The purpose of this essay is to make visible, how and to what extent, women are illuminated in selected textbooks. All textbooks in this study are aimed at high school. In this essay, a qualitative method has been applied to generate opportunities to draw conclusions from the examined material. The textbooks are scrutinized individually and then compared to each other. Finally, the textbooks are set against the curricula to answer the overall question of the thesis, How well do the textbooks correspond with the curricula? Using theoretical formulas, the study shows that women are marginalized in all textbooks. It is the men's history that is served which generates that women become more like a complement. This study also shows that when women are co-authors, the representation of women in the textbooks increases. Although women are underrepresented it has over a 50-year period become more equal and it is our responsibility as future teachers to continue the gender equality work at school.

A incontinência urinária (IU) é definida como toda perda involuntária de urina, sendo um problema social e de higiene. No Brasil, é incipiente a produção bibliográfica sobre incontinência urinária no pós-parto. Trata-se de uma morbidade pouco explorada pelo profissional de saúde, o que dificulta a identificação da mulher que apresenta a intercorrência. O objetivo deste estudo foi verificar a prevalência de incontinência urinária autorreferida no pós-parto e relacionar os fatores associados. Trata-se de um estudo epidemiológico, transversal sobre os fatores relacionados à incontinência urinária autorreferida no pós-parto, realizado no Centro de Saúde Escola Samuel Barnsley Pessoa, localizado na região oeste do município de São Paulo. A população foi constituída por 288 mulheres com 30 dias a seis meses de pós-parto, entrevistadas no período de janeiro a agosto de 2009. Os resultados indicaram prevalência de 24,6% de perda involuntária de urina autorreferida no pós-parto. A idade das mulheres variou de 18 a 45 anos. Quanto às características sociodemográficas, apenas a cor da pele apresentou diferença estatística significante (p-valor=0,0043), com maior representatividade em mulheres brancas. Dentre as 71 entrevistadas que referiram IU no pós-parto, a maioria era primípara e se submeteu a parto normal. Não houve diferença estatística significante entre a paridade e o tipo de parto e a ocorrência de IU. O ganho de peso e a ocorrência de infecção urinária durante a gestação, o uso e o tipo de anestesia, o uso de ocitocina, o tempo de trabalho de parto, a situação do períneo e o peso do recém-nascido ao nascer não apresentaram diferença estatística significante com a ocorrência de IU no pós-parto. Quanto às características das perdas, 44 mulheres (62%) referiram incontinência aos esforços, 14 (19,7%) citaram IU de urgência e 13 (18,3%) apontaram IU mista; em 53 mulheres (74,7%) a severidade foi classificada como incontinência moderada. Verificou-se que para 20 mulheres (28,2%) a morbidade interferia nas atividades diárias; enquanto que 10 (14,1%) comunicaram a intercorrência ao profissional de saúde; e 96,2% (277 em 288) não receberam qualquer orientação sobre o preparo do períneo, fator apontado pelas entrevistadas como uma das causas desencadeantes da IU. Os achados deste estudo nos permitem concluir que a ocorrência de incontinência urinária autorreferida no pós-parto associa-se à cor da pele; com predominância de incontinência urinária em primíparas em comparação às não-primíparas. Identificar os fatores associados à incontinência urinária em mulheres no pós-parto e sua prevalência contribui no planejamento de atenção de enfermagem obstétrica à mulher que vivencia o período reprodutivo. / Urinary incontinence (UI) is defined as any involuntary loss of urine, being a social and hygiene problem. In Brazil, the literature about the urinary incontinence after childbirth is incipient. UI is a morbid little explored by health professionals, making it difficult to identify the woman who has a complication. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of urinary incontinence self-reported in the postpartum period and to relate the associated factors. This is an epidemiologic and cross-sectional study about the factors related to urinary incontinence self-reported in the postpartum period, held at the Health Center School Samuel Barnsley Pessoa located in the western region of São Paulo. The population consisted of 288 women with 30 days to six months in the postpartum period. They were interviewed from January to August 2009. The results showed that 24,6% was the prevalence of involuntary loss of urine self-reported in the postpartum period. The women ranged from 18 to 45 years old. The sociodemographic characteristics showed that only the color of the skin was statistically significant (p-value = 0.0043); women with white skin had greater representation. Among the 71 women who reported UI in the postpartum period, the primiparous were majority and underwent vaginal delivery. There was no statistically significant difference between parity and kind of the delivery and the occurrence of UI. The weight gain and urinary tract infection during pregnancy, the use and the type of anesthesia, the use of oxytocin, the duration of the labor, the episiotomy or the integrity of the perineum and the weight of the newborn at birth showed no statistically significant difference in the occurrence of UI in the postpartum period. Regarding the characteristics of losses, 44 women (62%) had incontinence when exercising, 14 (19.7%) reported urgency UI and 13 (18.3%) had mixed incontinence; to 53 (74.7%) women, the severity of the incontinence was classified as moderate. It was found that to 20 women (28.2%) the morbidity interfered on their daily activities, while 10 (14.1%) reported the complications to the health professional; and 96.2% (277 of 288) of women did not receive any guidance on the preparation of the perineum, reason given by them as one of the contributory causes of UI. Our findings allow us to conclude that the occurrence of urinary incontinence self-reported in the postpartum period is associated with skin color and that there is a prevalence of urinary incontinence in primiparous compared to multiparous. Identify factors associated with urinary incontinence in women after childbirth and its prevalence contribute to the planning of obstetric nursing care to women on the reproductive period.

Aim: As a priority for Aboriginal women, in the context of worsening Aboriginal health and lack of clarity about successful strategies to address healthcare needs, this research explored successful strategies in remote Aboriginal women’s health that may be transferable to another community with similar health needs. Methodology: Against a background of cultural and historical events, the study sought to identify existing strategies and frameworks for Aboriginal women’s health. It uses Naturalistic Inquiry situated within the Interpretive paradigm and conceptualised within the philosophical approach of feminist and critical social theory It has examined Aboriginal health providers’ and women’s priorities, practices, perceptions and expectations within the context of primary health care and community development principles by Participatory Action Research (PAR). The successful elements of an established and effective Aboriginal Well Women’s Health (AWWH) program from Central Australia (CA) were identified, transferred and adapted to meet the needs of a willing recipient remote community in South Australia (SA). Working together with healthcare providers from CA and SA, the adapted Well Women’s Health program was implemented in an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service collaboratively with local mainstream Community Women’s health services and evaluated. Results: Over a two year period, the research was evaluated through Critical Social Theory examining both the process of implementation and the impact on the Aboriginal community, analysing both qualitative and quantitative data. The AWWH program model and its principles were successfully transferred, adapted and implemented in this community. The AWWH program which included comprehensive health screening, health information and lifestyle sessions have become core business of the Aboriginal health service and an Aboriginal Men’s Well Health program has also been established using the same model. The women have found the AWWH program culturally acceptable and their attendance has steadily increased and the program has reached those women in the community who previously had never experienced a well health check. It has also identified an extremely high incidence and comorbidity of acute illness and chronic disease in diabetes, renal and dental disease, mental and social health problems that require address. Conclusion: Health programs that are well established and effective can be successfully replicated, transferred and adapted to other communities if the elements that made them successful are acknowledged and those principles are then transferred with the program to a willing community with similar needs. This program transfer has potential to save much time and developmental costs that will help to address poor Aboriginal health.

<p>The intention of this study is to find out how the female celebrity is portrayed in women’s magazines directed at women of different age groups. The magazines that I have chosen to analyse are Frida, Veckorevyn and Damernas Värld. My aim is to find out what kind of celebrity appears in the magazines in terms of occupation and topics in the articles. Furthermore, the aim is also to determine whether the celebrity is portrayed in a different or similar way depending on the target group. This thesis is done from a gender perspective in order to elucidate what distinguishes the celebrity in the context of the celebrity being female. The frameworks of theories are the following: culture theory, ideology, stereotypes, homo-sociality and connotation and denotation. The methods used to analyse the texts were content analysis and qualitative discourse analysis. Since images of the female celebrities have also been of importance, I have used the method of semiotics for picture analysis. I discovered that there are both differences and similarities in how the female celebrity is portrayed, in relation to different age categories. It appears there are more types of women celebrities in Damernas Värld in-comparison to Frida and Veckorevyn, as not only do the celebrities in Damernas Värld have more varied occupations, they also engage in more topics in their interviews. I found that the celebrity woman is not always portrayed in exactly the same light. However, I could identify the average woman which appears most frequently in all the magazines. The portrayal of the celebrity woman is usually built on contrasts and stereotypes. The occupation is typically an actress or a singer; she is usually white, heterosexual and rich. Her traits are typically being tough and independent, yet in conjunction considerate and friendly. She is also glamorous but ordinary, sexy but sweet. The underlying preconceptions of femininity are never challenged by the journalist’s way of portraying the celebrities.</p>

<p><strong>ABSTRACT</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Essay in political science, C-level by Chris Baldebo spring semester 2010. Tutor: Arne Larsson. “Women’s conditions in municipal politics in the municipality of Karlstad - Six politicians tell”. </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The purpose of this paper is to explore women’s conditions in the municipal political work in the municipality of Karlstad. Based on the objective, one research question is formulated: How is women’s political acting space limited on the basis of gender power relations in local politics in the municipality of Karlstad? To be able to say something about the women’s conditions my approach has been to interview six active local politicians to collect empirical data to analyze from Maria Höjer Wendts & Cecilia Åses theorizing about women and politics, and Yvonne Hirdmans theory of a gender system.</p><p>My conclusions are that women’s political room for maneuver is limited in several ways in municipal politics in Karlstad. Foremost it is a restriction by various prevailing beliefs about the characteristics men and women are supposed to have and should have, and which behaviors that are legitimate in the local political process. These become the norm for their genders and contribute to various social practices are created and maintained. There is also a clear male dominance in terms of speaking in various political forums, where men to a higher extent compared with women are talking. Therefore women do not have the same opportunity to exercise half the real power when they are subjected to oppressive treatment, while local politicians are characterized by the male norm from which women are not valued as highly. The municipal politicians in the municipality of Karlstad (at various levels) is thus far from equal, although the lack of gender varies in different degrees depending on the forum politicians find themselves in.</p>

Self-reported mental health problems have increased dramatically among young female high school (Swedish: gymnasium) and university students in Sweden since the 1990’s. The reasons for this increase are mostly unknown but self-esteem and body image might be important factors behind this problem. The aim of this study was to test whether self-esteem and body dissatisfaction predict health. All correlation directions were in accordance with previous studies on the subject. There was no age group difference in levels of self-esteem, body dissatisfaction or health among the women. Multiple regression analysis revealed that global self-esteem was the strongest single predictor of health. These results give support for the importance of global self-esteem for subjective health. This should be considered in future studies and in the battle against the development of depression, anxiety and eating disorders among women.

The intention of this study is to find out how the female celebrity is portrayed in women’s magazines directed at women of different age groups. The magazines that I have chosen to analyse are Frida, Veckorevyn and Damernas Värld. My aim is to find out what kind of celebrity appears in the magazines in terms of occupation and topics in the articles. Furthermore, the aim is also to determine whether the celebrity is portrayed in a different or similar way depending on the target group. This thesis is done from a gender perspective in order to elucidate what distinguishes the celebrity in the context of the celebrity being female. The frameworks of theories are the following: culture theory, ideology, stereotypes, homo-sociality and connotation and denotation. The methods used to analyse the texts were content analysis and qualitative discourse analysis. Since images of the female celebrities have also been of importance, I have used the method of semiotics for picture analysis. I discovered that there are both differences and similarities in how the female celebrity is portrayed, in relation to different age categories. It appears there are more types of women celebrities in Damernas Värld in-comparison to Frida and Veckorevyn, as not only do the celebrities in Damernas Värld have more varied occupations, they also engage in more topics in their interviews. I found that the celebrity woman is not always portrayed in exactly the same light. However, I could identify the average woman which appears most frequently in all the magazines. The portrayal of the celebrity woman is usually built on contrasts and stereotypes. The occupation is typically an actress or a singer; she is usually white, heterosexual and rich. Her traits are typically being tough and independent, yet in conjunction considerate and friendly. She is also glamorous but ordinary, sexy but sweet. The underlying preconceptions of femininity are never challenged by the journalist’s way of portraying the celebrities.

In a paper which appeared two years ago, I outlined some of the main features of the contemporary taarab world in Zanzibar, which is undergoing great changes due to economic, social and cultural factors (Aiello Traoré 2004a). A recent development that I highlighted is the vanishing of women\'s taarab clubs. The greater participation of women within the groups of taarab asilia has strated, in my view, an interesting confrontation between the tendency of conversation of the codes which are identified as \"traditional\" and the innovations proposed by female members in music and performance, as well as in the production of lyrics, an area where many women are now regularly involved. I will concentrate my analysis on the taarab lyrics being composed by Zanzibari women, which are of great interest because of the variety of cultural and social backgrounds, themes, techniques and poetical sensitivities.

This thesis explores the oppression of women within the gender institution of patriarchy in Margaret Atwood¡¦s dystopian novel The Handmaid¡¦s Tale, and their resistance to this male-dominated society. As a feminist writer, Atwood is very much concerned about the issue of gender, which she foregrounds in The Handmaid¡¦s Tale. In my analysis, I apply some theories of radical feminists and the French feminist who devote themselves to the study of gender--Kate Millett, Adrienne Rich, Catherine MacKinnon, and H&#x00E9;l&#x00E8;ne Cixous. Millett focuses on women¡¦s subordinated position that leads to women¡¦s oppression in patriarchy. Rich and MacKinnon focus on how women are controlled and oppressed in maternity and sexuality within the patriarchal society of gender inequality. Cixous challenges the validity of gender by pointing out its characteristic fluidity through creating woman¡¦s own writing in order to redefine female selfhood for women¡¦s resistance. The thesis is composed of five chapters. The Introduction presents the background materials about Atwood and The Handmaid¡¦s Tale, the motivation of the thesis, and the resonance between The Handmaid¡¦s Tale and certain feminists¡¦ theories. The first chapter analyzes the formation of the unbalanced power relations between the sexes in which women are subordinated to men through the socialization. Moreover, because of women¡¦s subordination, women are modulated as mothers through socially institutionalized motherhood such as the Wives and the Handmaids in Gilead. The second chapter further analyzes how women are formulated as sexual objects through the experience of sexual objectification within the institution of heterosexuality, such as the mistresses and the prostitutes of Gilead. The third chapter discusses how female orality empowers women to resist their patriarchal society in The Handmaid¡¦s Tale. The protagonist Offred, by ¡§writing her voice¡¨ through storytelling, resists patriarchal oppression, restores her body and self, and transforms herself from a victim in a claustrophobic world of male domination to a heroine of femininity. Moreover, her act of writing by her voice also reflects women¡¦s histories of repression, which should be reconstructed in a culture in which only males are literate. Offred¡¦s oral act of storytelling, to the reader, may also signify her resistance to reconstruct women¡¦s repressed histories. The concluding chapter reiterates the research of The Handmaid¡¦s Tale with a synthesis of Atwood¡¦s and some of the prominent feminists¡¦ points of view, namely Millett¡¦s, Rich¡¦s, MacKinnon¡¦s and Cixous¡¦s, toward the oppression and resistance of women within the institution of gender. This study hopes to explore and thus illuminate the nature, the functioning, the operation of socially constructed male domination, and then proceed to search the possible solution, or the ¡§voice;¡¨ however feeble it is, the author, or the protagonist conceives to defy the oppression imposed on women.

The thesis is a study of the May Fourth Spirit in Lin Hai-yin¡¦s novel. Her acceptance of the May Fourth literature thoughts and May Fourth women¡¦s novel had affect her writing. The first chapter is the research history of Lin Hai-yin¡¦s novel and theory of this thesis: Aesthetics of reception, narratology and Feminist Literary Criticism. In the second chapter we research Lin Hai-yin¡¦s personal history during the time of May Fourth. The May Fourth Spirit had affect her vision, but because her marginal perspective, which made her novel more objective and unique. The third chapter is the influence of May Fourth women¡¦s novel in Lin¡¦s. On the theme, subject matter, writing strategy, she followed these writer¡¦s strategy, but present more profound thoughts which different from them. In the fourth chapter we discuss the plot and characters of Lin¡¦s novel. The narrator in Lin¡¦s novel is usually a woman. Through these women¡¦s eyes, we saw a women¡¦s world that has solid sisterhood. We also saw the faces of men in her novel which are weak and escape from making decision are not the same with the traditional men¡¦s character kinds. And there also shows her concern of society through these characters. The last chapter is discussing Lin¡¦s novel¡¦s acceptation and influences in Taiwan. In past criticism, her novel¡¦s theme had been seen like homesick. But the writing strategy of women during the anti-commu period is selected themes that considered not important, like love, marriage¡Ketc. to show they concerned society by these characters¡¦ fate. In conclusion we affirmed Lin Hai-yin¡¦s novel has great value, and she is one of the most important novelists in the 1950¡¦s age.