Inquiry into how social movements affect change has historically been grounded in either sociology or communication studies and has focused primarily on collective action in public spheres. However, important movement activity also takes place in the private sphere between individuals. Such interactions fall outside of traditional definitions of collective action and are often absent from contemporary social movement theory.One social movement that cannot be studied adequately using existing theory and methods is the American ethical vegetarian movement. To correct this oversight in social movement theory, this dissertation undertakes a rhetorical study of the ethical vegetarian movement, focusing not only on collective action but also on the role of personal interaction in identity formation, participant recruitment, and participant mobilization. A major finding of this study is that personal interaction is the primary reason why individuals choose to adopt and advocate a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle. In order to establish how movement rhetoric works, the dissertation includes rhetorical analyses of cookbooks, organization literature, media representation, interviews with movement advocates, and vegetarian conversion narratives, collected through a national survey. The author explores the use and consequences of unintentional, religious, and embodied rhetoric as means of confrontation and conversion in the ethical vegetarian movement.In this dissertation, Patricia Malesh argues for an interdisciplinary approach to the study of social movements that includes inquiry into personal interaction as movement activity. Such an inquiry clarifies the relationship between personal and collective identities and deconstructs the dichotomy between private and public spheres. She also establishes a rhetorical definition of individual movements, which exposes the interplay between movement goals and methods of persuasion and helps differentiate between similar movements (e.g., vegetarian and animal rights movements) and align those that are seemingly unrelated (e.g., vegetarian and feminist movements). The author concludes by discussing the future of the ethical vegetarian movement in the face of globalization and incorporation. She argues that rhetoricians--those who study the practice and implications of communication--should contribute more consistently to the study of how social identity is negotiated through language and action in social movements.

<p>The aim of this paper is to perform a comparative study between the photography’s of Leila Khaled and Shirin Neshat in order to observe if the woman are able to recede from an conventional formation to become the bearer of the veil and not only reduced to that which</p><p>needs to be concealed. From a feministic perspective I have observed how the symbolic of the veil moulds the woman and how the woman in her context moulds the veil.</p><p>In the description of the news photography of Khaled and the art photography produced by Neshat the mechanisms that lies as a foundation for the modelling of the portraits becomes</p><p>the essays primary entrance. Mechanisms that evolve around the creation of the woman as aconcept, a subject shaped for being looked at and the woman’s self-image through others.</p><p>The textual discourse is visually enhanced through a comparative picture material visually enhanced and explained through photographs by the contemporary artist photographers Cindy Sherman, Catherine Opie, Laurie Simmons, Robert Mapplethorpe and Elin Berge. The visual comparative material also interacts with the essays primary picture material and further expresses the oppression of the woman that occurs irrespective of culture through a patriarch cal gender system.</p>

The aim of this paper is to perform a comparative study between the photography’s of Leila Khaled and Shirin Neshat in order to observe if the woman are able to recede from an conventional formation to become the bearer of the veil and not only reduced to that which needs to be concealed. From a feministic perspective I have observed how the symbolic of the veil moulds the woman and how the woman in her context moulds the veil. In the description of the news photography of Khaled and the art photography produced by Neshat the mechanisms that lies as a foundation for the modelling of the portraits becomes the essays primary entrance. Mechanisms that evolve around the creation of the woman as aconcept, a subject shaped for being looked at and the woman’s self-image through others. The textual discourse is visually enhanced through a comparative picture material visually enhanced and explained through photographs by the contemporary artist photographers Cindy Sherman, Catherine Opie, Laurie Simmons, Robert Mapplethorpe and Elin Berge. The visual comparative material also interacts with the essays primary picture material and further expresses the oppression of the woman that occurs irrespective of culture through a patriarch cal gender system.

Pourquoi, si la démocratisation de l’Espagne après la dictature franquiste est exemplaire, les archives judiciaires font parfois état d’une répression contre des subjectivités homosexuelles jusque dans la deuxième moitié des années 1980 à Barcelone ? Si l’on met à distance la mémoire épique des luttes LGBT postfranquistes, d’autres subjectivités sexuelles apparaissent qui refusent de s’identifier à la Constitution de 1978 garante des droits formels des Espagnols. L’étude s’intéresse à la moralisation du répertoire lexical de la démocratisation espagnole et essaie de mettre au jour l’économie morale de la « Transition » démocratique, portée par un sujet théorique, les « classes moyennes ». Elles sont dotées d’un capital symbolique fort alors que l’Espagne entre dans le capitalisme de consommation, dès les années 1960 sous Franco. Si le consensus est le maître-mot de la Transition, tous les Espagnols n’en font pas la même expérience : pour certaines subjectivités gay, c’est une « barbarie institutionnalisée ». Ces voix et leur répression politique, dont l’étude est inédite, permettent de montrer que la « sphère privée », où les sexualités minoritaires sont tolérées avec la Constitution de 1978, s’apparente à une segmentation du sexuel et du social, qui vise à séparer par un usage disciplinaire du « public » et du « privé » ce que des subjectivités politiques homosexuelles faisaient tenir ensemble. Les valeurs morales des classes moyennes de Franco pénètrent les langages de la démocratie, ceux des Droits de l’Homme notamment. Ce faisant, ils immunisent certains sujets et en exposent d’autres à une violence politique oubliée de la « Transition ». L’étude cherche à réviser un des postulats des démocraties occidentales actuelles, qui garantissent des droits fondamentaux comme celui de la « vie privée » : replacé dans son contexte d’énonciation de l’Espagne postfranquiste, il retrouve une intention disciplinaire contre les sujets résistants au consensus démocratique. Poursuivis par l’État, devenus « marginaux » et pour beaucoup perdus dans les années 1980, toxicomanes et prostitués, ils n’ont pas droit aux conquêtes des luttes qu’ils ont incarnées, la libre disposition du corps et des sexualités. Envisagé par une histoire post-sociale des « révolutions sexuelles » des années 1970, le paradigme queer, qui parfois autonomise les sexualités, ne montre pas que tous les sujets n’ont pas eu accès à ce droit moralisé en Espagne. Cette étude discute et historicise ces catégories qui travaillent les logiques de reconnaissance des minorités sexuelles du temps présent. / If the democratization of Spain after the fall of the Franco regime is exemplary, then why do criminal records indicate that repressive actions have sometimes been conducted against homosexual subjectivities in Barcelona until the late 1980's ? If one puts aside the epic memory of the LGBT fights that took place after the end of Francoism, other sexual subjectivities appear which refuse to accept the Spanish Constitution of 1978. This study looks into the moralization of the vocabulary of the Spanish democratization and attempts to highlight the moral economy of the democratic « Transition », whose carrier is a theoretical subject, the « middle class ». It shows an important symbolic capital at the time when Spain enters consumption capitalism, starting from the 1960's. Even though consensus is the key term of the Transition, not every Spaniard experiences it the same way : for some gays, it is an « institutionalised barbarism ». These voices and their political repression, which has not been studied so far, help to demonstrate that the « private sphere », where minority sexualities have been tolerated since the 1978 Constitution, is akin to a segmentation of social and sexual domains which aims at separating, making a disciplinary use of the concepts « publicness » and « privacy », what political homosexual subjectivities held together. The moral values of Franco's middle class contaminate the languages of democracy, especially those of Human Rights. Thus, they protect certain subjects while exposing others to a political violence of the « Transition » which has been forgotten. This study aims at questioning one particular postulate of today's western democracies, which guarantee fundamental rights like that to « privacy » : in it's context of enunciation, right after the end of Francoism, it bears a disciplinary intent against those resisting the democratic consensus. Persecuted by the government, they became « marginals » and, often in the 1980's, drug addicts and prostitutes : they are not entitled to the rights they fought for, namely the free use of one's body and sexuality. Seen through the filter of a post-social history of the « sexual revolutions » in the 1970's, the queer paradigm, which sometimes grants autonomy to sexualities, does not show that all subjects did not access this moralized right in Spain. This study discusses and historicizes these categories which underlie the recognition logics of today’s sexual minorities. / Si la democratización de España después de la dictadura franquista es ejemplar, ¿por qué los archivos judiciales a veces dan cuenta de una represión contra subjetividades homosexuales hasta la segunda mitad de los años 1980 en Barcelona? Si nos distanciamos de la memoria épica de las luchas épicas LGTB posfranquistas, otras subjetividades sexuales aparecen y se niegan a identificarse a la Constitución de 1978, a pesar de que garantice los derechos formales de los españoles. El estudio está interesado en la moralización del repertorio léxico de la democratización española y trata de desvelar la economía moral de la “Tranción” democrática, encarnada en un sujeto teórico, “las clases medias”. Están dotadas de un capital simbólico fuerte mientras España ingresa en el capitalismo de consumo y desde los años 1960 bajo Franco. Si el consenso es el concepto clave de la transición, no todos los españoles lo experimentan de la misma manera: para determinadas subjetividades gays, es una “barbarie institucionalizada”. Esas voces y su represión política, cuyo estudio es inédito, permiten mostrar que la “esfera privada”, en la que se toleran las sexualidades minoritarias con la Constitución de 1978, se parece a una segmentación de lo sexual y lo social, que apunta a separar con un uso disciplinario de lo “público” y de lo “privado” aquello que subjetividades homosexuales experimentaban juntamente. Los valores de las clases medias de Franco penetran los lenguajes de la democracia, los de los Derechos Humanos entre otros. Inmunizan determinados sujetos y exponen a otros a una violencia política olvidada de la “Transición”. El estudio pretende revisar los postulados de las democracias actuales que garantizan derechos fundamentales como la “vida privada”: en el contexto posfranquista en que acontece, cobra una intencionalidad disciplinaria hacia sujetos que resisten al consenso democrático. Represaliados por el Estado y convertidos en « marginados », perdidos en los 1980, drogadictos y prostituidos, no acceden a las conquistas de las luchas que encarnaron, la libre disposición del cuerpo y de las sexualidades propias. Enfocado desde una historia post-social de las “revoluciones sexuales” de los setenta, el paradigma sociológico queer, que a veces autonomiza las sexualidades, no muestra que no todos los sujetos accedieron a ese derecho moralizado en España. Este estudio discute e historiciza estas categorías que operan en las lógicas de reconocimiento de las minorías sexuales del tiempo presente.

Submitted by Maike Costa (maiksebas@gmail.com) on 2016-06-17T13:06:54Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivo total.pdf: 1100397 bytes, checksum: d261bd1a508b226944d689ae505681c6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-17T13:06:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivo total.pdf: 1100397 bytes, checksum: d261bd1a508b226944d689ae505681c6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-27 / Our research focus two Brazilian novels – Fogo Morto, by José Lins do Rego, and São Bernardo, by Graciliano Ramos, published respectively in 1943 and 1934. We point out, on these two narratives, the female characters Amelia and Madalena, in order to analyze their behavior as married subjects inside a very traditional social system in the countryside of the Northeast of Brazil at that time. In order to read critically how these women are constructed by the authors and the narrators in these narratives, as well as the role they play in the social system they are inserted, where the feminine tend to be silenced or made invisible, we discuss concepts about public and private spheres, with a special interest in the way in which cultural and gender studies has been leading such spheres of social life. With the reading and selection of a theoretical framework which brings important contribution to our analysis of the literary texts, we take studies by Lauretis (1994) in respect to gender technologies, Perrot (2003) about the theory of silencing and gender, Okin (2007) to discuss about the relation between gender and politics, and to discuss resistance of the dominant models we take Bourdieu (2014) studies. We highlight the almost total separation observed between the world of women and men in the novels analyzed. Finally, we point out some ways through which both female characters succeed, even in a non-explicit way, in interfering in the social system they are inserted and in the way their love relationships develop through the union (not always a loving one) they establish with their husbands. Thus, we discuss the context of these two novels within a wider, historical and social context, in other words, considering how the relationships between men and woman were established in Brazilian society in the thirties and forties. / Nossa pesquisa enfoca os romances Fogo Morto, de José Lins do Rego, e São Bernardo, de Graciliano Ramos, publicados, respectivamente, em 1943 e 1934. Destacamos, nessas duas narrativas, as personagens Amélia e Madalena a fim de analisarmos o comportamento esboçado pelas duas no contexto do casamento no interior do Nordeste brasileiro de então. Com o intuito de observar criticamente como essas duas personagens femininas são construídas pelos autores e vozes narrativas, bem como essas se inserem no sistema social, onde o feminino tende a ser silenciado ou invisibilizado, trazemos à luz discussões sobre os espaços público e privado, com especial interesse na forma através da qual os estudos culturais e de gênero vem tratando tais esferas da vida social. A partir da leitura e seleção de um aporte teórico que contribuísse com nossa análise dos textos literários, tendo como principais fundamentos os estudos de Lauretis (1994) sobre o conceito de tecnologias de gênero, Perrot (2003) no que se refere a gênero e silenciamento, Okin (2007) sobre a relação entre gênero e política e Bourdieu (2014) sobre modos de resistir aos modelos dominantes, destacamos a quase total separação observada entre o mundo das mulheres e dos homens nos romances em foco. Ainda assim, apontamos algumas formas através das quais as duas personagens conseguem, ainda que de forma pouco explícita, interferir nos modelos e rumos que seus casamentos e vidas assumem a partir das uniões (nem sempre amorosas) que estabelecem com seus maridos. Discutimos, portanto, o contexto desses romances dentro de um contexto mais amplo, histórico e social, ou seja, levando em conta a forma como as relações entre homens e mulheres se estabeleciam na sociedade brasileira nas décadas de trinta e quarenta.

This thesis researches the construction of gender ideals for the new Middle Class and women’s involvement in the same by analysing fashion magazines published in Germany and Sweden between 1786 to 1827 and 1818 to 1844, respectively. The analysis consists of two parts: first, the share of women’s involvement in the public sphere as defined by Habermas as well as the justification of the inclusion of female-written texts and second, the nature of gender ideals in relation to the separate spheres’ framework. They show that the highest percentage of female contributions to fashion magazines was 5.3 % for the Swedish magazine from 1840 to 1844, while the lowest percentage of female contributions was 2.1 % for the German magazine from 1820 to 1827. Furthermore, the inclusion of texts written by women was often justified through their domestic virtue or the statement that they never wanted their texts to be published. The publication was thus against their will, which firmly anchors the female authors in the private sphere. In the second part, this study shows that women authors in the fashion magazines mainly advocated for the separation of the public and private but, in comparison to gender ideals shared by male authors, did not advocate for the submission of women. Regarding the stereotypes of emotionality and rationality, I find that women were mostly portrayed as emotional by men but would contest these negative portrayals of their sex. At the same time, men were portrayed as emotional and rational by both female and male authors, which is surprising considering the prominent male ideal of rationality.

No description available.

“Between the Spheres: Male Characters and the Performance of Femininity in Four Victorian Novels, 1849-1886” définit le célibataire domestique, analyse les effets de l’érosion des frontières entre les domaines public et privé et retrace l’évolution du discours public au sujet de la masculinité dans quatre œuvres: Shirley écrit par Charlotte Brontë, Lady Audley’s Secret de Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Daniel Deronda par George Eliot, et The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde de Robert Louis Stevenson. En identifiant le célibataire domestique comme personnage récurrent à la dernière moitié du dixneuvième siècle, cette dissertation démontre comment ce personnage arrive à représenter l’incertitude face aux questions de sexualité, non seulement dans des rôles féminins mais aussi dans les positions de l’homme dans la société et la remise en question du concept de la masculinité. Tout comme il y eu de femmes à l’affût de la liberté au-delà du domaine privé, des hommes aussi cherchèrent leur liberté au sein du domaine domestique par des performances féminines. Le célibataire domestique rapporte sur le concept New Woman de cette période par sa tendance de promouvoir de nouvelles définitions de la masculinité victorienne et les limites entre sexes. Le célibataire domestique passe du domaine public, plutôt masculin, vers le domaine privé, plutôt féminin en participitant dans le discours féminin, tel que les sujets de le domesticité, la chastité, la moralité, le mariage, et l’amour. En s’inspirant de l’analyse des domaines public et privé par Jürgen Habermas, cette dissertation revoit les rôles de ces domaines et leur élasticité dans les quatre œuvres en question ainsi que le sort des célibataires domestiques. L’assignation de sexe à ces domaines mena à la recherche de nouveaux formes de masculinité, produisant une définition de mâle liée au statut de la femme dans le domaine privé. Le célibataire domestique se déplace facilement entre ces domaines sans souffrir d’accusations de tendances effeminées ou d’aliénation sociale, à l’encontre des conséquences qu’ont souffert les personnages femelles pour leur comportement inhabituel. Chaque chapitre de cette dissertation considère les changements dans le discours de la sexualité afin de suivre la migration du célibataire domestique du domaine féminin au milieu du dixneuvième siècle jusqu’un nouveau domaine à la fin de siècle qui estompe la distinction rigide crue être en place tout au long de la période victorienne. / “Between the Spheres: Male Characters and the Performance of Femininity in Four Victorian Novels, 1849-1886” defines the domesticated bachelor, examines the effects of the blurring of the boundaries between the public and private spheres, and traces the evolution of the public discourse on masculinity in Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley, Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret, George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda, and Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. By identifying the domestic man as a recurrent figure in the second half of the nineteenth century, this dissertation proves how he comes to represent the uncertainty surrounding issues of gender, not only concerning women’s roles, but also men’s positions in society and the re-defining of masculinity. Just as there were women seeking freedom by moving beyond the domestic sphere, there were men seeking a similar liberty by moving from the public into the private sphere by performing femininity. This bachelor is equally significant to the New Woman of this period based on his tendency to open up for discussion new definitions of Victorian masculinity and gender boundaries. The domesticated man moves from the “masculinized” public sphere into the “feminized” private sphere, by engaging in feminine discourse including issues of domesticity, chastity, morality, marriage, and love. Drawing upon Jürgen Habermas’s analysis of public and private spheres, this dissertation re-examines the roles of the spheres, their fluidity in the four works under consideration, and the fate of the domesticated male characters. The gendering of the spheres resulted in the search for new forms of masculinity; this new definition of maleness was extremely dependent on the status of women in the private sphere. The bachelor moves between the spheres without necessarily suffering consequences such as effeminacy and social estrangement, as opposed to “masculine” female characters that did suffer from social stigma resulting from their uncharacteristic behavior. Each chapter considers changes in the discourse of sexuality to account for a re-positioning of the domesticated man from a feminine sphere of activity into a new sphere which, by the end of the century, blurs the rigid distinction thought to be in place throughout the Victorian period.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T15:13:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Roberto Francisco de Carvalho.pdf: 3479433 bytes, checksum: 240e3f8ae318f45ee67ca3e594ee0f5f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-06-24 / This study aims to understand the participation in the FUT management process according to the institutional documents and the university community perception: teachers, students, and administrative staff. To achieve the goal, we used an empirical-theoretical investigation, including bibliographic survey and documentary research, related to the written documentation about the FISEs, especially the FUT, and field research including the university community from seven campuses involved in the study. The study about the participation in the FUT management process had as basis the understanding in the social regulation process, resulting from the overlapping of the public and private spheres, and the liberal and materialist-historical democratic approaches. From this broader discussion, we make explicit the tension between the business-strategical and the participatory-democratical management perspectives and the participation in the business organizations and social institutions as the FISES. Owing to the social regulation perspective, we aim to understand the civil society participation in the Brazilian State modernization process, and in its bulge, the historical democratization of the Brazilian public university, in distinct moments, in its management process. We aim to deepen the discussion about the moment that the market power and the social organizations were made explicit tensioned by the State- 1990 to 2010- in which the private market sphere has been strengthened at the expense of public and showing the process of superior education marketization, making explicit, within the FISES, the neo professional, heteronomous, competitive, an operational nature characteristics. In this context the democracy, neoliberal-liberal, and minimalist values have been strengthened in the FISES and in the FUT, operationalized in the management logic and in the business strategical participation. This is also, the context in which we aim to understand the participation in the FUT management process, a university that, at first, shows an organized structure by councils and boards with the teachers, students, and administrative staff representation, favorable to a participation in the participatory-democratic perspective, but that implements a management very close to the management perspective, in which not even the representative liberal participation has been consolidated. Owing that in the FUT deliberative councils there is a strong concentration of power in the managers&#8223; hands, it is even more distant from the consolidation of an effective participation in which the university community segments have more equality of participation in the deliberative spaces, as well as the expand of these segments participation in the institutional management process, covering, in addition to implementing, the highest levels and degrees in the decision-making process, as the definition of the guidelines, politics, financial management, and institutional evaluation. Paradoxically, in the perspective of the participation as politics fight, although there is a demand from the university community to take part in the decision-making processes, there is a low participation in these same spaces and in activities or important actions that are happening in the university, mainly related to the policy guidelines proposition level. Though smaller in scale, the obstacles to the participation in the FUT management process don&#8223;t differ from the obstacles in the society participation in general, and they are related to the way the production system and the social reproduction is organized and effective. / O presente estudo busca compreender a participação no processo de gestão da UFT conforme os documentos institucionais e a percepção da comunidade universitária: docentes, discentes e técnico-administrativos. Para alcançar o objetivo proposto, utilizamos uma investigação de natureza teórico-empírica, incluindo levantamento bibliográfico e pesquisa documental, envolvendo a documentação escrita acerca das IFES, especialmente da UFT, e pesquisa de campo abrangendo os sujeitos da comunidade universitária dos sete campi envolvidos no estudo. O estudo acerca da participação no processo de gestão da UFT teve como ponto de partida o entendimento do processo de regulação social, resultante da imbricação das esferas pública e privada, e das abordagens liberal e histórico-materialista de democracia. A partir dessa discussão mais ampla, explicitamos a tensão entre as perspectivas estratégico-empresarial e democrático-participativa de gestão e participação nas organizações empresariais e instituições sociais como as IFES. Tendo em vista tal perspectiva de regulação social, procuramos compreender a participação da sociedade civil no processo de modernização do Estado brasileiro e, no seu bojo, a histórica democratização da universidade pública brasileira, com destaque para a participação da comunidade universitária, em momentos distintos, no seu processo de gestão. Buscamos aprofundar a discussão sobre o momento em que se tem explicitado o poder do mercado e das organizações sociais tensionado pelo Estado - 1990 a 2010 - no qual tem sido fortalecida a esfera privada mercantil em detrimento da pública e evidenciado o processo de mercantilização da educação superior, explicitando, no âmbito das IFES, as características de natureza neoprofissional, heterônoma, competitiva e operacional. Nesse contexto têm sido fortalecidos nas IFES, como na UFT, os valores da democracia liberal/neoliberal minimalista, operacionalizados na lógica da gestão e da participação estratégico-empresarial. Esse é, também, o contexto no qual buscamos compreender a participação no processo de gestão da UFT, uma universidade que, em princípio, apresenta uma estrutura organizada em conselhos e colegiados com a representação dos segmentos dos professores, estudantes e técnico-administrativos, favorável a uma participação na perspectiva democrático-participativa, mas que implementa uma gestão muito próxima da perspectiva gerencial, na qual nem mesmo a participação liberal representativa se consolidou. Tendo em vista que nos conselhos deliberativos da UFT existe forte concentração de poder na figura dos gestores, está ainda mais distante de se consolidar uma efetiva participação na qual os segmentos da comunidade universitária tenham mais igualdade de participação nos espaços deliberativos, bem como de se ampliar a participação de tais segmentos no processo de gestão institucional, abrangendo, para além da execução, os níveis e graus mais elevados do processo de tomada de decisão, como a definição das diretrizes, políticas, planejamento, financiamento e avaliação institucionais. Paradoxalmente, na perspectiva de participação como luta política, embora haja uma demanda da comunidade universitária por participar dos processos de tomada de decisão, ocorre uma baixa participação nesses mesmos espaços e em atividades ou ações importantes que vêm ocorrendo na universidade, principalmente no que se refere ao nível da proposição de diretrizes políticas. Embora em menor escala, os obstáculos à participação no processo de gestão da UFT não diferem dos obstáculos à participação na sociedade de uma forma geral, e têm a ver com o modo como o sistema de produção e reprodução social está organizado e se efetiva.

The thesis uses the case study of the experience of middle-class northern white women in America during the period 1800-1860 to explore several issues of wider significance. Firstly, the research focuses upon the dynamic relationships between the culturally-constructed categories of public/formal and private/informal power and participation at both the practical and symbolic levels, suggesting ways in which they intersected on the lives of women. Secondly, consideration is given to the validity of the stereotyped view that 'domestic' women were necessarily disadvantaged and dominated relative to those who aspired to public political and economic roles. Thirdly, the relationship of religious belief to these two areas is discussed, in order to discover its relevance to the way in which women both perceived themselves and were perceived by others. In seeking to explore these issues, the research has analysed the patterns of social and cultural change in the era under question, indicating how those changes influenced the perceptions and experiences of both women and men. Their reactions in terms of discourse and activity are located as strategies of negotiation in redefining both social role and participation for the sexes. The rhetoric of 'separate spheres', which was used by men and women to order their mental and physical surroundings, is reduced to its symbolic constituents in order to illustrate that the distinction between male and female arenas was more perceptual than actual. The motivating forces behind the activities and ideas of women themselves are investigated to determine the role of religion in the construction of both female self-images and wider negotiational strategies. The context of nineteenth-century social dynamics has been revealed by detailed analysis of extensive primary sources originated by both women and men for private as well as public consumption. Feminist tools of analysis which enable the conceptualisation of 'meaningful discourse' as including female contributions have further enhanced the specific focus on how women constructed their own world-views and approaches to reality. 'Traditional' approaches and tools are shown to have seriously skewed and misrepresented the reality and variety of both discourse and female experience in the era. Great efforts have been made to allow women to speak in their own words. This has produced an insight into a richness of female social participation and discourse which would otherwise be obscured. The research indicates that women were indeed actors and negotiators during the period. Those women who advocated as primary the duties of women in the domestic and social arenas were by no means setting narrow limitations on female participation in both society and discourse. The religious impulses and eschatological frameworks derived by women (varied as they were) served to order and renegotiate reality and meaning, whilst they produced female roles and influence of great significance. Women were not passive victims of male oppression. Religion can thus be perceived as a positive force which women were able to approach both for its own sake, and for their own particular ends.