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The concept of workforce diversity has been considered from many perspectives. Based on the equality legislation, the ‘equal opportunities’ approach evolved, with the premise of moral concern (Noon and Ogbonna 2001) and equality (Cockburn 1991), where all individuals are treated the same by ensuring that ‘the rules of the game’ were fair. However, in the 1990s, a move was made to ‘managing diversity’ (Kandola and Fullerton 1994), a business case approach whereby equality was ensured by taking into account the circumstances of the individual. Although prevalent in organisational rhetoric, neither approach has fully realised its potential in terms of ensuring equality of opportunity or outcome for groups or individuals in the labour market (Miller 1996; Webb 1997; Liff 1999; Johns and Green 2009). Therefore, in this research project, other bodies of literature are used in conjunction with the equality and diversity research, to identify barriers to workforce diversity. The case study on which this research project is based, is situated at a shipyard in Barrow-In-Furness, in the North West of England. The shipyard is part of BAE Systems, a global defence, aerospace and security company, which in 2009, stated its desire to increase the diversity of its workforce. The geography and demographics of Barrow meant that this was a particularly challenging concept for the shipyard. This research was based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with four groups of employees and trade union representatives, alongside documentary and data analysis. The original contribution of this thesis has been made by considering three bodies of literature together (equality and diversity, masculine culture and occupational communities), in order to identify the key barriers to increasing the diversity of the shipyard. These barriers included the shipyard’s hegemonic masculine culture, the existence of occupational communities within the construction and engineering departments, and the impact of the local community on the diversity of the shipyard. Thus, it has been possible to identify that barriers to increasing the workforce diversity of the shipyard exist not only in the organisation, but also in Barrow’s local community.

The Amharic proverb 'Chickens dream only of grain' could easily describe our own lack of imagination when thinking about poultry. In the sectors of agriculture and development, there is growing recognition of how chickens could be used in poverty alleviation, as a source of income and protein, and a means of gender empowerment. However, interventions do not always achieve their goals, due to a lack of understanding of the local context in which chickens will be consumed. In Ethiopia, chickens have an ongoing role not just as economic tools, but in relationships between people and with the religious and spiritual realm. During a period of fieldwork of one year in the Amhara region, in the northern highlands of Ethiopia, I explored the roles that chickens play in the household and wider society. The association between poultry and women, reflected in both practice and language, is changing in peri-urban areas, where production is commercialised, bringing into question the feasibility of improved poultry breeds as a means of empowerment of women. Beyond their economic use, the slaughter of chickens plays an important role in mediating relationships with the spirits that populate the landscape in Amhara. The consumption of chickens reinforces relationships within a household, social networks, and ultimately as a form of building nationality. The types of chickens chosen for these forms of consumption demonstrates strong preferences, and may explain the resistance to improved chicken breeds that have been introduced since the 1950s. The practices around chickens also give some insight into some of the ways in which Amhara society is changing.

This thesis examines 'pharmacopornographic' subjectivity in the work of contemporary Spanish philosopher, Paul B. Preciado, and represents the first extended study of his work. In Preciado's writing, 'pharmacopornographic' describes the entwined influence and dominance of the pharmaceutical and pornographic industries, and the thesis analyses how they produce 'pharmacopornographic' subjects. This thesis explores Preciado's writing on gender, sexuality, pornography, drugs and power between 2002 and 2014 and articulates an emergent trans-feminism. This research analyses how pharmacological and pornographic industries affect the design and production of genders and subjectivities. The thesis further refines Preciado's assertion that contemporary, 'pharmacopornographic' regimes of power produce subjects rather than objects, or people, rather than things. Ultimately, this research is concerned with understanding the production of pharmacologically-determined subjectivity. The thesis articulates various subject positions, as a means of theorising pharmacopornographic subjectivity: 'The Voyeur', 'The Sex Worker', 'The Biodrag King' and 'The Junkie'. These subject-position chapters are prefaced with a chapter exploring theoretical frameworks used to analyse Preciado's work, and the thesis concludes with a chapter on accelerationism and the microprosthetic scale of Testo Junkie.

Femininity, in its normative socially driven state, is not a natural trait but a ghost that bears its past incarnations. I am interested in gender as a haunting social apparatus. Gender roles and representations have shifted throughout history, yet remain firmly attached to their antecedents. My creative research focuses on femininity as set forth in religion, social practices, and cultural phenomena and how these forces intersect at the present moment to create a complicated relationship of gender identity and expectations.

Margaret Cavendish, a female author of two utopian texts: “The Convent of Pleasure” and The Blazing World, seems to subvert the gendered binary of utopian writing and even of utopian characters. Although she is a female author herself and her works are, in one manner, continuous with the feminine mode of utopian writing because they suggest that her utopias are better than the world in which we live and that we ought to emulate them, Cavendish is not completely in line with this mode. Indeed, she also utilizes components of the masculine mode of utopian writing. The main character of The Blazing World, the Empress, despite being female herself, can eventually be categorized as a typical male utopian character. But again, she is not completely in line with the masculine mode of utopian writing either. Therefore, Cavendish ultimately exists outside of this gendered binary by drawing strategies from both of them.

archives@tulane.edu / The current study is designed to test whether a stressed-out female role model in a male-dominated domain hinders women’s career aspirations. Role models have been shown to increase women’s career interest in fields where they are underrepresented. This study, however, sought to establish that role model stress in male-dominated domains is threatening to aspirant women’s career achievement. Female pre-medical undergraduates read about either a stressed or non-stressed female physician (the role model) who works in either a male-dominated or gender-equal work environment. There were no significant changes on pre-med career interest over time. However, participants reported that their interest in a career in medicine decreased as a result of listening to an interview with a stressed role model. Unexpectedly, participants listening to a stressed role model performed better on an in-lab task. The male-dominated domain did not induce the same threat effects as it has in past studies, but this independent variable was not without consequence as participants in the gender-equal domain condition performed better on a creative thinking exercise. This study demonstrates that stressed-out role models do impact individuals looking up to them, but it may not be enough to deter new aspirants from their intended career paths. / 1 / Sally Merritt

archives@tulane.edu / 1 / Monica M. Lebron

This research examines the ways in which individuals who identify with nonbinary gender identities 1) understand and perform their gender identities and 2) navigate the workplace, intimate partner relationships, friendships, and the LGBTQ+ community. Prevailing understandings of gender rely on a gender binary; identification with a binary gender is compulsory. Individuals are assigned a gender at birth and are expected to identify fully with that gender for their entire lives. However, despite significant social pressures to identify as man or woman, there exist individuals whose identities bring into question the stability of the gender binary. Non-binary is sometimes used to describe individuals who do not identify solely or fully as man or woman. Fifteen interviews were conducted with individuals living in the Portland Metro Area who included non-binary as part or all of their gender identity. Questions included general descriptive information, questions about participants’ conceptions of masculinity and femininity, and questions regarding their experiences as a non-binary person in the context of the workplace, intimate partner relationships, friendships, and the LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, plus) community. It was found that non-binary individuals are largely held accountable to a normative performance of gender by friends, intimate partners, employers, and coworkers. While non-binary individuals are constrained by the gender structure at the individual, interactional, and institutional levels, they also appear to push back against these constraints in small but meaningful ways. Results from this study provide insight into a group of people which has been largely left out of the literature.

The distribution of paid parental leave in Sweden today remains unequal despite several political reforms. In addition, previous research shows that this unequal distribution leads to negative health effects for the women who use the majority of the parental leave. The aim of this study is therefore to create an understanding of why women takes out the majority of the paid parental leave. Four interviews have been made with women who have done just that. By analyzing the material through feminist post-structuralism and queer theory, the women’s discursive understanding of their own situation is made visible. Three themes emerge: the first theme shows how an essentialist understanding of the woman is ruling despite the fact that the women on many occasions also demonstrate a constructivist understanding. The second theme highlights a discourse where the women are both expected to take out the majority of the parental leave while also being responsible for an equal distribution, which is impossible to fulfill. The last theme shows how two aspects are made invisible, first, the problems that arise due to an uneven distribution and, second, that an equal distribution of the parental leave is possible. These themes are understood as normalization processes and a way to maintain the power structure between the sexes.