This essay looks to examine the view on religious and non-religious people thoughts on the possible relationship between feminism and religion. The essay in itself relies on semi structured interviews conducted with five informants where focus has been centered on the informants main thoughts on the subject. The theoretic basis of the study is found in post-structuralistic feminism and intersectionalism. The result will show that while all the informants believe there is a kind of relationship between feminism and religion, this relationship greatly varies depending on the informants’ preconception of religion and feminism.

The popularity of mobile period tracker apps, designed to help women track their periods and fertility, has skyrocketed over the past decade. The target audience is people who menstruate, most often women. There are numerous articles on personalisation in mobile apps, but personalisation in mobile period tracker apps has been little studied. Therefore, in this thesis, I analyse the ways of collecting information about users and personalising the user's account in the period tracker apps, as well as whether this personalisation meets the needs of female users. My research question is: How could the personalisation of mobile period tracker apps be improved through design to meet real users' needs? The study builds on the user experience (UX) design process and consists of the following phases: UX research, design, and user testing. In addition, it includes an ideation part. I used post-structural feminist theory from the perspective of Judith Butler's work as a framework. I conducted seven semi-structured interviews with female users who actively use period tracker apps. I studied three chosen period tracker apps using the walkthrough method and conducted a co-design workshop using the themes identified through the thematic analysis of the interviews. The research output is a design solution tested on five participants of the study and then iterated. Through my work, I contribute to studies of reproductive technologies and the field of feminist human-computer interaction (HCI) through suggestions on personalisation.

This thesis examined why an actor in the labor market, namely Volvo Cars, promotes parental leave. Previous research has shown that workplace-related factors are important for parents' use of parental leave. The purpose of this thesis was thus to highlight how actors in the labor market have the ability to influence the use of parental leave and, by extension, the development of gender equality. This thesis utilized an explanatory analysis of two policy documents and an information film about the Family Bond and three interviews with employees at Volvo Cars. The results showed that one of the reasons why Volvo Cars introduced the "Family Bond" is the company's desire to create equal opportunities for all. "Family Bond" is thus also part of Volvo Cars' inclusive approach in the sense that the company recognizes that parenting and family constellations can look different. A second reason for the implementation is Volvo Cars' aim to contribute to equal parenting. In addition, Volvo Cars believes that paid parental leave, by enabling the company to recruit and retain more women in the company, leads to more diversified perspectives which in turn drives innovation, creativity, improves productivity and the company's operations. A fourth reason for the introduction of the "Family Bond", which is also the most prominent, is that this parental leave policy is part of the entire Volvo Cars corporate culture, which is centered around the human being and the family.

Doctor Educationis / This study investigates how two groups of African pupils, namely the low and high performers in standard 9 mathematics classes in some high schools in Mangaung, construct meaning of their African cultural, individual African identity and performance in mathematics respectively. The observation underpinning this investigation is that social structural factors have not gained much attention in research as bases for explaining differentiated performance in mathematics, hence this study. To arrive at the findings mentioned below, the study used three quantitative instruments namely Mboya's Self-Description Inventory II (MSDI-II), Rotter's I-E scale and Tuekman's Mathematics Attitude Scale (MAS). Four hundred pupils who constituted the sample that responded to these questionnaires were controlled as to confounding variables like, gender, social class, exposure to mathematics and future aspirations relating to this subject. MSDI-II and Rotter's I-E Scale accessed data relating to signification of African individual identity while MAS and one of MSDI-Il's subscale, Maths Ability were 'triangulated' to access data relating to signification of performance in Mathematics. To triangulate findings on these two variables as well as to allow the sampled pupils' voices to be heard, discourse analysis was conducted on the open interviews with the two groups of low and high performing pupils in their respective schools. This qualitative approach also enabled the study to access information relating to signification of African Cultural Identity. No quantitative instrument was found suitable for this purpose. Although the study is careful not to make strong causal inferences between meaning construction (signification) and performance, the results show that (i) low performers are not sure about whether they are Africans or not since according to them African cultural identity implies an obsolete and primitive way of doing things. They are unable to identify with this. High performers see African Cultural Identity as involving lived experiences which challenge them to transform their despised status as Africans (ii) Low performers are not as positive as high performers about Africanness (individual identity) and (iii) they are also not positively inclined towards mathematics and their own ability to perform well therein, while high performers are very positive as they see doing well in mathematics as an act of struggle that would enable them to improve their social standing and that of other Africans. On the basis of the above the study is able to conclude that low performers construct meaning of the mentioned factors in agreement with the dominant discourses that see Africanness as being primitive, incompetent and unable to adequately comprehend the intricacies of modem day subjects like mathematics. High performers on the other hand tend to contest this negative definitions about what it means to be an African (identity, culture and performance in mathematics). They are thus positioned within counter-hegemonic ideology and discourses in as far as their meaning construction is concerned. Grounded on the above findings and conclusions, the study recommends that efforts should not be spared to enable the low performers (and/or pupils at risk of failing) to adopt positive meaning making strategies of high performers. These strategies may be accompanied by enhanced positive feelings about self and what one is capable of, which may in tum also impact positively on performance in mathematics, in particular. The research further argues that this goal may be achieved through curriculum enrichment, guidance, counselling and teaching, couched in the framework of African Renaissance. Therefore further research needs to be conducted that will elaborate clearly (i) what the implications of African Renaissance are on education, teaching, learning and mathematics curriculum in particular, (ii) what are the most effective means of transferring high performers' strategies of meaning construction to the low performers in the context of African Renaissance and (iii) how to strengthen and further sustain the positive meaning making strategies among high performers. Recommendations relating to curriculum enrichment in the context of Curriculum 2005 and Outcomes Based Counselling are also made as well as suggestions for future relevant research based on the concepts generated in this research.

This thesis offers an analysis of women in horror film through an in depth exploration of what I term ‘gynaehorror’ – horror films that are concerned with female sex, sexuality and reproduction. While this is a broad and fruitful area of study, work in it has been shaped by a pronounced emphasis upon psychoanalytic theory, which I argue has limited the field of inquiry. To challenge this, this thesis achieves three things. Firstly, I interrogate a subgenre of horror that has not been studied in depth for twenty years, but that is experiencing renewed interest. Secondly, I analyse aspects of this subgenre outside of the dominant modes of inquiry by placing an emphasis upon philosophies of sex, gender and corporeality, rather than focussing on psychodynamic approaches. Thirdly, I consider not only what these theories may do for the study of horror films, but what spaces of inquiry horror films may open up within these philosophical areas. To do this, I focus on six broad streams: the current limitations and opportunities in the field of horror scholarship, which I augment with a discussion of women’s bodies, houses and spatiality; the relationship between normative heterosexuality and the twin figures of the chaste virgin and the voracious vagina dentata; the representation and expression of female subjectivity in horror films that feature pregnancy and abortion; the manner in which reproductive technology is bound up within hegemonic constructions of gender and power, as is evidenced by the figure of the ‘mad scientist’; the way that discourses of motherhood and maternity in horror films shift over time, but nonetheless result in the demonisation of the mother; and the theoretical and corporeal possibilities opened up through Deleuze and Guattari’s model of schizoanalysis, with specific regard to the 'Alien' films. As such, this thesis makes a unique contribution to the study of women in horror film, while also advocating for an expansion of the theoretical repertoire available to the horror scholar.