This thesis examines the experiences and perceptions that Aboriginal and white women have about abusive relationships and about the police responses to these situations. Differences and similarities between these two groups of women will further highlight the need for resources and policing which are sensitive to the different needs of both groups. Assessments of the cultural differences between Aboriginal and white inner city women are particularly important as women seek to develop more and better alternatives to living in abusive relationships.<p>Theoretically, an examination of gender oppression through patriarchy and its effect on male violence towards women is provided. Understanding the influence of patriarchal social relations on the subordination of women in society is helpful in explaining the similarities in perceptions and experiences of male violence between Aboriginal and white inner city women. The subculture of violence theory is also examined and is used to help understand the differences in perceptions and experiences of these two groups of women. The argument is made that Aboriginal women have qualitatively different perceptions of both battery and the police response to their calls of battery due to the historical legacy of colonization of Aboriginal people in Canada.<p>The data were gathered via a questionnaire and in-person interviews which asked women respondents a wide variety of questions pertaining to their perceptions and experiences with battery, and any police involvement. The questionnaires obtained background information about respondents, responses to a 5 point Likert scale of attitudinal statements pertaining to battery and policing, and responses to specific questions which requested written responses. <p>Analysis of the quantitative data involved descriptive presentation examining relationships between the independent variable ethnic background and dependent variables, as indicated by the 25 questionnaire items, using bivariate distributions. The qualitative data were thematically coded and examined.<p>Importantly, the study revealed that there are significant differences between the perceptions of Aboriginal and white inner-city women. Aboriginal women were found to much more tolerant of abuse from their male partners, and were less likely to call the police in a time of crisis. It was also found that many Aboriginal women had very negative experiences with the police which further disadvantaged them when dealing with battery situations.

This analysis is concerned with the spatially-anchored hierarchies of power that organize Ontario’s current schooling model. Using the experiences of four young Latina girls, it questions how current school safety discourses function as barriers to educational success, vis-à-vis their role in reconfiguring these students’ identities through narratives of danger, menace, and unruliness. Specific safety and security related practices are explored as sites through which marginalized students are produced as dangerous bodies who are undeserving of full educational opportunities. It is argued that these practices (as manifest in current approaches to surveillance, policing, discipline and punishment, and the restriction of educational mobility) all work to produce the school space as dominant space. Rather than offering youth the opportunity to overcome inequalities, schools and education instead play a definitive role in their continued propagation by sanctioning the control, containment, and eviction of those who are deemed to be deviant.

Racism has been identified as a profoundly traumatic and a psychologically damaging experience affecting Black people (Harrell, 2000; White & Parham, 1990; Williams & Williams-Morris, 2000). It has been theorized that one of the most devastating effects racial oppression (i.e. racism and discrimination) is the internalization of that oppression (Bailey, Chung, Williams, & Singh, 2006; Speight, 2007). Speight (2007) argued that an understanding of racism would be incomplete without considering how it is internalized. Internalized racial oppression is the process through which Black people consciously and unconsciously internalize and accept the dominant White culture’s oppressive actions and beliefs towards Black people, while at the same time rejecting an African worldview and cultural motifs (Bailey, Chung, Williams, & Singh, 2006). Internalized racial oppression is believed to adversely affect the psychological health of Black people. This study examined the construct validity of the Internalized Racial Oppression Scale (IROS; Bailey et al., 2006) through the use of confirmatory factor analysis and social desirability. Additionally, this study investigated internalized racial oppression as a predictor of the endogenous factors of Psychological Distress, Psychological Well-Being, Personal Self-Esteem, Collective Self-esteem, and Life Satisfaction through the use of latent variable path analysis. It was hypothesized that, similar to racial oppression; greater levels of internalized racial oppression will predict greater psychological distress, lower psychological well-being, lower personal self-esteem, lower collective self-esteem, and lower satisfaction with life among Black college students. Three hundred seventy Black students (Cohort 1 = 102, Cohort 2 = 268) participated in this study. Cohort 1 consisted of students recruited from a predominately White university in the Southeastern region of the United States. Cohort 2 consisted of a national sample of students. Participants from Cohort 1 completed a pencil and paper survey, while the participants from Cohort 2 completed a survey via online. The results supported the factorial structure of the IROS. Further, the results found that the IROS was a predictor of psychological distress, psychological well-being, collective self-esteem, and satisfaction with life. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

This qualitative study sought to understand the ways classism, as it intersects with racism and sexism, affects how low wage-earning women negotiate their work world in the academy and the way the academy functions to create, maintain, and reproduce the context within which oppression is able to emerge. Field research took place at State University, a pseudonym for a Land Grant, Research Extensive institution located in the Southwest. Through the lenses of critical theory and critical feminist theory the stories of six women employed as custodial workers, nine administrators employed at State University, and two State University employees involved in the community's Living Wage initiative, were analyzed. The lives of women employed as custodial workers are largely unremarked and undocumented, and the ways in which their work serves to make the academy possible have been unacknowledged. This study found that the job of cleaning in the traditional higher education environment is laced with challenges. The nature of the academy, the ethos and operation of State University, and the interlocking systems of classism, racism and sexism fuse together arrangements of power that simultaneously obliterate and render these women agonizingly visible through systems of oppression. In an environment where honor is conferred upon "the educated," the custodial participants, whose opportunities were limited due to their social locations, exist on the border of the academy. Their marginality is reinforced daily, as they are in constant contact with higher-status individuals who perform raced, classed, and gendered behaviors that are woven into the fabric of our society. The study also found that the custodial participants and the university administrators are locked in a relationship of mutual distrust. State University administrators do not trust the custodians and the custodians do not trust State University administrators. Furthermore, existing at both the literal and metaphorical "bottom" of the organization, custodians are among the first to feel the impact of major institutional shifts, such as increases in student and faculty bodies, and large-scale economic recovery initiatives. Additionally, I reconceptualize the notion of "borrowed power" to name the impermanence of the authority which Black custodial supervisors, and people of color in general, hold in our racialized society. Finally, the data decidedly point to White male students as primary actors and architects of the overtly hostile work environment within which the women work. The custodial participants negotiate these challenges with facility. They find creative ways to resist and to negotiate the obstacles they face. Unfortunately, they also occasionally internalize negative messages and are complicit in their marginality. Administrators who participated in the study were aware of these conditions, but remained silent on the issue of resolution. Through various intentional (if unconscious) State University policies, practices, rules, norms, behaviors, and structures that sometimes act in insidious, hidden ways, the dominant groups? interests continue to be pursued while the interests, needs, and even the very presence of marginal members is ignored. Thus, systems of domination and subordination are produced, reproduced, validated, and institutionalized in the academy. This process is presented in a Conceptual Map of How Systems of Oppression Flourish and are Re/produced in the Academy. The findings of this study contribute to existing bodies of knowledge that discuss racial, gender, and economic inequality. Yet it opens new lines of inquiry into the overlapping conditions of gender, racial, and economic marginality as they impact the lives of women custodial workers in the academy. The findings issue a clarion call for institutions of higher education, one of our nation?s longstanding and respected foci of social change, to tap into its available expertise to end oppression, beginning in its own "backyard."

This analysis is concerned with the spatially-anchored hierarchies of power that organize Ontario’s current schooling model. Using the experiences of four young Latina girls, it questions how current school safety discourses function as barriers to educational success, vis-à-vis their role in reconfiguring these students’ identities through narratives of danger, menace, and unruliness. Specific safety and security related practices are explored as sites through which marginalized students are produced as dangerous bodies who are undeserving of full educational opportunities. It is argued that these practices (as manifest in current approaches to surveillance, policing, discipline and punishment, and the restriction of educational mobility) all work to produce the school space as dominant space. Rather than offering youth the opportunity to overcome inequalities, schools and education instead play a definitive role in their continued propagation by sanctioning the control, containment, and eviction of those who are deemed to be deviant.

Violence against gay men occurs every day. Stories can be found in newspapers, magazines, and on the World Wide Web reporting these incidences, yet there has been little research done from a qualitative perspective that explores the impact of violence on the lives of gay men. How do gay men make sense of the experience and the affects that violence perpetuated against them has on their lives? This research project examines the experiences of gay men that have been victims of various levels of violence directed at them as a result of their sexual orientation and identity as gay men. Using a qualitative approach, six gay men were interviewed and shared their experiences through personal interviews. The data collected within the interviews was then analyzed using Grounded Theory as the methodology. As there has been little research done on the impact that gay bashing has on gay men’s lives, the main objective of the research was to explore the experience of gay bashing with gay men that have been victims of such violence and gain a better understanding of the issues related to this experience. This research will add to the knowledge base around the experiences of sexual minority men and provide information for social workers, medical practitioners, law enforcement agencies, teachers and other service providers that will encounter gay men that are victims of violence. It provides valuable information that can be used to shape policy and practice to better assist gay men that are victims of violence. It also provides a voice to the many men whose stories are never heard and whose experiences are often discounted. / February 2009

The aim of this study was to analyze society's efforts for girls who are victims of honorrelatedviolence and oppression. More specifically its aim was to examine what efforts thesociety can offer girls who are exposed to honor-related violence and oppression, and howsocial services and shelters cooperate on issues of honor. We have chosen to focus on girlswho are victims of honor-related violence, but we are aware that even boys and men face thisproblem. The study was conducted using a qualitative approach through interviews. Tocomplete the study we have conducted eight interviews throughout Sweden. We haveinterviewed staff at three different social services and four different shelters. This was toexamine how society operates with honor-related problems but also to investigate how thedifferent services and activities interact. The key findings that emerged from our study arethat girls from honor cultures find themselves in a dilemma when they decide to seek helpbecause of violence and oppression. On one hand, they are unable to live by familyconstraints while on the other hand they do not get the possibility of total freedom if they fleethe home. Society's efforts today include protection, support and guidance for these girls, butaccording to our informants, this is not enough. They feel that what is missing is an effort tohelp the girls after their stay at shelters because they often become isolated when they begin anew life, in a new city, all alone.

This thesis examines the experiences and perceptions that Aboriginal and white women have about abusive relationships and about the police responses to these situations. Differences and similarities between these two groups of women will further highlight the need for resources and policing which are sensitive to the different needs of both groups. Assessments of the cultural differences between Aboriginal and white inner city women are particularly important as women seek to develop more and better alternatives to living in abusive relationships.<p>Theoretically, an examination of gender oppression through patriarchy and its effect on male violence towards women is provided. Understanding the influence of patriarchal social relations on the subordination of women in society is helpful in explaining the similarities in perceptions and experiences of male violence between Aboriginal and white inner city women. The subculture of violence theory is also examined and is used to help understand the differences in perceptions and experiences of these two groups of women. The argument is made that Aboriginal women have qualitatively different perceptions of both battery and the police response to their calls of battery due to the historical legacy of colonization of Aboriginal people in Canada.<p>The data were gathered via a questionnaire and in-person interviews which asked women respondents a wide variety of questions pertaining to their perceptions and experiences with battery, and any police involvement. The questionnaires obtained background information about respondents, responses to a 5 point Likert scale of attitudinal statements pertaining to battery and policing, and responses to specific questions which requested written responses. <p>Analysis of the quantitative data involved descriptive presentation examining relationships between the independent variable ethnic background and dependent variables, as indicated by the 25 questionnaire items, using bivariate distributions. The qualitative data were thematically coded and examined.<p>Importantly, the study revealed that there are significant differences between the perceptions of Aboriginal and white inner-city women. Aboriginal women were found to much more tolerant of abuse from their male partners, and were less likely to call the police in a time of crisis. It was also found that many Aboriginal women had very negative experiences with the police which further disadvantaged them when dealing with battery situations.

This thesis carries out an analysis of social pressure and the alienation of women in Angela Carter&rsquo / s The Magic Toyshop and Jeanette Winterson&rsquo / s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. It discusses the effect of social pressure on woman whose sexuality is ignored. This study initially focuses on the development of woman&rsquo / s sexuality in relation to the female model described by heterosexual hegemony. It aims at taking a closer look at the alienation of conformist and non-conformist female characters under patriarchal force in Carter&rsquo / s and Winterson&rsquo / s works. In relation to women&rsquo / s sexual identity, the thesis examines gender roles in the particular works. It discusses how women under patriarchal oppression are identified with passive female roles while men are associated with superior male roles. Thus this study iterates how women are alienated as a result of patriarchal gendering. With this aim, it questions the ways to destroy the patriarchal oppression for Carter and Winterson.

This study examines codes of oppression reflected in western myths and further analyzes the ways these myths are revisited in two contemporary British and American women playwrights&#039 / , Liz Lochhead and Cherrie Moraga&#039 / s, dramatic adaptations and rewritings. In this respect a postcolonial feminist approach and a comparative perspective are adopted in rereading signs of gender, ethnic or racial and hierarchical oppression through the challenging and revolutionary, feminist and Scottish, lesbian and Chicana representations by Moraga, respectively.