This thesis discusses how the gender dynamics and religious festivals of the Yoruba people in Isaga Orile were not affected by colonialism. The study draws on various accounts, particularly from the Church Missionary Society’s journals, to attest to colonialism's restructuring of male political hegemony. Focusing on two major festivals, Gelede and Oro, the study argues that men's inclusion in Gelede reinforces female supremacy, while the Oro society shows men's hegemony and restrains women from its activities. The study found that gender dominants in these festivals played complementary roles by mirroring female and male roles within the Isaga Orile political system. The study concludes that these festivals strengthened political and gender dynamics in pre-colonial times and continued to do so during the British colonial regime, providing opportunities for women and men to assert their dominance and complement each other's roles in society, despite the restructuring of male political hegemony by colonialism.

This thesis is a translation of and critical introduction to a seventeen-month excerpt of the World War I diaries of German artist Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945), a painter, printmaker, and sculptor. These diaries present a unique insight into Kollwitz’s life during the war and the process behind her art. The source text for this translation are entries from August 1, 1916, to December 31, 1917, as printed in the 2012 edition of the diaries prepared by the artist’s granddaughter, Jutta Bohnke-Kollwitz, and first published in full in 1989. The thesis also translates Bohnke-Kollwitz’s introduction to the published volume and her footnotes on the selected entries. The critical introduction to the translation discusses this excerpt in the historical context of World War I, addressing the relationship between the patriotic “spirit of 1914” and the cultural constraints on grieving mothers to largely mourn in silence, as Kollwitz did for her own fallen son Peter. This situates Kollwitz among intellectuals and intellectual women in Germany at the time, and follows Kollwitz’s transition from an initial pro-war stance to eventual anti-war activism as documented in the diaries. The introduction then discusses my translation strategy, which draws on functionalist theories of translation to develop an approach that foregrounds Kollwitz’s own voice as a writer and the nature of the text as a private document. This approach aligns with the intended function of this translation, which particularly values the diaries for their intimacy and for the insight they can give us onto Kollwitz’s inner experience during a tumultuous historical time.

The 1920s represented a time of tension in America. Throughout the decade, marginalized groups created competing versions of a proper citizen. African-Americans sought to be included in the national fabric. Racism encouraged solidarity, but black Americans did not agree upon one method for coping with, and hopefully ending, antiblack racism. White women enjoyed new privileges and took on more roles in the public sphere. Reactionary groups like the Ku Klux Klan found these new voices unsettling and worrisome and celebrated a white, nativeborn, Protestant and male vision of the American citizen. Simultaneously, technological innovations allowed for advertising to flourish and spread homogenizing information regarding race, gender, values and consumption across the nation. These advertisements selectively represented these changes by channeling them into pre-existing prescriptive ideology. Mainstream ads, which were created by whites for white audiences, reinforced traditional ideas regarding black men and women and white women’s roles. Even if white women were featured using technology or wearing cosmetics, they were still featured in prescribed roles as housekeepers, wives and mothers who deferred to and relied on their husbands. Black women were featured in secondary roles, as servants or mammies, if at all. Concurrently, the black press created its own representations of women. Although these representations were complex and sometimes contradictory and had to reach multiple audiences, black-created ads featured women in a variety of roles, such as entertainers, mothers and business women, but never as mammies. Then, in a decade of increased tensions, white-created ads relied on traditional portrayals of women and African-Americans while black-designed ads offered more positive, although complicated, visions of womanhood.

This study examines representations of Wu Zetian in the biographical tradition of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, as well as within the subsequent vernacular literature of the Ming and Qing periods. I analyze the traditional use and construction of female stereotypes (and female-oriented flaws and vices) in the rhetoric of official histories and fictional narratives and their application to representations of Wu Zetian. I argue that authors, anxious of discord engendered and caused by women occupying positions of political authority, sought to delegitimize Wu Zetian’s reign and subsequently cultivated a “rhetoric of female transgression.” I further argue that the image of Wu Zetian has become a cultural signifier of the dangers of female rule. Thus, my research broadly has two foci: (1) it traces the history of delegitimizing female rulership by examining the creation and codification of topoi, and (2) by focusing on images of Wu Zetian, this study examines how these topoi influence contemporary cultural and cross-cultural values, memory, and political rhetoric. This study is divided into three chapters. Chapter one lays out the history of Wu Zetian in the Tang dynasty and an assessment of women in Tang society, which will inform the analysis of literary portrayals of Wu Zetian in chapters two and three. The second chapter examines the earliest representations of Wu Zetian. Thematically, the second chapter explores the biographical interpretation of female authority and the discursive tradition of negotiating historic fact with formulaic and reoccurring tropes. The third chapter looks at representations of Wu Zetian in the literature of the Ming and Qing periods, in which narratives are encoded with the topoi previously established in earlier historical accounts. Ultimately, although this study examines the persistence of rhetorical topoi regarding Wu Zetian, it also addresses the contested and fluid nature of her representations in non-traditional media.

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<p>'!his thesis traces the political evolution of a number of Edwardian women activists. '!he careers of the three women who are central to this work, Kathleen Courtney, catherine Marshall and Helena swanwick, illustrate the developing political consciousness of this second generation of feminists who built upon the work of their Victorian predecessors. The leadership and inspiration of the three women, which began in the suffrage movement, took a new direction in 1914. With the outbreak of war, they turned their efforts to peace work. The refusal of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies to support this new cause led to a realignment of forces when the dissenting members, led by the three, joined the ranks of men and women, particularly in the labour movement and the Union of Democratic Control, dedicated to seeking the peaceful resolution of international disputes. the opportunity to combine work for peace and suffrage was provided in April 1915 with the establishment of a new women's organization at the Congress held at the Hague. the British section of this new body was the Wanen' s International League. This organization became at once an integral part of the national peace movement, while retaining its identity as an women's organization. the purpose of the WIL was two-fold: one was to secure an errluring peace; the other, to educate women for citizenship. '!his war-time advocacy of a new basis for international relations led to a life-long contentment to internationalism for Courtney Marshall and Swanwick.</p> <p>Although in the short time they failed. in their objective of revolutionizing international relations, they did effect some enduring achievements. '!hey contributed to popularizing the idea of a league of Nations. Above all, they pressed successfully, sane steps further along the road, their claim to equal--citizenship for women.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Olivia de Havilland’s legal victory over Warner Brothers in 1943 set a new precedent for labor relations in Hollywood. Not an isolated piece of litigation, the resulting law now is referred to by her name. It was the culmination of long struggle for actors in the studio system for representation and fair treatment under the law. Much of the work during Hollywood’s studio era was undertaken by women. They used their positions on screen both to appeal to their individual audiences. More than any other, the female star defined the pictures they performed in and the brand of the studios that employed them. Hollywood’s studio system bound stars like de Havilland contractually for a period of up to seven years, which was the legal limit at the time. This did not stop studios from abusing those legal limits through loopholes like the suspension clause. In 1943, the suspension clause was what Warner Brothers used to keep Olivia de Havilland beyond the seven calendar years she had worked for the studio. Actors rejoiced when the powerful suspension clause was declared unlawful by de Havilland’s suite. With the De Havilland Law, actors were entitled to independence that had previously be reserved for the lucky few.

This thesis will explore the intersectional construction of the British asylum network in the nineteenth century. It will look at gender, race, and class as factors in the diagnostic process, in addition to the confinement and treatment of the insane.