Li, Ming. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-76). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Section I: --- Literature Review --- p.5 / Homosexuals in China --- p.5 / The Invisible Lesbians --- p.6 / Minority Stress --- p.9 / Minority Stress Model --- p.10 / Understanding Lesbians' Stresses in the Chinese Context --- p.13 / Chapter Section II: --- Methodology --- p.17 / Sampling --- p.17 / Data Collection --- p.20 / Data Analysis --- p.22 / Sample Description --- p.23 / Limitations --- p.24 / Chapter Section III: --- Stresses among Lesbians --- p.26 / Family --- p.27 / Labor Market and Workplace --- p.33 / Intimate Relationship --- p.37 / Chapter Section IV: --- Different Identities under the Same Name --- p.46 / Gendered Understanding of Lesbian Identity --- p.46 / Components of Lesbian Identity --- p.58 / Relating Minority Identity to Stress --- p.63 / Chapter Section V: --- Conclusion --- p.69 / References --- p.74

The present thesis is concerned with professional women in Jeddah, Saudia Arabia. Because of the social changes taking place in Saudi Arabia, the position of women is subject to both traditional and modernistic influences. While an increasing number of females are receiving higher education and expanding their aspirations , the traditional cultural values dealing with woman's role in the family are still an important consideration. The thesis is based on the theoretical perspective that the individual role system is over-demanding. Fulfilling role demands causes difficulty or "strain"; if a person conforms fully in one direction, fulfillment will be difficult in another.

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Based on the author's ethnographic research at the Karakuwa fishing community in Japan, this thesis explains a cultural process of the local people's synthesis of the values they place on nature and their everyday behavior in a modern industrial world. Explicated by ethnographic narrative, this study focuses on a revitalization movement similar to others attempted by fishermen in other parts of Japan. These revitalization movements embody values, held by fishermen for centuries, that nature should be respected. These movements also serve as symbolic activities to resurrect natural resource users' visions of nature, that emphasize the connectedness of all parts of nature including humans. In the specific revitalization movement studied here, the activists insist on the fishermen's knowledge of the connection between reforestation upstream on a coastal river and the coastal fishing ground. This study also demonstrates how significant it is to know the insiders' points of view and their cultural values when we try to understand the relationship between humans and nature. By studying what kind of traditional knowledge the Karakuwa fishermen have utilized to support the fishermen's reforestation activities and what has been dismissed, we can gain insight into the process of value transformation that takes place side by side with the actual environmental degradation and economic changes experienced by the local fishermen. In this study, the conclusion is that local people manage with those contradictions by categorizing events along a continuum between "reality" and "ideal." This study contributes to the local people in the Karakuwa fishing community as a source of cultural information extending their knowledge about their indigenous identity and furthering their understanding of how they revitalize their local traditions yet modernize in this era of globalization. / Graduation date: 2003

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This dissertation provides a review of the nature of urban environment and livelihoods in an attempt to improve understanding and awareness of challenges facing cities and towns in developing countries, in particular their impact on poor women and children. Some urpan challenges are context-based and cultural, but there are special commonalities found in most developing countries like crime and unhealthy environment per se, that exacerbate poor people's vulnerability. Women and children are identified in series of research to be the most poverty stricken and vulnerable; hence prone to shocks. It is therefore important that factors such as urban poverty that increase their marginalization be explicitly identified if the global reduction of poverty is to be maintained. However, given the increasing global poverty levels and enduring children's malnutrition levels, it is clear that major factors that determine livelihoods such as income, food security and health are still inadequate to meet the challenges that urban areas offer today. Other than the material wealth, complex urban livelihoods have amongst other things, reduced provision of other socio-psychological factors such as caregiving, which are critical for children's development and nutrition. Urban livelihoods force women to participate whole-heartedly in the wage labour. On one hand, this incidence may lead to household's food security, children's nutrition, women's empowerment (socially, economically and psychologically) and optimisation of their autonomy. But on the other hand this can result into reduced women's devotedness and effectiveness to child caring, thereby resulting into child malnutrition and child poverty. It is therefore the aim of this research study to demonstrate that while wage income can be a critical aspect of children's nutrition in urban areas, without adequate caregiving behaviours our goal of reducing children malnutrition is no where near to be reached. This research has used qualitative data owing to the information needed, which is primarily based on opinions, beliefs and perceptions about children's health and nutrition status. The analysis showed that demographic and socio-economic status in the community and household levels are crucial in determining women's ability to sustainable food security, child care and nutrition. Other factors identified as crucial in child's nutritional status were health, education and age of a mothers and people who provide care to children when mothers are at work. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.

"I love this country with a passion, but I cannot live here anymore. I can no longer live slung about with panic buttons and gear locks. I am tired of driving with car windows closed and the doors locked, tired of being afraid of stopping at red lights. I am tired of being constantly alert, having that sudden frisson of fear at the sight of a shadow by the gate, of a group of youths approaching - although nine times out of ten they are innocent of harmful intent. Such is the suspicion that dogs us all." (Paton, A. London Sunday Times, November 29 1998) This credence and conviction was echoed repeatedly during personal interviews in South Africa and New Zealand. The added pressure South African Indian respondent's felt emanated from being Indian. This study argues that although the shift to post-apartheid epoch has dawned, the providence of the Indian in South Africa remains relatively unaltered. The consequence is that South African Indians are voyaging for security elsewhere. New Zealand has offered them an alternative home. This area of exploration has not been investigated before, since South African Indian migration to New Zealand is a relatively new exodus. This research explores and investigates why South African Indians are migrating to New Zealand, on a micro and macro level. This dissertation focuses on three main aspects: the reasons for migration to New Zealand, the effects on the respective countries and the formation of new 'identities and home.' I developed my main arguments based on the data retrieved from the personal interviews - the greatest source of information for this work. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002

The sudden and steady increase in the involvement of women in the Mexican labour force beginning in the 1980s, signifies a major shift in gender roles and activities. It is a little studied outcome of Mexico's combination of economic crisis (which served to increase the supply of female labour) and subsequent adoption of neoliberal economic policies (which stimulated the demand for female labour). In fact, what is not known, are the implications of this employment for the Mexican women themselves. The dissertation moves beyond the existing literature on the gendered consequences of employment and economic development, by bringing in the citizenship literature to help define women's status. Specifically, the dissertation proposes a way of determining these consequences by examining three dimensions of women's status, two of which refer to women's roles and capabilities in the public sphere---political and economic---and one which refers to women's status in the private sphere---the household. By disaggregating the status variable, the dissertation highlights the significant improvements in women's status while identifying the remaining obstacles to gender equality. The dissertation develops a number of measures of women's multidimensional status, and assesses the differences between employed and non-employed women using data obtained from a survey of women in Mexico City. In the economic sphere, the findings indicate that employment improves women's status by enhancing women's independence. Employment provides women with the economic resources that enable them to lessen their dependence on men. At the same time, women continue to face inequality in the labour market, signifying the continuing subordination of women. In terms of women's household status, the findings show that women retain the primary responsibility for childcare, and for the maintenance of the home. This inequality is significant, and serves to limit further improvements in

Past studies of the Tuareg have been chiefly concerned with nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoral society. This work is an examination of a sedentary community of former vassals or slaves of the Tuareg who reside at Aouderas, a village of the Saharan Air Massif of northern Niger (West Africa). / The economy of Aouderas is multi-sectoral, and is composed of: small-scale irrigated agriculture (which has been analytically separated into subsistence and cash crops); stock-raising of camels, small ruminants, and cattle; and a caravan trade based on the exchange of salt and grain. An analysis of more recent economic developments, namely migration to wage work and expanding urban markets for garden produce, is also undertaken. / The principal social institutions which govern production and reproduction are examined. The relative importance of each sector to household welfare is quantified and analysed by means of a model which shows the revenues derived from each sector in terms of millet, the local staple food.