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1
Reshef, Yehonathan. "Justice, children and family." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2012. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/549/.
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Taking as a starting point the assumption that justice is the first virtue of the family, my main aim in this dissertation is to offer an account of what justice requires of parents. Grappling with this issue, however, sheds some light on related questions that are wider in scope: How should we think about justice in general? What is the distinctive value of the family? What would a society of just families look like? In answering these questions, the following thesis is advanced: Demands of justice are best understood contextually. They arise from the characteristics of the specific relationship in the context within which they are meant to apply. An account of justice in the family should thus appeal to the parent–child relationship itself. This is an intimate fiduciary relationship that normally constitutes the primary site of upbringing. Yet what makes it distinctively valuable is its element of identity, i.e., a sense of interconnectedness and continuity generated through the transmission of beliefs, practices and more idiosyncratic attributes from parent to child. Corresponding to this understanding of the parent–child relationship, justice requires parents to provide their children with the conditions to achieve a set of functionings up to the level that allows them to lead a decent life in terms of the parents’ social and cultural context. As this account of justice in the family is not strictly political, it gives rise to a complex interplay along the axis of citizens–parents–children, displaying formulae of both integration and separation of family and state. A society of perfectly just families might not be perfectly just as a whole. Yet it may be interpreted as particularly liberal; characterized by multiplication and separation of authorities, reflecting rather than resolving the tensions between the individual and society and between different individuals and groups within society.
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Maani, Moh'd Khaled Moh'd. "Recent changes in family structure and fertility in Jordan." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 1990. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1135/.
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This study seeks to make a contribution to the field of population studies by throwing some light on the explanation of fertility change in developing countries. It hopes to do this by investigating the role of the family and its structure in explaining fertility attitudes and behaviour in Jordan. Some of the causes - at the level of intermediate variables - of regional variations in fertility levels and fertility preferences in Jordan are examined. The study tries to analyse several aspects of change in the family system in Jordan: social, economic kin-relationships and wealth flow directions within the family. Also, fertility attitudes are examined in relation to contrasting social contexts. It is assumed that fertility decline will be the result of certain changes in the family's internal and external social and economic structure. In order to test this assumption it is necessary to examine the nature of internal and external family relationships in terms of the following five dimensions: a) the scale and character of mutual economic obligations (or feelings of financial responsibility) which exist within the families under study b) the nature of the family budget (to what extent it is a common budget or one divided into separate units related to individual wage earners) c) relations between the father and his children in terms of obedience and societal and family norms (even when the family is geographically separated as a result of migration) d) the coherence and structure of the family system (is it a closed or open nuclear family or does it still have elements of the extended family?), and women's roles and status within the family e) wealth flow direction and its relation to power structure within the family. Results suggest that changes in the family's internal and external social and economic structure have a significant influence on fertility attitudes which, in turn, tell that fertility decline is an outcome of family change.
3
Peplar, Michael. "'Family matters' : ideas about the family in British culture 1945-1970." Thesis, University of Greenwich, 1998. http://gala.gre.ac.uk/8698/.
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There is an idea, currently fashionable amongst historians, that all history is really 'about' the present 1. This thesis does nothing to undermine this idea. Although most obviously concerned with ideas about the family in the twenty five or so years after 1945, it is also very much concerned with our own contemporary debates about the family. Indeed, it is conceived as a means of making an intervention into those debates. The thesis seeks to explore the complexity of debate, policy, representation and memories of the family in the postwar period. To do this, research is organised around three distinct strands: Consideration of official discourse and public policy (at both a national and local level); analysis of representations of family in popular culture, particularly in British film/ and consideration of remembered experience as evidenced in oral sources. Where appropriate, the London Borough of Greenwich has been used as a local example which acts as a reference point for discussion of national concerns. The research comprises work on new oral sources and on local authority and voluntary agency papers which have not previously been the subject of published work. It also involves new ways of thinking about some well research material in official publications and film. The thesis also engages with questions of method and theory associated with studying the history of ideas. It is particularly concerned with affirming the importance of studies of popular, non-literary culture and oral histories in understanding the past.
4
Stickley, Matilda K. "Exploring children's experience of socio-dramatic play through an ethnography of an English Reception class." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2018. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49129/.
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The Early Years in England has seen heavy investment since New Labour came into power in 1997. This distinct educational stage has been highlighted in the media as having the potential to alleviate socio-economic inequalities. The first year of compulsory schooling in England, the Reception year, is the period in which children are inducted into becoming both learners and pupils in a formalised system. It is also the period during which children are considered to be in the high season of imaginative play. Play forms a fundamental part of the Early Years Foundation Stage guidelines, though the nature of what constitutes play is contested by critics and practitioners. With the EYFS framework document stating that all areas of learning must be implemented through planned, purposeful play, tensions arise between freely-chosen, child-led play and adult-led activity. Critics of government interventions have decried the ‘schoolification’ of the Early Years and claim a ‘squeezing out’ of opportunities for freely-chosen play, which they warn has the potential to damage children’s learning dispositions. This ethnographic case study focuses on the freely-chosen socio-dramatic play of seven children, in the context of their Reception classroom culture. This is based on a socio-cultural theoretical framework and the premise that such play is where rich experience resides; play which is socially, emotionally, and cognitively challenging. Socio-dramatic play comprises children involved in imitative role-play, which lasts longer than ten minutes, uses objects in a make believe context, is between two or more players, and centres on verbal communication (Smilansky, 1968). Data generation took place over 8 months, employing fieldnotes generated through participant observation, loosely-structured interviews, and researcher reflections. This is set alongside discourse analysis exploring how play and role-play are conceptualised in policy documentation. Microethnographic analyses are made of video data gathered during socio-dramatic play. To put the child’s experience at the centre of the study, artefacts created by children, images, and children’s dialogue are incorporated in the analysis. Findings are presented through a combination of evocative ethnographic prose and a multi-modal analysis of video data. Through an inductive analytical process, themes emerged from the data highlighting the complex nature of the socially situated play activity. The negotiation of social relationships through play is explored, identifying play as a liminal activity in an identity transition stage through which children are learning how to do school and how to be pupils. Socio-dramatic play is proposed as offering a unique conceptual space in which players can explore expressions of bodily freedom alongside the requirements of the bodily comportment and control which are demanded by school routines. I argue that practitioners should pay attention to the materiality of play: spaces and artefacts which are provided for, and used by, children. Drawing on the analysis, implications for practice are suggested, with reference to techniques by which adults can interact in play in ways which prioritise the child’s emerging needs and interests.
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Walsh, Kieran. "Risk and reflexivity in the development of Irish child protection law and policy, 1919-2017." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2018. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/51649/.
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This thesis examines the development of the Irish child protection system up until the present day. It argues that child protection law and policy has continually reconstructed children, and the risks that they face. In particular, it posits that there has been a radical revision of social and legal thinking about children owing to the reflexive nature of late modernity. In essence, the thesis argues that child protection work has come to be characterised by a new discursive practice. This new approach draws on high levels of legal regulation and recognition that such work takes place in a risk society. Historical literature on the conceptualisation of children within child protection has tended to adopt a binary approach, whereby children are seen as either a threat or as a victim. Additionally, the last twenty years have seen occasional attempts to analyse Irish social policy in the context of the transition from simple to late modernity. However, these studies have not considered the role played by law in significant detail, as most have been considered from a historical or sociological perspective. The result of this is that one of the main factors influencing how children lived, and the risks they faced, has been ignored in writing about childhood. Additionally, child law has also only recently developed as an area of study in its own right within legal research. This thesis therefore aims to contribute to the existing literature by assessing the historical development of legal rules governing child protection practice in light of sociological theory. Drawing on both legal and sociological literature, the thesis seeks to argue the binary approach to childhood rooted the victim/threat duality is incomplete, and that a greater role need to be afforded to the conceptualisation of children as agents. I argue that this binary should be replaced by a more complex understanding of how children were thought about by law and by social policy under the conditions of simple modernity. I argue that children were first regarded as objects of discipline, subjected to rigid systems of control. Latterly, they were regarded as objects of concern, whereby they were recognised as having interests that required protection, but were simultaneously denied any level of agency. The final stage in the transformation of social and legal thinking about children in Ireland was the transition of children from object to subject. With the movement from simple to late modernity came an outbreak of child protection scandals, focused on the lack of intervention by the social services in abusive families, and on abuse in community organisations, most especially by the Roman Catholic Church. These scandals occurred against a backdrop of a radical realignment of social relations whereby traditional sites of institutional power were challenged and traditional social and familial hierarchies problematized. This thesis claims that child protection scandals were an intrinsic part of these social and cultural changes, which created the conditions whereby the socio-political construction of children could be revisited. Children now came to be recognised as rights-bearing subjects of the law, not only morally deserving or worthy, but capable of exercising agency in a meaningful sense. As children increasingly came to be recognised as having interests (and later on as having rights) the concerns of child protection law changed to focus more on the risks faced by children. Under conditions of simple modernity, children were recognised as being vulnerable to dangers, but these were frequently deemed to be “moral dangers” leading to the disciplining of children themselves and their families, and to attempts to eliminate risk through severe punishment. As reflexivity took hold, however, the understanding of these risks changed, with traditionally respected authority figures now regarded as the prime sources of risk. Risk has gradually, therefore, come to play a dominant role in legislation affecting children, and the attempted elimination of risk has yielded to the management and assessment of risk as a primary aim of child protection law and social work. The thesis draws on a wide range of primary and secondary sources including legislation, case law and official reports and media reports of child protection inquiries. It also utilises insights developed through an extensive examination of parliamentary debates on child protection matters. These materials are assessed through the lens of critical discourse analysis in order to explore in an original fashion the relationship between law, social policy and social theory as they effect child protection. In doing so, it makes a contribution to both social policy and legal literature about children. While the thesis utilises Irish sources, its claims about the reconstruction of children and child protection could be applied in other societies that have undergone the transition to reflexive modernity.
6
Panades, Blas Rosa. ""Give my baby everything I didn't have" : a study of young men's experiences of fatherhood." Thesis, University of Greenwich, 2015. http://gala.gre.ac.uk/18138/.
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The subject of young fatherhood has not been widely addressed in academic research, and until recently most studies on young parenthood have concentrated mainly on teenage mothers. This thesis explores how men who became fathers at a young age narrate their experiences of fathering and their perceptions of fatherhood. The focus is thus both on the practical experience of being a father as well as in the values the young men hold in relation to fatherhood and fathering. Such exploration is done in relation to being a man, being young and coming from what is typically considered a socially excluded background. The findings are based on individual qualitative interviews with 22 young men from ethnic minority backgrounds who were living in London, mainly in areas of social deprivation. This study adds to the growing body of research on young fatherhood generally and to research on the father-child relationship specifically. Drawing on structuration theory, discourse and social capital as the theoretical basis, this thesis explores how young men build, practice and understand their role as fathers and their one to one relationship with their child or children. The specific focus on the father-child relationship springs from the limited research on this aspect of young fatherhood. This study found that when it comes the practice of fathering there are little differences between young and older fathers: their worries, their hopes and their future projections can be considered similar. The research highlighted that fathers aimed to make a positive contribution to their children’s lives by caring for them in the early days and also later on, by playing and educating them. The relationship with the mother appeared to be an essential part of the experience of fatherhood, both in relation to quality and quantity of contact. This thesis found that young men emphasised the influence of family and community background in shaping their experiences of fatherhood. The findings of this study shed light into the practice of fathering amongst young men and contribute to understanding young parents’ relationship dynamics from the male perspective. Finally, it helps understand the influence of background on young fathers’ life chances and future prospects. Overall, the young men in this research were able to fulfill their desire to be there for their children, sometimes in adverse circumstances and against a variety of hurdles. And despite the problems encountered, the young men offered a positive view on the experience of fatherhood, focusing not only on the tensions but also on the rewards of being a father.
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Chirwa, Masauso Simon. "Experiences of parenting children with disabilities : a qualitative study on the perspectives of mothers of children with disabilities in Zambia." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2017. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/101764/.
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This thesis sought to provide new insight into the lives and experiences of mothers of children with disabilities in the rural (Kaoma) and urban (Lusaka) settings of Zambia. A detailed literature review revealed that there is a dearth of research that has focused on the views of mothers parenting children with disabilities within the Zambian social and cultural context. Qualitative, biographical interviews were undertaken with thirty mothers whose child had a disability significant enough to qualify for intervention services at the time of the interviews. This study drew on a framework using insights from the social model of disability, feminist intersectionality and the social empowerment model. The methodology was informed by interpretivism, social constructionist grounded theory, feminist intersectionality theories, and data analysis was carried out concurrently with data collection. Findings revealed that disability is still surrounded by stigma and prejudice. It was associated with punishment and bad omen. The diagnosis of a child’s disability had an impact on mothers as it resulted in a liminal (suspended) state and a biographical disruption as they had to reorient their lives. Mother-blame was common and they were often ostracised by their significant others and the communities. Divorce was common especially among first-time mothers whose child had cerebral palsy. Divorce was an unexpected disruptive event that had socioeconomic impact on mothers. They had to bear the burden of caregiving in the absence of support from their partners. Some gave up their employment because of the demands associated with caregiving resulting in financial deprivation. Mothers also experienced loss of agency over their future and that of their child. More power was allotted to husbands than mothers with regard to decision making at home. The study makes a deeper, and more nuanced, contribution to the scarce literature on mothering children with disabilities in Zambia and globally.
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Buckman, Sarah K. N. "Performing Allah's work : experiences of Muslim family carers in Britain." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2011. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12029/.
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This thesis explores how Muslim family carers of chronically ill or disabled family members in Britain perceive, perform and negotiate their caring role. Drawing on data collected from forty-three semi-structured interviews, this thesis shows that although Muslim family carers are not a homogenous group; perceptions, performances and negotiations of care within the family are often mediated through a Muslim religious lens. This manifests itself in three predominant ways explored in this thesis. Firstly, Muslim religious beliefs act as a "sacred canopy" through which carers draw comfort and spiritual meaning for both their caring role and the illness and disability of the cared for relative. Secondly, certain state services are deemed as particularly problematic for upholding Muslim religious identities. Whilst health services are positively received, social services often are deemed as "dangerous" and potentially threatening to family honour (izzat). This is particularly pertinent for carers of females with learning disabilities. Thirdly, Muslim religious and cultural beliefs maintain traditional gendered perceptions of caregiving within the family, often with very little support from outside organisations. This thesis also argues that Muslim carer support organisations use interesting and innovative methods of engaging Muslim family carers as a form of "bridging social capital" to health and social services.
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Davies, Hayley. "Constituting family : children's normative expectations and lived experiences of close relationships." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2008. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/1077/.
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This thesis is about the meanings that children aged 8-10 years old attribute to family and close relationships. The thesis focuses on how children’s normative expectations about family relate to their lived experiences of family life and relationships. It is based on data from a school-based field study, combining participant observation, interviews, children’s drawings, visits to children’s family homes, and the children’s production of books about their families. The research took place over nineteen months. Its contribution to knowledge lies in a new theoretical framework, combining insights from family and childhood sociology, for the purpose of examining children’s constitution of family. The thesis demonstrates that children conceive of family as a meaningful and highly valued set of relationships, challenging the notion that the concept of ‘family’ has lost its sociological and analytical significance. This thesis illustrates that children consider the family as those people with whom they feel a sense of belonging; a feeling that was achieved across a range of family forms. This conceptualisation of belonging departs from traditional conceptualisations in encompassing face-to-face contact as an important element of belonging to a family. The thesis concludes that an emphasis on children feeling part of a family is more productive than the present policy focus on maintaining nuclear family forms. Particular attention is given to how children identify visible forms of relatedness, through surname, cohabitation and through family members ‘displaying’ family-like relationships and family photographs.
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Almack, Kathryn. "Women parenting together : motherhood and family life in same sex relationships." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2002. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10520/.
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This study is based on joint and separate in-depth interviews with twenty (female) same sex couples who planned and had their children together in the context of their relationship. These families are one example of the increasing possibilities to live in non-traditional relationships and family forms, in contemporary Western societies. While lesbian and gay parents have a long history, there is little precedence for same sex couples setting up families 'from scratch' i.e. choosing to have children in the context of their relationship. These possibilities can be placed in the context of wider transformations of intimacy. There is widespread agreement that individualism in personal relationships has substantially increased, although opinions differ about the extent to which this individualism is essentially selfish. Lesbian parents, for example, have been portrayed as selfish individuals (Phillips, 1998) or alternatively as 'prime everyday experimenters' (Giddens, 1992), although the reality may be more nuanced than either of these polarities suggests. Overall, recent sociological research into both heterosexual and 'non-heterosexual' family lives suggests that transformations of intimacy are characterised by negotiated commitments and moral reasoning. However, to date, relatively little attention has been paid to the ways in which these themes may be modified by the presence of dependent children, particularly given the socially constructed nature of children's needs. Respondents in my study are involved in both innovative family practices and the care of dependent children. As such, they can offer new insights to the above debates. They present a radical departure from dominant conventions of heterosexual gendered family norms and the biological imperatives of reproduction. However, while working out new ways of doing family, these practices are located within deeply conventional moralities of motherhood, which leave little space within which to offer up new stories of doing family.
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Siddiqui, Hannana. "Violence against minority women : tackling domestic violence, forced marriage and 'honour' based violence." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2014. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/64295/.
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This commentary outlines how my published works have contributed to knowledge on violence against black and minority ethnic (BME) or minority women in the UK, particularly in relation to domestic violence, forced marriage and so called 'honour' based violence (HBV). They help to define and enhance our understanding of these issues. In addition, they have critiqued multiculturalism and influenced, advocated and developed the former Home Office Minister, Mike O'Brien's concept of 'mature multiculturalism' (Parliamentary Debates, 1999; also cited in Home Office, 2000:10), and utilised the theoretical framework of intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989 and 1991) to address these problems. I have also located my works within the framework of violence against women and girls (VAWG), secularism, equalities and human rights. My publications have reflected upon and influenced policy, practice and research, and as such, contributed to documenting the history and achievements of black feminism.
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Hunt, Sheila C. "Listening to women : an ethnography of childbearing women living in poverty." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2001. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/36408/.
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This thesis examines the ways in which childbearing women living in poverty made sense of their lives and experiences. Based in the West Midlands, in an area of urban decay and major inequalities in health, the research focused on the lives of 25 women during their childbirth experience. The theoretical framework is feminist poststructuralism and throughout the study, I recognise that there is no single, unified woman's voice, and no universal solution to the problem of pregnancy and poverty. The thesis examines the different ways in which individual women experience pregnancy and poverty. The research draws on a range of ethnographic methods including interviews and participant observation. The fieldwork was undertaken over a two year period mainly through meetings with women in their own homes but also at the GP surgery and other more public places. The data discussed in the thesis illustrate the private stresses and strains of poverty related to how women cope with pregnancy and the demands of small children. I was especially interested in how childbearing women living in poverty were alike and how they were different. The women who contributed to this study shared a well developed sense of responsibility, doing what was right and putting their children first. They worked hard to be seen as respectable, and balanced the needs of their children with the demands of a life dominated by poverty. I considered the networks of support and the importance of grandmothers in some women's lives. I have considered the changing and varied relationships that women had with the men in their lives and the different ways in which they resolved conflict in their relationships. Some women were determined to go it alone and to rid themselves of the men in their lives. For over half the women in the sample, domestic violence was an everyday reality of their lives and I examined the similarities and differences in their experiences. I have also found evidence of the adverse effect of some midwives' attitudes towards these women. Beliefs based on stereotypes and prejudice meant that women living in poverty sometimes experienced less than adequate care. The thesis concludes by making recommendations for further research and for improving midwifery practice for the benefit of women.
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Jenkins, Claire. "Family entertainment : representations of the American family in contemporary Hollywood cinema." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2009. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/2763/.
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The family plays an integral role in Hollywood films of almost every genre. Hollywood’s renditions of the American family, however, remain largely traditional and no longer reflect contemporary reality. This thesis explores how contemporary Hollywood deals with the family, posing the question: ‘Has Hollywood created its own monolithic family model?’ The thesis demonstrates that, rather than offering a solid monolithic family model, the Hollywood family displays a tension between traditional and liberal attitudes, wanting to move forward but unable to let go of the past. The thesis places Hollywood’s representations within a wider cultural framework, utilising social history, feminism and psychoanalytic discourses. This is done through three case studies exploring the nuclear family, and a fourth extended chapter that analyses Hollywood’s alternative families. Chapter One takes as its focus the father-daughter relationship in sequels and series. This relationship is symptomatic of a shift towards a new generation in Hollywood where masculinity is not necessarily the central concern. Although the father-daughter films indicate a renewed interest in women’s familial roles they essentially demonstrate a crisis of masculinity and a traditional, patriarchal model. Chapter Two analyses the mother’s role through the films of Meryl Streep. This chapter situates a discussion of the Hollywood mother within a postfeminist society and questions whether this new generation of Hollywood has promoted a diversification of the maternal role, finding that traditionalism still dominates as maternity and ‘traditional’ femininity remain central concerns. Chapter Three explores the superhero family. This unconventional family is a further symptom of Hollywood’s new generation. That said, the unconventional is used as a tool to promote the conventional – the nuclear family. Superheroics are used to recuperate dysfunctional families and provide an easy ‘fix’ for their troubles. Chapter Four examines the prevalence in contemporary Hollywood of alternative family models. Although these are many and varied, Hollywood’s alternative families (discussed here in terms of single-parents, divorce, gay and lesbian families, the working-class family and the Black American family), ultimately conform to the standards of the nuclear norm, giving further credence to the argument that Hollywood’s families are torn between traditionalism and attempts to embrace liberalism and diversity.
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Loman, Pasi. "Mobility of Hellenistic women." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2004. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11684/.
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The purpose of the current thesis is to study various aspects of women’s mobility in the so-called Hellenistic period. It will attempt to provide answers to the questions ‘why did women travel,’ ‘how common was it for women to travel,’ and most importantly, ‘did women take part in the Hellenistic colonisation processes.’ The importance of women’s mobility for the Greek societies as a whole will also be evaluated. To study the mobility of Hellenistic women we shall use a wide variety of literary sources, inscriptions and papyri. The direct sources will be supplemented with some indirect evidence and a few theoretical models. For example, it will be argued that the number of mixed marriages in the new Greek colonies and kingdoms reflects the number of women immigrants. In chapter one, it will be argued that Greek exiles habitually, although not universally, took their wives and families abroad with them. In Chapter two, an argument will be put forward that many Hellenistic mercenaries travelled together with their families. Moreover, it will be suggested that the growing number of female camp followers was one of the things that aided the successful colonisation processes of the Seleucids and the Ptolemies. In chapter three, we draw attention to the many professional, artistic, and athletic women who moved temporarily or permanently because of work. Chapter four on religion and female mobility is primarily concerned with female pilgrims, but it will also be claimed there that because of religion Greek women had to be ‘imported’ to the new Greek settlements in the East. In the fifth and final chapter, it will be argued that many more Greek women took part in the colonisation processes of the era than has previously been acknowledged.
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Bodley, Scott Sarah Elizabeth. "Consequences of traumatic brain injury for the family : family functioning and partners' experiences of personality changes." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2014. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/5327/.
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When a person experiences a traumatic brain injury (TBI) the lives of those around them, especially spouses and other family members, may be significantly affected. This thesis first presents a systematic critical review of literature on the state of family functioning in families where one member has experienced a TBI. Overall, findings suggested higher rates of family dysfunction in TBI families than in the general population. The presence of neurobehavioural problems in the injured person (also referred to as personality changes) was particularly associated with poorer family functioning. A qualitative study is then presented, exploring how partners of persons with TBI experience and make sense of personality changes. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to identify themes in the interview transcripts of five female partners of persons with TBI. For four of these women the presence of new negative behaviours and the loss of valued characteristics had contributed to altered perceptions of their partner's identity and of the couple relationship. Their experiences are contrasted with that of one participant who perceived positive changes in her partner whilst considering him to be fundamentally the same. Loss and grief were associated with perception of the partner as different.
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Lawes, Ginny. "Women, work and motherhood : the balancing act : a study of white middle-class women." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 1993. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11622/.
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The thesis was basically exploratory in nature. A staged life cycle model, with three key stages, was developed which jointly incorporated women's work and motherhood roles. The chosen stages led to a focus on white middle-class women. This was therefore the target group from which the samples were drawn and the focus of any generalisation from these studies. The primary focus of the work was on the decision-making processes that women go through in making the transition from one stage to the next. This was looked at in terms of a cost/benefit model that incorporated meaning through an exploration of the stresses and satisfactions that women experienced at the three identified stages. This allowed the initial decision-making model to be 'unpacked', and the relevant factors to be identified. These were considered in detail and looked at in the context of the relevant literature. One factor, role conflict, was explored further in a separate survey where roles were found to be potential sources of support as well as of demands. In looking at the decision to return to work, five factors were found to be particularly important to the women, and these were successfully checked for reliability in a separate study. The research was started in 1986, and the surveys were undertaken in 1987 and 1988. Results also allowed the formulation of a stress/satisfaction model, and when looked at in relation to the decision-making processes, it was postulated that decision-making would be easier if certain criteria were met. The decision-making model was used to explore the implications for women's training in general, and the training of women returners in particular. In relation to the latter, it was found that women anticipating the return to work expected it to be more stressful than did those women actually experiencing that stage, suggesting that women may overestimate the size of the problem at the post-break stage, and thus delay returning to the labour market. The strengths and weaknesses of the models were recognized and certain recommendations for further research were made.
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Twamley, Katherine. "A suitable match : love and marriage amongst middle class Gujaratis in India and the UK." Thesis, City University London, 2010. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/1182/.
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The thesis is an ethnographic study exploring understandings of love and intimacy amongst young middle class Indians of Gujarati origin living in the UK and India. It is based primarily upon repeat in-depth interviews, and participant observation. A two site comparative study was used to enable an understanding of how social and economic contexts shape cultural constructions of intimate relationships and sexuality. I explore these issues through the narratives of men and women who are either single, in the process of courtship/pre-marital relationships, or are recently married. The study is informed by recent work in the 'political economy of love' and Giddens' thesis on the 'Transformation of Intimacy‘. I examine to what extent young Gujaratis aspire to or are moving towards a more individualized, companionate and 'western' model of relationships, and whether such a 'transformation' impacts on the gender relations between husband and wife. I argue that while global ideologies of romantic love are pervasive, they are interpreted by informants within local understandings of appropriate marriage and relationships. As such, informants in Baroda, India are negotiating new forms of courtship which fit in with the ideals of love, but also with more traditional aspects of arranged marriage as a system of status maintenance. They want to be in love with their future spouse, but only within socially acceptable models of endogamous marriage. In contrast in the UK love marriage is idealised over arranged marriage. Informants distanced themselves from any sense of 'arrangement' in their relationships, which seemed to call into question for them the veractiy of their love. The social context of the UK both supports and facilitates love marriage amongst young people, while the converse is true in India. Largely men and women in both contexts appeared to have similar aspirations for their relationships, though women were likely to be more in favour of egalitarian values. What this meant was interpreted differently in India and the UK. In neither setting, however, was gender equality fully realised in the lives of the informants due to both structural and normative constraints.
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Pelechova, Lenka. "Bringing migrant domestic work literature into family studies : the intricate dynamics of au pair families." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2014. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28988/.
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This thesis explores families with live in au pairs. In particular, it investigates the changes that families go through as a result of the addition of an au pair, as well as the means by which the host parents and au pairs negotiate their new circumstances of living and working together. From a theoretical perspective, the thesis is positioned between two bodies of literature, namely, those of migrant domestic work and family studies. Up until now, research conducted in relation to au pairs has mostly been done as a part of feminisation of migration and domestic work divisions. However, such studies do not focus on the family as a unit of analysis and on the diverse experiences of different family members. In terms of family theories, there is a general consensus among scholars that contemporary families are diversifying. Even though the heterosexual couple family is still the most common form, new types of families are emerging, such as lone parents, divorced parents, same sex couples, extended families, reconstituted families, foster families and transnational families. Although the field of family studies has directed attention to diverse family forms, families with live in au pairs have, so far, escaped attention. The host families who employ and live with au pairs have to reset and renegotiate boundaries between fictive kin, family member and domestic worker. This thesis addresses the gaps that are present in much of the literature on migrant domestic work; namely the multifaceted relationships between host parents and au pairs, and the diversity of au pair’s experiences. The role of an ‘employer’ is approached not only from the viewpoint of migrant domestic work, but also from a family studies perspective. This focus allows for a greater understanding of family roles, family time and family boundaries and how they are re-negotiated by au pair employment. The exploration of au pair families was conducted through qualitative analysis consisting of semi structured interviews with 18 host parents and 19 au pairs. The data illustrate that host parents developed various and lengthy strategies to ensure that their au pairs were ‘the perfect fit for their family’. This commodified version of an ideal au pair was largely affected by the host parents’ social class position as well as by their ideals of ‘the family’. Moreover, the degree of association, communication, relationship and involvement with au pairs, appeared to be very different between host mothers and host fathers. In accordance with the gendered roles and division of work within families, the interviews with host mothers and host fathers revealed that the au pairs were perceived as mainly the host mother’s responsibility. Host parents’ endeavours in creating the ‘au pair family’ were explored through their negotiations of ‘family time’. ‘General family time’ consisted of sharing family related activities with the au pair while ‘genuine family time’ meant that the au pair was not involved. Although au pair families navigated their proximity by negotiating their family time and relationships which revealed that families are adaptable, at the same time these host families were crowded with images of the romanticized traditional family. The thesis claims that the combination of family and migrant domestic work scholarship enables a greater understanding of how living with and employing an au pair is experienced and managed in everyday life. Following these empirical findings, it is argued that whilst host families ‘displayed’ flexibility and fluidity (Beck 1992), at the same time, the hegemonic notions of what families should be like indicate that traditional values still prevailed.
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Hart, Debbie. "A sociological analysis of associations between the family and well-being : roles, responsibilities, and relationships." Thesis, University of Essex, 2016. http://repository.essex.ac.uk/17447/.
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Asking people about their state of emotional well-being or their self-evaluations of life satisfaction represents a resource which can be used to contribute to knowledge concerning overall well-being and social progress, helping to avoid a narrow focus on purely economic indicators. Whilst concerns over measurement and validity have been raised, such measures have been used to research individual well-being across a vast range of topics, particularly in the field of economics. There has been much less attention from a more sociological perspective. This thesis aims to bring together the topics of well-being and sociology, via a focus on the family. The family is a long established area within sociological study, and contains a number of sub-areas that may lend themselves well to being connected to the topic of well-being. A focus on its inherent interrelations and dynamics may help to ascertain whether the ‘individual’ topic of well-being can be understood alongside the more ‘social’ topic of the family. This thesis utilises data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), a large scale survey which tracks the same people over 18 years. The BHPS was later incorporated into Understanding Society, and this data source is used for the third chapter. It is found that associations exist between a range of family related roles and experiences, and well-being. The importance of family bonds and relationships to well-being were suggested, between partners and also between parents and children. However also of note were the gendered differences that exist within these associations, and those between different dyads of family members. The impact of changes in family roles and responsibilities was also supported, and how these may impact upon well-being.
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Hussein, Nazia. "Boundaries of respectability : new women of Bangladesh." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2015. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/77512/.
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This thesis places respectable femininity at the centre of the construction and performance of new womanhood among affluent middle-class women of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Using qualitative research methods, combining audio-visual materials, focus group discussion and multiple in depth interviews, I examine the complex and heterogeneous constructions of new womenhoods in relation to women’s negotiations with public and private sphere roles and Bangladeshi norms of female propriety. My conceptual framework facilitates analysis of the everyday interactional negotiations of new women in relation to their gendered and classed practices of respectable femininity, and the potential for this boundary work to enhance their agency. My analysis illuminates three aspects of the dialogical nature of respectable femininity and new womanhood. First, new women are part of the neoliberal affluent middle class and they construct their class identity as a status group, claiming inter-class and intraclass distinction from other women. Their claims to distinction rest on their levels of higher education, types of paid employment and exposure to transnational lifestyles, alongside their gendered, classed and culturally attuned selfhood performed through their ‘smart’ aesthetic practices, 50-50 work home life balance and female individualism. Secondly, new womanhood is legitimized by alternative and multiple practices of respectability, varying according to women’s age, stage of life, profession, household setting and experience of living in western countries. Finally, as new women forge alternative forms of respectability theirs is not a straightforward abandonment of old structures of respectability; rather they conform to, negotiate and potentially transgress normative conceptions of middle-class respectable femininity, substituting, concealing, or legitimizing particular practices in particular fields. Nonetheless, these processes enable them to practice increased autonomy and agency, and while their gains are vested in the self, rather than a wider feminist politics, they have the potential to positively influence the terrain of possibilities for other Bangladeshi women. Overall, my thesis shifts the focus of respectability research in South Asia from exploring the binary of respectable and unrespectable practices to evaluating how women make and remake their respectable status and class privilege in neoliberal Bangladesh, and the implications for gender relations.
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Brown, Eleanor. "Women and children's experiences of domestic violence." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2014. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/64308/.
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Chapter One examines the literature on children’s experiences of domestic violence. The research reviewed indicates that within the same family children can have different experiences of domestic violence. Within the literature five common themes were identified; children’s experiences of abuse, responses to and effects of domestic violence, coping and sense making, impact on relationships and access to services and support. Children consistently experienced feelings of fear towards the perpetrator and a sense of responsibility for their mother’s well-being. Further qualitative research was recommended to identify different children’s resilience’s. Chapter Two explores the unique perspective of mother’s experiences of their relationship with their children within the context of domestic violence. IPA analysis indicated that domestic violence led the women to experience shame and see themselves as a ‘bad mother’. They attempted to distance themselves against this uncomfortable emotion by experiencing their child as a ‘bad child’. There were areas of resilience and agency as the women interviewed altered their parenting style and consequently their relationship with their child once leaving the relationship. Chapter Three provides reflections on the research journey. This includes the author’s experiences of methodological and ethical issues relating to conducting research with women who have experienced domestic violence, particularly with regards to the utilization of the principles of feminist and empowering methods.
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Douglas-Pennant, Caroline. ""Familia en lo bueno y lo malo" ("Family in the good and the bad") : the experience of emerging adults : a counselling psychology perspective." Thesis, City, University of London, 2018. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/21866/.
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According to recent figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and Eurostat in England and Wales (2016), 42% of marriages are expected to end in divorce. Existing literature is varied and often contradictory about the implications of this phenomenon for the offspring of divorced parents, proposing evidence for both positive and negative outcomes. The majority of studies have used a quantitative approach to focus on the effects of parental divorce on children and adolescents. This qualitative study used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore how emerging adults describe their experiences of parental divorce. Semi-structured interviews produced in-depth insights into how respondents made sense of their experiences. The following three key themes emerge: loss, highlighting feelings of grief and disbelief related to the end of the 'family' as respondents had known it; altered reality, in which respondents describe issues related to altered parental relationships and mediating interparental conflict post-divorce; and finally hope and continuity, highlighted the way that emerging adults adapt, adjust and develop coping mechanisms following the divorce of their parents. The findings expand academic knowledge of the ways in which emerging adults experience parental divorce, and will encourage counselling psychologists working with divorcing couples or with their offspring to remain curious and mindful of the significance of these themes.
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Clements, Samantha Ruth. "Feminism, citizenship and social activity : the role and importance of local women's organisations, Nottingham 1918-1969." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2008. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10474/.
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This local study of single-sex organisations in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire is an attempt to redress some of the imbalanced coverage given to this area of history thus far. A chronological study, it examines the role, importance and, to some extent, impact of a wide range of women's organisations in the local context. Some were local branches of national organisations, others were specifically concerned with local issues. The local focus allows a challenge to be made to much current thought as to the strength of a "women's movement" in the years between the suffrage movement and the emergence of a more radical form of feminism in the 1970s. The strength of feminist issues and campaigning is studied in three periods -- the inter-war period, the Second World War and its immediate aftermath, and the 1950s and 1960s. The first two periods have previously been studied on a national level but, until recently, the post-Second World war era has been written off as overwhelmingly domestic and therefore unconstructive to the achievement of any feminist aims. This study suggests that, at a local level, this is not the case and that other conclusions reached about twentieth century feminism at a national level are not always applicable to the local context. The study also goes further than attempting to track interest in equality feminism in the mid years of the century by discussing the importance of citizenship campaigns and the social dimension of membership of women's organisations. The former has been introduced into the academic arena by Caitriona Beaumont and her ideas are assessed and expanded upon. As a result the thesis makes strong claims that citizenship activity was of vital importance to the empowerment of British women in the twentieth century. The importance of a single-sex social sphere in allowing women to develop as individuals, is also recognised in each of the three periods.
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Williams, Anna Louise. "Post-feminism at work? : the experiences of female journalists in the UK." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2010. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11440/.
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Within the UK recent research has suggested that a belief in gender equality is becoming increasingly prevalent. Women are frequently framed as empowered individuals who are now enjoying a freedom to choose in every aspect of their lives, placing them on equal terms with men. From this perspective, feminism is consequently viewed as outdated and redundant. Such ideas have been labelled as ‘post-feminist’ by feminists and cultural theorists. However, as many feminists have argued, whilst considerable advances have been made, women in the UK are in fact far from experiencing ‘true’ gender equality. This study focuses on UK journalism, examining the impact of post-feminism on the experiences and beliefs of women working in an industry that has been identified as contributing to upholding post-feminist ideas through its cultural products. In 2002, the most recent large-scale survey of UK journalists revealed that this traditionally male-dominated industry was now one of the few occupations with almost equal numbers of men and women. However, despite this numerical equality, more women in journalism are clustered in lower status roles and in less prestigious areas than their male counterparts. It is possible that female journalists may thus be experiencing sustained workplace inequalities of a type not acknowledged by post-feminism. This research aims to provide an insight into the experiences of women working in the UK journalism industry through 49 semi-structured interviews with female journalists from newspapers and women’s magazines. There has been little previous research in this area; earlier work suggests however that female journalists’ experiences may be uniquely shaped by the existence of an individualistic occupational culture. This study consequently looks from a feminist perspective at the beliefs that female journalists hold about gender (in)equality, to reveal the way/s they interpret their working lives, investigating a possible affinity between journalistic work culture/s and post-feminist ideas.
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Mckenzie, Lisa Louise. "Finding value on a council estate : complex lives, motherhood, and exclusion." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2010. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11862/.
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This research focuses upon a group of women who are white and working class they live on the St Anns council estate in Nottingham and they are all mothers to mixed-race children. The focus of this study from the outset is to challenge the often negative and homogenous readings and namings of council estates in the UK and their residents. The problems that are within Britain's council estates are often complex and difficult to understand, therefore the research sets out to explain some of those complexities, whilst highlighting the disadvantages the women experience in their daily lives. The research explores the interaction between class, race and gender but also space, examining how poor neighbourhoods have become known in recent times as spaces of social exclusion and their residents have become known as 'the excluded'. The research explores how the women find value for themselves and their children when their social positions have been subject to stigma, and disrespect and their practices are misrecognised. Therefore the research examines the local value system and the local resources which are available and used by the residents of this council estate and asks in the absence of universal social and economic resources can people find value locally.
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Telling, Kathryn. "Feminism and the university : the roles of disciplinary field and educational habitus in the lives and works of two feminist intellectuals." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2013. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13711/.
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This thesis is an exploration of the production of feminist theory as a material, social, and institutional practice: it aims to understand feminist intellectual production as to some extent circumscribed by historical, biographical, political, and especially academic conditions. Specifically, it compares the intellectual trajectories and scholarly output, feminist and otherwise, of theologian Mary Daly (1928-2010) and philosopher Judith Butler (1956--). The analysis tries to keep three aspects of those lives in mind at once: firstly, the properly intellectual character of the intellectuals’ ideas; secondly, the specifically institutional (that is, university) conditions in which they have found themselves; and thirdly, the broader biographical conditions of their lives. By keeping all three in mind at once, we get to a potentially fuller and more nuanced picture of their intellectual trajectories than may be available through critical appraisal of their works alone. The thesis is an original contribution to knowledge both in as much as it brings together Daly and Butler, two apparently fundamentally opposed feminists, in order to see what thinking them together allows us to do, and in the applications and adaptations of Pierre Bourdieu’s social theory which help explain these feminists’ trajectories. Through a re-working of Bourdieu’s theoretical apparatus, the analysis works through the concept of fields of intellectual endeavour. Academic disciplines but also broader structures such as the field of intellectual production work with and against intellectual producers, creating both possibilities and constraints for intellectual work. Developing a broadly Bourdieusian theory of symbiotic relations between what Bourdieu terms habitus and field (that is, trying to identify the mutual constitution of these aspects of social life rather than the primacy of either), the thesis argues for the fundamental role of agential negotiation and strategy in the context of institutional and disciplinary constraint. And in the context of this adapted Bourdieusian theory, I argue finally for the disciplinary field of women’s studies as a potentially fruitful institutional and intellectual space for a feminist negotiation of the university.
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Sanders, Erin. "One night in Bangkok : Western women's interactions with sexualized spaces in Thailand." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2011. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12018/.
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Key words: Thailand, sex tourism, sex industry, authenticity, voyeurism, tourist experience Research on sex tourism in Thailand has often focused on western men’s sexual interactions with local women (Cohen, 1982; Enloe, 1989; Brown, 2001), and the sexualized entertainment on offer in eroticized tourist spaces/places is assumed to be aimed at western male tourists (Manderson, 1992; Bowes, 2004). While a number of academics have studied sexualized spaces and venues, little has been written on how and to what extent western women engage with this type of touristic entertainment in the Thai (sex tourism) context (Odzer, 1994; Manderson, 1995; Sikes, 2006). This is despite the fact that the number of female tourists visiting Thailand has increased over the past decade (TAT, 2007), and some evidence suggests that the sex industry in Thailand caters for female tourists (Vorakitphokatorn et al, 1994; Williams et al, 2007). This thesis will argue that western women are curious about the nature of the Thai sex industry, and that some tourist women seek to visually explore sexualized tourist areas as part of their ‘tourist experience’ in Thailand. Sex tourism is a contentious subject area, and investigating the extent to which western women might engage with the sex industry as part of their tourist experience necessitates a critical engagement with theoretical understandings of female sex tourism. The findings suggest that western women’s desire for an authentic tourist experience in Thailand facilitates their entry into sexualized zones. While the history of the sex industry in Thailand has helped to popularize its notoriety, discourses on tourist-oriented sexual spaces suggest that visiting a sexual show is something that is ‘ok’, and further is part of ‘real Thailand’. However, women’s visual engagement with the Others who inhabit these spaces reveals a darker side,and perhaps a voyeuristic desire to visit these venues. While part of their motivation to consume the sex industry stems from their understanding of the sex industry as authentically Thai, their contradictory interpretations of Thai sex workers reveals a darker, more complicated picture. This thesis will examine the lines that divide tourism from sex tourism practices to suggest that consuming difference and the desire to engage with exotic (and erotic) Others underpins all touristic engagements, including tourist interactions with the sex industry. Visual sex tourism practices will be outlined here, and current definitions of sex tourism will be deconstructed to reveal a more complicated picture of tourism/sex tourism practices, which calls for a closer examination of gendered tourism behaviors.
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Calcraft, Rebecca. "Children left at home alone : the construction of a social problem." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2004. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10063/.
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The question of when a child is old enough to be left at home alone, and under what circumstances, is a dilemma faced by many parents and professionals. Adopting a social constructionist perspective of social problems, this thesis explores professional perceptions and policy responses to the issue of children left at home alone since the passing of the Children Act in 1989. The law in England and Wales does not specify an age at which it is deemed safe to leave a child unsupervised at home, a practice sometimes referred to as 'self-care'. Professionals respond to the issue through non-legalistic, more persuasive interventions. The media also plays a role in regulating parenting practices, as demonstrated in the early 1990s, when the British press covered a number of stories involving parents who left their children at 'home alone'. The issue continues to bubble up from time to time, but calls for more specific law to manage the problem have gone unheeded. Drawing on interviews with child welfare professionals and campaigners who work at national level, and on an analysis of policy, campaigning and educational documents, I explore how the issue is constructed, responded to and resisted as a social problem. I conclude that this is an example of an 'unconstructed' social problem because, despite continued public and professional concern, there has been no clear legislative response. Understanding how and why some social problems 'fail' is a key contribution to the literature on the social construction of social problems, which has focused mainly on 'successful' social problems to date.
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Ho, Cherri. "Intergenerational learning in Hong Kong : a narrative inquiry." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2008. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10486/.
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The main objective of this study was to examine the intergenerational learning behaviour within the family between Generation X parents and their Generation Y teenage children. This study was designed to investigate the nature of intergenerational knowledge exchange, to identify the characteristics of learning behaviour and culture in such 'learning families', and to find out the subject areas that parents could learn from their teenage children. The sample of this study was made up of ten pairs of middle-age parents with their teenage children coming from middle class families. A narrative inquiry approach was adopted and individual interviews were conducted when participants were asked to recall and tell stories describing their personal intergenerational learning experiences. A questionnaire was also employed to collect their opinions and experience on intergenerational family learning. Results showed that 80% of all the participants thought their family was a 'learning family'. All the parents and 90% of the teenagers found that learning experience in their family was happy. Overall, 80% of all the participants gave a score of 7 or higher when they were asked to rate their family, with a score of 10 representing an ideal 'learning family'. All the parents realised that they had something to learn from their children. The Generation X parents could learn from their Generation Y children on trendy issues such as fashion, sports, recreation, music and western cultures. More importantly, almost everyone recognised that information technology (IT), computer knowledge and skills were the stronger areas among the teenagers. Among all the narratives told, 37% were episodes describing parents learning IT skills from their teenage children. The data obtained from this study suggests that intergenerational family learning can be bi-directional. The families studied did engage in bi-directional intergenerational learning. Parents did learn from their teenage children. A positive family learning culture was found to facilitate intergenerational learning especially in the Generation Y to X direction. Intergenerational family learning was reported to be happy experience and it helped improve communication and understanding between the two generations. The participants pointed out that the learning methodology differed between the two generations due to societal changes and differences in their upbringing. Mothers and fathers play slightly different roles for intergenerational family learning according to their individual personality, interest and expertise, though mothers were believed to be more receptive and open to intergenerational learning, especially in the Generation Y to X direction. There is a close relationship between 'family learning' and 'lifelong learning'. Ideas from the participants were collated to define the concept of 'learning family', 'family learning' and 'intergenerational family learning'. From the data obtained, a conceptual framework of intergenerational family learning in relation to lifelong learning and a developmental learning profile were drawn. The results indicate that parents should foster positive learning attitudes and intergenerational learning culture in the family early at home. It is important that teenagers are empowered to share their knowledge and views. The government also has a role to play in re-defining teaching and learning practise in schools and promoting intergenerational learning in families for a knowledge society.
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Fox, Elizabeth. "Lone fatherhood : experience and perception, choice and constraint." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2002. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11680/.
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This thesis explores men's experience of raising children alone, and addresses a central question for men's engagement in care: Can men mother? If men can mother, what makes this possible? To what extent are breadwinning identities and mothers' care for children barriers to men's engagement in caring? If mothering is a constitutive activity based on a response to the perceived needs of children, what does caring mean to fathers, and what is the impact of caring for children in the absence of maternal mediation? Based on evidence from an in depth qualitative study of fathers raising children alone, the study explores men's experience as primary carers for their children. Men's experience of paid employment, childcare and social and structural supports are examined, as is their experience of parenting and relationships with their children. Research into men's participation in childcare and domestic labour in two parent families demonstrates that women continue to do most childcare and unpaid domestic work, and there is significant difficulty in engaging men in care. The psychological literature has underpinned a 'deficiency' perspective of fatherhood, and casts doubt on men's capacity to care, while evidence from social policy research casts doubt on men's willingness to care. The policy response to women's labour market participation has been slow, leaving a gap in care. The findings of this study show how contemporary constructions of fatherhood impact on men's experiences. It will argue that, for men parenting alone, these constructions create a challenge to men's identities, which in turn creates tensions in men's perceptions of caring labour. However, these tensions do not need to be resolved in order for men to experience their parenting as positive, rather, the experience of doing care has the most significant impact on how men experience fatherhood, and having taken responsibility for care, fathers would be reluctant to relinquish it.
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Whelehan, Imelda. "Anglo-American second wave feminisms : the ethics of heterogeneity." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 1993. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11310/.
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This thesis investigates debates and tensions in Second Wave Anglo-American Feminisms since the sixties. It interrogates claims that feminism is in crisis, and that the term 'feminism' itself is now semantically overburdened. Its chief purpose is to show that despite feminism's heterogeneity, there are central features of feminist politics which offer an oppositional identity to theorists concerned with exposing the way meanings of gender still shape society and academic discourse. The scope of this work extends from early Second Wave writings to current scholarly reflections on the interface between feminist and other critical theories. This study emphasizes that even the apparent 'anti-theory' thrust of early writers stand testimony to an abiding concern with theories of knowledge, power and representation. Even feminism's early antagonism to 'high theory' could be interpreted as a challenge to the means by which 'theory' is constructed. The first three chapters examine the emergence of a 'Second Wave' in feminist thought, and the various investments of its differing 'strands' in existing political and theoretical positions. Chapters Four and Five scrutinize what are deemed gaps or sites of conflict in Second Wave theory: theories of ideology, culture, sexuality and subjectivity. Feminism is arguably at its most radical and contentious where its methodology drifts furthest from the epistemological 'mainstream'. Chapter Six considers recent developments in feminist thought - many of which emerged during the writing of this work - illustrating a growing chasm between academic feminism and political feminism. The conclusion engages with critical discussions of feminism's alleged 'identity crisis', and the means by which feminist agendas are put to anti-feminist uses in face of a political swing to the Right in Britain and the USA. It suggests that the worst effects of a 'backlash' might be countered by greater attention to feminism's recent past. This is not to advocate nostalgia, but to indicate that feminism can learn from its past and present 'mistakes'. Recent questions are not new, but ones which merit ever more complex solutions, for the sake of feminism's survival as an autonomous and challenging philosophy.
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O'Connor, Daniel J. "Sex signs: transsexuality, autobiography, and the languages of sexual difference in the United Kingdom and United States of America, 1950-2000." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2006. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/2454/.
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This dissertation explores the relationship between transsexuality, autobiography and ideas of sexual difference in the United Kingdom and the United States of America between the years 1950 and 2000. This dissertation argues that rather than viewing sex and gender in hierarchic fashion, transsexual autobiography allows us to see their relationship as mutually legitimating. Both biological sex and psychological gender acted as historically contingent ‘sex signs’ which worked to show the autobiographer as man or woman, despite having been born in the opposite sex. I argue that far from biology dictating gender, or gender defining sex, both were used equally and strategically by transsexuals in order to fluently speak a language of sexual difference which their ‘audiences’ – be they medical professionals, legal scholars, newspaper journalists, or close friends and family members – could understand. This fluency permitted belief in them as the men or women they knew themselves to be. At some times, and in some company, genital sex signs were the most appropriate way of signifying sexual difference, whist in a different place and with different people, certain gender traits were more useful. Always, though, was the transsexual’s signification of him- or her-self as man or woman delimited by public discourses of sexual difference which impacted upon ‘non-transsexuals’ also. In closely reading transsexual autobiographies we are better able to see the construction, and naturalisation, of sexual difference in the second half of the twentieth century. By looking both at the strategic uses of transsexual autobiographies and the wider public reactions to such life stories (and the individuals who tell them), this dissertation shows how the languages of sexual difference, of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ were in a constant state of flux during the period in question.
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Rolfe, Alison. "Young mothers on the margins : the meanings and experiences of early motherhood in and out of care." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2002. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/3034/.
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This research study explores young women's accounts of becoming mothers below the age of 21 and in adverse circumstances. The findings are based on five group interviews and twenty-eight individual interviews. All participants were living in areas of social deprivation, and just over two-thirds had been in care. The meanings the young women give to motherhood are used in negotiating their social worlds. The key dimensions of these processes of negotiation are: the validation of heterosexual femininity and of a 'caring' identity; the negotiation of their class position, including their position in relation to the labour market, the education system and the care system. Motherhood also gives them agency and control when patriarchy, capitalism and surveillance constrain their opportunities to actively shape their lives in other ways. The young women's own discourses of motherhood and mothering allow them to resist hegemonic discourses of teenage mothers as irresponsible, promiscuous and as seeking economical dependency. Much of their own discourse of motherhood is positive, and they often employ a discourse in which they have reformed and 'grown up' through motherhood. They argue that it is responsibility, rather than age, which is the key determinant of adequate mothering. However, these positive meanings are in tension with the difficulties and losses. All the young women found that their lives are constrained in some way by motherhood and that, ideally, that would have postponed motherhood until they were more settled. The young women assert that there is a mismatch between their own views and professional responses. It is argued that a shift is required, in the framing of policy and practice, away from viewing vulnerable young people in terms of 'risk assessment', towards an approach based on their strength and resilience, and on a recognition that, given support, young women can be good enough mothers.
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Parker, Eleanor Susan. "The meaning and significance of sibling and peer relationships for young people looked after on behalf of local authorities." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2010. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/3920/.
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This thesis explores the meaning and significance of sibling and peer relationships for young people looked after by local authorities, from their own perspectives. A sociological approach to research with young people is employed, drawing on additional post structural and feminist insights. It is argued that hegemonic ideas concerning the nature of development have resulted in a concentration on adult and adult-child relationships, from adult perspectives. Accordingly, children‟s perspectives on the contribution of their interrelationships to their well-being, support networks, and sense of social inclusion have not been adequately theorised. It is concluded that this has had particular implications for looked after children, as the process of becoming and remaining looked after can result in considerable losses within their sibling and peer relationships. A participatory methodology was developed in order to address issues of power, agency and choice within the research process. Qualitative interviews were undertaken with eighteen young people, aged between twelve and nineteen, who were, or had previously been, looked after. Sibling and peer relationships were found to make significant contributions to the young people‟s emotional and physical well-being, and sense of individual and familial identity, as well as providing emotional and practical support into adulthood. Accordingly, the loss of significant relationships, particularly those with siblings, could affect them deeply. While living in care, the young people were often optimistic about the ease of negotiating relationships with siblings and friends after leaving care. However, in reality, living independently could amplify problems within sibling and peer relationships, placing young people at risk of homelessness, violence, and social isolation. This thesis contributes greater understanding of the importance of a wide variety of sibling and peer relationships to the lives of looked after children, from their own perspectives. It also informs as to the complex challenges they face both during and after leaving care in negotiating their sibling and peer relationships in the interests of their emotional and physical well-being.
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Badzis, Mastura. "Teachers' and parents' understanding of the concept of play in child development and education." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2003. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/2502/.
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This study is set in the context of an increasing awareness of the need for and importance of quality play learning experience for pre-school children owing to its crucial role and great contributions to various aspects of child development. The main aim of this study is to examine teachers' and parents' perspectives on play and their understanding of the role of play in relation to children's learning particularly in preschool practice. Teachers' perceptions of play were described and analysed with respect to their definition of play, roles and values of play in relation to children's learning, and the use of play in teaching. Parents' understandings of the concept of play were examined through their perception on play as pedagogical tools and their preference for pre-school learning activities. The findings of the study imply that: (i) There was a mismatch between teachers' understanding of the word play in child development and play in relation to educational program of the children. (ii) Only few parents considered play to be the appropriate way of children's learning. Most of them preferred a formal learning environment for their children's pre-school activities. (iii) Play activities tended not to provide learning experiences of acceptable quality in most of the settings and many pre-school teachers taught children in a very formal way. (iv) There was no evidence of systematic differences between the philosophy and type of settings in respect to play understanding. The differences are the level of the teachers' knowledge, professional training and academic qualifications. (v) Mainly there were four main factors concluded as impeding the progress of deploying play in Malaysian pre-school practice: conceptual barriers, attitudinal barriers, structural barriers and functional barriers. As a result of the findings, some implications have been advocated concerning the need for rethinking the practice in Malaysian pre-schools for improving the approach to educating young children by giving play its central role in children's learning and free from academic stress.
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Oldfield, Carolyn. "Growing up good? : medical, social hygiene and youth work perspectives on young women, 1918-1939." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2001. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/3083/.
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This thesis explores the discourses and organisations through which girls' development towards adult womanhood was framed and managed during the inter-war period. It examines how contemporary perceptions of social change following the First World War resulted in widespread scrutiny of girls' circumstances and behaviour, particularly their sexual conduct. It argues that representations and responses to girls were increasingly underpinned by the conceptualisation of adolescence as a critical period of change and instability. This understanding of adolescence pervaded both medical and lay discourses. It was interpreted through the prisms of gender and class, and served to legitimise increasing levels of intervention into girls' lives, mainly on the basis of their sexual behaviour or perceived exposure to sexual risk. Adolescence was also represented as the period in which individuals developed moral agency. This study examines the increased importance ascribed to the moral training of the adolescent, in the context of widespread agreement of the need to express traditional moral values in ways that took account of social change. This was seen as particularly important for girls, not only because of their changing circumstances, but because of women's new status as enfranchised citizens. The thesis explores the work of the Girl Guides Association and the Young Women's Christian Association in some detail. These organisations drew upon the discourse of social change, adolescence and citizenship to claim an enhanced role in shaping the development of young women. While histories of girls' youth organisations have tended to portray them as conservative movements intent on socialising girls into their future role as wives and mothers, this study highlights these organisations' commitment to preparing girls to understand and exercise their future responsibilities as citizens, and argues that such organisations were more complex in their purposes, and more varied in their approaches, than has previously been recognised.
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Lee, Tracey. "Female to male transsexuality : a study of (re)embodiment and identity transformation." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2001. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/3087/.
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This thesis is a qualitative study based in in-depth semi-structured interviews with fourteen female to male transsexuals, concerned with the social and discursive processes through which female to male transsexuals construct their new 'male' gendered social identities and the ways in which their bodies may be seen to impact upon these processes across a variety of personal and social relationships. Chapter One provides an overview and critique of key and competing perspectives concerning the relationships between transsexual subjectivity and embodiment, and the hegemonic discourses/discursive practices of heterosexuality, sex and gender, and medicine. Chapter Two establishes the epistemological and innovative methodological framework of the thesis, moving from the analysis of representations of transsexuality to a sociologically informed analysis. Dealing with issues of experience, voice, power, agency and representation through contemporary work in feminism and the sociology of health and illness, the Chapter adapts the multidisciplinary methodologies and methods of 'narrative analysis' to the study of female to male transsexual identity in social interaction. Chapter Three engages with existing perspectives on written transsexual autobiography within feminist, literary, cultural and transgender theory and, through rigorous and detailed narrative analysis addresses the significance and specificity of 'oral autobiography' where constraints and opportunities for the construction of an 'authentic' transsexual selfhood are produced in a dynamic, interactional context. In Chapter Four personal narratives are examined to extend the issue of transsexual 'authenticity' into the broader area of relationships with parents, siblings, partners, children, friends and work colleagues. It deals with the ways in which past and present knowledge of the interviewees as particularly embodied and gendered individuals by these 'knowing' others impacted upon their recognition and acceptance of them as men. The thesis concludes that taking this analytic approach which moves 'beyond the text' into social and interactional contexts reveals complex negotiations of 'traditional' stories, the significance of others' past knowledge and investments in sexed/gendered embodiment and the interviewees' own active management of their embodied gendered selves which earlier work has overlooked or not fully addressed. Finally it identifies fruitful areas for further research suggested through this study.
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Weckesser, Annalise Marie. "Girls, gifts, and gender : an ethnography of the materiality of care in rural Mpumalanga, South Africa." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2011. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/45913/.
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This thesis is based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Agincourt, South Africa, between 2009 and 2010. It examines social relations of care involving young people in the context of the country's AIDS epidemic and increasing economic inequality. The thesis focuses on three sets of care relations, which constitute gift exchanges involving young (orphaned and non-orphaned) people: 1) children's labour for guardian care; 2) girls' labour and sex for support from boys and men; and 3) the local manufacturing of 'orphans' for charitable gifts from tourist-philanthropists. The thesis further examines how the contested constructions of orphanhood, childhood and care are expressed through these three sets of relations. It theorises how Western and local constructions of care, childhood and orphanhood meet on the ground through orphan-targeted assistance. Evidence derives from ethnographic fieldwork carried out with two non-profit organisations serving 'Orphans and Vulnerable Children' (OVCs) in two separate villages, as well as with 14 households connected to the OVC organisations. Ongoing, semi-structured interviews were carried out with young people and significant adult caregivers from participant households. Participatory exercises, including a photography project and a 'Girls Club,' were also carried out with young participants. Interviews with key stakeholders involved in the OVC care scene were conducted. Stakeholders included local government workers and officials, faith-based leaders and staff from private tourist game lodges conducting community development projects involving young people in Agincourt. This thesis develops the concept of the 'materiality of care' to address the dearth of ethnographically informed theorisations of care involving young peopled affected by AIDS and poverty. It argues that understandings of care for and by young (orphaned) people must be placed within local, emic perspectives and practices of care, as well as within the broader, historical and political economic context shaping relations of care. Findings have implications for policies and interventions for young people people affected by AIDS and poverty. The thesis contributes to the growing body of evidence that is critical of orphan-targeted interventions in sub-Saharan Africa; interventions which fail to recognise the familial context of parentless children and the broader context of poverty and hardships caused by AIDS that cut across the lives of orphaned and non-orphaned young people.
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MacSween, Morag. "The anorexic body : a feminist and sociological perspective on anorexia nervosa." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 1989. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3244/.
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This thesis attempts a sociological and feminist analysis of anorexia nervosa. Anorexia is an illness which affects predominantly women, and its incidence is greatest among middle-class young women in Western countries. Its strong bias along class and gender lines suggests that such an approach to the illness could prove fruitful. The thesis argues that analysis of anorexia demands a clear understanding of the sociology of the body. The sociology of the body sees the body as constructed in social life: understandings of the body vary temporally and culturally, and reflect the categories of their culture. It is suggested that anorexia nervosa represents an attempted transformation of the concept of the feminine body in contemporary culture. Anorexic women aim to transcend appetite, and to allow no intrusions into the body, constructing an anorexic body which is closed, separate and inviolable. Since this transformation is individuated and privatised, however, it cannot ultimately succeed in overturning a system of social meanings. The thesis concludes that individual solutions to anorexia will not lead to the end of the illness as a social phenomenon in the lives of women. Only collective feminist action can reconstruct the degraded contemporary concept of woman. The argument is pursued firstly through a discussion of the initial use of the term `anorexia nervosa' in the late nineteenth century by Gull and Lasegue. The treatment of anorexia as a modern disease is discussed, and the claim that anorexia has always existed but has not been recognised is refuted. Psychiatric and feminist accounts of anorexia are then considered. The former see anorexia as a purely individual phenomenon, and the limitations of this position are discussed. Feminist analyses of anorexia, in seeing it as deeply intertwined with women's social position in a patriarchal culture, are argued to advance understanding of the illness, while still retaining individualist elements. The next section analyses the ways in which anorexic women themselves explain their illness. This leads on to a discussion of the notion of the body as concept. After a theoretical outline, several body-concepts are analysed and placed in their social and historical contexts. Contemporary understandings of the body as an individuated possession are then discussed, with particular focus on the concept of the feminine body as passive object. Objectification, discipline and chaos are argued to be the central meanings of the feminine body in contemporary culture. Analysis of the issues of abortion and rape seek to make this theoretical point clearer. A detailed analysis of anorexic practices looks at how these meanings are transformed in anorexia. It is suggested that anorexic women try to construct an inviolate anorexic body which is completely under their control through a complexly ritualised eating pattern. The precarious nature of this control points to the limitations of individual `solutions' to social problems.
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Perrier, Maud. "Doing/narrating motherhood : the gendered and classed moralities of younger and older mothers." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2009. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/2287/.
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This feminist study of younger and older mothers in the UK analyses the way both groups present and practice moral selves in the context of dominant discourses of good motherhood. Qualitative data were generated during a year of fieldwork, involving repeated in-depth interviews, focus groups and participant observation, with mothers who had their first child when particularly younger or older than average. This methodology allowed me to investigate how the mothers present their moral selves through personal accounts and good mothering practices, as well as how they negotiate discourses of a ‘right’ time for motherhood. The overall contribution of the thesis lies in developing a feminist critique of intensive mothering which also recognizes the significance of mothering as a key site for the construction of gendered and classed moral selves. My thesis demonstrates that the categories of age, social class and gender intersect to powerfully shape mothers’ constructions and performances of their moral maternal selves. For example, I argue that the normalization of the child-focused mother gives the older mothers, all middle-class, greater scope to achieve moral superiority than the younger mothers, almost all working-class. Indeed, throughout the thesis my analysis points to the ways in which mothers engage in practices of ‘othering’ to claim good motherhood. The thesis also develops a multi-dimensional conceptualization of time, which allows me to convey the complex connections between biological, social, biographical and generational times in mothers’ accounts. I conclude by suggesting that the moral script of ‘child’s needs first’ needs to be contested for new alternative meanings of good mothering to emerge which go beyond the autonomy-dependency model.
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Farooq, Samaya. "‘Muslim women’, Islam and sport : ‘race’, culture and identity in post-colonial Britain." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2010. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/3904/.
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This thesis offers insight into the lives and lived (sporting) experiences of 20 British born Muslim women of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage. [In the interests of anonymity, pseudonyms have been used throughout this thesis.] They comprise working professionals and students who live in the urban diaspora community of Stratley, UK, and have been playing basketball in their local community since April 2007. Adopting a post-colonial feminist philosophical consciousness, this qualitative ethnographic study centralises the voices of subjects who are both pathologised in media-hyped discourses pertaining to the ‘Islamic peril’, and truncated by the affront of fundamentalist Islam. It does this by addressing four inter-related research questions. The first asks how membership of urban diasporic communities contributes to British Muslim women’s self-identifications and whether living in such spaces shapes the nature and context of women’s (social) lives and their entry to sport. The second question explores the extents to which British Muslim women are able to activate a ‘politics of difference’ to (re)-negotiate their access to sport. The third question centralises the complex identity politics of being ‘British Muslims’ and assesses, in particular, whether my respondents’ sporting ambitions have any impact on their identity work as ‘British born’ Muslim women who are of a migrant heritage. The fourth question also addresses British Muslim women’s sense of self, but investigates, in particular, whether playing basketball has any impact on the ‘self/bodywork’ of single, heterosexual ‘British-born’ Muslim women of a migrant heritage. Drawing upon critical literatures rooted in post-colonial, Asian and Islamic feminism the study contextualises the conditions of post-colonialism for Muslim individuals in Britain, especially Muslim women. It also focuses upon debates pertaining to Muslim women and sport. By privileging marginal epistemologies that have often been silenced or distorted through essentialist, uncritical and simplistic understandings of ‘Muslim women’, findings advance arguments about the lives, lifestyles and identities of subjects whose social, gendered, cultural and religious authenticities beneath the (body) veil evoke both sensitive questions and global concerns (especially in the aftermath of 9/11). The overall discussion brings into sharp focus the collective and subjective struggles of respondents in terms of their identity re/construction. I allude to the agentic capacity which my respondents had to re-constitute and re-negotiate aspects of their day-to-day lives, their engagement with sport, their identities and their bodies. I exemplify the myriad ways and extents to which my participants struggle against multiple material constraints that impose a particular ‘identity’ upon Muslim women and enforce a way of life upon them that restricts their access to sports. The thesis concludes that those frequently depicted as being oppressed and voiceless do indeed have the power to relationally make, unmake and/or remake their selfhoods.
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Wilson, Rebekah. "A name of one’s own : identity, choice and performance in marital relationships." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2009. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/305/.
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With its origins in sociological debates about individualisation, personalisation and the transformation of intimacy, this research explores the long-neglected subject of the surnames of married women. Drawing on in-depth biographical interviews with 30 married or once-married women, respondents are found to engage in complex negotiations with cultural assumptions about wifehood, motherhood and the family when called to change surnames upon marriage. Through their interviews, women account for their surname ‘choice’ via a range of, often-contradictory, discourses – thereby identifying marital naming as an issue of tension and struggle for wives, as well as for women considering marriage. Their ‘talk’ frequently calls upon debates of social stability and change, as well as ideas of autonomy and connectedness. Overall, their narratives speak of social control and a dominant institutional structure in life – and women either accepted the norms of naming or dealt with the consequences. This finding was underscored by the responses of 453 people to a street survey. For interviewees, the opposing role of surnames in marking out both individual identity and social connections led to conflicts. Relational identities were often placed in opposition to autonomy. Yet, women more frequently positioned themselves as interdependent negotiators rather than autonomous agents. For interviewees, surname ‘choices’ were imbued with social meanings and were not rated equally – their choice of surname either ‘displayed’ that they were ‘doing gender well’ or ‘doing gender poorly’. However, discussions of gender were largely absent or neutralised in the interviewees’ accounts, while women who kept their maiden names spoke about feeling the need to silence their naming decision. The research concludes that marital naming forms part of women’s exhaustive efforts at ‘relationship work’. Married women were accountable for their surnames as assumptions of marital naming were found to pervade notions about wifehood. Whatever surname an interviewee decided upon, she was responsible for conducting a gendered and classed performance, and her surname ‘choices’ involved both personal sacrifices and gains.
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Dennehy, Jane. "Gender and competition : a dynamic for managers." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2010. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/327/.
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Gender inequality continues to exist in the labour market and this project contributes to discussions on why women are not equally represented in management hierarchies relative to their labour participation rates. Competition is the central lens used to evaluate current debates and add new perspectives to gendered processes in management. As an area of research, competition is largely neglected in the gender and management body of work. This study is important in exploring how as a concept and a practice, competition can operate in organisations and in the individual careers of men and women managers. Informing the thesis is a review of theories including gender performance, individualization, stereotypes and management styles which contribute to building a framework for understanding and engaging with competition and competitive relations. Adapted from Bradley’s (1999) model of gendered power, competition is defined as a series of dimensions which are investigated to research how and in what ways competition is gendered. Qualitative data was collected and analysed with the findings indicating a confused and often contradictory picture demonstrating how managers engage with competition and competitive relations. Within organisations and management hierarchies competition, some managers claim, remains distant from their experiences at work and is not widely discussed. For others external competition located within the marketplace is strongly identified with, whereas other managers cite personal competition and its role in their own self development as the base for their experience. Suggesting competition is a single concept or has a single location for practice has limitations. The model designed and used in this project builds competition as a multidimensional concept which can be explored across a range of activities and attitudes examining how increased visibility and understanding of competitive relations can inform those management practices and policies which sustain gender inequality.
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Otter, Clare. "The impact of Primary SEAL small group interventions (silver set materials) on social and emotional outcomes for pupils." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2010. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11706/.
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This study aimed to contribute to the small evidence-base on the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) programme. SEAL is a school-based approach to developing children’s social and emotional skills. It was launched by the government in 2005 and has been adopted by schools across the UK. This study focused on the small group aspect of SEAL, which is aimed at children who are targeted for additional practice with their social and emotional skills. The researcher used a non-equivalent control group quasi-experimental design to evaluate the effectiveness of two of the small group SEAL interventions, New Beginnings and Getting On and Falling Out. Pupils, parents and teachers completed questionnaires before and after the interventions and, in the case of New Beginnings, around six weeks after the intervention ended. The level of fidelity to the government guidance was assessed through observations and interviews. No positive results were found for the New Beginnings intervention group in comparison with the control group, but there was some support for the Getting On and Falling Out intervention; with improvements in teacher-rated empathy, total emotional literacy and pro-social behaviour. In common with previous research, no effects were found for parent-ratings or for children who had been selected to take part in the interventions as role models. The results are discussed in terms of implications for practitioner educational psychologists and suggestions are made for further studies in this under-researched area.
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Mannell, Jeneviève. "Practicing gender : gender and development policy in South African organisations." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2012. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/567/.
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This is a thesis about the relationship between gender policy and practice in South Africa, and its effects. Gender is a concept widely used in development policy, but little attention has been paid to precisely how development agents use gender policy in their practice. As a result, we know little about the significance or meanings practitioners attribute to gender policy, or how development actors adapt, transform or manipulate gender policy in their everyday work. Gaps in knowledge about how gender policy is put into practice in specific contexts have led to gaps in knowledge about what effects gender policy has on the politics of gender. This brings about two aims for this study: (1) to map the relationship between gender and development policy and practice in South Africa, and (2) to explore the effects of gender policy on gender politics. Following a multisite approach, this study looks at gender policy as a collection of ‘contested narratives’ (Shore & Wright 1997) about gender. The findings point to a conflict between three different policy frames being drawn on by policy actors as they try to assert their own understanding of gender, define the ‘problem’ that exists and the policies that are needed to solve it. This conflict may diminish the potential for a collective social movement for gender issues in South Africa. However, practitioners are not powerless implementers of policy, but rather use gender policy strategically in their practice by adopting, transforming and manipulating policy frames in a range of different tactical manoeuvres to suit their own objectives. Identifying the tactical manoeuvres being used by development practitioners in South Africa contributes new understandings of the fragmented ways that an alternative gender politics is currently being advanced by practitioners in this context.
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Hukin, Eleanor. "Contraception in Cambodia : explaining unmet need." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2012. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/640/.
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This thesis aims to explain why there is a high level of unmet need for contraception in Cambodia - a country where effective methods of birth control are cheaply available and morally acceptable. The research design takes a mixed methods approach, initially using data from the Cambodian Demographic and Health Surveys of 2000 and 2005 to assess trends in contraceptive use. Multivariate logistic regression is used to analyse factors associated with, firstly, unmet need, and secondly, use of traditional contraceptive methods. The likelihood of having an unmet need for contraception increased as education and wealth levels decreased; urban or rural residence had no significant effect. However, the likelihood of using traditional methods, rather than modern methods, increased as education and wealth increased. Taking these findings and the questions they raise as a departure point, 21 months of ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in one urban and one rural site in Northwest Cambodia between 2008 and 2010. The study looks at women’s and men’s reproductive decision making with a focus on their experiences of and meanings given to contraception, situating these understandings within the broader social context. Fear of side effects, stemming from both contraceptive experiences and notions of health and the body, was found to be the greatest obstacle to use of modern contraceptives. This related more broadly to the pluralistic medical systems operating simultaneously and the varying levels of medicalization and trust in both biomedicine and the Cambodian health system. Behaviour that seemed counter-intuitive at the outset - not wanting to become pregnant but not using contraception, and wealthy educated women choosing traditional over modern methods – becomes understandable in light of the context and meanings highlighted by the ethnographic data. This thesis provides a unique empirical study which contributes to the emerging field of anthropological demography. By bringing approaches and methods from medical anthropology to the typically demographic phenomenon of unmet need, the study provides a new insight for social policies regarding reproductive health as well as contributing to the body of ethnographic literature on Cambodia.
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Turner, Elizabeth C. "Acting like a man : a critical investigation into the performance practices of the seduction community." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2013. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/59919/.
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This thesis sets out to investigate the techniques and strategies used by members of the seduction community to perform masculinity, using as its primary sources material produced by the community ranging from published texts to online commentary. The research is interdisciplinary and incorporates theoretical frameworks drawn from performance studies, semiotics and cultural studies, sociology, literary theory and gender studies. The first chapter explains the origins and operations of the seduction community, positioning it as a force that regulates performances of masculinity and depends upon teamwork and co-operation in order to function. The second chapter discusses the community's dual understanding of masculinity as a construct open to adaptation and change, and also as an innate and natural category. This tension is addressed through an analysis of power relations evident through narcissism and self-display, and a reliance on the suppression of non-masculine elements through homosociality, and performances of leadership based upon embodied expertise. This leads me to conclude that the seduction community may be a heterosexual pretext for building fulfilling homosocial relations. The final chapter addresses how women and femininity are imagined in the community, specifically as inferior and in many ways incomplete without masculine intervention, an attitude which reflects broader social trends. Of particular importance here are the devaluation of female speech and sexuality and the imagining of sex as a commodity. The thesis argues that where women themselves appropriate the language and techniques of the seduction community, this is presented as complicity with conventional gender norms, but also a potential route to individual empowerment through learning to manage relationships more effectively.
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Evans, Alice. "Women can do what men can do : the causes and consequences of growing flexibility in gender divisions of labour in Kitwe, Zambia." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2013. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/752/.
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This thesis explores the causes and consequences of growing flexibility in gender divisions of labour in Kitwe, Zambia. It examines the relationship between four contemporary trends (1990-2011): worsening economic security, growing flexibility in gender divisions of labour in the form of increasing female labour force participation and occupational desegregation, and the weakening of gender stereotypes. The evidence for these trends comes from census data, earlier ethnographies and my own qualitative research (April 2010 − March 2011). The analysis draws upon a theoretical framework that interprets sex-differentiated practices as resulting from internalised gender stereotypes, cultural expectations and patterns of resource access. The substantive chapters of the thesis consider alternative hypotheses. Did worsening economic security trigger flexibility in gender divisions of labour, which then weakened gender stereotypes (Chapter 4)? Alternatively, was such flexibility actually contingent upon a prior rejection of gender stereotypes, due to particular formative experiences (Chapter 5) or gender sensitisation (Chapter 6)? This thesis argues that worsening economic security led many families to sacrifice the social gains accrued by complying with cultural expectations of gender divisions of labour in exchange for the financial benefits of female labour force participation. But occupational desegregation is partly attributed to a prior rejection of gender stereotypes. Flexibility in gender divisions of labour seems to undermine gender stereotypes and related status inequalities, by enabling exposure to a critical mass of women performing roles that they were previously presumed to be incapable and that are valorised because they were historically performed by men. Common forms of gender sensitisation in Zambia were rarely said to be independently persuasive; impact generally appears contingent upon exposure to a critical mass of women in socially valued domains. Sensitisation also seems more effective when it enables participants to see that others also endorse gender equality. This can increase confidence in the objective validity of one’s own egalitarian beliefs and also shift cultural expectations.
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Goisis, Alice. "Childbearing postponement and child wellbeing in the U.K. : reconciling and integrating different perspectives." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2013. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/844/.
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The demographic literature has tended to interpret the postponement of childbearing, experienced in developed countries over the past three decades, as beneficial for families. As women who postpone their first birth accumulate resources before they become mothers, an increasing maternal age at first birth is expected to be positively associated with children’s wellbeing. Existing evidence is only partially able to support these arguments, primarily for two reasons. Firstly, the demographic literature has been mainly preoccupied with the social aspects of postponement, ignoring that, as showed by the medical literature, older childbearing may involve health complications and result in worse outcomes for children. Indeed, the link between postponement and child wellbeing may depend on how late the birth occurs. Secondly, the “weathering” hypothesis literature argues that the link between maternal age and child wellbeing is heterogeneous for population subgroups. Ethnic minority women may have fewer opportunities to acquire resources even if they postpone childbearing. Because of the disadvantage and racism they endure, they may experience a more rapid deterioration of their health, which implies that their children’s wellbeing might worsen, rather than improve, with increasing maternal age at birth. The original contribution to knowledge of this thesis is that of investigating the way childbearing postponement is associated with family and child wellbeing by integrating and reconciling different perspectives on maternal age, which have so far been developed and applied relatively independently. The research focuses on the U.K. context, on first births and compares (children born to) Black and White mothers. The results, on average, support the arguments of the demographic literature as first born children of older mothers (30+) fare significantly better than children of younger mothers, although, consistent with the medical literature, the benefits cease to accumulate at particularly advanced maternal ages. However, consistent with the “weathering” hypothesis literature, the results suggest that when analysed separately for Black and White mothers, the association between maternal age and child wellbeing varies across these groups. Indeed, Black/White gaps in child low birth weight widen with increasing maternal age at first birth. The results also reveal that when Black mothers delay childbearing to older ages, they do not experience the same accumulation of resources as White mothers do, suggesting that childbearing postponement may reflect qualitatively different processes for these groups.
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Lalonde, Simon. "Child rearing practices and attitudes of adolescent fathers." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 1988. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11500/.
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There has been considerable interest and sometimes concern for teenage parents. This interest has developed for two reasons, firstly, it has been viewed that teenage parents are inappropriately young to have children, and secondly, it has popularly been thought that the number of female teenagers becoming pregnant and subsequently giving birth to children has dramatically increased over the last twenty years. Much of this attention has focused on the young mother, because she has been thought to shoulder the major responsibility for looking after the child. This is not untypical of research on parenting which has adopted a mother biased approach, although there has been a more recent interest in the fathers. The object of this study was to examine the experiences of one hundred young fathers, aged seventeen to twenty two, who were regularly involved with their infant. The fathers were interviewed at home and data was collected on all aspects of their family participation. Younger fathers appeared to be an extremely disadvantaged group, many had few or no formal qualifications and during a period of high general unemployment a disproportionate number of the sample were unemployed. The financial responsibilities of fatherhood placed added burdens on this group and restricted many of the opportunities that should have been available to men of this age. Contrary to popular opinion the young fathers interviewed often had long standing relationships with the mother and were highly psychologically involved with their children; although they were not always highly participant in child care activities. As with research on older fathers, younger fathers were shown not to take on the major responsibilities of caring for children, even though some (those who were unemployed) had a greater opportunity to do so. They reported being interested and involved at every stage of the child's life, even during the periods when circumstances made it more difficult for them to be highly participant; the nature of this involvement changed as the needs of the mother and the child altered. However because of their age, and as a consequence their lack of preparation, many young fathers and mothers had to negotiate a turbulent period which was sometimes very stressful. This study suggests that although being young in itself does not necessarily cause younger parents to be qualitatively different from older parents, it does indicate that they face more problems which because of their age they may be more vulnerable to.