Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on October 25, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

During the 1930s, Sweden went through several societal crisises. There was a labor market crisis and a population crisis that were also covered by a gender conflict. To address these crises, reforms were introduced around women in society. There was a great deal of political discussion about whether women should be able to live their lives as housewives, which led to the idea of ​​housewives' holidays and holiday homes for working women. What was the political significance of the holiday home? Why did it come to an end in 1977? What remains of the legacy from Vadtorp? For whom and why was Vadtorp preserved? How can one interpret the association in relation to the gender system?  Archive material has been used to be able to answer the survey. By closely reading the material and drawing connections to secondary sources, one has been able to answer these questions. The survey shows how the holiday home in Vadtorp should have had a political impact as the holiday home should have been one of the first holiday homes for working women. The woman became more equal to the man and Vadtorp was discontinued. It is possible to interpret how there was an underlying ideological idea in the dissolution of the holiday home.

M.S.

The purpose of this study was (1) to determine some of the problems in family food management of young home-makers and (2) to make recommendations for more effective teaching of food management to students living in the home management residence of the School of Economics. With the use of schedules especially prepared for this study,information relating to food management was collected from a group of 80 young homemakers whose husbands were students at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute during the 1961-62 academic year / Master of Science

This study was limited to 50 former homemaking students who are now young married homemakers living in or near Radford, Virginia. The former students were enrolled in vocational homemaking at Radford High School sometime during the years 1951-1955. The interview method was used to gather the data. The purposes of the study were: 1. To determine what problems these young homemakers had encountered in the various areas of homemaking; 2. To determine the sources of aid they had used to help them in solving problems; 3. To determine if their high school homemaking had helped them in solving problems; and 4. To determine what this study indicates are the aspects of homemaking that should be stressed. / Master of Science

Master of Science

Reality TV is a growing form of entertainment, with streaming giants like Netflix and Hulu offering an extensive array of programs catering for different audiences. Currently one of the most popular franchises is “The Real Housewives”, within the franchise itself “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” is ranking at the top. Despite it`s high entertainment value, much of Reality TV has been critiqued for perpetuating harmful stereotypes.  This study therefore aimed to uncover the underlying messages regarding femininity, power, and social roles that are communicated to the viewers of the popular reality show “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”. The following research question was formulated; How does "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" portray women in ways that either challenge or reinforce (gender) stereotypes? The study has employed a multimodal critical discourse analysis to the last three episodes of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” latest season (season 13). The episodes were watched and discussed multiple times, leading to the identification of four overarching themes; romantic relationships, career, conflict and physical appearance. Scenes from the show regarding these themes were analyzed, using theoretical frameworks concerning stereotypes, hegemony and gender.  The results showed some gender stereotypes being reinforced while others were challenged. The reinforcement of stereotypes through “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” lies in stereotypes being used as a weapon by the women against each other, portrayed by the network. The challenge of stereotypes lies in the way the program portrays the women as they contradict these narratives.

Certaines séries télévisées américaines proposent un traitement riche et problématique des voix féminines. Ainsi, Ally McBeal (Fox, 1997-2002), Sex and the City (HBO, 1998-2004), Desperate Housewives (ABC, 2004-2012) et Gossip Girl (The CW, 2007-2012) utilisent une voix-off féminine, mettent en scène des discussions entre femmes et ont pour personnages principaux des femmes qui prennent la parole dans la sphère publique. L’analyse de ces voix multiples démontre comment les dispositifs centrés sur la voix et le discours participent de la représentation des femmes, de la féminité et des rapports de genre à la télévision américaine. Cette recherche s’inscrit dans les études télévisuelles féministes en proposant une synthèse des courants qui constituent cette approche. L’analyse des contenus est associée à une prise en compte du contexte de production tout en ébauchant une étude des processus de réception. Ces trois dimensions permettent d’envisager les séries comme des « actes-en-société ». Les études filmiques et télévisuelles, l’histoire et les sciences de l’information et de la communication notamment sont convoquées pour étudier les représentations du genre dans un corpus d’épisodes de séries, d’entretiens avec des professionnels et de réactions de téléspectatrices et téléspectateurs.Si les voix des femmes n’ont pas toujours eu droit de cité dans les médias américains, elles émergent massivement dans les séries depuis les années 1990 notamment grâce à l’héritage du soap opera, genre audiovisuel féminin mettant au premier plan des relations interpersonnelles et des dilemmes moraux. La pratique du commérage apparaît comme un modèle pour de nombreux récits sériels mettant en scène l’intimité. Les séries inscrivent ainsi les voix des femmes dans une économie médiatique en réseaux proposant une réactualisation des représentations du genre. / Several recent American TV series offer an original treatment of women’s voices. Ally McBeal (Fox, 1997-2002), Sex and the City (HBO, 1998-2004), Desperate Housewives (ABC, 2004-2012) and Gossip Girl (The CW, 2007-2012) use female voiceovers, emphasize women’s talk and center on female characters who have a public voice. Analyzing these voices shows how audiovisual apparatuses centered on voice and speech convey specific representations of women, femininity and gender on American television.This research mobilizes feminist televisual studies in focusing not only on contents, but also on production and reception. Thus TV series can be understood as « social acts », that have a direct impact on society. Borrowing tools from film and television studies, history and media studies is necessary to analyze the series’ episodes, several interviews conducted with TV writers and online reactions from viewers.American media contained women’s voices for a long time. They started to appear in TV series in the 1990s, in part through the influence of the soap opera genre, which focuses on interpersonal relations and moral dilemmas. Gossip is a gendered practice linked to the soap opera, it is a model for many contemporary serial narratives that foreground intimacy. The series set women’s voices in a networked economy and thus re-actualize gendered representations.

Women’s wartime work is a well-known phenomenon in belligerent countries. But what happened in a neutral country like Sweden? With the outbreak of the Second World War, Sweden was put in a state of “national preparedness” that would last from September 1939 until the end of war in May 1945. From the autumn of 1939 the State Labour Market Commission (Statens arbetsmarknadskommission, SAK) had sent out signals to the employers’ associations in the engineering industry and at the ironworks that their male employees would not be granted exemptions from military service. Employers therefore had to find reserve workers, either men too old to be conscripted or women. The main purpose of this thesis is to explore how the threat of war affected the plans for and the use of women’s labour during the years of national preparedness. The national preparedness organisation did not include a plan ready for use to mobilise women either for work or for voluntary efforts for the nation during this period. The absence of a state plan for women’s national efforts became the point of departure for the Women's Organisations' Preparedness Committee, (Kvinnoföreningarnas beredskapskommitté, KBK) in 1938. The founding intention of this organisation was to gather Swedish women as a demonstration of their will to defend their country. A huge number of women – 800 000 – signed up for various tasks. This organisation was dominated by women who were eager to contribute to the national defence, and was not fully representative of the traditional women’s movement. With the passing of The National Compulsory Service Act (tjänstepliktslag) in December 1939 both men and women had become eligible for conscription. This was supposed to provide an instrument through which the government would be able to guarantee the supply of industrial labour. But the National Compulsory Service Act was never put into effect with regard to women. Instead, the governmental strategy to reach the female workforce was to establish a liaison between the state and the KBK. The Swedish way was the volunteer way. But this policy required propaganda. And so “Mrs. Loyal” made her entry in a state initiated propaganda newsreel on Swedish cinemas in January 1944. Mrs. Loyal was introduced as an example of “the national preparedness woman of today”. As a reserve worker in the engineering industry, she replaced a man who was called up for military service. The Mrs Loyal propaganda was aimed at married women whose children were grown up. The film presented the ideal situation where women registered for these courses voluntarily, to be fully trained if and when they were needed in industry. Towards the end of the war the SAK made inquiries to investigate the outcome of industrial employment during the war years. It then appeared that the Mrs Loyal-campaign had had an unexpected result. Few of the married housewives Mrs Loyal was supposed to attract had followed her example. In reality, it was a different group of women who took advantage of the opportunity. Young, unmarried women – daughters who still lived at home – saw an opening for them to leave home and earn their own livings. For these young women the preparedness situation and labour shortage actually became an opportunity for emancipation. How are we to understand the significance of the years 1939–1945 in terms of gender relations? The years of national preparedness in Sweden never became the opportunity for a broad range of women to leave their homes and become wage earners. In terms of gender contract, the housewife contract remained dominant. The traditional gender order never changed. The call for women workers was never a question of equal rights, just the temporary needs of the nation. But even if the changes were as superficial as the propaganda image, the need for women workers led to some changes. The question of equal pay was finally brought up on the political agenda with women’s entry in the engineering and ironworks industries. The conditions of labour shortage also placed a focus on other questions concerning the consequences of the protective labour legislation for women, like the prohibition against women’s night work and the question of women’s part-time work. The government had the opportunity to present new guidelines for women’s work at the end of the war. Instead a pattern was institutionalised that reinforced an image of women workers as a “latent labour reserve”. The propaganda picture of Mrs Loyal was forgotten, but in reality both married and unmarried women went on seeking solutions to the difficulties of combining wage work with children and housework.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of English Language and Literature, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.