<p>The Westsaharian women are a civic group that during their soon to be thirty years as refugees in the Westsaharian camps in south western Algeria have become empowered as citizens and advanced strongly in political representation. In theory, empowerment of women’s democratic citizenship has been described as a complex phenomenon. To gain an understanding about this in this study, I have described the women’s perceived access to resources and attitudes, and in what way these factors play a role for their active citizenship. This has been done by the use of Axel Hadenius’ theory about the democratic citizenship and Jo Rowlands’ theory about which resources that are to be considered as essential for women’s empowerment. To be able to perform the study, a case study was performed in the Westsaharian refugee camps during April-May 2004, followed up by a second during October-November 2004.</p><p>The study shows that there are resources and attitudes within both human and social capital that the women perceive to play a significant role for their active citizenship. These factors make the women take part in societal activities, strive to reach higher political positions, and work for a common civic development as women and as Westsaharian citizens. The result of the study further shows that there are contextual inhibiting and encouraging factors that the women perceive to affect their resources and attitudes that play a significant role for their active citizenship. </p>

<p>Abstract</p><p>Title: Vecko-Revyn, A study of how a women’s youth-magazine speaks to its readers, the content of the articles and interviews and the papers definition of femininity during the years1984-2004. (Vecko-Revyn En studie av en ungdomstidnings tilltal till läsaren, dess reportage och intervjuer samt definition av kvinnlighet under en period av 20 år.)</p><p>Number of pages: 63</p><p>Author: Anna Widén</p><p>Tutor: Göran Svensson</p><p>Course: Media and Communication Studies C</p><p>Period: Spring 2006</p><p>University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University</p><p>Purpose/aim: The purpose is to see how the women´s youth-magazine Vecko-Revyn speaks to its readers, what the content of the articles are with a special view at the articles that contains interviews and articles with the theme sex and relationships. The study will also see how the magazine Vecko-Revyn defines femininity and how that difference through the years. The investigation will study those different subjects over a timeperiod of 20 years, 1984 – 2004.</p><p>Material/method: The study is done with a combined qualitative and quantitative text analysis using five numbers of the magazine Vecko-Revyn from each of the years 1984, 1994 and 2004.</p><p>Main results: The magazine Vecko-Revyn has a very open text to it’s readers. The articles have become shorter during the years. 1984 the articles where long and had an intellectual language. 2004 the magazine is down to very small articles. The main subjects that the magazine talks about in 1984 are the relation to the opposite sex and the liberty of women. 1994 the magazine is mostly about sex in all its forms and 2004 it has turned its main attention to the way you as a young person shall look to become successful.</p><p>The paper has had a very distinguished women-profile during 1984 when womanhood and the fact that you as a reader (and a women) shall take care of your own business was one of the magazines main priorities. 1994 the reader and the magazine has one common enemy – the opposite sex. This disappears thru the years and in 2004 the magazine is not interested at all in a feminist discourse.</p><p>Keywords: Vecko-Revyn, youth, women’s magazine, women, media, femininity, text analysis.</p>

This study is a content analysis of ten chick lit books, a genre of women’s fiction. Books were analyzed for five postfeminist characteristics as defined by Susan Faludi’s backlash theory, outlined in Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women and in further research on popular culture’s notions of womanhood: 1) negative reaction to second wave feminism, 2) focus on the individual instead of a collective sisterhood, 3) desire for more traditional femininity through domesticity, consumerism, romance, and motherhood, 4) female identity crisis causing fears of a man shortage, a loudly ticking biological clock, and career burnout, and 5) feelings of anxiety over ability to make the correct future decisions. Analysis has found that chick lit does generally reinforce the notions of postfeminism/backlash, however the characters displayed anxiety over how to incorporate feminine paths into their lives and generally disregard motherhood.

The present study is focused on the female parliamentary members as agents: those who forced their way through the power structures, those who were elected to political commissions of trust, and those who managed to pursue political issues in the maledominated environment. The overall aim of the study has been to investigate the roots of the female parliamentary members’ political actions and their ability to act strategically and purposfully in order to obtain power in the Swedish bicameral Riksdag. By depicting a collective biography of the female parliamentary members I have investigated how the individual female politicians advanced in their careers and explained the changes over time. Four problem areas were investigated. The gender structure in the Riksdag was studied through mapping of the female parliamentary members’ backgrounds and career routes. The women’s political interests and work in the Riksdag were studied. In addition I investigated whether there was any cooperation among the female parliamentary members and whether on some occasions they cooperated in order to promote common female interests and also whether there were women in the Riksdag who worked and cooperated in order to level out the gender differences in society. Finally the female parliamentary members’ views of the parliamentary and party work were studied. When the Riksdag was first opened to female members the structures isolated them. The men did not admit them into the work of the Riksdag on the same conditions. The women were restricted by the gender order of the Riksdag, but some agents could still modify the structural conditions. Some of the female agents broke their isolation by acting collectively. Their work on the female issues gave them legitimacy in time. They acquired channels in order to work for their interests. They widened their areas of interest and in time they managed to take part in the work of the committees and parliamentary groups. They were then rewarded with assignments. The male parliamentary members admitted the female parliamentary members into politics. They also started co-operating with the men to an increasingly high degree. At the end of the period of investigation the female parliamentary members became more and more integrated in the work of the Riksdag. The great usefulness of the female parliamentary members’ work did not manifest itself however until the 1970s, when they were very successful in their political endeavours and the female representation increased considerably.

How do international norms travel, via statebuilding efforts, into post-conflict settings, and how do international and national actors interact in this process? These are the main questions addressed in this thesis. The empirical focus is the spreading and rooting of the norm of women’s political rights in Cambodia and Timor-Leste, two countries in which international actors have played a significant role in statebuilding efforts. Although statebuilding has increasingly become a part of UN peacebuilding missions, we still lack a thorough understanding of how much, and in what ways, the international community can successfully promote change. This is important in view of the fact that the key to success ultimately depends on how the receiving community responds to the presence and efforts of international actors to promote new social norms.  This study analyzes the interaction between international and national actors engaged in the promotion of women’s political rights as part of the effort to advance democracy. Three institutional developments are examined in detail – electoral rules and regulations, the establishment of a national gender equality/women’s machinery and the strengthening of the local government structure. The study uses a modified norm diffusion approach and makes two theoretical contributions to the literature. First, I place the norm diffusion process in a post-conflict context. Second, I add the concept of capability to function in order to conceptualize and study the internalization of the norm. The thesis is based on both an analysis of written material and semi-structured interviews. A total of 65 interviews were conducted during three research trips to each of the countries between 2007 and 2009. In general, the four empirical chapters reveal that the interaction between international and national actors has predominantly been characterized by international actors setting the agenda, with varying degrees of consultation and collaboration with national actors. While norm institutionalization has been rather high in both countries, norm inter­nalization lags behind. This is explained by discriminating ways of life and attitudes, lack of resources and time. Norm internalization is higher in Timor-Leste, in part because national actors have adapted the norm of women’s political rights to fit the local setting, but also due to their openness to international influences. The empirical study underscores that international actors can push for change and norm adherence, but their efforts are not enough. In the end, national actors have to buy into the message that international actors try to convey. The strengths and weaknesses that have been uncovered in the Cambodian and Timorese case studies presented here should be carefully considered as international actors, led by the UN, embark upon future statebuilding missions around the globe.

Abstract Title: Vecko-Revyn, A study of how a women’s youth-magazine speaks to its readers, the content of the articles and interviews and the papers definition of femininity during the years1984-2004. (Vecko-Revyn En studie av en ungdomstidnings tilltal till läsaren, dess reportage och intervjuer samt definition av kvinnlighet under en period av 20 år.) Number of pages: 63 Author: Anna Widén Tutor: Göran Svensson Course: Media and Communication Studies C Period: Spring 2006 University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University Purpose/aim: The purpose is to see how the women´s youth-magazine Vecko-Revyn speaks to its readers, what the content of the articles are with a special view at the articles that contains interviews and articles with the theme sex and relationships. The study will also see how the magazine Vecko-Revyn defines femininity and how that difference through the years. The investigation will study those different subjects over a timeperiod of 20 years, 1984 – 2004. Material/method: The study is done with a combined qualitative and quantitative text analysis using five numbers of the magazine Vecko-Revyn from each of the years 1984, 1994 and 2004. Main results: The magazine Vecko-Revyn has a very open text to it’s readers. The articles have become shorter during the years. 1984 the articles where long and had an intellectual language. 2004 the magazine is down to very small articles. The main subjects that the magazine talks about in 1984 are the relation to the opposite sex and the liberty of women. 1994 the magazine is mostly about sex in all its forms and 2004 it has turned its main attention to the way you as a young person shall look to become successful. The paper has had a very distinguished women-profile during 1984 when womanhood and the fact that you as a reader (and a women) shall take care of your own business was one of the magazines main priorities. 1994 the reader and the magazine has one common enemy – the opposite sex. This disappears thru the years and in 2004 the magazine is not interested at all in a feminist discourse. Keywords: Vecko-Revyn, youth, women’s magazine, women, media, femininity, text analysis.

The current study examined the factors that affect female political participation in students at women’s colleges and coeducational institutions. The first part of the study consisted of building a model to explain female political participation based on previous research findings. The second part of the study consisted of examining differences between the model and the levels of participation among the two groups. Results showed that only self-esteem, femininity, feminist identification and knowledge of female political leaders significantly impacted political participation. No structural differences in the model were found between the groups. Students at women’s colleges had significantly higher means in political activity than their counterparts at coeducational institutions but there were no significant mean differences in political participation.

The current study examined the factors that affect female political participation in students at women’s colleges and coeducational institutions. The first part of the study consisted of building a model to explain female political participation based on previous research findings. The second part of the study consisted of examining differences between the model and the levels of participation among the two groups. Results showed that only self-esteem, femininity, feminist identification and knowledge of female political leaders significantly impacted political participation. No structural differences in the model were found between the groups. Students at women’s colleges had significantly higher means in political activity than their counterparts at coeducational institutions but there were no significant mean differences in political participation.

India is the world’s largest democracy, one of the fastest growing economies and an enormous market for newspapers. It is also a country with deeply rooted gender biases where women are highly discriminated and marginalized at all levels of the society. The media is considered an important agent of power. Therefore this study focuses on how and to what extent the three Indian newspapers Hindustan Times, The Hindu and Times of India report on and approach gender inequality and women’s empowerment issues. How do journalists look upon their role and the role of the press in the women’s empowerment process? A quantitative content analysis was performed during five weeks (October 18 –November 21, 2010) and 69 articles that highlight gender inequality and women’s empowerment were found, collected and coded. This content analysis is combined with a qualitative method. Two informant interviews and six respondent interviews with journalists are included in the study. The most common main topics of the articles found were Law and amendments, Women’s movement, Political power, Reproductive health and Development. Five out of six interviewed reporters believe that their newspapers have a major impact on its readership and all six respondents were of the opinion that their newspapers encourage reporting on these matters. Although they believe that media’s overall influence is limited. The Hindu and Times of India report more on gender inequality and women’sempowerment issues than Hindustan Times does and some of the respondents express that The Hindu promotes development journalism more than the other two newspapers do.

The Islamic legislative drafting methodology is meant to bring the family law of Islamic countries into line with current conceptions of gender equality found not only in the West but in Islamic law (the shari’a) as well. The methodology involves identifying the fundamental principles of shari’a and recognizing that they must be adapted to the socio-economic conditions in which they are to be applied.