This study examined the experience of infertile women using a conceptual framework of developmental change that has been traditionally linked to pregnancy and first-time motherhood. In the literature, it has been observed that there is a reconciliative trend in a woman's object relationship with her mother over the course of a first pregnancy, and unconscious conflicts regarding identification with and separation from a woman's mother are powerfully reawakened during this time. It has generally been assumed that the experience of pregnancy and having a baby is the catalyst for these changes. The central question posed by this study was how infertile women negotiate these developmental issues. In-depth interviews were conducted with a small sample of infertile women. The results are presented in terms of how the women described their experience and how their experience related to the broader developmental issues regarding maternal identification and separation. The women's experience of infertility is divided into four themes: the all encompassing nature of the experience, issues of control, images of abnormality, and the wish to talk about the experience. Themes relating to issues of identification and separation are discussed in terms of: the women's wish to join a society of women and the world of their mothers, the wish to repair past hurts from childhood and the resurfacing of emotional conflict, and changes in the women's perceptions of their relationships with their mothers over the course of dealing with infertility. The experience of the women in this study suggested that, similar to the literature on first pregnancies, infertile women are actively reworking issues of identification and separation; however, whereas first-time mothers strengthen identifications with their mothers as nurturant, infertile women strengthen identifications with their mothers as competent, multidimensional, and able to withstand adversity. The women in this study were very conscious of mortality and limits, and it is suggested that coming to terms with infertility may involve the simultaneous negotiation of the psychological work traditionally associated with mid-life and the psychological work involved in the transition to motherhood.

Education can be an important tool of social transformation by empowering, organizing, and leading poor Third World women into the process of social transformation as agents of change. However, a review of the literature and interviews with those involved in nonformal education programs reveal that formal education and most nonformal education do not fulfill this purpose. Though radical change-oriented nonformal education may increase poor Third World women's critical consciousness as poor Third World people, it does not do so for them as women. A close examination of the literature on the theory of critical pedagogy, on which these radical change-oriented nonformal education programs are based, demonstrates that critical pedagogy itself fails to deal seriously with gender issues. In an effort to complement critical pedagogy, the author attempts to conceptualize critical feminist pedagogy by integrating feminist elements and vision developed by feminist pedagogy into critical pedagogy. This initial conceptualization of critical feminist pedagogy still requires more thought and development. Nevertheless, it may provide poor Third World women with a better theoretical framework for their education by addressing class, nationality, and gender issues with equal seriousness. Further, it may contribute to a better theoretical tool for social transformation. The author's personal experience with Minjung Kyoyuk (a Korean version of popular education) and a review of the literature reveal that, although an important vehicle for a popular movement, Minjung Kyoyuk is still very much male-oriented and needs modification to be a more proper form of education for poor Korean women. The application of critical feminist pedagogy as an analytical framework to Minjung Kyoyuk helps uncover the problems of Minjung Kyoyuk in addressing poor women's issues in detail and show ways to make Minjung Kyoyuk a better tool of social transformation.

Because women's studies programs are a recent phenomenon, dating only from the 1980s, Latin American academicians, researchers and feminists have barely begun to explore the impact of women's studies programs on women students participating in them. This study is an effort to document the importance of women's studies programs in the development of feminism in Latin America and the empowerment of women through higher education. The primary method used in this study is qualitative research and ethnographic interviews to gather the data. I explore the experiences of six women students participating in three of the major women's studies programs in Latin America: El Programa Interdisciplinario de Estudios de la Mujer (The Interdisciplinary Women's Studies Program) of El Colegio de Mexico; El Programa Interdisciplinario de Estudios de la Mujer of La Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica; and the Carrera Interdisciplinaria de Posgrado de Especializacion en Estudios de La Mujer (Interdisciplinary Post-graduate Career Specialization in Women's Studies) of La Universidad de Buenos Aires. A general account of Latin American women's history and a review of the literature on feminist theories, and discussion of women's studies as a social movement are included in this dissertation. My intention is to bring forth new perspectives and interpretations that could contribute to both women's studies programs and to feminism in academe. I also aspire to help fill a gap in feminist scholarship by enabling Latina women to speak for themselves about the impact of women's studies and feminism on their lives.

The purpose of this research was to identify and differentiate the mentoring needs of one group of administrators, high school assistant principals. Specifically, the study has focused on mentoring functions delineated according to psychosocial vs. vocational needs, determination of the comparative value subjects placed on psychosocial and vocational functions, the influence of an individual's age on the desire to enter a mentoring relationship, influence of years as assistant principal on the need for mentoring functions, a preference for mentor gender, and effect of one's career aspirations on his/her desire for mentoring assistance. Subjects were 42 male and 33 female assistant principals from Massachusetts. All subjects completed a questionnaire rating eight mentoring functions (educating, coaching, sponsoring, protecting, role-modeling, encouraging, counseling, and moving from transitional figure to colleague). Ten subjects (five men; five women) participated in a follow-up interview. Questionnaire data were analyzed using a correlational approach; interview data were presented thematically. Hypothesized influence of age of subject and years of experience affecting the need for mentoring assistance were not found except for the counseling function. Hypothesized effects for subjects' valuing psychosocial more than vocational functions were substantiated. Hypothesized effects for women valuing same-gender mentors more than men or men valuing vocational assistance more than women were not substantiated. In the follow-up interviews, however, women indicated a preference for same gender role models. Hypothesized effects for the career aspirations of an individual influencing his/her desire to receive mentoring assistance were substantiated for the consulting and sponsoring functions only. The function least valued was the protecting function. The major conclusions of the study were: (1) Similarities between the mentoring needs of the men and women suggest that progress has been made in differentiating gender from leadership. (2) Novices are not alone in exhibiting the need for mentoring assistance. Something akin to the need for the collegiality, counseling and honest feedback of mentoring exists at every level throughout one's career. Results suggest a mentoring program would benefit individuals of varying ages and experience levels and that it is unnecessary to match proteges and mentors by gender.

Organization development (OD) is an applied field of social science aimed at improving organizational performance and the quality of work life through planned change interventions. OD draws from a wide range of theories and methods such as group dynamics, management theory, and industrial psychology. Many OD professionals consider themselves social change agents who contribute to societal transformation by promoting humanistic and democratic values in organizations. This dissertation proposes, instead, that OD theory/practice is constituted through specific textual strategies and discursive formations which serve to do the opposite--to support relations of domination and to contribute to the sedimentation of current social practices in organizations. Using deconstruction, genealogy, feminist and third world theories, I argue that: (1) OD is the story of the making of a professional class caught in the contradictory purposes of working to produce more knowledge, that is, develop as a social science, and serving as an effective social technology, that is, develop as a practice of management. (2) OD comes to function as a technology of the social and managerial power/knowledge by inventing "the consulting relationship" and deploying a variety of "organization change strategies" to legitimate (through 'science') and sustain (through practice) current capitalist, patriarchal, and racist social relations in organizations. Analyses of three representative OD texts illustrate the credibility of these arguments: Beckhard's (1969) "Organization Development: Strategies and Models;" Lippitt and Lippitt's (1978) "The Consulting Process in Action;" and Weisbord's (1987) "Productive Workplaces: Organizing and Managing for Dignity, Meaning and Community." The texts are critiqued using a variety of deconstructive and feminist strategies and read, in particular, to call attention to the gendered, classed and raced subtexts contained in them. The readings demonstrate that OD is a product of a particular kind of discursive enterprise, yet, a non-unitary and contradictory one. It is because of the precarious nature of this discourse that resistant voices and significant "spaces" can be found which a third world-feminist-poststructuralist theory/practice can exploit to begin to envision possibilities for "organization changing."

This dissertation examines the beliefs, values, and behaviors that constitute the "culture of gender" in Belize, Central America. The author begins with an overview of feminist theory and other changes in anthropological theory that have influenced her own understanding of social inequality and culture change. She moves from this to a detailed discussion of the historical and demographic features of gender relations in Belize along with a critique of the historiography of the country. One chapter provides a structural analysis of the position and status of women, which is balanced by a micro analysis of how these structural features affect individual women's lives, focusing mostly on the experiences of Creole, Garifuna, and East Indian women. Three chapters contain oral individual narratives that give specific examples of the constraints women live under. The chapters also emphasize how these women have managed change in the contexts of their personal lives and through their participation in women's groups. The process of gender enculturation is analyzed as an impediment to individual and culture change while women's groups are viewed as facilitators of both individual and structural change.

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