While the number of African American women filling executive level positions in Fortune 500 companies in America has improved, there is still a need for significant improvements in increasing their access to corporate chief executive officer (CEO) positions. African American women occupy only 11.7% of the board seats, and their representation as CEOs has steadily declined. Throughout the history of Fortune 500 companies, there have been only 14 African American men with CEO titles. As of January 2017, there are no African American women CEOs. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the lived experiences and perceptions of 15 African American women who aspire to be chief executive officers in corporate America. The experiences and perceptions of these women were examined to understand why there is a limited number of African American women CEOs despite their increase in executive level roles. The responses from 15 African American revealed that the increased numbers of these women in the executive leadership level resulted from diversity initiatives that made it possible for these women to return to school, and provided a context in which organizational leaders could recognize their talent. The organizations' use of diversity initiatives contributed to practices that legally allow them to minimize the number of minorities they hire at the executive level. The theoretical framework included elements from critical theory, critical race theory, and black feminist theory. The increased representation of these women at the executive level contributes to positive social change because the information adds to the existing literature on the lack of African American women CEOs in corporate America and may provide knowledge that will guide other women pursuing this role.

Diante de um conflito que se estende por muitas décadas, como é o caso do israelense-palestino, um rastro de dor marca vidas e parece não deixar muito espaço para a esperança. Ao registrar o testemunho de mães a respeito de sua história de vida e experiência emocional diante da realidade violenta em que vivem, busquei, a um só tempo, lhes escutar a voz, tantas vezes silenciada e, da humanidade de seus relatos, extrair uma centelha que fosse de possibilidade de transformação. No campo da Psicologia Política, é da intersecção entre a Teoria Feminista e o Estudo das Emoções que desenho meu olhar e na História Oral traço o caminho. Mas esta jornada teve início muito antes, e é nos registros pessoais de mulheres que busco preencher espaços vazios das narrativas históricas tradicionais. E, contrariamente à lógica do conflito que não vê lugar para mais de uma perspectiva, exploro, apesar das assimetrias, todos os pontos de vista que consigo alcançar, a fim de propor, não uma solução, pois esta não me caberia, mas um meio fértil para seu desenvolvimento. / Faced with a conflict that extends itself for many decades, as is the case of the Israeli- Palestinian, a trail of pain marks lives, and does not seem to leave much room for hope. By recording the testimony of mothers about their life history and emotional experience in face of the violent reality in which they live, I sought, at one and the same time, to listen to their, so often silenced voice and their stories\' humanity, to draw a spark of possibility of transformation. From the intersection between Feminist Theory and the Study of Emotions in the field of Political Psychology, I draw my gaze, and in Oral History I trace the path. But this journey began much earlier, and it is on women\'s personal records that I seek to fill empty spaces of traditional historical narratives. And contrary to the logic of conflict that sees no place for more than one perspective, I explore, despite the asymmetries, all the points of view that I can attain, in order to propose, not a solution, for it would not be up to me, but a fertile environment for its growth.

This study analyses the history of a large hydroelectric scheme – the Great Ruaha power project in Tanzania. The objective is to establish why and how this specific scheme came about, and as part of this to identify the key actors involved in the decision-making process, including the ideological contexts within which they acted. Although the Tanzanian actors and the World Bank (IBRD) are discussed, main focus is on the Swedish actors on project level.Kidatu, the first phase of the Great Ruaha power project (constructed between1970-1975), became the first large-scale hydropower station in Tanzania. As such, it paved the way for Tanzanian entrance into the Big Dam Era and significant changes within the Tanzanian landscape. As well as the dry river bed at Kidatu, and the small reservoir that precedes it, the Great Ruaha power project also involved the creation of a huge artificial lake, the Mtera reservoir. The Kidatu hydropower station was the first large undertaking within Swedish bilateral aid, and implied the takeover of control of hydropower construction in Tanzania by Swedish enterprises, replacing the enterprises of the former colonial power. A hydropower plant is a complex technoscientific artefact. The construction of a hydropower plant is preceded by a large number of technological choices, scientific prestudies and estimations of costs and revenues. A hydropower plant is also a complex social creation, and is as such filled with social actors engaged in conflicts, compromises and power structures. The decision to construct Kidatu hydropower station was a result of negotiations and activities within what is called “development assistance”. This brings in yet another dimension, the political one, involving export and import of technology, foreign capital, and foreign influence in decision-making processes, as well as ideas about how to bring development and progress to a people supposed to be living in “poverty and misery”. The study is divided into three main parts. The first part analyses the context of Swedish development assistance in the support to the construction of hydropower plants. This part discusses Swedish state-supported hydropower exploitation of indigenous people’s territory within Sweden’s borders in the 20th century and the background of Swedish development assistance, from the 1950s to the early 1960s. The second part analyses the event of Swedish development assistance entering Tanzania and the Great Ruaha power project, with the main focus being on the period 1965 – 1970. The third part is an analysis of the technoscientific basis for the decisions taken to implement the Great Ruaha hydropower scheme. Main focus is on the period 1969-1974, discussed against the backdrop of precolonial and colonial studies. While focus is on the 1960s and 1970s, in both part two and three events in the 1980s and 1990s are discussed. The study shows that although Sweden was not a colonial power in Tanzania, colonial imagery, and relations to the colonial era, as well as Sweden’s background of internal colonialisation, exerted an influence on the decision-making process and the actors involved in the Great Ruaha power project.The study is mainly based on archival sources, complemented with oral sources from Tanzania and Sweden. Recognizing the complexity of large-scale hydropower and the attempts to control watercourses that large scale hydropower necessitates, in the specific context of decolonisation and development assistance that the decision-making process behind the Great Ruaha hydropower scheme reveals, the analysis of the actors involved is based on feminist and postcolonial perspectives. / QC 20100825

This essay focuses on making a comparative gender analysis between Eugene O´Neill´s play “Long Day´s Journey into Night” and Tennessee William’s play “A Streetcar Named Desire”. It emphases the portraying of socially constructed gender and how the authors present their characters in relation to emotional response as well as power and acting space.

This monograph on the œuvre of contemporary American author and multimedia artist Shelley Jackson addresses the question of how literary works employ language to evoke sense impressions. Gilles Deleuze’s notion of aesthetic percepts is drawn on to develop a theory of literary phantom sensations which is then tested on the work of Jackson and related authors.  Although imperceptible as such, it is argued that percepts are made perceptible in art in sense-specific forms as phantom sensations. “Phantom” is not meant to indicate a pale shadow of real sensations but the intensely perceived realness of phantom limb phenomena, in accordance with Deleuze’s understanding of the virtual as real but not actual. For the sake of clarity, literary phantom sensations are divided into phantom smells, tastes, touches, sights and sounds, with a chapter devoted to each in turn. It is found that different phantom sensations serve different functions in Jackson’s work, correlated to the cultural history of the senses as outlined by recent sensory scholarship.  Phantom smells are associated with Deleuze’s concept of becoming due to their liminality. Phantom tastes contribute to an aesthetics of distaste in which shades of disgust are cultivated and drawn upon for literary effect. Phantom touch creates conceptual intimacy and invites the reader to handle words like toys in a game. Phantom sight is turned back upon itself in an anatomy of the eye. Phantom hearing is associated with forms of ventriloquism in which it is unclear who is speaking through whom and in which language itself throws its voice. However, it is also found that all phantom sensations similarly serve to create a material and affective connection between the body of the reader and the body of the text. Throughout the dissertation, Jackson’s work is read against and alongside that of other writers such as Djuna Barnes, Neil Bartlett, Brigid Brophy and Leonora Carrington. Together these form a trajectory termed minor writing for queers to come, which is meant to indicate that aesthetic and sexual-political  radicalism go hand in hand.  Furthermore, Jackson’s work is described as a form of body writing informed by feminist body art and écriture féminine. Specifically, Jackson takes her cue from early modern anatomical blazons and describes living bodies in pieces.  Her work is also described as object writing: a literary equivalent to surrealist object art.  A central method for making words more like things is to arrange her texts spatially rather than temporally, as exemplified by her electronic hypertexts.

The role of a political leader often is associated with the emotional attributes of a man, and there is empirical evidence that media coverage reinforces culture-specific emotion display rules for politicians. Feminist communication scholarship also has shown the gendered assumptions manifest in mediated discourses. This dissertation explores the relationship between gender, culture and candidates’ emotionality by examining and comparing news media coverage of the emotional management of Chile’s Michelle Bachelet and the United States’ Hillary Clinton, two female candidates with a viable bid for the presidency in their respective countries. Using a discourse analysis of 1,676 items from national newspapers, news magazines and television newscasts, this study found that cultural differences influence the discursive constructions of these women candidates’ emotionality. In the case of Bachelet, she was deemed as a soft, empathic and ultimately “feminine” candidate who needed to toughen up to convey authority and convince voters that she had the skills, in addition to the charm, to lead a country. In the case of Clinton, she was described mainly as a cold and unsympathetic contender, an unwomanly woman with too much ambition to be likable, and who was portrayed either as fake or frail when being more emotionally open. These mediated discourses suggest the media favored determined understandings for a woman’s place and role, reinforcing socially-shared and culturally-bound meanings about gendered identities. Informed by a feminist theoretical framework, the discussion addresses how these mediated discourses on Bachelet and Clinton illustrate the power of culturally-sanctioned sexism in Chile and the United States to make of gender a restrictive force that keeps women out of the realms of politics and policy. / text

Youth of color are routinely dehumanized and treated as objects both in schools and in society. The “banking method” approach to teaching and stringent zero tolerance policies that are prevalent in low-income schools predominantly populated by youth of color serve to push youth out of school and pull them into the school-to-prison pipeline. When students do not meet their school’s standards, the institutional gaze is fixed disapprovingly on the child and the family. The history of segregation and institutionalized oppression that led to a legacy of inadequate and culturally irrelevant schooling and a poor quality of life for communities of color is erased. For the children who grow up in such environments, a historical silence makes it difficult if not impossible to make sense of their present-day conditions and the changes they are witnessing in their communities. People Organized in the Defense of Earth and her Resources (PODER) is an organization that focuses on issues of environmental, economic, and social justice, and strives to facilitate youth empowerment through their Young Scholars for Justice (YSJ) summer program. The youth of color in the program are positioned as knowledgeable researchers and historical actors in their community. The Chicana feminist epistemology of PODER’s staff members creates a nurturing and family-like environment for the youth, which has a significant impact on the females, and enables youth to utilize personal experiences to develop a structural analysis of oppression. As youth acquire a historical conocimiento of East Austin, they also learn about organized resistance to oppression vis-à-vis environmental justice campaigns. In doing so, a spiritual activism blossoms in the youth that is born from their wounds of oppression and rooted in a cultural and historical awareness of their community. The youth engage in a cycle of praxis as their spiritual activism mobilizes them against injustices and ushers in their transformation into subjects. Through participant observation and interviews, I weave together a critical case study of the YSJ program that is informed by the metamorphosis I experienced after participating in the program. / text

The recent attacks on ethnic studies programs both in Arizona with house bill 2281 and locally at the University of Central Texas serve as an urgent call to address how ethnic studies programs impact the educational trajectories of students. Additionally, research done on ethnic studies programs has largely focused on high school programs, overlooking programs in higher education. Therefore, this study addresses the following question: In what ways does being a Mexican American Studies major influence the experiences of Latinas at a predominately White institution (PWI)? Using Chicana feminist thought and Yosso’s (2005) community cultural wealth model as theoretical perspectives this study seeks to; 1) understand an educational approach (ethnic studies) that has shown success with students of color, 2) fill in the gap in the literature of ethnic studies programs in higher education, and 3) look at the gendered experience of Latinas at PWIs. Through a thematic analysis of six in depth interviews and a focus group conducted with six Latina undergraduates the author finds that Mexican American Studies represents a site or process of reclaiming and redefining. Four major themes are identified and discussed; reclaiming knowledge, the self, and space(s) and redefining la mujer. The findings suggest that there is a relationship between student retention and ethnic studies programs, adding epistemic and mestiza capital to Yosso’s community cultural wealth model, and using ethnic studies programs as models of how to best support students of color at PWIs. The author concludes with the suggestion that more research is needed on the experiences of other undergraduate students (White, African American, men, etc.) that are ethnic studies majors in order to further understand the impact, importance, and wealth of potential in these programs. / text

More than a decade has now passed since the concept of “gender mainstreaming” and polices addressing a gender perspective first appeared on the international agenda, yet evaluations on these policies’ implementation show that progress has been slow in the field of humanitarian assistance. As executive workers, the humanitarian field staff have in policy documents been identified as crucial actors in the “gender mainstreaming” work, however, no previous research have been found evaluating their achievements in the field. This study examines if formulated gender policies, within Swedish humanitarian organisations and agencies, are implemented and translated into action in the field. This was carried out by investigating Swedish humanitarian fieldworkers’ gender sensitiveness and experiences of working with a gender perspective in the field. The empirical material was collected from qualitative deep interviews with ten fieldworkers from four different humanitarian organisations/agencies. The interview data was then analysed by using a theoretical framework based on Gender theory, Postcolonial feminist theory and Policy implementation theory. The results show that even though most of the interviewed fieldworkers mean that they are aware of gender issues and the importance of using a gender perspective in the field, they have a general low understanding of the gender concept. An emerging “cultural sensitivity versus gender policy implementation” dilemma was valid and possibly affecting the informants’ attempts to act on formulated policies. Moreover, the method that the organisations/agencies use when educating staff on gender issues seem to have an impact on this dilemma. It became apparent that the fieldworkers underestimate their own responsibility in using a gender perspective in the field; at the same time the organisations/agencies overestimate their workers’ capacity to implement their gender policies. Much also indicate on how a still old-fashioned gender discourse is produced, and reproduced, in gender policy formulations and among the fieldworkers. In conclusion, it seems like a gap occur between the initial intention of a policy, its formulation, interpretation and the final intervention result. / Mer än ett decennium har passerat sedan begreppet "gender mainstreaming " och genus policys först dök upp på den internationella dagordningen. Trots detta visar utvärderingar att genomförandet av dessa policyer varit långsamt inom humanitärt- och katastrofbistånd. Som verkställande arbetare har personalen inom humanitär verksamhet i flera policydokument identifierats som viktiga aktörer för arbetet mot att implementera genus policys, dock har ingen tidigare forskning utvärderat deras faktiska utförande i fält. Studien undersöker huruvida svenska humanitära biståndsorganisationer- och myndigheters formulerade genuspolicys implementeras och omsätts till handling i fält. Detta görs genom att granska svenska humanitära fältarbetares genusmedvetenhet och erfarenheter av att arbeta med ett genusperspektiv i sina uppdrag. Det empiriska materialet samlades in från kvalitativa djupintervjuer med tio fältarbetare från fyra olika svenska organisationer/myndigheter. Materialet analyserades med hjälp av ett teoretiskt ramverk baserat på Genusteori, Postkolonial feministisk teori och teori kring policyimplementering. Resultaten visar att även om de flesta av de intervjuade fältarbetarna säger sig vara medvetna om begreppet genus, och vikten av att använda ett genusperspektiv i fält, har de en låg förståelse för innebörden av konceptet. Ett dilemma mellan ”kulturell känslighet” och ”implementering av genuspolicys” uppkom, där organisationernas/myndigheternas utbildningsmetod av ett genustänk möjligtvis har en förstärkande inverkan. Tydligt var att fältarbetarna verkar underskattar sitt eget ansvar i att använda ett genusperspektiv i fält, samtidigt som organisationerna/myndigheterna överskattar sina anställdas förmåga att arbeta efter de formulerade policyerna. Mycket tyder också på att en fortfarande ganska otidsenlig könsdiskurs produceras och reproduceras både i formulerade genuspolicys, och bland fältarbetarna. Sammanfattningsvis verkar det som att det uppstår en klyfta mellan den initiala intentionen av en policy, dess utformning, tolkningen av denna och interventionens slutresultat.

This thesis examines the discursive position of 'goddess feminism', in relation to some of the difference- and eco feminist positions from the1960s and until today. In focus are the texts of the two goddess feminists, Monica Sjöö and Starhawk. The thesis contributes to a historiographical (re)situating of their political and religious narratives. It also contributes to an elaborated understanding of these goddess feminists and the goddess feminist discourse they are part of. The tentative feminist figuration 'the goddess identified feminist’ is articulated as a tool to discuss the religious and political discourse of goddess feminists as part of contemporary feminist and environmental political conversations and practices. Donna Haraway’s and Karen Barad’s post humanist theoretical interventions are used to explore and discuss the affinities between goddess feminists (re)negotiation of the subject/s 'goddess/nature/human' – and the (re)negotiation of 'nature/human’ made by new materialist/post humanist difference- and eco feminists of the 2000s. Rosi Braidotti’s writings on sexual difference, becoming and feminist figurations further informs the conclusions drawn in the thesis. Drawing on the methodological approaches of Clare Hemmings and Mieke Bal in the analysis of story-telling and subject construction, a contribution is also made, to the understanding of how story-telling as part of a discourse, produces meaning and asymmetric subject relations. In particular the thesis shows how a compassionate feminist storytelling involuntarily produces subject positions through, essentialist dualisms, hierarchical ordering and othering. In parallel, the thesis also discusses alternative narrative strategies that focus on both the discursive boarders and affinities. / Baksidestext: Det här är en bok om två gudinnefeminister och deras religiösa och politiska berättande. Men det är lika mycket en bok om ’gudinnefeminism’ och hur denna feministiska position relaterar till, skiljer sig från och överlappar med andra skillnads- och ekofeministiska positioner från 1960-talet och till idag. Magdalena Raivios doktorsavhandling omförhandlar historien om ’gudinne-feminism’. Den synliggör även innehållet i Monica Sjöös och Starhawks berättelser om samhället, gudinnan/naturen/människan, framtiden och revolu-tionen. Här visas hur problematiska generaliseringar och uppdelningar i ”vi” och ”de andra” skapas i berättandet – men att Sjöö och Starhawk även vidgar och omförhandlar innebörden av begrepp som ’kvinna’ och ’natur’. En feministisk figuration kallad ’den gudinneidentifierade feministen’ används som tentativ utgångspunkt för nutida samtal om feministiska och miljöpolitiska visioner och för-ändringsstrategier. Avhandlingens resultat styrker tidigare forskning som visat att ett ”feministiskt medkännande berättande” – trots sin välmenta ambition – ofrivilligt medverkar i skapandet av diskursiva gränser, hierarkier och generaliseringar. Som ett teoretiskt bidrag, formuleras och diskuteras här några skillnadsfeministiska ansatser till alternativa berättandestrategier.