In contemporary Canadian society women of all "races" are affected by the socially created, racialized and gendered images produced by a culture dominated by "White" males. These images are legacies of Western European cultural history which has traditionally constructed women and people of colour as the "Other", and such constructions have had the effect of restricting women and people of colour from participating fully in mainstream society. While both "White" and "Black" womens' lives have been specifically shaped by such constructs, most "White" women have failed to recognize that "race" has shaped their lives and placed them in a privileged position compared to women of colour, especially "Black" women. In order for "White" (and "Black") women to fully understand racism and sexism, which are both realities of modern societies, it is important for them to understand their historical origins. Therefore, this thesis, in an attempt to address these issues, examines the historical roots and the development of representations of gender and "race" and their specific connections to "Black" and "White" women. The case study involves a focused evaluation of the creation of racialized female symbolism in the early historical narratives of British Columbia between 1858-1900 when the first "Blacks" arrived in the province. These social constructions were compared to the actual lives of "Black" and "White" women of the time in order to gain a clearer understanding of society. The study showed that representations of "White" and "Black" women were often not consistent with the reality of their lives. Women from both groups were frequently able to restructure and, in many cases, reject such images and create their own social reality. The research, while showing that "White" women were given a more privileged position than "Black" women, also illustrated the many similarities between the lives of women from both groups. Finally, by centering both "Black" and "White" women as the subjects of this study, it was possible to view history through a different lense than the traditional male dominated one.

This thesis describes a program of research aimed at examining the social psychological consequences of being a victim of discrimination. An experimental paradigm was developed to determine if, and to what extent, disadvantaged group members perceive the discrimination that confronts them. Women were asked to react to negative feedback after receiving information about the probability that they had been discriminated against. When discrimination was made ambiguous, subjects minimized their personal experience with discrimination and attributed their failure to themselves. A second experiment investigated the role of perceived control as a potential cause of minimization of personal discrimination. The results indicated that disadvantaged group members were reluctant to blame their performance on discrimination because in so doing, they were placing control for their outcomes in the hands of others rather than themselves. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the on-going victimization of disadvantaged group members.

This thesis explores the experiences of Canadian academic women in terms of location, space and voice. Within this qualitative study, the spaces of and for women within the university are examined by way of women's subjective experiences of 'value' and 'being valued'. Differences in experiences between women based on age, colour, tenure and academic rank are described through the voices of thirty academic women. The study argues that the "illusionary practices of equity" operating within the university milieu, exacerbate the tensions inherent in contradictory subject locations that women occupy within academe. The struggles of representation and identity within these contested spaces raise the challenges of whose voice will have space within the privileged locations of higher learning.

Although gender inequality is a major element of poverty, women the world over have showed their heroism in the role of both economy generators and family supporters’ by engaging in informal trade. This became most remarkable in South Africa where refugees in general and women in particular are living without either government or UNHCR supports. The following study attempts to explore business leadership qualities of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) refugee women living in the city of Durban. The study is the result of challenges that Congolese women informal traders are facing (family responsibilities, identity documents...) since their arrival in South Africa which hinders the development of their businesses. Additionally, this study identified a number of successful strategies for developing businesses and reducing poverty. This research used a qualitative method during data collection. In turn, both explanatory and descriptive theories were used. Congolese refugee women informal traders were the sample taken and were selected from the Congolese community living in the city of Durban. In order to answer the research questions, this study used in-depth interviews and questionnaires where ten Congolese refugee women informal traders between the age of 24 and 41 years were involved. Selecting respondents by the abovementioned ages in this research was helpful for exploring socio-economic challenges of the most categories of the neediest refugee women: widows, single women and mothers of 5 or more children, and so forth. These categories provided relevant information for being mothers and their daily socio-economic challenges in the city of Durban. In the line with findings, respondents on the questions related to business development mentioned the number of factors as hindrance to development of their businesses. Thus, they had no access to business training organized by government and NGOs, poor access to finance, lack of UNCHR support, and family responsibilities especially their refugee status. The study reveals the needs of both UNHCR and government’s support in terms of sponsoring refugees’ projects (including business training) and appropriate identity documents from the department of Home Affairs. UNHCR assistance together with local NGOs and appropriate identity documents are identified to be important factors of respondents’ business development strategies. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2010.

This thesis explores the sexual division of labour in three worksites associated with the Western Australian Fishing industry: fishers' households, a seafood processing company and fishing vessels. There has been no previous substantial study of the labour of women in Australian fishing industries. My research has been primarily undertaken by interviewing women and men who work in the Western Australian fishing industry, and my findings are presented through a comparison with overseas literature relative to each site. As I found, in the households of fishermen, women do unpaid and undervalued labour which includes servicing men and children; managing household finances and operating fishing enterprises. In seafood processing companies women are allocated the lowest paid and least rewarding work which is regarded as "women's work". On-the factory floor issues of class, race/ ethnicity and gender intersect so that the majority of women employed in hands-on processing work are migrant women froma non-English speaking background. The majority of women who work at sea are cook/ deckhands who are confronted by a rigid sexual division of labour, and work in a hyper-masculine workplace. The few other women who have found a niche which enables them to enjoy an outdoor lifestyle while they earn their own living, are those who work as autonomous independent small boat fishers. In each site there is evidence that women, individually and collectively, exercise some power in determining how and where they work, but they remain marginalised from the more lucrative sites of the industry, and have limited access to economic and social power.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Sandra Acker.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Tara Goldstein.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 175-187).

Thesis (S.J.D.)--University of Toronto, 2005.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2764. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 282-307).