Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a nuanced play that illustrates revenge, madness, and complex relationships. The paper proposes a feminist reading of Hamlet and analyses the play’s central characters, Gertrude, Ophelia, Hamlet, Claudius, Polonius, and Laertes, and their behaviour under the influence of a patriarchal society. Furthermore, the study will focus on the ways in which Shakespeare represents Ophelia and Gertrude in the play. The study does a feminist reading of the play to investigate how Ophelia’s and Gertrude’s actions and behaviour are affected by the contemporary patriarchal society, and how it affects the male characters’ choices. This research allows readers to interpret female characters in several ways, and to see how women are forced to act and make choices in a contemporary patriarchy to be able to influence societal structures.

As gender-based discrimination and violence against women continues to be a critical human rights issue across the world there is a growing demand of engaging men in transforming the relations, norms and the inequal social structures. Even though there are many laws and policies in place to protect women’s rights they are poorly implemented due to the fact that society and social institutions do not fundamentally support them. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate how interviewed male college students describe their experiences of participating in a one-year program led by the non-governmental organisation called Men Against Violence and Abuse (MAVA), based in Mumbai, India. Focus has been on the training program seen from the participating students’ perspective and in what way they perceive it has had an impact on their view of gender-based discriminations, equality and patriarchal norms in society. The collected data has been analysed through the theory of patriarchy and gender socialization. The results of the study show that, even though the program has been successful in their goal to change the participants mindset to some extent, the main visible change seem to have been on the students interpersonal skills. The interviewed students report an awareness of gender-based issues in society but also a change on a personal level such as a developed confidence and communication skills. Methods like interactive sessions and street-plays as well as being exposed to new environments, are recurrently expressed to have been positive and beneficial experiences. Another finding is the belief that gender-norms and behaviour are deep-rooted in society. Therefore to change the mindset and changing the norms is a slow process and something that will take time.

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The purpose of this study was to examine professionals' experiences of working with youngwomen who are exposed to honor-related violence and oppression. The study also aimed toexamine how these professionals' approach the issue of honor. To answer the questions, aqualitative method was used. The method involved semi-structured interviews withprofessionals who work with the target group in question. The professionals inquired for thestudy were eight people including: social workers that work at women's aid, school nurses,and counselors. To conduct the study, the researchers arranged telephone interviews withtwo of the professionals. The remaining candidates were interviewed in physical attendance.Furthermore, the analysis method used on the empirical data was coding and thematization.Additionally, the empirical data was examined by using previous research and selectedtheories. First, the results of the study showed perceived difficulties among the interviewees,in making an assessment and acting righteously in different situations regarding honorissues. Second, the results also showed the importance of having a well-functioningrelationship between authorities and organizations, and how their alliance according to theinterviewees hypothetically work. Moreover, the study emphasizes the necessity for expertsto expand their expertise in order to effectively comprehend and assist women inhonor-related situations.

Masters of Art / This mini thesis is an exploratory study of the lived experiences of bisexual and lesbian women in the Western Cape with regard to how they claim agency and negotiate their individual sexualities. Using mixed methodologies this study aims to look at the ways in which bisexual and lesbian women negotiate their sexuality in a landscape dominated by heterosexual discourses. Also considered are the contradictory ways in which these women assert their roles as lesbians and bisexual individuals and how these roles serve to simultaneously reinforce and challenge the dominant order of heterosexuality. The conflicting views of the respondents are documented which further demonstrates the complexities surrounding sexuality. This research identifies and explores both international and local research already conducted on alternative sexualities and address the lack of black researchers' conduct of these studies on the African continent. The study also records an acknowledgement of the researcher's reflection that she too holds contradictory views on some of these issues.

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MGS / Institute for Gender and Youth Studies / ‘Gonyalelwa lapa’ is a form of a marriage whereby a family marries a woman to a deceased son who passed on without having biological children, for the purpose of restoring or reviving the deceased’s name. The woman is married with her existing children, or to bear children who will take the surname of the deceased man. Women find it difficult to leave such marriages for the fear of losing their children whom they signed off by accepting to be married under this type of marriage. This study employs the feminist standpoint methodological approach in order to explore experiences of women who are married for ‘lapa’. The study purposefully selected a sample of 8 women who are married under ‘Gonyalelwa lapa’ as well as 4 key informants. Findings demonstrate that women marry for ‘lapa’ mainly for economic reasons, to escape stigmatization, for the acquisition of the marital surname, which is tied to being acknowledged, respected and recognized by the community. Nevertheless, these women face multidimensional challenges within their in-laws’ households: they receive no support from the inlaws; their girl-children suffer discrimination based on ‘sex-preference’, boys are given more value on the basis that a boy will be able to perpetuate a deceased man’s name. Most women married under this type of marriage suffer from emotional and economic abuse at the hands of their in-laws. The study reveals that these challenges are attributed to lack of physical presence of the husband in the family. The study recommends that a large scale study be conducted on this or related topic, to build knowledge and create an awareness of such a marriage as to facilitate its inclusion in Customary Marriage Act.

Denna uppsats avser att undersöka och kartlägga från ett genusperspektiv hur en könsmaktsordning och patriarkala strukturer påverkar och bidrar till att traditionen chaupadi följs. Det är en tradition där kvinnan antas vara oren och bringar otur kring sin omgivning och bör därför i vissa fall bo i en menshydda under sin menstruation. Detta är olagligt i Nepal och denna uppsats avser därför att undersöka förklaringar till varför traditionen följs trots en lagstiftning som förbjuder praktiken. Uppsatsen utgår ifrån att det finns en rådande könsmaktsordning och patriarkal struktur som påverkar och även har en del i att traditionen, trots lagstiftning, följs. I materialet som presenteras i uppsatsen anses även skam och stigmatisering av både kvinnan och menstruation har en roll i chaupadi och detta undersöks även utifrån ett genusperspektiv. / This essay aims to examine and sort out from a gender perspective how a gender order and patriarchal structure effect and contribute to the tradition of chaupadi. Chaupadi is a custom where the women is perceived to be impure and brings misfortunes for her surroundings when menstruating. Because of this she is prompted to stay in a menstrual hut during her period. This custom has been illegal in Nepal since 2005. This essay intends to sort out explanations for why the custom to continue to get practiced even though it has been illegal for 15 years. This study assumes that there is an existing gender order and patriarchal structures that affect and influence the custom and uphold the practice even though there is a law against it. In the material that is presented in the essay, shame and stigma attached to the female menstruating body play a central part in the enforcement, and in the upholding, of the custom. This is also analyzed form a feministic perspective.

In the hands of two prominent authors, Elizabeth Inchbald and Frances Burney, a critical paradox concerning female silence arises: while both authors operate very successfully in the publishing world, both do so while subverting impositions of silence, exhibiting a clear breach of propriety. An examination of Inchbald's novel A Simple Story and play Wives as they Were, Maids as they Are and Burney's novel Cecilia and play The Witlings, elucidates how each author adapts literary genres to portray female wit, exposing eighteenth-century impositions of silence in the process. By engendering female characters with the ability to employ humor as young women, Burney and Inchbald develop characters with agency and articulation.