This thesis is based on a mixed methods study with a sequential exploratory design, and is about the fertility preferences of women living in rural South Africa. The quantitative secondary analysis utilises the South African Demographic and Health Surveys of 1998 and 2003, and the qualitative ethnographic fieldwork was carried out in a rural area of KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa, in 2011 and 2012. The fieldwork included ethnographic field notes and maps generated through participatory mapping exercises, 63 semi-structured interviews with women of different generations and 6 key informant interviews. The thesis examines women’s landscapes of fertility and focuses on intergenerational understandings of fertility preferences, migration and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The thesis identified that women’s landscapes of fertility are subject to change over time and differ between women of different generations. Older women’s landscapes of fertility are influenced by understandings of the importance of continuity of family whilst those of younger women are synonymous with their experiences of increasing autonomy and agency, caused by escalating modernity. For younger women, migration was a key issue within their landscapes of fertility and their migration later affected their mothers who became migratory followers of their daughters. This is a reversal of typical paradigms of migration, as it identifies that women from different generations can be migratory followers or leaders. It was found that HIV influenced women’s landscapes of fertility due in part to the South African, changing socio-political responses to the disease. The thesis contributes to geographical and anthropological understandings about change in women’s fertility preferences over time in the context of societal change. The thesis also identifies the value of ethnographically informed understandings of fertility preferences as a key indicator of demographic change and population shifts.

This thesis considers how sexual and romantic relationships between academic faculty and students in higher education are governed. Using analytic techniques drawn from Foucault and discursive psychology to interpret a corpus of texts, which includes policy documents, interview transcripts, fictional accounts, newspaper articles, and computer mediated discourse, I explore how five discourses are mobilized to frame faculty student relationships. I find that harassment discourse, which emerges as the dominant frame of reference in scholarly accounts, is taken up less readily in the accounts studied here. Rather, discourses foregrounding four alternative, but often imbricated, themes are more extensively mobilized: infantilization; religiosity; health, safety, and hygiene; and professionalism. These discourses reinforce elements of the truth claims propounded by harassment discourses; notably, their gendered and heterosexist assumptions, and their insertion of a gap between academic and student, albeit one configured along subtly different lines. However, they also challenge them, positing alternative claims to truth, recasting the subject positions of academic and student, and re-orienting relations between the two. For example, infantilization discourses construct faculty-student relationships as a horrific relation between adult or parent and child which must be monitored, whereas religious discourses construct a pastor-flock relation, articulating relationships as a temptation to be resisted or atoned for. The thesis offers contributions to research on faculty-student relationships per se, and is also understood as opening up analysis of organizational sexuality and the university more generally by arguing for the usefulness of a government approach to these phenomena.

In existing scholarship of twentieth-century British lesbian history the post-war period has been largely overlooked. Whereas the interwar period and the 1970s and 1980s have garnered much critical interest as crucial loci of lesbian identity formation, the post-war period has been obscured between the two. What work does exist has focused almost exclusively on the creation of lesbian public spaces and lesbian communities. This has been to the exclusion of research into lesbian home and private life, and has also served to obscure experiences of closeted or isolated women. The critical focus on the interwar period in particular has also been facilitated and corroborated by lesbian literary studies, which has used the modernist movement as the backbone for the creation of a lesbian literary canon. This has been to the obscuration of lesbian literature of the post-war period. Furthermore, this academic bias has overlooked the significance of the cultural value of such literature by failing to acknowledge or investigate what lesbians in post-war Britain were actually reading. This thesis positions itself at the intersection of these research gaps. Employing an interdisciplinary approach this project argues for the greater inclusion of post-war literature and post-war lesbian lives in scholarly investigation. Through close textual analysis of a range of post-war lesbian literature and oral history interviews conducted by the author, this thesis presents insights into the minutiae of lesbian life and into the roots of lesbian identity formation within this period. To situate itself within existing historiography this thesis takes as its starting point the lesbian magazine, Arena Three (1964-71), undertaking an analysis of the magazine’s book review column in order to build a picture of the post-war lesbian reader. Following on from this, close textual analyses of lesbian pulp fiction and original oral history transcripts are used to assess representations of domesticity. Specifically the concepts of hetero-domesticity and homo-domesticity are developed and employed to investigate lesbian identities as they existed within both heterosexual and same-sex relationships. Graham Dawson’s oral history theory of ‘composure’ is used to examine how lesbian narrators are successful or unsuccessful in incorporating experiences of hetero-domesticity into wider lesbian narratives. This framework is similarly employed to investigate the ways in which homo-domestic experiences can assist lesbian narrators to achieve composure. Lastly oral history reminiscences of reading in the post-war period are analysed in order to assess the role that literature played, both in lesbian identity formation and in facilitating narrators’ journeys into wider lesbian social worlds.

This research is premised on the investigation of Muslim women working in the Iranian Radio and Television Organisation (IRIB). The study is structured on a number of principal questions: why these women joined IRIB and how they managed the reactions of sceptical family members; how they construct the meaning of womanhood in relation to work, family and motherhood; what challenges these women encounter in the workplace; and how they negotiate and persevere to overcome those challenges, achieve success and make changes in a male-dominated organisation. The main focus is on the post-1979 Islamic revolution, when many practicing Muslim women, who were largely excluded from the film and media industries before the Revolution, began working in radio and television. Modern media that were considered instruments of ‘westernisation’ and ‘decadence’ before the Revolution were re-legitimised by religious authorities and even elevated to the status of ‘public universities’. Many Muslim women, therefore, entered this male dominated ‘forbidden space’ that had a largely secular and liberal work culture before the Revolution. Through 30 semi-structured interviews with these women, this research examines gender relations within the workspace, family domain and in the public arena. The research manifests complex dynamics of gender relations in the context of Iran and in the IRIB organisation. It argues that gender is a relational concept; and an area of constant negotiation and contest. In particular, the study demonstrates that gender relations are defined in negotiation with religious beliefs, traditional norms and political ideologies. They are also reinforced in the family and embedded in the culture of organisation. Overall, it is concluded that after the Islamic revolution, Muslim women found new opportunities to enter spaces in the public domain that were previously considered as being ‘inappropriate’ for women. Despite confronting many challenges in this respect, they have exercised their agency and achieved considerable success in changing traditional and prejudiced attitudes within structures that are underpinned by Islamic gender ideology. In doing so, they have also constructed a new identity of Muslim women that goes beyond simplistic stereotypical dichotomies such as liberated/oppressed, western/eastern, and secular/Muslim.

This thesis explores the phenomenology of women’s experiences and perceptions in the first 18-24 months after childbirth. Close engagement with participants’ narratives enables women’s voices to be heard in the sometimes conflicting discourses about motherhood while identified issues in postnatal care issues are examined. Healthcare policy identifies the need for service improvement and reconfiguration of service delivery is well documented. However, a paucity of empirical knowledge remains with little explanatory theory, from women’s perspectives, about new mothers’ experiences during this period. Becoming a mother engenders a perceptual shift, or psychological re-negotiation, with being-in-the-world. Greater understanding of these issues is therefore central to inform effective service provision. Women’s perceptions of their care and their narratives about their individual perspectives, experiences and feelings following childbirth are explored. A case-study research approach provides rich data from in-depth interviews analysed using phenomenology (IPA). The study, conducted in parallel with an RCT, offers evidence of how participants (N = 12) discuss their engagement with the world. The phenomenological examination of mothers’ lived-world experiences, their life-world, provides a wealth of data. Responses are equivocal, highlighting the importance of being determined when seeking care at a time when mothers felt vulnerable. Participants report coping with events by drawing on their experiences and knowledge acquired caring for their families. Mothers identify how professionals need to develop greater awareness of the importance of enhancing listening skills in order to help women effectively. Themes of vulnerability, disempowerment and doubts about their abilities emphasise participants’ need for compassion, kindness and understanding. Support during delivery and positive postnatal experiences can lead to improved physical and emotional health; lack of support can impact on physical and psychological morbidity. The thesis highlights how postnatal care remains a Cinderella story. Greater awareness of such issues is emphasised to deliver quality postnatal care that is timely and non-threatening to avoid women feeling disempowered and belittled.

Sexual health matters! This motif underpins the entire thesis. With survey responses from university educators and focus group encounters with clinical professionals undertaking the UK-wide Sexual Health Skills course, the study explores ways in which specific discourses pertaining to sexual health and illness inform the need for, and provision of, professional education for nurses in England. Through using a Foucauldian ‘lens’ and a novel process called crystallisation in sexualities and gender epistemologies (S&GE), it was possible to shed new light on some old problems hindering nurse education. The methodologies facilitated a discursive engagement between the power / knowledge of sexual health sciences (scientia sexualis), the orthodox ‘regimes of truth’, and various silenced voices. The silenced voices pertain to wider, socially and clinically ‘invisibilised’, needs of clients or patients in relation to the provision of nurse education. Set against the backdrop of England's first ever Government strategies on teenage pregnancy, sexual health and HIV, statistics on narrow definitions of sexual ill-health are still considered the worst in western Europe. Nurses acknowledge these poor facts, and witness to additional neglect related to sexual well-being in the wider, holistic, domains of a person's life, health and relationships. Respondents recount a lack of formal sexual health education in pre- and post qualifying curricula, including incidents of critical, experiential, ‘on the job’, learning which are capped and thwarted by clinical and educational staff who are unable and / or unwilling to explore the full learning potential through reflection and analysis of practice. Respondents acknowledge how their professional education frequently ill-equips them to deal with requirements in practice as well as newer, public health, demands on their roles to increase preventative education and effective health promotion. This thesis gives them a voice in expressing such concerns. The outcome of this work has led to the conceptualisation of a model of ‘learning for life’ across a curricular triptych for professional education which supports client care. Panels of this triptych relate to the foundational or holistic dimensions of sexual health matters; ancillary aspects secondary to other health conditions, and finally, the specifics, those formally defined in epidemiology and strategies of sexual ill-health and associated stigmas. Whether someone qualified twenty-five years ago or within the last three months, the quality and quantity of formal sexual health learning across the curricular triptych model remains negligible and incommensurate with clinical demands on professional nursing care.

This is a study of teachers’ and pupils’ perceptions regarding sex education in two countries, Taiwan and England. It is a mixed method comparative study of four schools, two in each country. Interviews, focus groups and surveys were undertaken in these schools during the 2007/08 academic year. There were approximately 2100 participants - all year eight pupils (aged between 12 and 14) and volunteering teachers/coordinators. It was found that sex education was taught within all four participating schools and was consistently recognised as a valuable part of the curriculum. Two distinct approaches to sex education were found in the two countries. Perceptions of sex education were consistent across both schools in Taiwan and a key reason for this was that sex education had developed through a top-down policy. There was more variation between the two schools in England reflecting more flexible policies. The strengths and weaknesses of these two approaches are discussed along with the influence of stakeholders such as policy makers and governors/ coordinators. Biographic factors such as age and gender are also explored. The two phenomena (consistent and variable sex education) uncovered in this study are further explored within a descriptive model.

This thesis explores gendered work and women‟s empowerment in interactive service work in Nepal, focusing on two five-star hotels, two deluxe resorts and two casinos. It develops a conceptual framework to explore how gendered work and women‟s empowerment are related, paying attention to the interactional and structural levels. This feminist research uses mixed methods of 21 questionnaires to gather quantitative data that shed light on the gendered workforce. Qualitative data is derived from 65 interviews (semi-structured and in-depth) with male and female workers, managers, male family members and policy experts, two focus group discussions with women working in two casinos and observations in the six sample establishments. The study makes three arguments. First, gendered work is constructed by three distinct but related dimensions, namely: the gender division of labour; the gendered ideologies of managers and workers; and the gendering of skills provided through training. Second, workers, to a variable extent, perform gendered emotional, aesthetic and (hetero) sexualised labour and such performances shape and are shaped by gendered work. Third, women‟s paid work empowers them to some extent at an individual level; however, structural constraints continue to impede their empowerment. The thesis makes theoretical as well as empirical contributions to existing knowledge. Theoretically, it contributes to understanding of the relationship between gendered work and empowerment in which structural context is of critical significance. At the empirical level, this makes an original contribution to the analysis of interactive service work in Nepal. The thesis finds that women doing gendered work are to some extent empowered at the individual level and perhaps „doing‟ gender per se is not a problem. However, structural constraints continue to impede women‟s empowerment, despite some gradual changes. The thesis also finds that the hotel and casino sector are not feminised in contrast to studies conducted in the „West‟.

This thesis studies how financial incentives affect women's fertility timing decisions. Each chapter investigates this question by looking at a policy that exogenously increased fertility related financial incentives. The timing impacts of these policies are estimated using a discrete-time proportional hazard model with unobserved heterogeneity. In the first chapter, the impact of the 1999 UK Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC) on the timing of birth is studied. This paper employs the 1991-2003 waves of the British Household Panel Survey and identifies the policy impact of WFTC by observing the change in the timing of birth using a difference in differences estimator. The main finding of this paper suggests little evidence of changes in the timing of all birth parity apart from first birth. Such a finding is likely to be explained by the policy design of WFTC that increased not only the fertility but also the labour supply incentives simultaneously. Moreover, a further analysis highlights the importance of other policies, which also in uenced women's labour supply during the period of study. The second chapter, on the other hand, studies the impact of the 1977-2001 US infertility health insurance mandates, which regulated the insurance companies to cover for infertility treatment cost. Although the majority of the past literature has studied impacts on older women who are likely to seek treatment, this paper proposes that the mandates may have had a wider impact on the US population. Specifically, it may have given an option for younger women to delay birth since these policies reduced the opportunity cost of having a child in the future. The chapter employs the 1980-2001 Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Results suggest a significant delay of 1-2 years in the time of first birth among highly educated white women.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that Home Education in England and Wales is growing in popularity. Despite this apparent growth, there is currently little research into home education in the UK from a sociological perspective. Based on data collected in an in-depth qualitative study of home educating groups and families during 2007, this thesis examines the motivations, practices and experiences of home educating parents. Despite the 'alternative' image of home education, constructions of parenthood within home education are highly gendered, with mothers and fathers tending to take on traditional gender roles. Mothers therefore perform the majority of the intense physical and emotional labour of home education. Home education expands the motherhood role beyond that predominantly found in contemporary society (providing fulfilment for many mothers), while simultaneously reinforcing normative images of motherhood. Where fathers are involved in the day-to-day process of home education this tends to be in a secondary role with mothers maintaining a significant role in the home education process. Home education is therefore a meeting point for mothers' constructions of childhood, motherhood and education. These constructions can be split into three 'types': 'Natural', 'Social' and 'Last Resort'. The interrelation of motherhood, childhood and education within home education and their co-location within the family means that notions of pedagogy and education become an extension of the socialisation process focussed on the individual child rather than education being seen as a separate process. Home education is therefore a project of motherhood which focusses on family and self and relies on the maintenance of a balance between personal labour and fulfilment.