This study explores perceptions of women’s freedom of movement since the 27 May 2015 Constitutional Court ruling CCZ 15/15, outlawing arbitrary arrests of women after dusk on grounds of loitering with intent to solicit for prostitution, focusing on Zimbabwe’s Avenues community. It traces issues surrounding women’s mobility under patriarchy since colonialism which through the 1960 Vagrancy Act marked the inception of its legal regulation premising stereotypic arrests by state agents. Guided by Pragmatic and Feminist philosophy the researcher adopts a Mixed Method Strategy to gather new knowledge on the complex issue. Employing Radical Feminist Theory under Feminism it critiques government efforts and their efficacy towards ensuring gender equality in mobility. The study argues that while useful legal mechanisms and laws have been adopted to enable women’s right to mobility, ideological and physical challenges continue to hamper this realisation. Empowering the Gender Commission with binding powers, ensuring sufficient security in public areas and educating women about their rights are some recommendations proffered to address challenges faced by women in the exercise of their right to movement. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

The purpose of this research is to examine the diversity and representation of models of color in ELLE US’ 2017 fashion editorials. As the purpose is twofold, so is the methodological approach, which looks at the material through both a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative visual analysis. Theoretically, the analyses are grounded in postcolonialism, representation and the concept of new racism. To discuss medias’ influence on audiences, the theory also presents related research on this subject. Illustrating a statistical lack of diversity, as well as tendencies of stereotypical representations, the research indicates a postcolonial discourse in ELLE’s content – results that are problematic both in relation to racial equality and to the socially constructed beauty-ideals that ELLE takes part in creating.

The diploma thesis "How active seniors cope with stereotyping" presents the view of active senior citizens on the issue of ageism in Czech society. Research based on analysis of semi-structured interviews shows that active seniors do not consider inequality as a major problem, mainly because of their life optimism, which helps them overcome the stereotypes. Another important strategy the respondents - active seniors - apply is building/keeping a distance between themselves and the rest of the senior population, upon which they look the same way as the rest of Czech society does. The idea that they themselves do not match the prejudices, but the other seniors do, reinforces the stereotypical view of older people and also presents the active seniors as exceptional. The veneration of an active lifestyle in old age does not seem to be a direct effect of active aging trend, as all respondents had been very active throughout their whole life. Although active seniors present themselves as open to society, they prefer to spend their free time with other (active) people of their own age. Despite the rhetoric of assertiveness they are often passive, when confronted with discrimination, and try to sidestep an anticipated unpleasant situation.

The diploma thesis Stereotypes of representation of the Protectorate period in Contemporary Film Creation focuses on the examination of stereotypical depictions of fictional worlds determined by a historical model in film production thematically situated in the period of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The subject of the research is mainly gender stereotypes of fictional characters and stereotyping of the fictional environment on the example of costumes, masks, period props, musical accompaniment and other elements of narration. The theoretical framework of the work is based primarily on the findings presented in the Introduction to the Semantics of Fictional Worlds by Bohumil Fořt and by Narrative Ways in Czech Literature by Lubomír Doležel. The knowledge of stereotyping theory is drawn from Nick Lacey's Image and Representation: Key Concepts in Media Studies and Pierre Sorlin's Europian Cinemas, Europian Societies 1939-1990. To obtain the necessary information about filmmaking, the publications of Radomír D. Kokeš, The Analysis of Film and David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, The Art of Film: An Introduction to the Study of Form and Style, were used. The research sample on which this tendency is presented is the Czech war drama Operation Silver A, which depicts the everyday reality of...

Instagram, as one of today’s largest social media platforms, plays a significant part in the maintaining and reproducing of existing stereotypes and role expectations for women. The purpose of the thesis is to study how Instagram interprets violations against its guidelines, and whether decisions to remove certain pictures from the platform are in line with terms of use, or part of human subjectivity. The noticeable pattern among the removed pictures is that they are often norm-breaking. The thesis discusses communication within Instagram to reveal how and why some pictures are removed while others are not, which limits women’s possibilities to express themselves in non-conventional settings. The study applies semiotics to analyse 12 pictures that were banned from the platform without directly violating its guidelines. Role theory and norms are used to supplement semiotics and shed light on the underlying societal structures of female disadvantage. Two major conclusions are presented: 1) Instagram has unclearly communicated its guidelines to women’s disadvantage, and 2) Instagram has therefore been subjective in the decisions to have the pictures removed from the platform, also to women’s disadvantage. Further, the discussion focuses on how Instagram handles issues related to (1) female sexuality, (2) women stereotyping, and (3) female self-representation.

The aim of this study is to examine how British culture and British cultural identity is discursively constructed and represented in two texts, including images accompanying the texts, found in two textbooks used in the foundation course for English as a second language in the Swedish upper-secondary school, the textbooks published in the 1970s and the 1980s respectively. The aim also includes to see if British cultural identity is represented in a stereotypical manner and to see which views on culture are present in the texts. The methods used in the study are discourse analysis based on Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory, and Hall’s visual analysis. Two theories are applied to the material, these are Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory and Hall’s theory of stereotyping. The result of the present study shows that there are several representations of British cultural identity in the 1970s text and that all are stereotypical. In one of the representations, British cultural identity is understood as someone who is an Englishman which entails amongst other things being brought up in England as a real Englishman. The other representations of British cultural identity included the identities English people, Englishmen and cockneys. The identity English people includes both of the identities Englishmen and cockneys. The representation of English people is that background, class and the way you speak are important and that English people check each other’s background and class by listening to one another’s speech. The representation of Englishmen includes that they are upper-class proper Englishmen who speak the Queens English whereas cockneys are represented as lower-class people who speak a vulgar sort of English. In the 1980s text there are two representations of British cultural identity. The first one of these, which was found to be represented in a stereotypical manner, is constituted by the group identity pupils with British cultural background within a culturally and nationally diverse class in Britain. This representation is culturally exclusive since only pupils with British cultural background are included in this representation. The second representations of British cultural identity found in the 1980s text is a British class made up by a group of pupils with culturally and nationally diverse backgrounds. This representation was deemed to be non-stereotypical and culturally inclusive since this representation of British cultural identity is culturally diverse.

This diploma thesis deals with the representation and categorisation of old age and elderly care and their changes in media discourse of daily newspaper Blesk. Theory focuses on definitions of elderly and description of seniors and practices of elderly care in the Czech Republic. It describes changes of old age discourse in connection with the development of social policy and expert knowledge. It describes the concepts of representation and categorisation and their possible impacts in the form of stigmatisation, stereotyping and ageism. It discusses media as resources of symbolic power, ideology and discourse and sets out media representation of elderly. Related empirical part is based on qualitative discourse analysis of articles from Blesk in years 2007 and 2011. It discusses the outcomes with respect to changes of discourse and representation, stereotypes and active old age. It distinguishes three types of senior representation - like normal, stigmatized and active. Thematic distribution and stigmatisation of elderly constructs symbolic subordination of elderly as a population category. Care is described only rarely and isn't offered as the solution of the elderly's frailty.

”Representation matters: history education through the intersectional lens” is a critical intersectional content analysis based on a qualitative interview study with three grade school teachers and one high school teacher of history. The purpose of the interviews was to chart teachers ́ perspectives on history education and to analyze their history textbooks. The participants’ thoughts were thereafter connected to our pre-constructed theoretical interpretive framework. The result that appeared through the empirical data was that the teachers experience the subject of history as a male dominated arena where women are dedicated minimal attention. Furthermore, the teachers illuminate the fact that Swedish history education is characterized by Eurocentric values, since other cultures and ethnicities remain unattended. In addition, stereotyping is a frequent occurrence. Schools constitutes as childrens’ main social platform and by exposing the pupils to stereotypical illustrations of women and people of color, the children are socialized into normative hierarchical power structures at an early age. The teachers provide testimonies of encounters with children who express hopelessness and exclusion because of deficient representation. This study also shows that the teacher is completely in charge of the pupils’ learning. This means that the teachers own identity and level of interest affect the selection of history which is conveyed to the pupils. Therefore, to rely on the teachers’ good judgement makes education arbitrary and undermines the equivalent school system.

American conglomerates are accountable for the underrepresentation of African American women (AAW) in high-ranking roles. Though some progress is documented, this study revealed that inequalities and stereotypical practices still exist. This transcendental phenomenology study explored the leadership development and lived experiences of 25 high-ranking AAW. All participants worked in private or public sectors, resided in America, and held high-ranking positions within the last 5 years. The goal was to explore the lived experience of AAW and uncover any strategies used to address the influence of intersectionality on leadership development that could abate barriers and create career pathways for forthcoming AAW leaders. During the literature review process, the education sector emerged as the most studied area, exposing substantial gaps in literature concentrated on other sectors. For this study, a broader range of industries was explored that could enhance existing leadership and management practices and augment the body of knowledge in multiple sectors. The theory of Black feminism guided the study, and the conceptual framework of intersectionality corroborated the intersecting barriers caused by gender, race, and class unique to AAW. Purposive samples and open-ended questions designed to guide semistructured interviews, supported by the modified van Kaam data analysis technique, were implemented. The social implications of this study go beyond simple diversity in the workplace to highlight a highly resilient and capable talent pool of AAW who bring new perspectives to senior leadership roles that will enhance organizational resilience, contributing to the economic growth of the organizations they lead.

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