytical tools in the interpretation of these questions, as Cleve’sresearch was regulated by various boundaries: between professionals and amateurs, between men and women and between different academic disciplines. The study is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter introduces the dissertation, its objective and theoretical framework. The remaining chapters follow Cleve’s life in a chronological and sometimes thematic order and the source material is continually analysed. Chapter two accounts for Cleve’s childhood and student years in Uppsala, ending with her Ph.D. graduation. Chapter tree focuses on her research as a chemist and her ten years of marriage to a fellow researcher, Hans von Euler-Chelpin, a marriage that was closely intertwined with their academic studies. The fourth chapter studies Cleve’s controversy with some of the leading quaternary geologists in Sweden at the time, regarding the level changes of the Scandinavian land mass following the latest Ice Age. The fifth chapter diverges slightly from Cleve’s research, and investigates her undertakings in popular science and her political standpoints. Chapter six analyses her archaeological studies as part of the scientific controversy she was involved in, but also as influenced by political and religious views. Finally, the seventh chapter begins with a closer look at Cleve’s diatom studies, already part of most of the study but thus far not focused on as such, and ends with the main conclusions of the entire dissertation project. The dissertation shows that while science was part of Cleve’s life from childhood to death, factors other than her personal desire to uncover scientific truths governed her research opportunities and the topics of her studies. While she was consistently highly regarded as a diatom expert and gained some success as a chemist, disciplines she was formally educated in, she was met with scepticism and eventually silence when she tried to make an impact in quaternary geology and archaeology, fields of research in which she had no formal training. This demonstrates a possibility to simultaneously be regarded as credible and non-credible as a scientist, as credibility is not necessarily attached to the individual, but to his or her formal expertise in a particular area.

This thesis explores the role of Quaker women in science in an attempt to arrive at some understanding of what motivated Quaker women in nineteenth century America to go into the sciences. George Fox founded the Society of Friends in the mid-seventeenth century in England and the Quaker theology centered on the concept of the Inner Light, which is the idea that everyone has the capacity to perceive, recognize, and respond to God. Following their Inner Light to find God, Quakers also referred to themselves as "seekers of truth." Additionally, Quakers have believed since their inception in the equality between men and women. Given the Quaker desire to pursue truth and their belief that women have the same capacity to do so as men, it is not surprising that there were a number of Quaker women in science. Through an examination of three Quaker women in science, I discuss the Quaker influences in their lives and works with the larger goal of demonstrating the inherent connections that exist between Quaker theology and the pursuit of science in the nineteenth century. One such connection lies within the tradition of natural theology, which was prevalent in the larger scientific community in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The connection that is unique to Quakers, though, relates to their idea of the search for truth, which led many Quakers to employ scientific methods. The three Quaker women examined in this study, astronomer Maria Mitchell, naturalist Graceanna Lewis, and medical doctor Ann Preston, were all truth-seekers in some sense who wanted to find evidence of God's work within nature. / Graduation date: 2005

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The research problem reflected a lower number of female postgraduate students and academics as compared to their male counterparts within the Faculty of Engineering at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. A descriptive survey was disseminated to a stratified sample of undergraduate final year students in the disciplines of Chemical, Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Electronic, Computer and Bioresources Engineering. An online survey was also sent to the nine female academics within the Faculty. The study indicates that the social and academic environment within the Faculty of Engineering at the University of KwaZulu-Natal was not a deterrent to female graduates studying further and entering academia. The exam performance of both male and female students was similar and neither the drop-out rate nor failure was due to gender but rather to the choice of degree. An issue of concern to both the student and the academic group was the low numbers of female academics. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2008. / Title from PDF of title page (viewed July 10, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 76-81).

The research problem reflected a lower number of female postgraduate students and academics as compared to their male counterparts within the Faculty of Engineering at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. A descriptive survey was disseminated to a stratified sample of undergraduate final year students in the disciplines of Chemical, Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Electronic, Computer and Bioresources Engineering. An online survey was also sent to the nine female academics within the Faculty. The study indicates that the social and academic environment within the Faculty of Engineering at the University of KwaZulu-Natal was not a deterrent to female graduates studying further and entering academia. The exam performance of both male and female students was similar and neither the drop-out rate nor failure was due to gender but rather to the choice of degree. An issue of concern to both the student and the academic group was the low numbers of female academics. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

Text in English / The purpose of this study was to explore the work-life balance experiences of female engineers as they progress through various career life stages. Research has demon-strated that female engineers experience unique challenges as a result of gendered norms within male-dominated occupations, with changing life-roles, needs and ex-pectations across the various career life stages, impacting how they negotiate and perceive work-life balance. A qualitative research approach was followed using a her-meneutic phenomenology paradigm that employed a multiple case study approach consisting of semi-structured interviews with nine female engineers across three career life stages. The findings of the study confirmed current research into work-life balance, highlighting that work-life balance needs and expectations are different across the lifespan and are particularly affected by the changing nature of the work role within the lives of female engineers. Companies should consider changing their organisational culture to acknowledge the needs of female engineers in both family and work domains. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.Comm. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)