Little has been written about women's career development that specifically addresses the process of women becoming successful in their occupations. As well, the literature has neglected to include the experiences of lesbians. Yet there is reason to believe that lesbians, by virtue of their lesbian identity, may have unique work experiences that are different from heterosexual women, leading to different paths to occupational success. The purpose of this study was to investigate the process of lesbians becoming successful in their occupations by utilizing a grounded theory approach. Fifteen women (age range 35 to 69 years) who were identified as successful in their occupations (i.e., they were perceived as leaders in their fields) and who represented a variety of occupational fields, were interviewed about their experience of becoming successful in their careers. The grounded theory analysis of the data led to conceptual development, ordering, and a description of a psychological process "striving for holistic integration." The central process begins by these women "managing their lesbian identities in the workplace." The process involved women "taking risks and being out" at work along a continuum that represented women "working 'in' silence," "working quietly," and being "boldly 'out' spoken." Other salient categories in this central process included: facing ongoing fear, handling homophobia, and fighting for social change. Holistic integration involved participants integrating their lesbian and work "worlds." This integration facilitated enhanced working relationships based on honesty, and, for many participants, holistic integration became transformational as they became empowered by being open and disclosing their lesbian identities in the workplace. This process involved a dynamic, synergistic interaction between the influencing conditions (i.e., changing social times, personal background, serendipitous conditions, love and support, and a gay friendly work environment) and the unfolding of the process of striving for holistic integration. This research contributes to our understanding of lesbians' occupational success and is an important first step for further research. The women in this sample were primarily out in their respective fields and experienced benefits from doing so, despite the barriers many of them encountered along the way. The findings of this study provide guidance for future research in the area of lesbian career development and success.

The sudden and steady increase in the involvement of women in the Mexican labour force beginning in the 1980s, signifies a major shift in gender roles and activities. It is a little studied outcome of Mexico's combination of economic crisis (which served to increase the supply of female labour) and subsequent adoption of neoliberal economic policies (which stimulated the demand for female labour). In fact, what is not known, are the implications of this employment for the Mexican women themselves. The dissertation moves beyond the existing literature on the gendered consequences of employment and economic development, by bringing in the citizenship literature to help define women's status. Specifically, the dissertation proposes a way of determining these consequences by examining three dimensions of women's status, two of which refer to women's roles and capabilities in the public sphere---political and economic---and one which refers to women's status in the private sphere---the household. By disaggregating the status variable, the dissertation highlights the significant improvements in women's status while identifying the remaining obstacles to gender equality. The dissertation develops a number of measures of women's multidimensional status, and assesses the differences between employed and non-employed women using data obtained from a survey of women in Mexico City. In the economic sphere, the findings indicate that employment improves women's status by enhancing women's independence. Employment provides women with the economic resources that enable them to lessen their dependence on men. At the same time, women continue to face inequality in the labour market, signifying the continuing subordination of women. In terms of women's household status, the findings show that women retain the primary responsibility for childcare, and for the maintenance of the home. This inequality is significant, and serves to limit further improvements in

Women activists in teacher unions such as Sadtu claimed that there was a disjuncture between what the South African Constitution says about gender equity and what is happening in reality. This study was undertaken to investigate this claim from the women teachers' perspective. This study explores how the social, cultural, political, historical, economic and educational factors influence the conditions of work and careers of the women teachers in KwaZulu-Natal. In this study, an historical outline of the contribution of various philosophies and attitudes to the relative position of KZN women from 1845 to 2000 is given in an attempt to seek solutions to the gender equity problem in education. The study also uses the racial perspectives to investigate the feminists' claim that Black women suffer triple oppression - that of gender, race and class. An extensive exploratory study using a multiple method approach, incorporating data from documentary research, surveys and interviews leads to the presentation of a well etched picture of the KZN women teachers. A large sample of 339 educators participated in the study. The major findings of the study include the following aspects: About 64 percent of the teachers in KZN province are women. Despite their majority in the teaching profession, their contribution to education is grossly undervalued. The most visible sign of this discrimination is the under-representativity of the women educators in managerial and decision-making positions in the education hierarchy. This stems from patriarchy which is still prevalent. Women are excluded from male dominated areas through socialisation and male resistance to change. Although about 98 percent of the women are certificated teachers, the majority of them have only a matriculation certificate as academic qualification. This stems from the historical under-investment in the girl child's education by parents and the State. About 67 percent of the women teachers are married and 68 percent have children. The majority of them believe in the tradition of marriage and are very comfortable with the multiple roles they perform. However, the majority of the Black women derive little satisfaction from teaching at the moment because of the tough working conditions and the lack of respect from learners, parents and KZNDEC officials. Presently the Govt's R & R policies cause uncertainty and frustration for the teachers. The work environment at historically Black schools can be unsafe with robbery and muggings which happen in the school grounds. Women teachers are presently on a par with the men in economic terms. The most significant aspect of the empowerment is the ability to leave their pension benefits to their husbands or dependents upon their death, this gives them a new identity, that of benefactors. Through its affirmative action policies, the State is giving preference to women when promoting personnel to managerial posts. Overall, the women teachers are still overworked and, therefore, relatively underpaid. Because of the role overload they are prone to ailments, frustration, stress etc. Therefore, it is recommended that their retirement age be reduced; the calculation of pension benefits for previously disadvantaged women teachers be corrected; women's health be given priority attention; childcare be provided at the workplace. In addition, more research on KZN women teachers' issues needs to be undertaken as this is only a baseline study. This study confirms the women teachers' claim that thus far the new Govt has addressed only the class issues and not the issues of race and gender. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Durban-Westville, 2002.

International studies of part-time employment have shown that most part-time workers are women, and specifically married women (Rosenfeld and Birkelund 1995; Caputo and Cianni 2001). The ability to work part-time enables women who have household commitments, such as caring for children, to maintain an attachment to the labour force and to preserve job skills while also undertaking household labour (Long and Jones 1981; Rosenfeld and Birkelund 1995). In many countries, therefore, the growth in part-time employment has constituted an important component of the increase in women’s work. However, part-time jobs are often considered to be poorly remunerated, offering little or no security, limited opportunities for career advancement and few (if any) benefits (Rosenfeld and Birkelund 1995; Rodgers 2004; Hirsch 2005; Bardasi and Gornick 2008). Although empirical research on South Africa’s labour markets has expanded significantly over the post-apartheid period, particularly with the introduction of nationally representative household surveys that capture individual employment data, little is known about the characteristics of South African part-time workers, or about the nature of the work these individuals perform. Using data from a selection of South Africa’s nationally representative household surveys, namely the October Household Surveys, the Labour Force Surveys and the Labour Force Survey Panel, this thesis aims to redress this lacuna. The thesis comprises four empirical chapters. The first chapter outlines the definition of part-time employment adopted throughout the study, and it presents gendered trends in part-time employment in South Africa from 1995 to 2006. The descriptive analysis shows that most part-time workers in South Africa are women, and further, that the growth in female part-time employment has been an important part of the feminisation of the labour force in South Africa. The second chapter compares part-time and full-time wage (salaried) employment. The main analytical question addressed in this chapter is whether women are penalised for working part-time. Although hourly wages in part-time employment are, on average, lower than in full-time employment, the study demonstrates that after controlling for differences in observable and unobservable characteristics, women in part-time employment receive a wage premium. The third chapter explores heterogeneity among part-time wage workers, distinguishing between women who choose to work part-time and women who report wanting to work longer hours. Key findings of this chapter are that a wage premium persists for women both in voluntary and in involuntary part-time work; but that involuntary part-time workers have a stronger labour force attachment than voluntary part-time workers. The fourth chapter uses the distinction between part-time and full-time employment to investigate changes in the gender wage gap in employment. The results show that the total gender gap in wages among part-time and full-time workers has fallen over the years, with the greatest reduction visible for those working part-time. The final chapter summarises the main findings of the thesis and it outlines avenues for further research on part-time employment in South Africa. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2009. / UKZN Economics department; Economic Research South Africa; UKZN Doctoral Scholarship Award

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 187-202).

The objective of this study was to identify the strategies (personal and organisational) that would enable South African women to break through the glass ceiling. A questionaire was designed based on the strategies found in a literature study on the topic and used to gather inputs from executive women in South Africa. A combination of snowball and self-selection sampling was used. The questionaire was sent to 138 potential respondents, mostly by means of electronic mail. Of the 47 completed questionairs returned, 44 could be used. These were processed and anaylsed using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and the STATISTICA Version 6 software. In generaL, support was found for personal strategies pertaining to career management, networking (especially the relationship building activities), the reconciliation of home and work responsibilities with the emphasis on building a support system, education, business and organisational insught, skills development and increased input, but not for the assimilation of masculine attributes. Networking opportunities and education, training and development activities were regarded as the organisational strategies with the strongest impact on career progress. The literature was confirmed regarding top management support, an organisational culture conducive to women's advancement, mentorship programmes and a few career development initiatives. Although more than half of the respondents had been exposed to employment equity and affirmative action programmes, they were perceived to have only little to moderate impact on career progress. This was also the case with diversity management programmes. Flexible work arrangements, career adaptation schemes and childcare facilities and programmes were seen as having had little impact on the respondents' career advancement. Only a few of the organisational practices to support women balancing family and work responsibilities were utilised by the respondents' employers. Respondents perceived personal strategies as having greater value than organisational strategies in their progress to executive levels.

Little has been written about women's career development that specifically addresses the process of women becoming successful in their occupations. As well, the literature has neglected to include the experiences of lesbians. Yet there is reason to believe that lesbians, by virtue of their lesbian identity, may have unique work experiences that are different from heterosexual women, leading to different paths to occupational success. The purpose of this study was to investigate the process of lesbians becoming successful in their occupations by utilizing a grounded theory approach. Fifteen women (age range 35 to 69 years) who were identified as successful in their occupations (i.e., they were perceived as leaders in their fields) and who represented a variety of occupational fields, were interviewed about their experience of becoming successful in their careers. The grounded theory analysis of the data led to conceptual development, ordering, and a description of a psychological process "striving for holistic integration." The central process begins by these women "managing their lesbian identities in the workplace." The process involved women "taking risks and being out" at work along a continuum that represented women "working 'in' silence," "working quietly," and being "boldly 'out' spoken." Other salient categories in this central process included: facing ongoing fear, handling homophobia, and fighting for social change. Holistic integration involved participants integrating their lesbian and work "worlds." This integration facilitated enhanced working relationships based on honesty, and, for many participants, holistic integration became transformational as they became empowered by being open and disclosing their lesbian identities in the workplace. This process involved a dynamic, synergistic interaction between the influencing conditions (i.e., changing social times, personal background, serendipitous conditions, love and support, and a gay friendly work environment) and the unfolding of the process of striving for holistic integration. This research contributes to our understanding of lesbians' occupational success and is an important first step for further research. The women in this sample were primarily out in their respective fields and experienced benefits from doing so, despite the barriers many of them encountered along the way. The findings of this study provide guidance for future research in the area of lesbian career development and success. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

This project is a case study of the hairdressing industry in British Columbia in the 1920s. It argues that gender divisions persisted as consumerism became increasingly important to British Columbians, and that despite British Columbia's sometimes challenging engagement with international consumerism, the province's economy remained remarkably synchronized with international trends. It tells the story of the rapid expansion and feminization of hair services markets and businesses; examines the public and legislative debates about the importance of consumer services such as hairdressing and its customers; and reveals the persistence of gendered divisions in the early transition to a consumer services society. Using British Columbian newspaper reports, American and Canadian women's and union periodicals, city directories, national censuses, and government reports, the project looks first at the increasing pressures in the 1920s from business owners, advertisers, and magazine editors to adopt new, fashionable hairstyles and the sources of ambivalence among women about the new styles. It then turns to hairdressing as a business and source of employment, and after briefly reviewing the history of hairdressing in North America looks at the rapid expansion of hairdressing businesses in British Columbia during the 1920s; the demographic characteristics of hairdressing workers and entrepreneurs; and the feminization of the hair services industry. It also explores the connection between feminist ideals and women's entrepreneurship in the hair services field. Finally, the hairdressers' attempt to gain regulation from the provincial government is examined at the end of the decade, with a particular focus on how consumerism and hairdressing, its workers and customers, are characterized. The legislative and public debates about hairdressing regulation reveal anxiety about consumerism and persistent gender divisions as British Columbia began to shift toward a consumer-oriented society. It concludes that British Columbia, despite its primary resource economic base, remained remarkably in step with international trends, from feminization of services to regulation of those services, of which hairdressing was just a beginning. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

This study critically assesses how far the Mauritian EPZ, which consists of a predominantly female workforce, is conducive to women’s empowerment, particularly in a context of rife global competition. Focus Group Discussions with actual female workers and semi-directive interviews of those who have been laid off reveal that there have effectively been some benefits which may be construed as empowerment. However, low wages and harsh treatment of workers at the workplace, compounded with rising costs of living and pervasive patriarchal values impede the extent of empowerment. Yet, when contrasted with the experiences of laid off women, the centrality of employment becomes more palpable. The experiences of job loss are in many cases destructive of not only the laid-off worker’s self-image and aspirations, but also on their ability to juggle with poverty and its associated outcomes. Despite being a relatively difficult sector to work in, its benefits outweigh its limitations. / Sociology / MA (Social Science)