The 19th century is recognised as a period of mass emigration from Cornwall, with a significant proportion of the male population leaving to work overseas, mainly in the mining industry. Less appreciated is that many of these migrants were married men who left wives and children behind in Cornwall. This study seeks to shed some light on the experiences of these women, known as 'married widows'. It adopts a multi-faceted approach, which draws upon crowd-sourcing and digital resources, in combination with more traditional methodologies. Scattered and fragmentary qualitative evidence (drawn from correspondence, newspapers, remittance and poor law records, supplemented by personal testimony recorded in family histories) is examined within a quantitative framework produced by an innovative database created from census records and a longitudinal study of outcomes. This thesis describes how tens of thousands of wives were 'left behind' in the mining communities of Cornwall, and the wide range of resources they drew upon in the absence of their husbands. It examines the interaction between the wives and the State in the form of the Poor Law and the Courts, identifying a pragmatic response to the needs of the emerging transnational nuclear family. Male migration from Cornwall is revealed to vary widely in type, intent and duration, leading to great diversity of experiences and outcomes for the wives 'left behind'. The establishment of temporary male labour emigration from the Cornish mining communities is shown to have occurred earlier than in many other emigration centres, creating greater potential for cultural acclimatisation to the challenges of spousal separation. The findings of this study challenge existing, generalised, perceptions of the wives as passive victims in the Cornish emigration story. Levels of destitution or desertion appear low compared to the scale of the phenomenon, and wives are shown as active participants and influential voices in family strategies. Nonetheless, this study highlights the vulnerability and greater risks faced by the wives 'left behind', and identifies financial and emotional insecurity as common elements of their experience. This thesis demonstrates a methodology and reveals insights that might be applied to the study of wives 'left behind' in other parts of the British Isles, and a comparator for existing studies of those elsewhere in the world.

Drawing on contemporary theories of intimacy, this study explores the intimacy narratives and practices of single mothers at a time of, it is argued, social and cultural change in terms of intimacy. Narrative interviews of twenty-four single mothers draw out layers of personal, social and cultural complexity in terms of understanding, experiencing and making choices about intimacy in their everyday lives. The concept of ‘intimacy scripts' (developed from Simon and Gagnon, 1973) is deployed to explore how single mothers develop blueprints for their intimate lives, drawing on a range of cultural, social and personal possibilities for intimate practices. This process is viewed within a wider context of gendered power relations and material constraints. Participants were often affected by stigmatizing depictions of single mothers and resisted these through their narratives which tended to emphasize how they had not chosen single motherhood. Indeed the transition to single motherhood was often experienced as traumatic, marked by shame, disappointment and loss. Perceptions of increased fluidity and the possibility for experimentation around intimacy are discernible, chiming with individualisation theorists (Bauman, 2003; Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 1995; Giddens, 1992). However, basic economic survival often took precedence over the reflexive organisation of intimate lives (Jamieson, 1998). Intimacy narratives were unsettled, in turn depicting opportunities for intimate experimentations and invoking nostalgia for more traditional intimate forms, demonstrating ambivalence and liminality. Heteronormative ideals of coupledom, romance and traditional family remained aspirational for many, although the importance of equality in relationships was also highlighted. Yet many participants struggled to find suitable male partners and were aware of inequalities and the risks associated with re-partnering, often based on negative experiences. Intimate choices were shaped and constrained by socio-economic positioning; the protection of dependents; maintenance of their family unit; continuing gendered expectations and the ongoing centrality of heteronormative romantic couple-centred intimate practices.

This thesis investigates how lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer parents interact with media representations. I identify two significant gaps in current scholarship on this topic. One between queer theory and LGBTQ sociology, where claims about the possibility of radical politics are disconnected from studies of everyday life. The other, between media studies and sociology of the family, where the central role of media in constituting identity drops out of discussions about everyday LGBTQ lives. As a result of this mapping of the field I formulated these key research questions: how do LGBTQ parents negotiate media culture? How do LGBTQ parents negotiate visibility and intelligibility for their families and how do they experience media invisibility? And, what conditions of family and what broader social possibilities are generated by the interactions LGBTQ parents have with media? These research questions framed the design of a project in which I conducted semi-structured interviews with thirty LGBTQ parents living in the UK. The thesis takes this primary empirical material together with reference to scholarship on media culture, family formation, and queerness, and posits that media representation is a core constituent of identity formation and central to how we can understand the making and maintenance of LGBTQ-parented families. I examine how ideas about what a ‘normal' or heterosexual family looks like shape the experiences and quest for intelligibility, legitimacy and visibility; how parents conceptualise their families in relation to the possibility of articulating radical identities; and the notion of generational rupture and inheritance as it is managed through media and community. The key findings of this thesis are that LGBTQ parents employ a variety of strategies to tackle media invisibility; LGBTQ parents both conform to, and resist, narratives of family as intrinsically normative; LGBTQ parents negotiate new representations of family and produce new narratives of the meaning of radicalism. Finally, I show that media is central to the identity work of LGBTQ parents, and is strongly implicated in the construction of home and family life. I offer a thesis which contests the meaning of futurity and normativity in queer theory and interjects in the discussion on the cultural formation and meaning of family.

The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of the coping strategies used by dairy-farm couples. The independent variables of size of farm, where the respondents grew up, off-farm employment, age, amount of formal education, and debt-to-asset ratio of the farm are analyzed to determine their impact on the use of coping strategies by the dairy-farm husbands and wives. A sample of 116 dairy farm-couples was drawn from five counties in Northern Utah. The farm husbands and wives were each interviewed separately using a structured questionnaire. Due to the racial and religious composition of the sample and to its specific nature , the results of the study cannot be generalized to other populations of dairy farmers in other states or to other types of farms. The F-COPES (Family Crisis oriented Personal Evaluation Scales) developed by McCubbin, Larsen, and Olson in 1982 were used to categorize the dairy-farm couple's coping strategies into the following subscales: Passive Appraisal , Reframing, Mobilizing the Family to Acquire and Accept Help, Acquiring social Support, and Seeking Spiritual support. The results of the study indicated there were significant differences between the scores of farm husbands and wives on the coping strategies . The husbands scored statistically higher on the coping strategies Reframing, Passive Appraisal, and Acquiring Social Support than did the wives. Additional results indicated there were also significant differences between spouses in the correlation of coping strategies with the independent variables. Reframing was substantively correlated with age for farm husbands. The farm's debt-to-asset ratio was correlated statistically with Reframing for farm husbands. Mobilizing the Family to Acquire and Accept Help was statistically correlated with age for farm wives. Acquiring Social Support was statistically related to the amount of formal education for farm wives.

The National Women's Health Information Center reports that domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to American women and that nearly one-third of American women have been physically assaulted by their significant other at some point in their lives. These women often experience depression, low self-esteem, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and grief (Campbell et al., 1995). Literature supports the use of physical activity in promoting psychological well-being. The purpose of this study, then, was to evaluate the influence of physical activity on how survivors of domestic violence view themselves and their circumstances. The participants were seven women (18 to 54 years) who had been in abusive relationships, on average for eleven years, and who had recently left their partners. The participants were given access to an exercise facility and participated in one, two, three, or four interviews at one-month intervals. Interview questions covered abuse history, physical activity levels, self-view, emotional status, and how exercise may have influenced these factors. Qualitative analysis of 11 participants' responses revealed that exercise gave women the perception of healing, "getting out of trauma mode," of working towards a future self, "moving towards the vision of the type of person that I want to be," and freedom. Exercise improved their self-view by demonstrating to them that they were advancing beyond their abuse-controlled lives; that they were taking care of themselves. Women found exercise an effective means of "eliminating nervous energy" that resulted from being battered women, which in turn improved emotional status. Results are discussed in terms of the unique benefits derived from physical activity by these women, how exercise enhanced their recovery, and suggestions made by participants as to how the benefits of exercise could be fully realized. / Graduation date: 2004

This study scrutinizes the mothering experiences of professional women living in istanbul. It is about class based mothering experiences of professional women, who are being influenced from both mothering and professionalisation ideology. It analyses many different aspects of mothering experience starting from the pregnancy period to the decision making about the socialization of children through their relation with the changing understanding of control on mothering experience. It is argued that professional understanding of mothering necessitates being successful and this necessity is supported by the mothering ideology assigning women as the primary responsible parent from child caring. Professional women, who have been considered as advantageous because of both their class positioning and professional role in the labor market, continue to experience the burden of the gendered structure of parenting. On the other hand, they have an active role in the reproduction of gender and class based structure.

Thesis (doctoral)--Ruhr-Universität, 1987.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 173-183).

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / History / Master / Master of Philosophy