<p>Purpose/Aim: The aim with my study is to reveal changes in the construction of gender in weekly press over time. To do so I study the picture of the woman on front pages of the Swedish magazine Veckorevyn.</p><p>Material/Method: Qualitative research method, semiotic picture analysis.</p><p>Main results: There have been a lot of changes in the picture of the woman in Veckorevyn over the years and the results points to a more objectifying picture. The woman has gone from doing something and actually having a role, to simply being there to be looked at, all passive.</p>

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

Long-haul truck drivers are absent from their families for prolonged periods of time. This paper examines the methods trucking families use to remain connected given such absences. Interviews with ten women married to long-haul truck drivers underwent qualitative analysis. Initially, personal profiles were developed to illustrate life experiences of the women. While the trucking industry set the context, the families decided how to cope with the lifestyle. Patterns of coping strategies developed by the families were described by the women. Coping strategies did not result from the efforts of one individual. All family members contributed to it in a dynamic process. One instrumental source of support was the driver's trucking company. Support systems instrumental in helping families utilize coping mechanisms were identified. Women used ambivalent thought to resolve negative emotions. In addition, an environmental analysis that compared the homes of the women and the homes of non-truckers was conducted to determine whether trucking women's homes reflected their lifestyle and attitudes toward their husband's absence. The trucking family engages in an atypical lifestyle, yet their issues are similar to those experienced by families whose husbands and fathers are home every night. Trucking families continually seek to find methods that allow them to think of themselves as normative. / Graduation date: 1999

In this dissertation I analyze the figure of the East-Bengali refugee woman in Indian literature on the Partition of Bengal of 1947. I read the figure as one who makes visible, and thus opens up for critique, the conditions that constitute the category women in the discursive terrain of post-Partition/post-Independence India. The figure of the refugee woman, thereby, allows us to map the relationship between the category women and the collective imaginary, specifically the nation. I argue that the figure of the refugee woman explicates, interrupts, and critiques the relationship of women to the nation in the normative patriarchal nationalist discourse, which constructs women as a sign of the nation. The representational import of the refugee woman pushes the signification of women in relation to the collective from a sign to that of a subject. My analysis of the refugee woman is, thus, a critical engagement with the tension between women as figurative and women as historical-material categories, although both are imagined within the field of discursive signification. I develop my argument by analyzing three major texts from West Bengal, India that respond to the Partition to critically apprehend the radical charge inherent in the figure of the refugee woman. These texts are the film Meghe Dhaka Tara (Cloud-Capped Star; 1960) by Ritwik Ghatak, and the novels Epar Ganga, Opar Ganga (The River Churning; 1967) by Jyotirmoyee Devi and Swaralipi (The Notations; 1952) by Sabitri Roy. The larger argument of the dissertation is that the Partition, as a historical event, lies in contiguity and continuity with the normative regime of the gendered everyday world. Therefore, the Partition allows us to examine the historical configurations of power that make the gendered everyday but that cannot be easily discerned from within the everyday. Within the rubric of this larger argument lies my contention that the figure of the refugee woman has the radical potential to make visible the traumatic relationship between the extraordinary violence of the Partition and the gendered, ordinary, everyday life.

This thesis presents an integrated assessment of the life and music of Johanna Beyer (1888-1944) through a combination of socio-cultural and musical analysis. It examines the composer?s biography in the context of the New York music scene in which she participated and the social and cultural paradigms of her time. Contemporary conceptions of gender and sex had a particularly strong impact on Beyer?s work and the reception of her music. Ideologies concerning gender, sex, work, composition and modernism intersected in a variety of ways in her life and music; these issues are examined extensively in Chapter Two. Because gendered thought was so instrumental in obscuring the work of this important composer, Chapters Three and Four provide a thorough and synthesized analysis of Beyer?s music that has thus far been denied to her. These chapters discuss both the composer?s dissonant, ?ultra-modern? music and her later tonal music, exploring elements of continuity and change in her oeuvre. The thesis rejects earlier interpretations of Beyer?s work as disjointed and argues that it is instead the product of a constantly evolving composer.

<p>Self-concept is a very complex structure that includes feelings and beliefs, which people have about them in relations to other people and objects. Many marketers and researchers found that expression of self has a great influence on customer’s buying behavior and defines her attitudes towards products and services that correspond to her self-concept. This study, which is based on quantitative research with deductive approach, examines a self-concept of women in advertising across cultures. One hundred and sixty respondents from Russia and Sweden in the age from eighteen to thirty have been asked to identify the ideal eye color, hair color, hair length and make-up for a woman in order to look beautiful. Besides that, congruence between advertising images of female beauty and consumer's perception of ideal self in terms of wanting to look like a specific model was tested. After analysis of empirical results, some differences, as well as similarities between two countries have been found. Since the issues of advertising standardization still are in the focus of many studies, findings of this study is another argument in favor of adaptation international advertising campaigns to the specific requirements of local markets in different countries.</p>

Purpose/Aim: The aim with my study is to reveal changes in the construction of gender in weekly press over time. To do so I study the picture of the woman on front pages of the Swedish magazine Veckorevyn. Material/Method: Qualitative research method, semiotic picture analysis. Main results: There have been a lot of changes in the picture of the woman in Veckorevyn over the years and the results points to a more objectifying picture. The woman has gone from doing something and actually having a role, to simply being there to be looked at, all passive.

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.

The results and the analysis of this essay are based on an empirical study of women groups in Babati District in Tanzania from 2005. The study has shown that the reason for women in Babati to organize themselves is to overcome traditional and structural obstacles that restrict women’s economical integration. Through the creation of social networks and a common source of income within the group, women are trying to strengthen their position within the household and in society. The significance of empowerment on an individual level is the sense of abilities in everyday life and the feeling of increased options. Social mobilization means that individuals come together and with united strengths and according to a common interest are trying to fulfil articulated goals. Local women groups in Babati and the social mobilization they constitute are seeking, through their agency to influence their social and economical situation. It can also mean challenging the structural conditions and increase women’s capacity of action. This kind of agency at a group level is extremely important for the capability of articulating own goals and creating prosperity, to feel in charge of one’s life conditions. Aim: The aim for this study is, by using an empowerment approach to examine how women groups in Babati District in Tanzania organize themselves and how the members through their agency are influencing the social conditions and economical possibilities for women in the area. What are the effects of social mobilization in Babati for the individual woman? How can women’s agency contribute to structural changes and help women to overcome traditional obstacles?

In self-defense cases of battered women who kill their abusive husbands, defendants have used Battered Woman Syndrome (BWS) expert testimony to help justify their acts of self-defense. However, past research demonstrates that BWS is ineffective in persuading jurors because it pathologizes the defendant rather than rationalizing her behavior. Additionally, BWS highlights passive (i.e., stereotypical) features of a battered woman, and such testimony may not apply to a defendant with active (i.e., atypical) features of a battered women. The current study hypothesized that another type of expert testimony, Social-Agency Framework (SAF), will persuade jurors to render more lenient verdicts, and that the defendant’s passive or active response history will affect verdict decisions. Additionally, a meditational model predicted that the effect of mock jurors’ gender on verdict decisions will be mediated by their attitudes toward battered women. In a 3(expert testimony: BWS vs. SAF vs. control) x 2(response history: passive vs. active) x 2(gender: male vs. female) model, jury-eligible participants (expected N = 510) recruited from the website mTurk answered a survey measuring their attitudes toward battered women, read a mock trial transcript, and rendered a verdict. The results indicated non-significant findings for the effects of expert testimony and response history on verdict outcomes. A full mediation was found, indicating that gender acted as a proxy for jurors’ attitudes, influencing their verdict decisions. This study has strong legal implications that highlight the prevailing effect of attitudes and how those attitudes may override the effects of expert testimony and defendant response history.