No description available.

M.S.

The basic research question this thesis addresses is how the secondary status of Bangladeshi women is reinforced through household labour. It is argued that gender relations and housework shape each other. To develop this, it examines the degree of participation of women in different areas of housework and family decisions. The thesis further explores whether the autonomy of women coming from the traditional Bangladeshi family set-up has increased as a result of their immigration to Canada and their exposure to Canadian family values. This is done by a comparison of the family experiences of Canadian and Bangladeshi women. Finally, it is suggested that age, position in the family and length of immigration are the indices of the autonomy of Bangladeshi women in Canada.

No description available.

Women in early modem England were expected to marry, and then to become housewives. Despite the fact that nearly fifty percent of the population was in this position, little is known of the expectations and realities of these English housewives. This thesis examines both the expectations and actual lives of middling sort and gentry women in England between 1500 and 1640.

This study is an initial attempt to investigate the relationship between the portrayal of Japanese OL or “Office Ladies” in different media: formal scholarly studies on OL and informal sources such as recruiting lectures, online articles, and Japanese magazines that target OL, specifically CanCam, Sweet, and JJ. The term OL has generally been used to describe a short-term low-paying clerical position, requiring minimal skills, for young women primarily age 20s to 30s. The OL position can thus be seen as a gendered profession with little corporate mobility. However, most of the websites and magazines for these working women feature articles on the latest styles and are full of fashionable attractive women advertising the latest designer goods and the up and coming designer must-have brands of the season. With the skyrocketing of the Japanese economy in the pose-WWII era, women have become the country’s primary consumers, and OL appear to be playing a central role in this new consumer-heavy culture. Thus using both scholarly and primary sources, this thesis will explore this gap between the reality of OL and the romanticized version portrayed in these magazines. Although scholarly sources often depict the OL lifestyle to be tedious, gendered, and overall unfavorable for workingwomen in Japan, my thesis hopes to explore the positive aspects of the OL lifestyle as well and examine the reasons why women buy into this OL culture via these magazines and sites.

A figure that has been pushed to the periphery of television shows throughout history, the African American woman has become more and more visible recently thanks to the proliferation of the cheap-to-produce reality television genre. Although many of these shows do feature African American women, critics often argue that these shows are a disgrace to the community, full of bickering women who are more obsessed with their labels than one another. This dissertation is an attempt to recuperate these programs from such denigration. I argue that reality television shows that focus on African American women do provide a great service to the community. Using soap opera theory as a theoretical foundation and close reading as an analytic tool, this project argues that these reality programs, which are called docusoaps, provide complex representations of African American women that are rarely seen on television. In addition, they offer therapeutic space to the women on the program as well as possible ones to the Black female viewers at home. The case study is The Real Housewives of Atlanta, a show that has aired on Bravo since 2008. This show has served as the template for the various African American docusoaps that have followed it, making it an important site for the investigation of how these programs present Black women and possible therapeutic spaces for that community.

No description available.

This research explores how formal employment outside the household affects the gendered identity of married women. A comparison of ten married white women who are not gainfully employed and ten married white women who are gainfully employed has been used to determine whether or not formal employment has an impact on gender identity. Tajfel's social identity construction theory argues that member of devalued social groups will strive to construct positive self-concepts by either reinterpreting the prevailing beliefs surrounding social categories or by challenging these beliefs. I focus on the division of women and men into the private and public spheres according to 'innate' abilities. Patriarchal ideology has devalued the social category 'women' and the domestic sphere. This research aimed to determine whether or not these gainfully employed married women were challenging patriarchal ideology and therefore renegotiating their gendered identities. This study focuses on three aspects: the role of work in the formation of a positive self concept; the experience of motherhood; and the double-shift. It was found that gainful employment although not altering a woman's gendered identity did result in a more positive self-concept because of public recognition and financial rewards. However, the experience of motherhood for employed married women remains integral to their gendered identity as women and they experience guilt and anxiety because they do not remain at home. Lastly, the household chores remain primarily a woman's responsibility, even when she is employed outside the household, resulting in a double-shift. The interviews for this study demonstrate that married women who are employed ful-time outside the household do not challenge the patriarchal ideology which shapes their gendered identity. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

Sweden had in the early 1930's the lowest birth rate in the world. Population Commission which was established in 1935 concluded that one of the biggest social problems was the working women’s heavy workload. To deal with the low birth rate reforms and programs were founded both in order to help the women but also in order to support the inadequate motherhood. Government grants were set up to start the so-called vacation home for housewives where the government’s visions of the vacation homes were active rest and recreation.      Based on the Leisure Inquiry report regarding vacation homes for housewives - the purpose of this paper is to examine how the government visions regarding vacation homes for housewives were practiced and how the future of prevailing gender contract affected the holiday home. What activities and what form of education occurred on the vacation home Frykenstrand? Who visited the vacation home and how was Frykenstrand affected by egalitarianism and the state's growing need for labor?      Archive material from the Association of Värmland working women vacation homes have been used for the essay. According to the issues of this essay, the vacation home Frykenstrand is described through text analysis and quantitative method based on protocols, applications, guest books and correspondence. The state’s visions with the vacation homes are based upon the Leisure Inquiry report.      The survey shows that the state's visions regarding giving women rest and recovery were met. The intentions regarding education and training cannot be considered to be met on the vacation home Frykenstrand, nor was the vacation home used by women who might have helped increasing the birth rate. The vacation home was abolished probably affected by the gender contract when more women started work and received a statutory vacation.