No description available.

No description available.

This thesis examines the work, family and leisure lives of heterosexual dual-earner couples with dependent children in the United Kingdom. The primary aim is to explore, analyse and assess the role played by leisure in the lifestyles of dual-earner couples. The thesis looks at how paid and unpaid work, family and leisure interact across the lifecourse and within dual-earner couples. Part I begins by locating dual-earner families within a social-historical, political and policy context. Firstly, the social history of the family as a productive unit is used to deconstruct the concept of dual-earning and its varying meanings over time. Secondly, large-scale statistical data are drawn on to track the growth of dual-earning since the 1970s in the context of widespread socio-demographic changes in Britain. In addition, the extent to which dual-earner families are the object of political and policy concern is examined in a review of family-related policy-making and political rhetoric in Britain and the European Union. A theoretical framework for the thesis is established from a review of the social science and leisure studies literature on dual-earner families. A 'gender constructivist' approach, developed from a body of largely second wave feminist work since the 1970s in the social sciences, is adopted as an analytic tool to study dual-earner families. The fieldwork for the thesis included in-depth interviews and life histories with both partners in 14 dual-earner couples with dependent children. The analyses in Part II of the thesis focus on the work and family histories of partners, the relationships between work, family and leisure for individuals at different stages in the lifecourse and the contextual meanings of leisure, which are shown to be dynamic and mutually dependent both for individuals and between partners. The results from the empirical work reveal the complex patterns of daily life in dual-earner families. Work, family and leisure was also shown to be highly gendered. Women and men had different lifestyle priorities after the birth of children. The primary difference was women's greater tendency to relinquish leisure in the light of other demands and men's ability to retain relatively autonomous leisure throughout the lifecourse. The findings also uncovered some of the complicated processes of negotiation within the couple unit that acted to construct and reconstruct gendered lifestyles. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the value of considering leisure as a central component in investigations of lifestyle across the lifecourse and highlights the crucial role it plays in the formation and maintenance of gender relations within the home.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This study provided information on the long term psychosexual and psychiatric outcomes of 139 boys with gender identity disorder (GID). Standardized assessment data in childhood (mean age, 7.49 years; range, 3–12 years) and at follow-up (mean age, 20.58 years; range, 13–39 years) were used to evaluate gender identity and sexual orientation outcome. At follow-up, 17 participants (12.2%) were judged to have persistent gender dysphoria. Regarding sexual orientation, 82 (63.6%) participants were classified as bisexual/ homosexual in fantasy and 51 (47.2%) participants were classified as bisexual/homosexual in behavior. The remaining participants were classified as either heterosexual or asexual. With gender identity and sexual orientation combined, the most common long-term outcome was desistence of GID with a bisexual/homosexual sexual orientation followed by desistence of GID with a heterosexual sexual orientation. The rates of persistent gender dysphoria and bisexual/homosexual sexual orientation were substantially higher than the base rates in the general male population. Childhood assessment data were used to identify within-group predictors of variation in gender identity and sexual orientation outcome. Social class and severity of cross-gender behavior in childhood were significant predictors of gender identity outcome. Severity of childhood cross-gender behavior was a significant predictor of sexual orientation at follow-up. Regarding psychiatric functioning, the heterosexual desisters reported significantly less behavioral and psychiatric difficulties compared to the bisexual/homosexual persisters and, to a lesser extent, the bisexual/ homosexual desisters. Clinical and theoretical implications of these follow-up data are discussed.

I conduct an experiment to test the impact of relative power differential on the relationship between gender and role-taking accuracy. First in an 80 subject study, and then in the current study, role-taking accuracy is conceptualized as the accuracy with which one can predict the behavior of another or others. In Study 1, I examined self-evaluative measures of role-taking ability and found that self-evaluative measures of role-taking do not correlate with actual role-taking accuracy. In addition, women were more accurate role-takers than were men in same-gender dyads regardless of the existence of a prior relationship between the two individuals. This prior experimental research showed that female friends were much more accurate role-takers than were male friends. In fact, female strangers were more accurate role-takers than were male friends. It is my conjecture however, that role taking ability is not directly connected to gender; rather I propose that it is a situationally prompted ability based on the need for individuals of relatively less power to predict the behavior of individuals with relatively more power. In other words, while women are, indeed, better role takers, this is not a general ability; rather it is prompted by their relatively low positions of power. In Study 2, I examine role-taking accuracy under conditions in which differential power is assigned to one member of a dyad and established through interaction. I predict that power position will account for variability in role-taking accuracy, but gender will not. I tested this hypothesis using power balanced and power-imbalanced, task-oriented, same and cross gender dyads. I found that power position does account for variation in role-taking accuracy while gender and gender composition of the dyad do not account for variation in role-taking accuracy.

The teaching of modern foreign languages within Swedish educational system has been a subject of a number of alarming reports in recent years. Several studies have shown that students lack motivation to learn any language but English. Of particular concern is the young males’ underachieving and disinterest in foreign languages.  In the meantime, a number of international studies and the statistical data from Swedish national agencies of secondary and higher education (Skolverket and Högskoleverket) have indicated that Russian is one of the languages that are favoured by males. The primary goal of my case study was, therefore, to examine students’ motivation to learn Russian and their attitudes towards language, community and Russian-speaking people. Another objective was to investigate gender differences in motivational factors. The study was conducted at the Department of modern languages of Uppsala University and the empirical data was collected using a mixed methodology. The questionnaire for the students was based on Gardner’s Attitude / Motivation test battery (AMTB), adapted for the goals and objectives of my research. To place the students’ responses in a wider context, semi-structured interviews with teachers of Russian were conducted. The analysis revealed a high level of both integrative and instrumental motivation for students of both genders as well as intrinsic motivation towards learning Russian. It is seen as a challenging subject to master but this is not perceived as an obstacle; rather, a stimulating factor (especially for males). The results indicate that although male students think of themselves as less motivated than females, the gender differences, in general, were not significant.  Both male and female participants are integrative-orientated. However, women are more likely to identify themselves with the country (or its culture), while men are more fascinated by the language itself.

This essay is a gender analysis of some of the characters created by Agatha Christie. The aim is to investigate the occurrence of gender stereotypes and if traditional gender norms are challenged by men and/or women characters in Evil Under the Sun and The Body in the Library. Initially, there is an introduction to gender theories which includes the theorists Thomas Laqueur and Simone de Beauvoir among others. Laqueur presents the evolution of gender theories, specifically the two-sex model in which it was believed that sex is pervasive and thus the body rules the mind. Theories presented by him are vastly different from those of de Beauvoir who argues that the mind and body are separate. Other theorists which specifically deal with crime fiction and gender include Susan Rowland, who writes about the reformation of the detective and how the crime genre is gendered, and Gill Plain, who has been able to categorised Christie’s characters into three distinctive groups in which gender roles are clearly distinguishable. The conclusion reached is that male and female characters are portrayed both as adhering to gender roles, contemporary to the time at which the books were written, and as breaking them. However the outcomes and reactions differ depending on the character in question. Marple and Poirot appear to be well aware of the stereotypical way they are viewed and use it to appear less intimidating in order to hide their true nature as two sharp intellects.