Denna studie undersöker hur olika graderingssätt jämförs mot företagets graderade grundliv. Undersökningen görs på uppdrag från ett svenskt modeföretag. Tidigare hade företaget en avdelning för sig med de största storlekarna, vilket togs bort för att istället slå ihop hela graderingsintervallen av storlekar till ett. Företaget har jobbat med att hitta de rätta intervallerna kring de största storlekarna och tyckte därför det vore intressant att jämföra sin gradering mot andra graderingssätt med deras grundliv som utgångspunkt. Metoder som har använts i denna studie har varit gradering, jämförelse av mönster och 3D simulering i Lectras programvaror Modaris, 3D prototyping och KaledoStyle. Uppsydda prover har även provats av på docka, person och avatar i storlek 50 samt analyserats och utvärderats efter ett avprovningsprotokoll. Studiens resultat visar att graderingen från företagets grund är jämförbar med det andra graderingssättet i övervägande koordinater. Det som skiljer dem markant åt är axelns längdgradering i de största storlekarna. Där har företaget valt att stanna av sin gradering, vilket de andra graderingssätten inte gör. De andra graderingssätten följer den data som finns tillgänglig kring kroppsmått och axelns ökning i de olika storlekarna. / This study examine how a grading system are compared to the company’s graded base pattern. The study is an assignment on a Swedish fashion company. The company used to have a section for plus-sizes in their clothing line, but decided to remove it. Instead, they merge the whole grading system into one. They have tried to find the right intervals of grading in the biggest sizes, which makes it interesting to compare their grading to other grading systems. The methods used in this study are grading, comparison of patterns and 3D prototyping in Lectra Softweares Modaris, 3D prototyping and KaledoStyle. Sewn samples have been fitted in size 50 and analyzed by a test protocol. The result of the study shows that the grading system from the company is comparable with the other grading system. The most distinct part that separates the grading systems is the shoulder length in the bigger sizes. The company has chosen to stop their grading, which the other grading system does not. The other grading system follows dada where body measurements are established.

Where We Belong: Spatial Imagining in American Women’s Life Narratives, 1859-1912, studies three marginalized and disadvantaged American women’s self-life narratives during a transitional period in American history. In this dissertation, I am taking an interdisciplinary approach. Where We Belong borrows from social geography, new materialism, and autobiography studies in order to complicate critical discussions of women’s space and place in nineteenth-century women’s self-life narratives. Each chapter of Where We Belong presents a case study with the goal to provide a broader understanding of women’s strategies of belonging due to and despite their spatial exclusions. The overarching emphasis in each chapter remains on the female body’s spatial movement. Exploring Eliza Potter’s A Hairdresser’s Experience in High Life (1859), Elizabeth Keckley’s Behind the Scenes; Or Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House (1868), and Mary Antin’s The Promised Land (1912), I claim that material spaces and these women’s corporeal bodies are inseparable. The three cases I present in this project exemplify how marginal women develop strategies of belonging in spaces from which they have been excluded. These women demonstrate ways of belonging (where they are assumed not to) enacted by self-life narratives. Belonging is not a passive way of being: it is activism that disrupts strict categories and definitions, such as blackness, in American literary scholarship. It contains paradoxes of acquiescence and self-declaration.

This study examined the relationship between drug use and violence among justiceinvolved women in Appalachian Kentucky. Goldstein’s (1985) conceptual framework was used as a theoretical guide in formulating the drugs and violence relationships. Therefore, three types of drug use and violence relationships were explored, including: 1) psychopharmacological violence; economic-compulsive violence; and 3) systemic violence. Although these drug-related violence typologies have been investigated, little research has been devoted to rural justice-involved women. Moreover, to date no studies have examined how these drug/violence relationships might be associated with behavioral health factors. Ergo, there were three aims of the current study. First, to build psychopharmacological, economic-compulsive, and systemic drug/violence predictive group models. Second, examine the associations between mental health symptomology and predicted group models. Third, examine the associations between infectious disease risk-factors and predicted group models. This study used secondary data from a NIDAfunded grant focused on risk reduction among high-risk incarcerated women in Appalachia (N=400). All study recruitment and data collection procedures were approved by the university IRB. Predicted drugs/violence groups were developed using a series of discriminant function analyses. Predicted group models were examined for associations with mental health symptomology and risk factors for infectious disease using a series of binary logistic regression analyses. Results indicated that rural justice-involved women can be discriminated into distinct drugs/violence subgroups, and the psychopharmacological group showed the greatest prevalence. In addition, several behavioral health factors were uniquely associated with the psychopharmacological group and the economic-compulsive group. These findings could offer novel considerations for theory development regarding the drug-related risks for violence victimization among rural justice-involved women. The current research may also inform future traditional substance use treatment (e.g., outpatient or residential) and jail-based treatment (e.g., brief intervention) for rural women. Implications for theory development, substance use treatment and policy, future research, and the social work profession were discussed.

Cette thèse prend pour objet les évocations du passé par les militantes de la cause des femmes. Inspirée par les travaux de M. Halbwachs et par la sociologie de l’action collective, elle vise à comprendre comment des représentations partagées du passé peuvent émerger dans un espace aussi ouvert et pluriel que le mouvement féministe. A partir de récits de vie, d’entretiens projectifs, d’observations ethnographiques et d’archives écrites, la thèse montre que l’existence d’une mémoire collective féministe repose sur trois facteurs. Premièrement, il existe dans cet espace un consensus sur la nécessité de visibiliser les femmes dans l’histoire. Ce « devoir de mémoire » fournit aux militantes des raisons politiques d’actualiser régulièrement le passé par des actions collectives. Deuxièmement, au niveau mezzo des collectifs s’accordent sur des interprétations du passé au gré des débats politiques présents et des rapports de pouvoir internes. Eminemment conjoncturelles, ces convergences restent peu propices à l’élaboration d’une histoire officielle féministe. Troisièmement, au niveau micro les histoires personnelles de chaque militante donnent lieu à des récits comparables. L’affirmation selon laquelle « le privé est politique » permet l’existence d’une grille d’interprétation du passé commune centrée sur l’affirmation de soi comme sujet autonome. En effet depuis les années 1970 des pratiques de partage de vécus privés en collectif conduisent les militantes à exposer régulièrement leurs trajectoires au sein d’« espaces du dicible » féministes. C’est par ce processus d’encadrement réciproque des discours biographiques que se réalise une homogénéisation des souvenirs des militantes. / This thesis investigates the ways feminist activists evoke the past in present-day France. Drawing on Halbwach’s sociology of memory and on collective action theory, this work aims to shed light on how shared visions of the past can arise from a social movement as open and plural as the feminist one. Based on biographical and projective interviews, on ethnographic fieldwork and on written archives, this thesis endeavours to demonstrate that there are three main conditions that allow for the existence of a feminist collective memory. First, owing to a consensus within this space about the need to make women more visible in history, a feminist “duty to remember” gives political reasons for the activists to regularly enact the past through collective action. Second, at a meso level, feminist groups may agree on certain representations of the past depending on current political debates and on internal power relationships. However, these convergences are so context-sensitive that it prevents them from constructing a feminist “official history”. Finally, at a micro level, the personal stories of each militant are expressed in comparable accounts and narrative forms. It is the statement "the personal is political" that allows for a common interpretation of the past, hinging on the assertion of oneself as an autonomous subject. Indeed, since the 1970s, feminist movements have developed collective practices that have encouraged activists to regularly tell their biographical story within feminist “spaces of the speakable”. The thesis demonstrates that it is this process of mutual framing of biographical accounts that leads to the homogenization of the activists’ memories.

Prescribed self-management behaviors have been found to be important factors affecting the rates of morbidity and mortality in multiple medical conditions including chronic diseases such as diabetes, a condition that disproportionately affects high health risk populations such as African Americans. This study focused on understanding health behaviors, beliefs, and associated factors such as support systems and access to care that played a role in diabetes self-management and glucose control. The study also explored diabetes self-management education and its role in diabetes self-management. The research conducted in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties in Florida, included twenty-five African American women between the ages of forty-six and eighty-seven, with self-identified diabetes mellitus (type 2 diabetes). The study also included seven diabetes self-management educators consisting of nutritionists, a nurse educator, physicians, and an exercise physiologist--key members of the diabetes self-management team. Additionally, five diabetes education programs were observed. Methods included semi-structured qualitative interviews, with direct and participant observation of the Diabetes Intervention Prevention Program (DIPP), the St. Petersburg Free Clinic Diabetes Program, and the Morton Plant Meese/Joslin Diabetes Program in Pinellas County. Hillsborough County sites included the USF Diabetes Program, and University Community Hospital's Diabetes Care Program. Site selection included a cross-section of program types: non-clinic/community-based, community-based clinic, hospital-based, and university clinic-based. The study also utilized a thirty-nine question survey designed to elicit information about self-management beliefs and behaviors. Results revealed several self-management behavioral variables affecting glucose control: (1) nutritional/dietary changes, (2) exercise, (3) medication use, (4) blood glucose monitoring, (5) physician-patient interaction, (6) support systems, and (7) patient education/knowledge. Results also identified access to care as a contributor to self-management. Two models of diabetes self-management emerged from the findings: a model of balanced self-management held by the diabetes educators and self-management programs, and a model of Interruption practiced by the women. Recommendations highlighted the need for the awareness of socio-cultural factors affecting self-management, the elimination of barriers affecting access to care, improvement in physician-patient interaction, provision of culturally aware patient education, and stronger community and family support systems.

Cette thèse porte sur l’action de deux types d’associations de femmes, présentées dans quatre régions rurales et urbaines de l’Algérie : Alger, Oran, Blida et Tipaza, dont la création est entre 1991 et 2002. Leur histoire est étroitement liée aux dynamiques des mouvements sociaux et politiques algériens durant cette période.Cette recherche s’inscrit dans une perspective féministe et se distingue par la mobilisation du concept d’empowerment introduit par Wiliam Ninacks. À travers les entretiens semi directifs et des compléments d’informations recueillis lors de l’observation participante, méthodologie utilisée pour la première fois pour étudier les associations de femmes en Algérie, deux types d’associations ont été ont été examinés. Le premier inclut deux associations intervenantes en faveur des femmes victimes de violences. Elles font en outre un travail de pression au niveau des trois pouvoirs : politique, législatif, et juridique, pour changer les lois sur la famille et celles relatives à la violence contre les femmes. Le deuxième type d’associations étudié vient en aide aux femmes rurales et artisanes.Cinq associations ont été ainsi observées. Cette thèse contribue à la connaissance des nombreux défis auxquelles elles font face dans l’établissement de pratiques et actions permettant aux femmes rurales et citadines en situation de violence, de besoin, et d’exclusion de se constituer en actrices collectives pour agir ensemble en vue de changements de leur statut social et économique / This dissertation focuses on the action of two types of women's associations, presented in four rural and urban areas of Algeria: Algiers, Oran, and Tipaza, whose creation is between 1991 and 2002. Their history is closely linked to the dynamics of Algerian social and political movements during this period.This research is part of a feminist perspective and is distinguished by the mobilization of the concept of empowerment introduced by William Ninacks.Through the semi-directive interviews and additional information gathered during the participant observation, methodology used for the first time to study women's associations in Algeria, two types of associations were Examined. The first includes two associations for women victims of violence. They also exert pressure on the three powers : political, legislative, and legal, to change family laws and those relating to violence against women. The second type of association studied supports rural and artisanal women.Five associations have been observed. This thesis contributes to the knowledge of the many challenges they face in the establishment of practices and actions enabling rural and urban women in situations of violence, need, and exclusion to establish themselves as actresses to act together in order to change their social and economic status

This paper is an examination of colonialism, its effects on cultural identity, and its impact on the lives of women in South Africa, both black and white. The theoretical work relates to both personal issues of displacement and alienation, caused by the politics of Apartheid. The work addresses the personal, political, and social issues of cultural identity and sexuality based on the author’s own memories and experiences of the relationships between black and white women. The work attempts to deal with the issues of race, gender and class, and by using female imagery to explore issues that have enabled the exploitation and control of the sexuality as well as the economic production, of South African women. In this context the paper situates the practical work which refers to the visual impact of racist ideologies that have used the female body as a site of colonialism and subjugation, to show the effects of colonialism on the identities of African women. / Master of Arts (Hons)

This thesis studies the progressive nature of women’s writing and the various factors that helped and hindered the successful publication of women’s written works in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The thesis interrogates culturally encoded definitions of the term “success” in relation to the status of these women writers. In a time when success meant, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, “attainment of wealth or position”, women could never achieve a level of success equal to the male elite. The dichotomous worldview, in which women were excluded from almost all active participation in the public sphere, led to a literary protest by women. However, the male-privileged binary system is seen critically to affect women’s literary success. Hence, a redefinition of success will specifically refer to the literary experience of these women writers and a long-lasting recognition of this experience in the twentieth century. An examination of literary techniques used in key works from Catherine Macaulay, Mary Wollstonecraft, Hannah More, Mary Shelley and Jane Austen suggests that there was a critical double standard with which women writers were constantly faced. The literary techniques, used by the earlier writers, fail in overcoming this critical double standard because of their emphasis on revolution. However, the last two women writers become literary successes (according to my reinterpretation of the term) because of their particular emphasis on amelioration rather than revolution. The conclusion of the thesis suggests that despite the “unsuccessful” literary attempts by the first three women authors, there is an overall positive progression in women’s journey toward literary success. Described as the ‘generational effect’, this becomes the fundamental point of the study, because together these women represent a combined movement which challenges a system of patriarchal tradition, encouraging women to continue to push the gender relations’ boundaries in order to be seen as individual, successful writers.

<p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p>

<p>The purpose of this study is to map out and to analyze the spatial variation of female representation at the national level in established democracies. The aim is also to explain the variation in the female representation. The main questions that the paper tries to answer are:</p><p>1.How does women representation in established democratic parliaments vary?</p><p>2.Why does women representation in established democratic parliaments vary?</p><p>This study is a comparative and statistic study, i.e. a study that includes a bigger number of countries and where quantitative analysis methods are used in order to achieve comparative analyses. This study is both a descriptive and an explanatory study. The statistical method that is used in this study is mainly bivariat analysis and multivariat regression.</p><p>The results show that the variation in female representation in the established democracies is quite considerable. Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Netherlands feature high female representation at the national level during the period 1995-2005. The result also implies that the proportion of women in parliament increases during the current period. The result also shows that political institutions, socio-economic -and cultural factors, are important and necessary in order to explain the variation in female representation. The overall standards that can be discerned of the statistical analyses is that the proportion of women in parliament is higher in countries with a proportional electoral system, high number of parliament members, high socio-economic development (high HDI, GDI and GNP per capita) contemporary as the country introduced female suffrage in an early stage and have a more positive attitude toward female leadership.</p>