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This thesis is a critical review of educated women’s leadership in their emancipation in Ethiopia. Did they provide leadership and to what extent? It is to be noted that educated women’s leadership has been of great importance to women’s emancipation worldwide. Strong leadership was also the driving force behind women’s movements and feminism everywhere. However, the role of educated women in Ethiopia is hard to discern and their leadership efforts are largely invisible. On the other hand, many among the educated also lack the passion and desire to commit themselves in the fight for women’s emancipation. In this thesis I researched the settings and frameworks of women’s leadership and discussed the factors that function as limitations and/or opportunities. Overall there were more limitations than opportunities. These limitations are often historically rooted in the country’s religious, cultural, economic, political and traditional systems. And, as much as history and religion can be a source of strength and pride for many, they can also be a serious obstacle. The political regime of the Derg also scarred an entire population to the extent that despite the currently proclaimed ‘freedom’ of the EPRDF ruling party, women remain reluctant to step forward and claim their rights. The ruling party appears to appropriate women’s emancipation as a “private” interest and to use it for political gain, in the same manner as the Derg regime had done before it. Nowhere is there any sign of genuine freedom and equality for women in practice. Rhetoric reigns supreme through laws and policy documents, but they are not matched by genuine actions and concrete strategies. The traditional religious base of society is also making it more difficult to challenge autocratic tendencies of the ruling elite. The effect is that civil society is slowly being pushed to extinction, leaving the ruling party in charge as the main actor in all public services. This has serious consequences for the genuine emancipation of women in the country. The thesis finds that women’s leadership is not a luxury or personal demand, but a crucial step for the development of the country at large. It is encouraging to note that there are different sections of active women in the country waiting for strong leadership, leadership that can unite them into a movement and guide them on their unique emancipation paths. After all, it is only women themselves who, with their existing epistemic advantage, can transform their situation and change their status. / Sociology / (D.Litt. et Phil.(Sociology))

This thesis is a critical review of educated women’s leadership in their emancipation in Ethiopia. Did they provide leadership and to what extent? It is to be noted that educated women’s leadership has been of great importance to women’s emancipation worldwide. Strong leadership was also the driving force behind women’s movements and feminism everywhere. However, the role of educated women in Ethiopia is hard to discern and their leadership efforts are largely invisible. On the other hand, many among the educated also lack the passion and desire to commit themselves in the fight for women’s emancipation. In this thesis I researched the settings and frameworks of women’s leadership and discussed the factors that function as limitations and/or opportunities. Overall there were more limitations than opportunities. These limitations are often historically rooted in the country’s religious, cultural, economic, political and traditional systems. And, as much as history and religion can be a source of strength and pride for many, they can also be a serious obstacle. The political regime of the Derg also scarred an entire population to the extent that despite the currently proclaimed ‘freedom’ of the EPRDF ruling party, women remain reluctant to step forward and claim their rights. The ruling party appears to appropriate women’s emancipation as a “private” interest and to use it for political gain, in the same manner as the Derg regime had done before it. Nowhere is there any sign of genuine freedom and equality for women in practice. Rhetoric reigns supreme through laws and policy documents, but they are not matched by genuine actions and concrete strategies. The traditional religious base of society is also making it more difficult to challenge autocratic tendencies of the ruling elite. The effect is that civil society is slowly being pushed to extinction, leaving the ruling party in charge as the main actor in all public services. This has serious consequences for the genuine emancipation of women in the country. The thesis finds that women’s leadership is not a luxury or personal demand, but a crucial step for the development of the country at large. It is encouraging to note that there are different sections of active women in the country waiting for strong leadership, leadership that can unite them into a movement and guide them on their unique emancipation paths. After all, it is only women themselves who, with their existing epistemic advantage, can transform their situation and change their status. / Sociology / (D.Litt. et Phil.(Sociology))

This investigation explores the relationships and experiences in the urban community that connected black and white women to understand the complexities of Jim Crow, its breakdown, and the subsequent expansion of female activism in Richmond, Virginia. By examining the South’s famous department stores, Thalhimers and Miller & Rhoads, this research attempts to focus on female-created and female-oriented spaces within downtown Richmond, from 1954 until 1973, and draws a line from the Thalhimer boycott staged by African-American women in 1961 to the sit-in performed by white women in the Thalhimers male-only soup bar in 1970. Historical context is developed to show changing patterns surrounding racism and gender roles during the 1950s and 1960s within urban space, particularly department stores. The changes made within white and black women’s organizations, such as the YWCA, alongside these downtown stores, supplied important social and employment opportunities for women in the community and throughout the state, and influenced women of different cultures and races. The formation of multi-racial female coalitions within areas of employment set the stage for the formation of the women’s Movement in Richmond as women displayed subtle forms of feminist activism within the conservative environment of the Commonwealth.

Examining state-civil society relationships within the context of social movements is vital for understanding the ways in which movements function at the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels—both independently and in relation to the state. This thesis takes the case of the women's movement in Peru under the presidency of Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) to provide empirical evidence for the ways in which such relationships are established, function, and evolve over time. I argue that the opening of State institutions, when combined with non-violent state repression, served as political opportunities that allowed the women's movement to expand their repertoire of contention and to contest the clientelistic and corporatist aspects of the interdependent power relationship they had established with Fujimori and the State. Chapter One offers a portrait of the social, economic, and political context in the years leading up to Fujimori's election. Chapter Two constructs a theoretical framework for the case of the women's movement by interweaving theories of clientelism, corporatism, and political opportunities. I outline, in Chapter Three, the data and methods used to analyze the discursive and institutional activities of both the State (Chapter Four) and the women's movement (Chapter Five), while Chapter Six discusses these activities of the State and the women's movement both comparatively and longitudinally. Finally, the conclusion outlines the key contributions of this study to the fields of Latin American Studies, Social Movement Studies, and Political Sociology before offering avenues for potential future research. / acase@tulane.edu

Over the past few years, incidents of gender-based violence on Canadian university campuses have gained public attention. In 2013 rape chants occurred during frosh week at two universities – UBC and Saint Mary’s. In March 2014 the University of Ottawa’s hockey and coaching staff was suspended after the sexual assault of a woman was reported in Thunder Bay where the team was playing an out-of-town game. Later in 2014, the misogynistic Facebook posts by Dalhousie dentistry students came to the public’s attention. A number of sexual assaults have also taken place on the University of Saskatchewan campus, including high profile cases in 2003 and 2012. The current project takes a step back to explore two research questions. First, how did women’s experiences at the University of Saskatchewan campus shape the institutional discourse and policies and procedures on sexual assault? Second, what were the “ruling relations” that affected the chain of actions leading to the development of sexual assault policies? In order to answer the two research questions, institutional ethnography, augmented by interpretive historical sociology, were utilized. Archival documents from the University of Saskatchewan Archives and Special Collections were gathered and six semi-structured interviews were conducted. Double standards, sexism, limited child care, sexual harassment and sexual assault were just a few issues that female students, faculty, and staff were concerned with at the University of Saskatchewan. There were a number of groups on campus during the time frame under investigation such as the Pente Kai Deka, the Women’s Directorate, and the Help Centre. However, the thesis focuses mainly on the President’s Committee on the Status of Women (PCSW), the President’s Advisory Committee on the Status of Women (PACSW), and the Sexual Harassment Office (SH Office). In 1990 the PACSW was formally created. The main iii goal of the PACSW was to create the Reinventing Our Legacy (ROL) report, which was based on submissions received from all groups on campus. Through the submissions the PACSW derived nine recommendations to address sexual/gender harassment at the University of Saskatchewan. The six interviewees involved with the PACSW described the barriers experienced both within and outside the Committee. As well, the interviewees felt the ROL report did not have the expected impact on the University of Saskatchewan campus. Incidents of sexism, sexual harassment and sexual assault are still occurring at the University of Saskatchewan. Based on information received from the women of the PACSW interviewed for this research, the archival data collected, and other research involvement regarding campus sexual assault, the thesis presents five recommendations for the University of Saskatchewan: a safe space, professional staff, education, policy and procedures, and resources.

Farah Pahlavi and Jehan Sadat have both been described as leaders' wives who were Westernized. While this premise is not untrue, to label them as only demonstrating Western actions and having Western ideas denies Iran's and Egypt's women's movements from having any influence upon their lives. The premise of this work is that Farah Pahlavi and Jehan Sadat engaged the historical legacies of the debates concerning women's role in society. Both women have been omitted from the historical narrative because of their identification as a Westernized element in society. This work explores the legacies of the construction of womanhood in Iran and Egypt (via a discussion of the women's movements) and how Farah Pahlavi and Jehan Sadat interacted with their particular countries experiences during their tenure as leader's wives.

My research identifies the existing parallels between the repressive societal structures portrayed in the play Hedda Gabler (1890) and central political issues addressed by representatives of the German and Austrian women’s movement at the turn of the 19th century. Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen shows how oppressive social conditions negatively affect his female characters, but he does not offer satisfactory alternatives to their suffering. I selected the theoretical writings of Helene Stöcker and Rosa Mayreder as more “radical” opinions of the first German and Austrian women’s movement because they present solutions to the repressive societal structures Ibsen addresses. Since many voices of the women’s movement describe literature as a political tool that has the power to influence society’s worldview, my research demonstrates that the political effectiveness of fictional texts like Hedda Gabler is increased once these texts are linked to theoretical feminist writings. In my literary analysis, I focus on the following categories discussed by Ibsen, Stöcker, and Mayreder: (1) The “old maid” question, (2) Devotion and sacrifice as parts of female education, (3) Unhappy marriages, (4) Unfulfilling motherhood and (5) The repressed female sexuality. My research centers on the perspective of selected feminists in the German-speaking world by emphasizing women’s voices and shifting the spotlight from the male-dominated theater at the time, thus leading to new insights and interpretations. In my analysis, I show that Hedda Gabler’s desperate cry for freedom is reflected in the reality of many middle-class German and Austrian women at the end of the 19th century and remains relevant for women’s rights debates in the present.