No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences and life-stories of recent Canadian immigrant women and their resilience in every day life. A qualitative methodology involving repeated in-depth person-centered interviewing (two to three interviews for each participant) focused on a holistic and in-depth understanding of resilience. Five immigrant women volunteered to participate in the study. Snowball sampling and ‘word of mouth’ were used to recruit participants. Narrative analysis (first level) and thematic analysis (second level) were used to explore. In addition to the life stories, three major themes emerged from the data: Life before Canada; A Journey of Compound Stressors; and Resilience in Everyday Life. Loneliness surfaced as a dominant stressor among the participants as a consequence of immigration. The absence of friendships within the context of immigration was a new finding emerging from this study. Findings further our understanding of recent Canadian immigrant women’s life experiences and concomitantly their resilience. Suggestions for future research are addressed in this study. / xiii, 262 leaves ; 29 cm

This study incorporates archival and historical research on women poets and editors and their roles in the production of modernist and/or leftist little-magazine cultures in Canada. Where the first three chapters investigate women poets who were also magazine editors and/or members of magazine groups, the fourth chapter takes account of women magazine editors who were not themselves poets. Within this framework, the dissertation relates women's editorial work and poetry to a series of crises and transitions in Canada's leftist and modernist little-magazine cultures between 1926 and 1956. This historical pattern of crisis and transition pertains at once to the poetry of Dorothy Livesay, Anne Marriott, P. K. Page, and Miriam Waddington and to the little-magazine groups in which they and other women were active as editors and/or contributing members. Chapter 1 deals with Livesay's editorial activities and poetry in the context of two magazines of the cultural left, Masses and New Frontier, between 1932 and 1937. Chapter 2 concerns Livesay, Marriott, their involvement in poetry groups in Victoria and Vancouver, and their publications in Contemporary Verse and Canadian Poetry Magazine, between 1935 and 1956. Chapter 3 addresses the poetry of Page and Waddington published in Preview and First Statement from 1942 to 1945, their poetry appearing in Contemporary Verse from 1941 to 1952--53, and their editorial activities in and/or relationships to these Montreal and Victoria - Vancouver magazine groups between 1941 and 1956. Chapter 4 documents the histories of some often forgotten women who edited modernist or leftist little magazines in Canada between 1926 and 1956. These core chapters are prefaced and concluded by histories of the antecedents to and descendants of Canadian modernist and leftist magazine cultures.

In training programs designed to help immigrant women adapt to Canada, drop-out rates are frequently high and attendance is often low. Investigating some reasons behind this observation was the motivation for this thesis. A literature review revealed that curricula used in existing programs are often developed from experts' understanding of immigrants' needs; research on immigrant women's curricular needs as perceived by themselves is virtually nonexistent. An objective of this thesis was to address this knowledge gap. This study inquired into what curricular needs immigrant women have, how these needs differ, and what relationship exists between the women's backgrounds and their curricular needs. A questionnaire was developed and validated by an expert panel, and then administered to graduates from an orientational training program. Post-survey interviews were conducted. Data were analyzed using frequency distribution, cluster analysis, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), factor analysis, and linear discriminant analysis. It was found that the program, although well received, did not reflect the curricular needs perceived by the immigrant women themselves. Life skills instruction was unwanted by many students while English and computer lessons were in demand. A desire to regain higherquality jobs partially explained the women's curricular needs.

This thesis considers the perceived athleticism of synchronized swimming by looking at the implications of representations of Esther Williams and "pretty swimming" in popular culture, the allocation of space for women's sport in a local public swimming pool, and an inaugural championship event. Focusing on the first British Columbia (BC) synchronized swimming championships, which were held on February 5, 1949 at Crystal Pool in Vancouver, it shows that images of synchronized swimming as "entertainment" facilitated the development of a new arena of competition for BC women, but that this was accompanied, in effect, by a trivialization of the accomplishments of organizers and athletes. Chapter One examines the construction of a "global" mermaid by analysing Esther Williams' first film, Bathing Beauty (1944), as a typical example of the Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer (MGM) aquamusical, a genre that produced images of synchronized swimming as frivolous entertainment. Chapter Two considers how these sorts of images affected the allocation of physical space at Crystal Pool, Vancouver's only indoor public swimming pool at the time, for women's sport. Chapter Three introduces two women who were involved in the 1949 BC synchronized swimming championships: May Brown, who at the time was a University of British Columbia (UBC) Physical Education instructor and synchronized swimming judge, and Maureen Bray (Hibberson), a UBC student who won the individual championship event. Their recollections provide an important corrective to the "pretty swimming" stereotype by demonstrating that these women used the cultural and physical space allotted to them to create a new sport for local women. The final chapter also includes episodes from my personal experiences as a synchronized swimmer in BC during the 1980s to underscore the complicated and conflicted heritage for synchronized swimmers in BC represented by the legacy of the 1949 championships and the MGM aquamusical.

Understanding the lives of Italian women who migrated to Canada and Australia in the post-war period is the goal of this thesis. Although governments assigned women secondary roles as dependants and 'followers' in the migration process, I argue that Italian women were central, not marginal, to the migration and settlement experiences of Italian immigrants. By placing Italian women front and centre of this study, I contribute to a small but growing body of work that challenges the male-centred perspective of most literature on Italian-Canadian and Italian-Australian migration and ethnicity. / This thesis is structured within a feminist framework and uses interdisciplinary methods to gather and interpret quantitative and qualitative information about the lives of Italian immigrant women in post-war Canada and Australia. Using government and church archives, personal interviews, ethnic newspapers, legal documents, marriage registers and participant observer fieldwork, I explore three major themes. / Firstly, I examine Italian immigrant women's understanding of power relations within their homes and workplaces. Rather than cast women as either passive victims or all-conquering heroines, I present the complexity of the sources of power and weakness in immigrant women's lives. I argue that Italian immigrant women had to cope with exploitation and disadvantage because of their class, gender and ethnic status. However, they responded to these challenges with resistance and resilience, and were able to affect change and wield power within certain constraints. / Secondly, I compare the experiences of migration and settlement for Italian immigrant women in Canada and Australia and show how women's experiences were united by common gender concerns. I found overwhelming similarities between the family lives and work experiences of Italian-Canadian and Italian-Australian immigrant women, and in the government policies and programs that attempted to direct their migration and settlement in the post-war period. / Finally, I examine how Italian immigrant women helped to construct what it means to be 'Italian' in post-war Canada and Australia. I show how gender roles assigned to, and chosen by, Italian-Canadian and Italian-Australian women, served as boundary markers for ethnic difference. Perceived differences in attitudes towards waged work, mothering, family responsibilities and sexuality were used by Italian immigrant women to distinguish themselves as members of an ethnic collective.

Five immigrant single mothers were interviewed to explore the dynamics of the relationship between immigrant single mothers and their children when they reunite in Canada. Difficulties, in attachment, parenting, and the transition into the new culture were identified. Immigration policies about foreign domestic workers and delays in emigration process were factors that prolonged separation between mothers and their children. The mothers agreed that separation from their children contributed to the difficulties, but physical and psychological preparation before reunification lessened the challenge. Loving and listening to children, and involvement in the Christian mono-ethnic community churches were identified as effective coping strategies. Culturally sensitive approaches by social workers with these clients are recommended.