The purpose of this study is to investigate the experiences of academic women in order to gain an in depth understanding of factors that encourage and discourage their career advancement. A qualitative design and a Feminist standpoint framework guided the study. 11 faculty members from different faculties were interviewed in this study: eight female academics and three male academics from three Swedish universities: Linköping, Örebro and Stockholm. The study looked at the factors that encourage women academics career advancement such as: personal, family and academic factors. While, factors that discourage their career advancement have been also discussed and such factors are: the lack of support, network and mentorship; the reconciliation of the private life and the professional life; the lack of time: excess academic and administrative workloads. The results of this study also revealed that the lack of academic support, mentorship and the combination of family and work duties appeared to be the greatest barriers for the career advancement of the female academics. study concludes that despite the Swedish government countless series of measures and reforms to improve gender equality and equal opportunity in higher education, the number of female academics in the top ranking especially professorship is still very low and the career progression is also slow compared to their male counterpart.

This research is situated in the community of Vilcabamba in the province of Loja, Ecuador. Vilcabamba is a small village in the southern Andes of Ecuador, approximately 28 miles (45km) from Loja city. Many people were drawn to the area because of stories they heard about people there living to be over 100 years old. Books and articles have been written in attempts to establish the veracity of these claims and to explore why the people of Vilcabamba are living so long. This dissertation is a qualitative case study that explores how the recent surge of tourism and immigration in Vilcabamba is impacting the people and sustainable way of life of the village and its surrounding communities. Through gender analysis the study also explores if tourism and immigration are affecting men and women differently and the way that women respond to this impact. The literature review provides different lenses to understand what types of conflicts and opportunities are present in the area and how these conflicts affect the livelihood strategies of the locals. The methodological approach of this research is case study analysis, which explored what is happening to the people of the Vilcabamba community and their land. To explore this phenomenon, I used certain methods developed by ethnographers, such as field observation. The study is based on the experiences of four women living in poverty from the local community of Vilcabamba. I wanted to understand the vulnerabilities that exist for them. I explored the livelihood strategies of women in their everyday lives. The use of the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework assisted me in understanding the concepts of assets and vulnerabilities. This research is expected to contribute to the field of conflict analysis and resolution by elucidating the relationship between gender and tourism in Vilcabamba. It will bring awareness to the issues women experience that keep them rooted in poverty. An exploration of how other communities have met and overcome the challenges of tourism and colonization is presented and the final outcome suggests possible resolutions for social change.

Bakgrund: Obstetriskt våld inom förlossningsvården är ett dilemma både nationellt och internationellt som kan komma att påverka kvinnors syn på förlossningen negativt. Varje kvinna har självbestämmanderätt över sin kropp samt rätt till att vara delaktig i sin vård och få sina önskemål kring förlossningen i möjligaste mån uppfyllda. Barnmorskan har en viktig roll att stödja och skapa trygghet hos kvinnan under förlossningen och har en stor påverkan på hur kvinnan kommer att uppleva sin förlossning. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att utifrån instagraminlägg beskriva kvinnors upplevelser av obstetriskt våld under förlossningen. Metod: Netnografiskt inspirerad metod baserad på 107 publicerade inlägg från ett instagramkonto. Kvalitativ innehållsanalys tillämpades. Resultat: Resultatet består av tre kategorier och åtta subkategorier. Bristande information och samtycke; skalpelektod, oxytoxininfusion, studentnärvaro. Fysiskt och psykiskt våld; påtvingade positioner, fysiska och psykiska övergrepp, kränkande kommentarer. Bristande bemötande och negativa attityder; hotfulla kommentarer av vårdpersonal, bristande tilltro till den födande. Kvinnor upplevde bristande information och samtycke, de kände sig utsatta för fysiska övergrepp i form av fasthållning. De upplevde sig överkörda och kände sig misstrodda av vårdpersonalen. Dessa händelser kan alla tolkas som obstetriskt våld. Slutsats: Obstetriskt våld under förlossning kan yttra sig på olika sätt och kan tillämpas omedvetet från vårdpersonal. Som barnmorska är det viktigt att ha kunskap och kännedom om begreppet för att kunna förebygga uppkomsten av detta. Barnmorskan bör skapa trygghet och autonomi hos kvinnan och sträva efter att skapa en mer positiv förlossningsupplevelse. Klinisk tillämpbarhet: Resultatet i denna studie kan ge ökad kunskap och medvetenhet om hur vårdpersonalens bemötande och handlingar kan komma att påverka kvinnans förlossningsupplevelse. Ökad kunskap och medvetenhet om obstetriskt våld under förlossningen kan resultera i att barnmorskan omsätter denna kunskap och anammar ett mer professionellt förhållningssätt gentemot den födande kvinnan. Detta genom att tydligare informera om varför undersökningar och interventioner utförs samt genom att alltid inhämta kvinnans samtycke. / Background: Obstetric violence in maternity care is a dilemma both nationally and internationally, which may negatively affect women's view of childbirth. Every woman has the right to selfdetermination over her body, to be involved in her care and to have her wishes regarding childbirth metas far as possible. The midwife has an important role in supporting and creating security for the woman during childbirth and has a major influence on how the woman will experience her delivery. Aim: The aim of this study is to describe women’s experiences of obstetric violence during childbirth bases on Instagram posts. Methods: Netnographic inspired method based on 107 published posts on an Instagram account. Qualitative content analysis was applied. Results: The result consists of three categories and eight subcategories. Lack of information and consent; scalp electrode, oxytocin infusion, students attendance. Physical and psychological violence; forced positions, physical and psychological abuse,offensive comments. Lack of treatment and negative attitudes; threatening comments by healthcare staff, lack of trust in the birthing woman. Women experienced a lack of information and consent, they felt exposed to physical abuse in form of restraint. They felt trampled on and humiliated and felt distrustedby the healthcare staff. These events can all be interpreted as obstetric violence. Conclusion: Obstetric violence during childbirth can manifest itself in different ways and can be applied unconsciously by healthcare professionals. As a midwife, it is important to have knowledge and awareness with the concept in order to be able to prevent the occurrence of this. The midwife should create security and autonomy in order to create a more positive birth experience for the women. Clinical implications: The results of this study can provide increased knowledge and awareness of how the care staff's treatment and actions can affect the experience of the woman who gives birth. Increased knowledge and awareness of obstetric violence during childbirth can result in the midwife putting this knowledge into practice and adopting a more professional approach towards the woman who gives birth. This by more clearly informing about why examinations and medical actions are carried out and by always obtaining the woman's consent.

Background: In Oman, 33.3% of women attended late for publicly funded antenatal care in 2015 and 24% did not attend for the recommended 4-6 visits during their pregnancy. This low attendance suggests a need to explore attendance for antenatal care for low-risk pregnant women in Oman. Methodology: An exploratory qualitative design informed by constructivist grounded theory methodology was used in this research. Methods: In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with an initial purposive sample of nine pregnant women. The initial analysis enabled theoretical sampling of thirteen non-participant observations during women's appointments, interviews with ten care providers, and six women who booked late after 12 weeks of gestation. A constructivist grounded theory analytical framework of initial, focused and theoretical coding was followed to analyse all the data collected. Findings: The core category consists of five interrelated sub-categories: perceived benefits and value of antenatal care; timing of the first antenatal visit; woman-carer interactions during antenatal care; experiences with antenatal care delivery; and supplementary use of private healthcare. The integral categories explain the social processes and issues surrounding antenatal care. The emergent core category, Navigating antenatal care, reflects the views of the women and their care providers. The women were unhappy with the organisation and physical environment of care but attended their appointments to ensure optimal pregnancy outcome and to alleviate their fears of developing complications. Thus, they used both private and public healthcare and sourced online information in response to their feelings of obligation to protect their fetus. Conclusion: The women appeared disempowered and to lack control over the care they received. Thus, they accepted conditions such as long waiting times in an uncomfortable environment and the disrespect they encountered during their visits. There was a discrepancy between what the women expected and needed from their antenatal care and the actual care and information they received, which did not satisfy their needs. This could be due to a lack of woman-centred care and limited involvement in the plan of care. Thus, women sought further reassurance by accessing private clinics, using online information, and networking with others, which also resulted in a late booking for public antenatal care.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This thesis is about HELLP Syndrome (hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelet count in pregnancy): a devastating maternal hypertensive complication that results in multi-system changes that can rapidly deteriorate into organ failure and death. Despite rapid advancesin medical technology and medical science this disease continues to take the lives of women and their infants. The only effective intervention for this disorder is immediate termination irrespective of the gestational stage of the pregnancy. The primary objective of this thesis was to explore the subjective experiences and meaningmaking processes of women in and through their high-risk pregnancies. This objective crystallised into the following aims: to facilitate and listen to the voices of women who were HELLP Syndrome survivors; to explore the reported bodily, psychological and emotional experiences of HELLP Syndrome survivors; to understand the role medical intervention and biomedical discourses play in these women’s experiences and finally to explore the subjective experiences of HELLP Syndrome in the context of traditionallyheld notions of motherhood. The study was couched in a feminist poststructuralist epistemology. A material-discursive framework which comprised phenomenological and poststructuralist theorising was usedin an attempt to understand both the lived experiences as well as the discursively constructed nature of those subjective experiences. Thus the analysis encompassed both a broadly phenomenological framework to understand the lived experiences of HELLP Syndrome, and a discourse analysis to explore the meaning-making processes of participants in relation to larger social discourses, in particular the dominant biomedical and motherhood discourses. A qualitative approach using in depth semi-structured interviews was utilisedto gather data. Eleven participants from very diverse backgrounds consented to be part of thisstudy. The findings of the study highlighted the immense trauma, difficulties and challenges participants faced in these high-risk situations. What was evident from the analysis was that their experiences were so diverse and werecompletely shaped by the severity of the disorder and the gestational stage of the pregnancy. Some women ended up in the Intensive Care Units (ICU) and had near-death experiences, some had very premature babies, while some of the participants lost their babies during the process. With regards to the emotional, psychological and corporeal aspects of the disorder,participants described their situations as a disaster, painful and difficult. Due to the rapid deterioration of symptoms, they described the tempo of these events as a whirlwind in which they felt they had no control. Emotions ranged from shock, total disbelief and surprise to anger, helplessness and powerlessness. Lacking knowledge and access to appropriate information further compounded the situation for participants. Theparticipants who had premature babies found the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit experience (NICU) extremely challenging and stressful. A discourse analysis revealed that women’s talk was shaped by the disciplinary frameworks oftechnocratic medicine and patriarchal notions of gender. Participants’ discourses about their encounters inthe medical context werelocated in, and shaped by, the structure of health care in our country. In this regard binaries (like private versus public health care, women versus men and nurses versus doctors) were evident. Furthermore their hospital stay reflected their experiences in the Intensive Care (ICU) and the Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) both of which are highly technologically orientated and managed. Biomedical discourses that filtered through the participants’ talk were: medicine as indisputable truth;mechanistic model of the body as machine; medical doctors as gods and the foetus as ‘super subject’. Discourses of risk were inevitably taken up as participants tried to make sense of both their current pregnancies and the potential ones to follow. The passage into motherhood for these participants was dependent on whether they had live babies or not. For those who had live babies it was a difficult time as they had to contend with their own recovery as well as the prematurity of their infants. The NICU experience was described as tiring, trying and cumbersome. For mothers who lost their babies it was a time of profound sadness and loss coupled to the notion that motherhood itself was lost. This loss of their children symbolised broken dreams, severed connections and a powerful taboo. In addition, discourses in which motherhood was naturalised and normalised saturated their talk and framed their experience in a narrative of deficit and failure. The ideologies of mother blame and the ‘all responsible’ mother were pervasive in their discussions. In conclusion, this high-risk situation represented a time of tremendous uncertainty and unpredictability for all participants and was powerfully shaped by dominant discourses about motherhood and the biomedical discursive and institutional framework in which participants were subjugated. The study thus highlights how the HELLP syndrome experience illuminates the erasure of women’s subjectivities while the foetus/infants’ life takes precedence. This has significant implications for scholarship in general and feminist scholarship in particular and highlights the need for this type of engagement in an area that has remained on the periphery of feminist research. / South Africa