Thesis (M.A.)--The Master's College, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 121-123).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2006. / Title from title screen. Sherry Gaines, committee chair; Kathleen Wilson, Wendy Simonds, committee members. Electronic text (144 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed May 16, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-144).

Throughout Bulgarian history, the dominant pattern of gender relations has always been the patriarchal one. Since 1989, the wind of change in restructured Europe has blown into Bulgaria many new cultural, political and social ideas and influences, but has subdued little of the conservative values and normative gender discourse. In fact, women‘s position in the public and the private spheres did not change much during the transitional period and consequent democratisation and restructuring of the economy, throughout which, Bulgarian women faced numerous challenges in balancing work/leisure and family. Yet, no comprehensive research study exists, which explores the problematics of the work-leisure relationship for the generation of women that came of age during this transitional period. This research study examines the work and leisure meanings for full-time employed, Generation Y, women in Sofia (Bulgaria) in order to shine light on the way they negotiate gendered constraints in everyday life and propose areas for further investigation. To accomplish this aim, feminist, case study methodology is utilised. Moreover, the epistemological problematics of the feminist research process are addressed by the researcher‘s reflexivity and authoethnography. The method of personal narrative is chosen to reflect the invisibility of neoliberal structural constraints and situates personal experiences in the process of existing inequalities. Thus, a better understanding of the role and position of the researcher in this study is presented. The research findings illustrate the ways leisure and work meanings are constructed in the context of post-feminist guise of equality, in which, young Sofian women are now attributed with capacity. This is exemplified by participant‘s conceptualisations of work, leisure and gender culture. Individual women express contradictory view about gender roles, femininity and masculinity that illustrate a collective sense of rejection of feminism (in its mainstream sense) as a threat to heterosexual gender relations. Findings reveal that Generation Y, Sofian women‘s femininity does not necessarily fit into a simple polarity, that is either 'traditional‘ (women as wives/mothers and labourers) or 'modern‘ (assimilating to 'Western‘ values and lifestyles). Rather, their identities relate to both of these selves and are becoming increasingly hybrid and fluid. Their leisure is central life pursuit and arguably exists to empower women to resist gender inequalities, perpetuated by both new and old gender discourses and ideologies. Drawing from the contemporary field of feminist leisure studies with a an explicit focus on interdisciplinarity and post-structural feminisms the study wishes to contribute to existing debates on women‘s multiple leisure meanings and leisure as an experiences that empower individuals and, more broadly, challenge cultural norms about women‘s embodied capacities. Finally, management and operational bodies of the leisure industries can potentially use this case study to facilitate leisure opportunities, services and products for Generation Y, Sofian women, who are now active participants in the capitalist, consumer culture.

No description available.

The aim of this study was to investigate the sexual health needs of undergraduate women aged 18-25 years old who were sexually active but not married or cohabiting; in order to put forward recommendations for a health promotion intervention which may be applied in the practice setting. The thesis consists of three linked qualitative studies. The Part 1 study was an in-depth exploration of the women’s sexual lifestyles and behaviours to identify their health promotion needs. This study was conducted using a phenomenological approach employing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The Part 2 study was the systematic development of theoretically robust, evidence based intervention to respond to the health promotion needs identified in the Part 1 study. The third study was a consultation review of the initial materials with focus groups of undergraduate women aged 18-25 years old. The aim of which was to refine and amend the intervention to reflect the women’s perspectives. To undertake these tasks Intervention Mapping (IM) (Bartholomew et al., 2006) a health promotion programme planning framework was used as a guiding framework for the thesis. This study revealed the women traversed different types of sexual relationships. Within all types of relationships the women reported being risk averse and valued positive sexual health. Where a threat to sexual health was identified, they took action to reduce the threat. The threats identified differed depending on the relationship type. The distinct relationship types presented differing patterns of decision making, influenced by their values, emotional salience of the relationships and perception of sexual health risk. As such the different sexual health practices presented differing sexual health challenges and health promotion needs. This thesis suggests a quaternary model of female sexual agency outlining four distinct types of relationships - type (1) sexual debut and initial relationships, characterised by high emotion, type (2) casual sexual relationships, characterised by increasing sexual confidence and hedonistic attitudes, type (3) established but not permanent relationships, characterised by relationship stability but not sexual exclusivity (i.e. biological concurrency/behavioural concurrency) and type(4) marriage/cohabitation type relationships, characterised by increased sexual exclusivity. Many women described moving from type 1 relationships into type 2 relationships and then onto a type 3 relationship. However, once beyond type 1 the relationship types were not linear, the women described movement back and forth between type 2 and type 3 relationships. These were frequently with different partners, but could be with the same partner, for example; previous type 3 partners (established) could become a type 2 (casual partner). The study brought to light differing social constructs and expressions of female sexuality and sexual agency within the different relationship types. This enabled the identification of risk behaviours and their determinants, which in turn facilitated the process of intervention development. This enabled the creation of a tailored response to the women’s sexual health needs; thereby assisting the women to make fully informed contraceptive and sexual health choices. The study revealed how each step of the IM process contributes to the whole, augmenting the potential efficacy of the health promotion tools produced.

This research investigated how meanings associated with race, gender, and class relations in New Zealand mainstream schools are produced, reproduced, and challenged within the arenas of school sport, physical education, and physical activity. The study focused specifically on Maori girls� and young Maori women�s experiences in these arenas in order to determine how race, gender, and class identities interact, and also provided Maori girls and young women with an opportunity to be heard in research. The effects of historical and contemporary discourses, polices, and practices in New Zealand sport and school were reviewed. Theoretical perspectives and methodologies such as critical theory, kaupapa Maori research, feminism, postmodernism, and cultural studies informed the research. Qualitative methods of study such as critical ethnography, document analysis, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and self-reflective diaries were used in order to observe, investigate, and empower the Maori girls and women, teachers, and the school involved. By utilising social reproduction concepts such as hegemony (Gramsci), discourse (Foucault), and cultural capital (Bourdieu), initiatives in schools that related to Maori girls and young women were investigated at three different levels; the fantasy discourse level, the implementation level, and the reality discourse level. The many identities and ideologies of those involved in the transformation from fantasy to reality had an effect on what was ultimately produced, reproduced, and challenged. These were also implicit and explicit ideologies operating in school sport, physical education, and physical activity arenas that worked to reproduce gendered dualisms, racial stereotypes, and class differentiation. By focusing on power relations at the structural and personal level, instances where Maori girls and young women practised �power over� others, or the �power to act� were discussed. Maori concepts such as whakaiti, whakamaa, whakahiihii, tautoko, aawhina, and manaaki, as well as more colloquial terms such as being hungus, hori, and hoha highlighted the attitudes, values, beliefs and behaviours of participants involved in the study and were used to inform the different levels of analysis. Difficulties in closing the gap between what was hoped for and what actually happened were discussed, and political and practical implications were suggested.

In this thesis project I explore economically disadvantaged young women's responses to notions of ideal and deviant femininity circulating within contemporary mass media. Specifically, I examine six young women's expressed accounts and critiques of particular forms of femininity in relation to their own experiences of social exclusion. Additionally, and drawing upon an experimental adaptation of Walter Benjamin's montage method, I assess the symbolic links between mass media representations of femininity and exclusion along classed and gendered lines. I use this adaptation of Benjamin's technique to historicize and contextualize dominant notions of ideal (deviant) femininity circulating in the contemporary moment and to engage in a "reflexive" (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992) analysis of my own entanglement with the norms and values which proliferate within mass media. The foundational thinking which directs my aims throughout this thesis explores the analytical possibilities of joining the complementary theoretical work of Hannah Arendt and Pierre Bourdieu within an interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological framework.

In this thesis project I explore economically disadvantaged young women's responses to notions of ideal and deviant femininity circulating within contemporary mass media. Specifically, I examine six young women's expressed accounts and critiques of particular forms of femininity in relation to their own experiences of social exclusion. Additionally, and drawing upon an experimental adaptation of Walter Benjamin's montage method, I assess the symbolic links between mass media representations of femininity and exclusion along classed and gendered lines. I use this adaptation of Benjamin's technique to historicize and contextualize dominant notions of ideal (deviant) femininity circulating in the contemporary moment and to engage in a "reflexive" (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992) analysis of my own entanglement with the norms and values which proliferate within mass media. The foundational thinking which directs my aims throughout this thesis explores the analytical possibilities of joining the complementary theoretical work of Hannah Arendt and Pierre Bourdieu within an interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological framework.

This research investigated how meanings associated with race, gender, and class relations in New Zealand mainstream schools are produced, reproduced, and challenged within the arenas of school sport, physical education, and physical activity. The study focused specifically on Maori girls� and young Maori women�s experiences in these arenas in order to determine how race, gender, and class identities interact, and also provided Maori girls and young women with an opportunity to be heard in research. The effects of historical and contemporary discourses, polices, and practices in New Zealand sport and school were reviewed. Theoretical perspectives and methodologies such as critical theory, kaupapa Maori research, feminism, postmodernism, and cultural studies informed the research. Qualitative methods of study such as critical ethnography, document analysis, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and self-reflective diaries were used in order to observe, investigate, and empower the Maori girls and women, teachers, and the school involved. By utilising social reproduction concepts such as hegemony (Gramsci), discourse (Foucault), and cultural capital (Bourdieu), initiatives in schools that related to Maori girls and young women were investigated at three different levels; the fantasy discourse level, the implementation level, and the reality discourse level. The many identities and ideologies of those involved in the transformation from fantasy to reality had an effect on what was ultimately produced, reproduced, and challenged. These were also implicit and explicit ideologies operating in school sport, physical education, and physical activity arenas that worked to reproduce gendered dualisms, racial stereotypes, and class differentiation. By focusing on power relations at the structural and personal level, instances where Maori girls and young women practised �power over� others, or the �power to act� were discussed. Maori concepts such as whakaiti, whakamaa, whakahiihii, tautoko, aawhina, and manaaki, as well as more colloquial terms such as being hungus, hori, and hoha highlighted the attitudes, values, beliefs and behaviours of participants involved in the study and were used to inform the different levels of analysis. Difficulties in closing the gap between what was hoped for and what actually happened were discussed, and political and practical implications were suggested.

Thesis (MPhysio)--University of South Australia, 1998