À l’orée du XXe siècle, les femmes italiennes subissent une double injustice juridique. En tant que femmes, elles sont reléguées par le Droit dans une condition d’infériorité : la loi leur nie le droit de vote et d’éligibilité. En tant que travailleuses, elles sont soumises à la toute-puissance patronale, car à l’aube de la législation sociale, la faiblesse contractuelle de l’ouvrier face à l’employeur n’est pas reconnue. Dans le canton de Verceil, les mondariso, travailleuses saisonnières employées au sarclage des rizières, luttent pour obtenir du travail, des augmentations salariales et des diminutions de leur temps de travail. Ces femmes arrivent à imposer le principe de la journée travaillée de huit heures dans les rizières du vercellese en 1906. En 1907, une loi sectorielle concédera à tous les travailleurs rizicoles d’importantes protections. En revendiquant leur droit à la justice sociale, ces travailleuses acquièrent une visibilité et un rôle politique. Elles savent choisir leurs priorités dans l’apprentissage du maniement de l’instrument juridique et législatif et participent à la construction d’un nouveau Droit émancipateur et égalitaire. Le parti et les syndicats socialistes sont très présents dans cette bataille. Mais quelles accointances lient ces femmes à ces forces politiques émergentes ? Jusqu’à quel point le parti socialiste éduque-t-il ces paysannes ? Et si ces femmes avaient un espace de pouvoir plus grand que ce que la condition féminine de l’époque nous laisserait imaginer ? Dans ce cas, nous pourrions les supposer dépositaires d’une mission éducative vis-à-vis d’un jeune parti qui cherche à s’imposer à elles comme au sein du prolétariat italien. / At the beginning of the twentieth century, Italian women underwent a double legal injustice. As women, they were relegated by law to an inferior status: legislation denied them the right to vote and eligibility. As workers, they were submitted to omnipotent employers because, in the early times of social legislation, the contractual weakness of workers compared to employers had not been acknowledged. In the Verceil canton, the mondariso, seasonal women workers who were employed to hoe the vast Piedmontese rice fields, struggled to obtain work, pay rises, and a decrease in their work time. These women succeeded in imposing the principle of an eight-hour workday in the Vercellese rice fields in 1906. In 1907, a sectoral law granted all paddy field workers significant protections. By demanding their right to social justice, these women workers acquired visibility and a political role. They knew how to select their priorities in learning how to handle the legal and legislative apparatus, and participated in the construction of a new, egalitarian, and empowering legislation. The socialist party and Labour Unions were very present in that struggle. But how were these women acquainted with those emerging political forces? To what extent did the socialist party educate these peasants? What if these women had a vaster arena of power than what the status of women at the time could let us imagine? Should this be the case, they could be assumed to have been bestowed with an educational mission towards a young party trying to impress itself upon them as well as within the Italian proletariat.

This thesis focuses on gender and scale as key aspects of the rural-to-urban migration process in China. Its specific aim is to connect economic and social reasons for rural women's migration towards urban factory work. Contemporary large-scale migration studies show inconsistencies and contradictions concerning reasons for migration, especially as it relates to gender. Thus, migration research often emphasizes the positive social changes experienced by women workers, in effect signaling that the most important needs of women migrants can be satisfied without economic gains. In contrast, the proposed study seeks to show that social and economic reasons intertwine within women's experiences of and explanations for their migration. The theoretical framework for the proposed study is based on postmodern understandings of gender, economy, and society. Data for the study was acquired through qualitative techniques, specifically through interviews with workers. The findings of this study supported the thesis that both economic and social factors informed women's decision to become migrants. In addition, this study revealed specific experiences of women workers related to migration. Thus, women decided to become migrants largely because their education allowed them to gain employment in urban areas and ability to gain independent income. Although social networks played a large role in the recruitment of rural women workers, they were not necessary to find employment. Experiences of v vi factory work reveal that the relationship between women and their employers are less restrictive than expected. In addition, rural women's experiences of being migrants in the city, although constrained by timings of factory work, encompass both material and social forms of consumption. Overall, migration outcomes reflected changing social status of women in the rural areas. Thus, this research approaches migration as a dynamic process. Embedded in this process are fluid identities of migrant women workers. Through questioning the meanings of 'social' and 'economic' migration, this research adds to existing studies on gender and migration in China and contextualizes the value of women workers to China's economy. Alongside, the study moves away from shop floor politics to the wider space outside the factory, thus linking urban and rural contexts. In a broader sense, this research aims to inform theories related to the economics and politics of migration through adding a spatial component to social understandings of the gendered migration process.

This thesis explores why shaʿbī (roughly, ‘ordinary’) Moroccans so often talk about their domestic workers as daughters, what this means for workers and employers, and how this is changing as community gives way to market. It brings together ethnographic study of urban shaʿbī society, of unmarried rural women who work as domestics, and of the communities from which the latter migrate. Drawing on anthropological discussions of kinship and fosterage, the thesis examines the fading tradition of ‘bringing up’ in which, according to a moral economy, a ‘known’ rural girl could properly be placed in the homes of wealthier Moroccans until marriage. This is giving way to new arrangements in which ‘unknown’ workers are paid a wage and may not stay long, but in which the ethics of charity, religious reward and gratitude still inform expectations from both sides. Geared to play out among neighbours, or at least well-known clients, over a lifetime, these ethics are being disrupted by the easy-come-easy-go of strangers. The thesis contributes to some fundamental concerns of economic anthropology: the atomisation of market exchange, the growing importance of physical marketplaces, and the meanings encoded in a monetary wage versus payment in kind. By putting together perspectives from domestics’ leisure time and life back home, it also questions the relationship between the commodification of labour and individualism. Finally, the thesis discusses a draft law which, if enforced, would mean employing domestics no longer made sense for shaʿbī Moroccans, state intervention respresenting a move away from local forms of empowerment and community. At a broader level, the thesis is concerned with households as internally hierarchical units linked together through exchange to make up society and explores the gendered dimension of household economy in a wider world. This, of course, reaches beyond Morocco, and parallels are suggested with English domestic service.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Sociology)) --University of Limpopo, 2009 / The thesis, Gender, Structural Adjustment and Informal Economy Sector Trade in Africa: A Case Study of Women Workers in the Informal Sector of North West Province, South Africa, comprises of five chapters{PRIVATE } CHAPTER 1 is mainly introductory and deals specifically with the general orientation of the study as outlined in the background and problem statement. This chapter presents the motivation for the study, main aim and objectives and the significance of the study. It also deals with methodology and attendant problems. The chapter also addresses stages of research such as research design, population and sampling, data collection techniques, data analysis of this study. Finally the limitations of the study are outlined. CHAPTER 2 comprises the literature background for the study. The literature focuses largely on the theoretical orientation of the study and on the position of women in the economy. This chapter is divided into two parts. The first part is more general in the sense that it focuses on theorising gender using the gender approach to make a substantive argument. It also focuses on the different definitions of the informal economy sector and the impact of economic reform measures on women in the informal economy sector. This first part further argues the predominance of women in the informal economy sector. Attention in the literature is also focused on women’s employment opportunities in the informal sector and on the marginalization of women through economic reform measures introduced. Such reform measures have been advanced by government means to improve the economy. The second part attempts to illuminate some characteristics of informal work in South Africa. The unit of analysis here is women and their employment or underemployment in the economy. CHAPTER 3 focuses on the effects of macro-economic reform policies on women in the informal economy sector. This chapter discusses the current neo-liberal economic reforms (i.e. Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs); Growth Employment and Redistribution-GEAR) that have been imposed by governments all over Africa and beyond in areas such as Latin America and Asia. The chapter also indicates the negative effects of these on the poor (women in particular) and on why economic reforms have hit women hardest in the mainstream economy and in the informal sector. As a concluding argument and points raised, the chapter argues for alternative policy approaches that could be used as references to means of improving the lot of operators in the informal economy sector, especially with regard to women. The point raised in this chapter is that legislation alone does not change attitudes, traditions, trade relations and power relations. Thus, alternatives from a female perspective are outlined here to position the situation of women in terms of accessing resources in terms of the policy climate in South Africa in particular economically. From this perspective one can understand whether or not there is adequate protection and promotion of women’s rights in the economy. CHAPTER 4 consists of the empirical data for the study. The findings of the study from fieldwork on the impact of neo-liberal GEAR on women in the informal economy sector is reported, analyzed and relevant interpretations are made. The findings in this study are presented as raw totals and in percentages, where useful cross-tabulations are carried out to reflect the relevant data, which influenced the findings.Qualitative data analysis method is used to analyse data from in-depth interviews, audio and visual recordings. The data is coded and variables and their relationships are generated using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Key words and phrases are categorised and underlined for the possibility of salient themes and summaries and possible explanatory statements are made. CHAPTER 5 gives a summary of the findings of the study and the implications thereof. A comparative survey of these findings and those discussed in the literature in chapter 2 is made. Finally, a conclusive statement is made and suggestions and recommendations for improving the informal economy sector as a valuable economic entity for women. The conclusion is that the informal economy sector does help to meet the needs of the general low income population while maintaining women’s economic activities to support their families. Thus, change on the thinking and application of socio- economic policies should start by fully refuting the more male oriented economic ideology premise on which current policy approach is based. / Council for the Development of Social Research in Africa (CODESRIA)

Thesis (M. W. S.) --Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1997. / Restricted until November 1998. Bibliography: leaves 135-147.

Orientador: Rosana de Fatima Possobon, Antonio Bento Alves de Moraes / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Ciencias Medicas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-11T07:14:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Brasileiro_AlineAlves_M.pdf: 1472520 bytes, checksum: e726dece31cec4c7d998871f078a52db (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: O objetivo deste estudo foi verificar a manutenção da amamentação natural no período de retorno da mãe ao trabalho, comparando mães participantes do Grupo de Incentivo ao Aleitamento Materno Exclusivo, com mães não participantes do referido grupo. Foi realizado um estudo de intervenção não randomizado, por meio de inquérito entre mães que voltaram a trabalhar após o parto, participantes e não participantes de um grupo de incentivo ao aleitamento materno exclusivo. A amostra consistiu de 200 díades mãe-lactente com idade entre 6 e 10 meses de vida. Para avaliar fatores associados ao retorno ao trabalho, os resultados foram analisados por meio dos testes estatísticos Qui-Quadrado e Exato de Fisher. A idade média da época em que a mãe retornou ao trabalho foi de 3,64 e 4,20 meses após o parto para as mães do Grupo Externo e do Grupo Interno, respectivamente. Foi observada diferença estatística para introdução precoce de outro tipo de leite (p>0001), água (p>0001), chá (p>0001), suco de frutas (p>0001), papa de frutas (p=0016) e papa salgada (p=0023) quando comparados os dois grupos. O Grupo Interno manteve a amamentação exclusiva por mais tempo após o retorno ao trabalho. A manutenção do aleitamento materno exclusivo independe da época de retorno da mãe ao trabalho, da jornada diária, da distância entre mãe-criança, da presença de creche interna ou externa, o nível do cargo ocupado pela mãe e a utilização do posto de coleta de leite materno. Como fator protetor da prática do aleitamento materno exclusivo, aponta-se a utilização do descanso de 30 minutos por turno trabalhado. O apoio foi um fator importante para a manutenção do aleitamento materno exclusivo entre as mulheres trabalhadoras / Abstract: The objective of this study was to verify the maintenance of natural breastfeeding in the period of return of the mother to work, comparing mothers participants of the encouragement Group for the Exclusive Breastfeeding, with mothers not participants of the group. A non-randomized study of intervention was performed through survey among mothers who returned to work after childbirth, participants and non-participants of a group to encourage exclusive breastfeeding. The sample consisted of 200 pain mother-infant aged between 6 and 10 months of life. To avaliate factors associated with the return to work, the results were analyzed by means of statistical tests chi-square and Fisher's Exact. The average age of time when the mother returned to work was 3.64 and 4.20 months after delivery for mothers of the Foreign Group and Internal Group, respectively. Statistical difference was observed for early introduction of another type of milk (p> 0001), water (p> 0001), tea (p> 0001), fruit juice (p> 0001), Pope of fruit (p = 0016) and pope salt (p = 0023) comparing the two groups. The Internal Group maintained the exclusive breastfeeding for a longer time after the return to work. The maintenance of exclusive breastfeeding independs on the time of return of the mother to work, the daily journey, the distance between mother-child, the presence of internal or external day care, level of the position held by the mother and the use of the place of collection of milk. As protective factor of the practice of exclusive breastfeeding, there are the uses of the rest of 30 minutes per shift worked. The support was an important factor for the maintenance of exclusive breastfeeding among women workers / Mestrado / Saude da Criança e do Adolescente / Mestre em Saude da Criança e do Adolescente

Rural women in Zimbabwe are disproportionately represented among the poor. Among the interventions taken to mitigate the poverty suffered by women is the concept of income-generating projects (lGPs). Government, non-governmental organisations and donor agencies support the IGPs. After years of channeling resources through the IGPs to alleviate the poverty of mostly rural women, it is necessary that we take stock of the benefits that have been realised. The aim of this thesis is to identify the benefits and pitfalls of the IGPs in alleviating poverty. A case study of two projects in Chinamora communal lands in Zimbabwe demonstrates that IGPs do provide some benefits to participants and their households. Limited funding for start-up capital and lack of viable markets are among the major impediments to increased benefits. There is evidence that women can successfully organise themselves and explore previously male dominated areas of production such as carpentry. This suggests that IGPs do have the potential to somewhat alleviate poverty. making it necessary for the supporting institutions to seriously consider improving the shortcomings presently plaguing IGPs. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2000.

This thesis aims to gain a deeper understanding of relationships and sexuality of women at risk of social exclusion in Sri Lanka and the risk of violations of their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) that they might face. Individual qualitative interviews with migrant women workers (n=18) and men (n=18) in the Free Trade Zone (FTZ), women facing single motherhood (n=28) and women formerly involved in prostitution (n=15) were conducted. Conceptual approaches included gender, social navigation and SRHR. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis, qualitative content analysis and discourse analysis. Findings revealed that the migrant women workers negotiated norms of respectability in a society that highly stigmatizes FTZ women workers, while the men identified conflicting constructions of masculinity existing in the FTZ. The women facing single motherhood navigated oppressive and stigmatizing social forces, and the women in prostitution constructed themselves as respectable in opposition to their societal disvalue and marginalization. In order to retain an image of sexual innocence, unmarried women are likely to refrain from demanding or demonstrating SRHR knowledge and accessing services. Furthermore, gender power imbalances leave the women vulnerable to sexual persuasion, coercion and violence. Once pregnant, social, legal, and knowledge barriers hinder or delay them in accessing abortion services. Unmarried pregnant women are thus left with the alternatives of adoption, infanticide, and suicide or become stigmatized single mothers with risks of health and social exclusion for mother and child. Extreme marginalization and limited power make women in prostitution vulnerable to unsafe sex, rape and violence. In conclusion, these women are likely to face numerous and serious SRHR hazards. The complexity of gendered social circumstances and the SRHR implications demonstrated in this thesis, add to the SRHR knowledge in Sri Lanka, and should inform politicians and policy makers about the need to improve the situation of all women in Sri Lanka.

ARAÚJO, Jormana Maria Pereira. Tecendo memórias: resistência e luta das operárias da fábrica Santa Cecília (Fortaleza, 1998-1993). 2013. 239f. – Dissertação (Mestrado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-graduação em História, Fortaleza (CE), 2013. / Submitted by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2013-10-11T12:13:08Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2013-DIS-JMPARAUJO.pdf: 3204652 bytes, checksum: 9fe049da16a59f1b822c2fee2fcfae7a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo(marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2013-10-11T13:20:08Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2013-DIS-JMPARAUJO.pdf: 3204652 bytes, checksum: 9fe049da16a59f1b822c2fee2fcfae7a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-10-11T13:20:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2013-DIS-JMPARAUJO.pdf: 3204652 bytes, checksum: 9fe049da16a59f1b822c2fee2fcfae7a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / This study examines the experience of women textile workers in the Santa Cecilia factory in the city of Fortaleza (Ceara, Brazil) between 1988-1993 and how issues of migration, domestic work and urban life shaped thier experience as workers. Drawing on thier memories I explore the muliple demensions of the female world of work based on notions of trust and solidarity within a broader structure of social segregation experienced within the working class communities and the city, where they lived and worked. Their experience, shaped by high levels of employment in the textile industry spurred by the transfer of large sectors of the textile industry to Ceara. Specifically factory life at Santa Cecilia was shaped by harsh working conditions, the deadening routine and ever demanding productive process which in turn caused large scale illness and mutilation among women workers. Focusing on the harsh working condition this study explores the processes of resistence and the struggles for basic rights within the larger context of expanding trade union activity and the incorporation of specific female demands and political activity in daily life. Methodolgically, this study is based on the social history of labor and intertwines a variety of sources, such as interviews, photographs, labor union, and legal documents, proccedings from UNITEXTIL, data bases, census data from IBGE and academic studies. / O ponto de partida desta investigação é a experiência das operárias têxteis da fábrica Santa Cecília na cidade de Fortaleza, entre os anos de 1988 e 1993, observando os nexos da migração, do emprego doméstico e da vida na cidade. Através de suas memórias, analiso de modo articulado, as dimensões do mundo do trabalho feminino examinando a cultura operária baseada em laços de confiança e de solidariedade em meio à segregação social vivida na cidade, no bairro e nas vilas operárias onde moravam e trabalhavam. Num contexto de elevado recrutamento de mão-de-obra feminina na indústria, e de transferência industrial têxtil para o Ceará, destaca-se na fábrica Santa Cecília as péssimas condições de trabalho, a rotina, os ritmos e as normas, o adoecimento e a mutilação dos corpos operários. Face ao duro cotidiano dessa experiência fabril, este estudo também examina os processos de resistência e luta por direitos face à conjuntura de construção de um novo vocabulário de educação sindical quando da incorporação das demandas femininas e politização do cotidiano. Metodologicamente fundamentado na História Social do Trabalho, este estudo congrega variada tipologia de fontes: entrevistas, fotografias, documentos sindicais, leis, processos, jornais, atas de assembleia do Grupo UNITÊXTIL, anuários, cadastros e recenseamento industrial, dados do IBGE, estudos monográficos, dentre outros.

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / O ponto de partida desta investigaÃÃo à a experiÃncia das operÃrias tÃxteis da fÃbrica Santa CecÃlia na cidade de Fortaleza, entre os anos de 1988 e 1993, observando os nexos da migraÃÃo, do emprego domÃstico e da vida na cidade. AtravÃs de suas memÃrias, analiso de modo articulado, as dimensÃes do mundo do trabalho feminino examinando a cultura operÃria baseada em laÃos de confianÃa e de solidariedade em meio à segregaÃÃo social vivida na cidade, no bairro e nas vilas operÃrias onde moravam e trabalhavam. Num contexto de elevado recrutamento de mÃo-de-obra feminina na indÃstria, e de transferÃncia industrial tÃxtil para o CearÃ, destaca-se na fÃbrica Santa CecÃlia as pÃssimas condiÃÃes de trabalho, a rotina, os ritmos e as normas, o adoecimento e a mutilaÃÃo dos corpos operÃrios. Face ao duro cotidiano dessa experiÃncia fabril, este estudo tambÃm examina os processos de resistÃncia e luta por direitos face à conjuntura de construÃÃo de um novo vocabulÃrio de educaÃÃo sindical quando da incorporaÃÃo das demandas femininas e politizaÃÃo do cotidiano. Metodologicamente fundamentado na HistÃria Social do Trabalho, este estudo congrega variada tipologia de fontes: entrevistas, fotografias, documentos sindicais, leis, processos, jornais, atas de assembleia do Grupo UNITÃXTIL, anuÃrios, cadastros e recenseamento industrial, dados do IBGE, estudos monogrÃficos, dentre outros. / This study examines the experience of women textile workers in the Santa Cecilia factory in the city of Fortaleza (Ceara, Brazil) between 1988-1993 and how issues of migration, domestic work and urban life shaped thier experience as workers. Drawing on thier memories I explore the muliple demensions of the female world of work based on notions of trust and solidarity within a broader structure of social segregation experienced within the working class communities and the city, where they lived and worked. Their experience, shaped by high levels of employment in the textile industry spurred by the transfer of large sectors of the textile industry to Ceara. Specifically factory life at Santa Cecilia was shaped by harsh working conditions, the deadening routine and ever demanding productive process which in turn caused large scale illness and mutilation among women workers. Focusing on the harsh working condition this study explores the processes of resistence and the struggles for basic rights within the larger context of expanding trade union activity and the incorporation of specific female demands and political activity in daily life. Methodolgically, this study is based on the social history of labor and intertwines a variety of sources, such as interviews, photographs, labor union, and legal documents, proccedings from UNITEXTIL, data bases, census data from IBGE and academic studies.