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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Australian feminism'
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1
Casey, Sarah Jane. "Australian Feminist Approaches to Mass Awareness Campaigns: Celanthropy, Celebrity Feminism and Online Activism." Thesis, Griffith University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/366513.
Full textAbstract:
This research asks which methods can successfully promote mainstream recognition for an issue, and if the success of such methods translates to a stronger feminist movement in Australia in the twenty-first century Western zeitgeist. These questions are important because broader-scale feminist consciousness-raising is critical at a time when the dominant discourses of neoliberalism and postfeminism often mean a reduced focus on collective campaigning for issues such as the awareness of gender-based violence, and there has arguably been an evacuation of substantive feminist politics in some areas.
My original contribution lies in the testing and analysis of campaign methods and pathways for the information of Australian feminists who want to take women’s rights issues to more central mainstream spaces in feminist mass awareness campaigning. This research explores the deployment of what I call the twenty-first century’s ‘Tools of the Zeitgeist’. This thesis focuses on three current mainstream Tools of the Zeitgeist: celebrity philanthropy and activism; celebrity feminists; and mainstream, online and social media activism. This research is unique because the discussion revolves around these three areas for feminist activism, which I argue would be most beneficial when used in tandem because they are often utilised in other social movements’ mass awareness campaigns (e.g., poverty or environment) and are rarely deployed in unison in organised feminist mass awareness campaigning. This thesis argues that there is an increased velocity in the Australian mediasphere of feminist discourse and engagement, and as such, it recognises that this is a critical nexus for the potential for a larger scale feminist-led mass awareness campaigning in Australia.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Humanities
Arts, Education and Law
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Goh, Talisha. "Re-Composing Feminism: Australian women composers in the new millennium." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2019. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2194.
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In the age of postfeminism and fourth-wave feminism online, Australian women composers are theoretically able to “have it all,” however, the proportion of women in the occupation appears to have plateaued in recent years. In this thesis, I explore the multiple ways in which gender and feminism interact with practising Australian women composers. Feminist musicology has had a large impact on the Australian musicological scene, with theorists such as McClary and Macarthur bringing the subject of women in music to the fore in the 1990s, aiding efforts to advocate for reform on behalf of women composers. Additionally, third-wave feminist scholars such as Hartsock have argued for the study of women’s experiences within maledominated disciplines such as musicology. Using feminist standpoint theory as a foundation, this thesis examines the experiences of practising Australian women composers, finding multi-faceted and contradictory views of feminism and gender. A principal case study of composer Kate Moore examines how gender has shaped her career trajectory. Finally, a neo-Riemannian analysis of Moore’s work, Violins and Skeletons (2010), illustrates how gender may shape compositional strategies, speculating upon the fraught relationship women composers have with the conventions of Western art music because their work implicitly functions outside of, or against, the canon. This research highlights the importance of studying minority experiences in musicology, and how they relate to the dominant aesthetic and intellectual traditions.
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Skyes, Gillian E. "The new woman in the new world : fin-de-siècle writing and feminism in Australia." Phd thesis, Faculty of Arts, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/16473.
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Rups-Eyland, Annette Maie, University of Western Sydney, of Arts Education and Social Sciences College, and School of Social Ecology and Lifelong Learning. "Centre of the storm : in search of an Australian feminist spirituality through performance-ritual." THESIS_CAESS_SELL_Rups-Eyland_A.xml, 2002. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/771.
Full textAbstract:
The outward form of the text in which the spiritual search is housed is 'performance-ritual', that is, performed 'ritual'. This genre has its 'performance' roots in the dance pioneers and its 'ritual' roots in the Christian church. The contents of this performed text is influenced by an emerging ecofeminist consciousness. In this way, the thesis has a grassroots inspiration as well as crossing academic areas of performance studies, ritual studies, and feminist spirituality. The project begins by an examination of 20th Century feminist and ecofeminist writing on spirituality, which evokes the subjective, embodied and historically contextualised, with particular focus on body and nature. Additional concepts of place, holding and letting go are introduced. Particular performance-rituals are introduced under the overall heading 'the spiralling journey of exorcism and ecstacy'. They include earlier work, as well as work performed specifically for this thesis, Centre of the Storm. The study re-situates 'ritual' as a subjective, embodied and contextualised performed event. It challenges ritual discourse to incorporate 'spirit', and feminist spirituality to incorporate the material world, through 'place', 'family', and the ritual actions of 'holding' and 'letting go'.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
5
Donovan, Jennifer. "The intellectual traditions of Australian feminism : women's clubs and societies, 1890-1920." Thesis, Faculty of Arts, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/16478.
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Thompson, Jay. "Sex and power in Australian writing during the Culture Wars, 1993-1997 /." Connect to thesis, 2009. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/6714.
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I address a selection of texts published in Australia between 1993 and 1997 which engage with feminist debates about sex and power. These texts are important, I argue, because they signpost the historical moment in which the culture wars and globalisation gained force in Australia. A key word in this thesis is ‘framing’. The debates which my texts engage with have (much like the culture wars in general) commonly been framed as conflicts between polarised political factions. These political factions have, in turn, been framed in terms of generations; that is, an ‘older’ feminism is pitted against a ‘newer’ feminism. Each generation of feminists supposedly holds quite different views about sex. I argue that my texts actually provide an insight into how various feminist perspectives on sex diverge and intersect with each other, as well as with certain New Right discourses about sex. My selected texts also suggest how the printed text has helped transport feminism within and outside AustraliaMy texts fit into two broad genres, fiction and scholarly non-fiction. The texts are: Helen Garner’s The First Stone (1995), Sheila Jeffreys’ The Lesbian Heresy (1993), Catharine Lumby’s Bad Girls (1997), Linda Jaivin’s Eat Me (1995) and Justine Ettler’s The River Ophelia (1995). I engage with various critical responses to these texts, including reviews, essays and interviews with the authors. I draw also from a range of theoretical sources. These include analyses of the culture wars by the American theorist Lillian S. Robinson and the Australian scholars McKenzie Wark, David McKnight and Mark Davis. Davis has provided a useful overview of how the metaphor of ‘generational conflict’ circulated in Australian culture during the 1990s. I draw on Arjun Appadurai’s model of “global cultural flows” and Ann Curthoys’ history of feminism in Australia. I engage with research into the increasingly ‘globalised’ nature of Australian writing, as well as a number of feminist works on the relationship between sex and power
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Wilson, Erica Christine, and n/a. "A 'Journey Of Her Own'?: The Impact Of Constraints On Women's Solo Travel." Griffith University. Department of Tourism, Leisure, Hotel and Sport Management, 2004. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20050209.110742.
Full textAbstract:
Women are increasingly active in the participation and consumption of travel, and are now recognised as a growing force within the tourism industry. This trend is linked to changing social and political circumstances for Western women around the world. Within Australia specifically, women's opportunities for education and for earning equitable incomes through employment have improved. Furthermore, traditional ideologies of the family have shifted, so that social expectations of marriage and the production of children do not yield as much power as they once did. As a result of these shifts, women living in contemporary Australia have a wider range of resources and opportunities with which to access an ever-increasing array of leisure/travel choices. It appears that one of the many ways in which women have been exercising their relatively recent financial and social autonomy is through independent travel. The solo woman traveller represents a growing market segment, with research showing that increasing numbers of females are choosing to travel alone, without the assistance or company of partners, husbands or packaged tour groups. However, little empirical research has explored the touristic experiences of solo women travellers, or examined the constraints and challenges they may face when journeying alone. 'Constraints' have been described variously as factors which hinder one's ability to participate in desired leisure activities, to spend more time in those activities, or to attain anticipated levels of satisfaction and benefit. While the investigation of constraints has contributed to the leisure studies discipline for a number of decades, the exploration of their influence on tourist behaviour and the tourist experience has been virtually overlooked. Research has shown that despite the choices and opportunities women have today, the freedom they have to consume those choices, and to access satisfying leisure and travel experiences, may be constrained by their social and gendered location as females. Although theorisations of constraint have remained largely in the field of leisure studies, it is argued and demonstrated in this thesis that there is potential in extending constraints theory to the inquiry of the tourist experience. Grounded in theoretical frameworks offered by gender studies, feminist geography, sociology and leisure, this qualitative study set out to explore the impact of constraints on women's solo travel experiences. Forty in-depth interviews were held with Australian women who had travelled solo at some stage of their adult lives. Adopting an interpretive and feminist-influenced research paradigm, it was important to allow the women to speak of their lives, constraints and experiences in their own voices and on their own terms. In line with qualitative methodologies, it is these women's words which form the data for this study. Based on a 'grounded' approach to data analysis, the results reveal that constraints do exist and exert influence on these women's lives and travel experiences in a myriad of ways. Four inter-linking categories of constraint were identified, namely socio-cultural, personal, practical and spatial. Further definition of these categories evolved, depending on where the women were situated in their stage of the solo travel experience (that is, pre-travel or during-travel). The results of this study show that there are identifiable and very real constraints facing solo women travellers. These constraints could stem from the contexts of their home environments, or from the socio-cultural structures of the destinations through which they travelled. However, these constraints were not immutable, insurmountable or even necessarily consciously recognised by many of the women interviewed. In fact, it became increasingly evident that women were findings ways and means to 'negotiate' their constraints, challenges and limitations. Three dominant negotiation responses to constraint could be identified; the women could choose to seek access to solo travel when faced with pre-travel constraints: they could withdraw from solo travel because of those same constraints, or they could decide to continue their journeys as a result of their in-situ constraints. Evidence of women negotiating suggests that constraints are not insurmountable barriers, and confirms that constraints do not necessarily foreclose access to travel. Furthermore, a focus on negotiation re-positions women as active agents in determining the course of their lives and the enjoyment of their solo travel experiences, rather than as passive acceptors of circumstance and constraint. Linking with the concept of negotiation, solo travel was also shown to be a site of resistance, freedom and empowerment for these forty women. Through solo travel, it was apparent that the women could transgress the structures and roles which influenced and governed their lives. This thesis shows that, through solo travel, the women interviewed found an autonomous and self-determining 'journey of their own'. At the same time, the extent to which this really was a journey of their own was questioned and revealed to be problematic under a feminist/gendered lens. Thus a more appropriate concept of women's solo travel is that it is a 'relative escape'. That is, their journeys, escapes and experiences were always situated relative to the societal expectations and perceptions of home; relative to the gendered perceptions and ideologies of the destination, and relative to the limited spatial freedoms as a result of a socially constructed geography of fear.
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Wilson, Erica Christine. "A 'Journey Of Her Own'?: The Impact Of Constraints On Women's Solo Travel." Thesis, Griffith University, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/365683.
Full textAbstract:
Women are increasingly active in the participation and consumption of travel, and are now recognised as a growing force within the tourism industry. This trend is linked to changing social and political circumstances for Western women around the world. Within Australia specifically, women's opportunities for education and for earning equitable incomes through employment have improved. Furthermore, traditional ideologies of the family have shifted, so that social expectations of marriage and the production of children do not yield as much power as they once did. As a result of these shifts, women living in contemporary Australia have a wider range of resources and opportunities with which to access an ever-increasing array of leisure/travel choices. It appears that one of the many ways in which women have been exercising their relatively recent financial and social autonomy is through independent travel. The solo woman traveller represents a growing market segment, with research showing that increasing numbers of females are choosing to travel alone, without the assistance or company of partners, husbands or packaged tour groups. However, little empirical research has explored the touristic experiences of solo women travellers, or examined the constraints and challenges they may face when journeying alone. 'Constraints' have been described variously as factors which hinder one's ability to participate in desired leisure activities, to spend more time in those activities, or to attain anticipated levels of satisfaction and benefit. While the investigation of constraints has contributed to the leisure studies discipline for a number of decades, the exploration of their influence on tourist behaviour and the tourist experience has been virtually overlooked. Research has shown that despite the choices and opportunities women have today, the freedom they have to consume those choices, and to access satisfying leisure and travel experiences, may be constrained by their social and gendered location as females. Although theorisations of constraint have remained largely in the field of leisure studies, it is argued and demonstrated in this thesis that there is potential in extending constraints theory to the inquiry of the tourist experience. Grounded in theoretical frameworks offered by gender studies, feminist geography, sociology and leisure, this qualitative study set out to explore the impact of constraints on women's solo travel experiences. Forty in-depth interviews were held with Australian women who had travelled solo at some stage of their adult lives. Adopting an interpretive and feminist-influenced research paradigm, it was important to allow the women to speak of their lives, constraints and experiences in their own voices and on their own terms. In line with qualitative methodologies, it is these women's words which form the data for this study. Based on a 'grounded' approach to data analysis, the results reveal that constraints do exist and exert influence on these women's lives and travel experiences in a myriad of ways. Four inter-linking categories of constraint were identified, namely socio-cultural, personal, practical and spatial. Further definition of these categories evolved, depending on where the women were situated in their stage of the solo travel experience (that is, pre-travel or during-travel). The results of this study show that there are identifiable and very real constraints facing solo women travellers. These constraints could stem from the contexts of their home environments, or from the socio-cultural structures of the destinations through which they travelled. However, these constraints were not immutable, insurmountable or even necessarily consciously recognised by many of the women interviewed. In fact, it became increasingly evident that women were findings ways and means to 'negotiate' their constraints, challenges and limitations. Three dominant negotiation responses to constraint could be identified; the women could choose to seek access to solo travel when faced with pre-travel constraints: they could withdraw from solo travel because of those same constraints, or they could decide to continue their journeys as a result of their in-situ constraints. Evidence of women negotiating suggests that constraints are not insurmountable barriers, and confirms that constraints do not necessarily foreclose access to travel. Furthermore, a focus on negotiation re-positions women as active agents in determining the course of their lives and the enjoyment of their solo travel experiences, rather than as passive acceptors of circumstance and constraint. Linking with the concept of negotiation, solo travel was also shown to be a site of resistance, freedom and empowerment for these forty women. Through solo travel, it was apparent that the women could transgress the structures and roles which influenced and governed their lives. This thesis shows that, through solo travel, the women interviewed found an autonomous and self-determining 'journey of their own'. At the same time, the extent to which this really was a journey of their own was questioned and revealed to be problematic under a feminist/gendered lens. Thus a more appropriate concept of women's solo travel is that it is a 'relative escape'. That is, their journeys, escapes and experiences were always situated relative to the societal expectations and perceptions of home; relative to the gendered perceptions and ideologies of the destination, and relative to the limited spatial freedoms as a result of a socially constructed geography of fear.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department of Tourism, Leisure, Hotel and Sport Management
Griffith Business School
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Rups-Eyland, Annette Maie. "Centre of the storm : in search of an Australian feminist spirituality through performance-ritual." Thesis, View thesis View thesis, 2002. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/771.
Full textAbstract:
The outward form of the text in which the spiritual search is housed is 'performance-ritual', that is, performed 'ritual'. This genre has its 'performance' roots in the dance pioneers and its 'ritual' roots in the Christian church. The contents of this performed text is influenced by an emerging ecofeminist consciousness. In this way, the thesis has a grassroots inspiration as well as crossing academic areas of performance studies, ritual studies, and feminist spirituality. The project begins by an examination of 20th Century feminist and ecofeminist writing on spirituality, which evokes the subjective, embodied and historically contextualised, with particular focus on body and nature. Additional concepts of place, holding and letting go are introduced. Particular performance-rituals are introduced under the overall heading 'the spiralling journey of exorcism and ecstacy'. They include earlier work, as well as work performed specifically for this thesis, Centre of the Storm. The study re-situates 'ritual' as a subjective, embodied and contextualised performed event. It challenges ritual discourse to incorporate 'spirit', and feminist spirituality to incorporate the material world, through 'place', 'family', and the ritual actions of 'holding' and 'letting go'.
10
Cameron, Hannah. "Inspiring Womanhood: A re-interpretation of The Dawn." Thesis, Department of History, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/7973.
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This thesis explores the diversity of content and ideas found in Louisa Lawson’s The Dawn, Australia’s first successful magazine ‘by women and for women’, showing that every element of the journal promoted a womanhood ideal for Australian women. Though remembered for the challenging arguments it made for women’s rights, most of the journal was taken up by beauty tips, household hints, recipes, women’s stories, health ideas, fashion articles and the like. This thesis examines such elements, noting how they served to help readers progress towards its womanhood ideal. It highlights the way that The Dawn’s discourse on women’s right was integrated into this ideal. It also analyses some of the key themes and ideas central to the ideal constructed in The Dawn, such as motherhood, beauty, and success in work and study.
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Williams, Kerry. "Fleshing the facade : the manual." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 1989. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/27858.
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Anyone moderately familiar with the rigours of composition will not need to be told the story in detail; how he wrote and it seemed good; read and it seemed vile; corrected and tore up; cut out; put in; was in ecstasy; in despair; had his good nights and bad mornings; snatched at ideas and lost them; saw his book plain before him and it vanished; acted his people's parts as he ate; mouthed them as he walked; now cried; now laughed; vacillated between this style and that; now preferred the heroic and pompous; next the plain and simple ... [Virginia Woolf. 1977. Orlando. London: Grafton Books, p. 51)
And in the creation of this documentation there has been a question of style. How to write and present the written documentation so that it is complementary to and in harmony with the visual representation, both in terms of content and tone?
The answer has been to use the game as a metaphor and to cut the deck three ways:
First is the theoretical framework covering the broad perspective of the social environment, the women's movement and the art arena. It is the objective section, but it is written to reflect a "life's experiences"
approach rather than a purely academic interest in the subject matter.
Set in a games framework, with fictional titles, it provides the more "all knowing" element in the discussion.
Second are the autobiographical details presented under the guise of Alice. These stories have been written in a more childlike, innocent fashion reflecting the often unwitting involvement of players in the matrix of social games.
Third are the visual images of the artwork. The artwork itself is not directly discussed but rather included where appropriate throughout the text, drawing from the theoretical and/or the personal.
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Rups-Eyland, Annette Maie. "Centre of the storm : in search of an Australian feminist spirituality through performance-ritual /." View thesis View thesis, 2002. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20031222.160235/index.html.
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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2002.A thesis submitted in full requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Social Ecology and Lifelong Learning, University of Western Sydney, May 2002. Bibliography : p. [369]- 395.
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Bonshek, Corrina. "Australian deterritorialised music theatre : a theoretical and creative exploration." Thesis, View thesis, 2007. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/40061.
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This project consists of a theoretical examination of Australian music theatre and a portfolio of musical compositions. The thesis proposes an innovative analytical model for music theatre/multi-media with a distinctive perspective. Adapting concepts from feminist Deleuzean theorists, it advances a notion of feminine difference that moves beyond earlier debates between essentialists and anti-essentialists. This theoretical framework guides the close examination of three works ― Andrée Greenwell’s Laquiem: Tales from the Mourning of the Lac Women (1999), Greenwell’s Laquiem (2002) and Gretchen Miller’s Inland (1999/2000) ― that complicate the category ‘music theatre’ in the way that they cross genre boundaries. Greenwell’s Laquiem: Tales from the Mourning of the Lac Women is a new music performance work based upon Kathleen Mary Fallon’s ‘The Mourning of the Lac Women’. This work has a close relationship to Laquiem (2002), a short film directed, composed and scripted adapted by Greenwell based upon the same text by Fallon. Inland is a radiophonic work that Miller also staged as a live performance. The thesis argues that changing format and interdisciplinary content of works such as these has contributed to the current proliferation of genre labels. Recent works can be defined under various descriptors such as ‘performance art’, ‘documentary opera’ or ‘installation performance’. The thesis offers the concept of ‘deterritorialised music theatre’ to address works that exist at and beyond the limits of music theatre as a category. The penultimate chapter applies a Deleuzean feminist framework to the composition portfolio submitted with the thesis. The creative work consists of two audio-visual installations (one with quadraphonic sound), a music-theatre work (exploring ‘action’- instrumental possibilities) and a music-art tour that includes music for string trio, singer and brass/sax septet.
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Sanders, Anne E. "Studies in contemporary Australian sculptural practice: Hilarie Mais and Fiona Hall." Thesis, Canberra, ACT : The Australian National University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/8756.
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The subject of this thesis is contemporary Australian sculptural practice. Within the limitations of a Master of Arts sub-thesis, it aims to provide an analysis of developments in contemporary Australian sculptural practice since 1980. This analysis is conducted within the context of the theoretical frameworks of postmodernism, feminism and postcolonialism.
The first chapter seeks to establish a general overview and context, both nationally and internationally, for the significant changes and developments in contemporary sculptural practice in Australia. Specifically, three key theoretical concepts are identified as major protagonists of these changes. The second and third chapters seek to provide specific examples of these theoretical concepts identified in chapter one within the context of two monographic case studies of mid-career sculptors, Hilarie Mais and Fiona Hall.
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Weeda-Zuidersma, Jeannette. "Keeping mum : representations of motherhood in contemporary Australian literature - a fictocritical exploration." University of Western Australia. School of Social and Cultural Studies, 2007. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2007.0054.
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[Truncated abstract] This thesis argues that the non-representation and under-representation of mothering in contemporary Australian literature reflects a much wider cultural practice of silencing the mother-as-subject position and female experiences as a whole. The thesis encourages women writers to pay more attention to the subjective experiences of mothering, so that women’s writing, in particular writing on those aspects of women’s lives that are silenced, of which motherhood is one, can begin to refigure motherhood discourses. This thesis examines mother-as-subject from three perspectives: mothering as a corporeal experience, mothering as a psychological experience, and the articulations and silences of mothering-as-subject. It engages with feminist, postmodern and fictocritical theories in its discussion of motherhood as a discourse through these perspectives. In particular, the thesis employs the theoretical works of postmodern feminists Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva in this discussion . . . A fictional narrative also runs through the critical discussion on motherhood. This narrative, Catherine’s Story, gives a personal and immediate voice to the mother-as-subject perspective. In keeping with the nature of fictocriticism, strict textual boundaries between criticism and fiction are blurred. The two modes of writing interact and in the process inform and critique each other.
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Bonshek, Corrina. "Australian deterritorialised music theatre a theoretical and creative exploration /." View thesis, 2007. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/19308.
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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2007.A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, School of Communication Arts. Includes bibliography.
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Webb, Rosemary Ferguson. "Australian girl readers, femininities and feminism in the Second World War (1939-1945) a study of subjectivity and agency /." Access electronically, 2004. http://www.library.uow.edu.au/adt-NWU/public/adt-NWU20050706.111946/index.html.
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Aydemir, Cigdem. "Image and Voice: Muslim women in Contemporary Art." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/15723.
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This paper investigates the Western image of the Muslim woman in the context of contemporary art. Through my art practice I use the veiled woman cipher to reflect on personal experiences whilst broadening definitions and displacing hegemonic representations of veiling and Muslim women in an Australian cultural context. These are exemplified through autobiographical elements, parody in the Extremist Activity series, performative interventions illustrating the concept of the body as an occupied site and architectural devices that (re)create notions of inclusion, exclusion and otherness in space. From loquacious and overbearing noblewomen to helpless harem slaves awaiting rescue by her Orientalist saviours, an analysis of the development of the Muslim woman’s image throughout history reveals the shifting and contingent nature of her role in the Western imagination. Finally, an examination of current representations of Muslim women in Australian contemporary art demonstrates how these images often repeat and reinforce, rather than depart from, Orientalist and neo-Orientalist constructs.
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Nanlohy, Elizabeth Mavis, and mikewood@deakin edu au. "Fundamentalism meets feminism: Postmodern confrontation in the work of Janette Turner Hospital." Deakin University. School of Literary and Communication Studies, 2000. http://tux.lib.deakin.edu.au./adt-VDU/public/adt-VDU20060720.090953.
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Bode, Katherine. "In/visibility : women looking at men's bodies in and through contemporary Australian women's fiction /." [St. Lucia, Qld.], 2005. http://adt.library.uq.edu.au/public/adt-QU20060120.161127/index.html.
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Andrew, Merrindahl, and merrindahl andrew@anu edu au. "Social Movements and the Limits of Strategy: How Australian Feminists Formed Positions on Work and Care." The Australian National University. School of Social Sciences, 2008. http://thesis.anu.edu.au./public/adt-ANU20090508.155410.
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Feminism is often blamed for having made the 'wrong decisions' on issues such as work and care. This thesis argues that such judgements are based on a misperception of how social movements exercise collective agency. While feminist historiography and social movement studies offer some insights, neither directly address the question of to what extent the directions taken by social movements can be shaped by high level strategic decision-making. In answering this question, the research was informed by philosophical pragmatism and by feminist theories of responsibility and reason. The prevailing 'movement CEO' image of decision-making was rejected in favour of an approach directed to interpreting the past actions of the womens movement without neglecting its decentralised and collective nature.
¶
I began by investigating the degree of strategy in Australian womens movement activism on work and care issues in two periods: the interwar years (19191938) and in the 1970s and 1980s. These periods were chosen because they are often taken to illustrate failures in feminist decision-making. The second-wave movement is said to have failed women by over-emphasising access to paid work at the expense of womens caring roles while the feminists of the early twentieth century are said to have locked women into mothering roles by relying on maternalist arguments. The historical research drew on primary sources including the records created by organisations and individuals involved in the movement, together with oral history interviews. The historical studies found little evidence of capacity for, or orientation towards, high level strategic decision-making in terms of the political and discursive risks identified in later criticisms of feminism. The studies supplement existing historical accounts by illuminating the nature of organisational processes within the movement and the reasoning used by participants.
¶
I then developed a positive alternative to existing rational actor models of decision making, which avoids the assumption that movements as such engage in strategic decision-making but still allows for the possibility of purposive collective action. This 'organisation-direction' model proposes that collective intentions may be formed in the more densely-organised nodes of a movement field and may pull the movement in certain directions without imposing high-level strategic decisions. Non instrumental elements such as emotion and movement knowledge are irreducible parts of reasoned action, which only sometimes involves assessing risks and opportunities. Movement goals and means are generated in the course of practical engagement rather than through a linear process of decision-making. The thesis contributes to the social movement literature that emphasises the constitutive role of non-instrumental elements of action by showing how these are linked to goal-oriented organisation. The thesis responds to the growing emphasis on strategic choices in social movements by exploring the nature and limits of strategy instead of assuming its usefulness as an interpretive device.
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Ramsay, Janet. "The making of domestic violence policy by the Australian Commonwealth Government and the Government of the State of New South Wales between 1970 and 1985 an analytical narrative of feminist policy activism /." Connect to full text, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/724.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2005.Title from title screen (viewed 21 May 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Discipline of Government and International Relations, Faculty of Arts. Degree awarded 2005; thesis submitted 2004. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.
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Ryan, Rosemary. "Bearing Responsibility:Reconceiving RU486 and the regulation of women's reproductive decisions." Thesis, Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/11474.
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This thesis explores the status of abortion in Australia and analyses the representations of women that are produced and relied upon in public discourse on this issue. Drawing predominantly on the field of corporeal feminist theory I examine the historical and political-legal context of abortion in Australia over time, and in particular debates concerning the medical abortion drug RU486. I argue that the debate has been informed by dualistic understandings of women as irrational, maternal vessels requiring paternalistic regulation in the interests of the reproduction of the nation. This thesis questions the assumption that oppostion to abortion is primarily motivated by concern for the foetus, and explores and elaborates the gendered and politico-cultural constructions of sexuality, the nation and women's 'natural' role that inform the debate. Finally, I demonstrate that constructs of morality, rationality, sexuality and the nation have: been informed and limited by dualistic imaginaries of women and in response I argue for the feminist potential of an alternative embodied ethical framework.
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Bursian, Olga, and olga bursian@arts monash edu au. "Uncovering the well-springs of migrant womens' agency: connecting with Australian public infrastructure." RMIT University. Social Science and Planning, 2007. http://adt.lib.rmit.edu.au/adt/public/adt-VIT20080131.113605.
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The study sought to uncover the constitution of migrant women's agency as they rebuild their lives in Australia, and to explore how contact with any publicly funded services might influence the capacity to be self determining subjects. The thesis used a framework of lifeworld theories (Bourdieu, Schutz, Giddens), materialist, trans-national feminist and post colonial writings, and a methodological approach based on critical hermeneutics (Ricoeur), feminist standpoint and decolonising theories. Thirty in depth interviews were carried out with 6 women migrating from each of 5 regions: Vietnam, Lebanon, the Horn of Africa, the former Soviet Union and the Philippines. Australian based immigration literature constituted the third corner of triangulation. The interviews were carried out through an exploration of themes format, eliciting data about the different ontological and epistemological assumptions of the cultures of origin. The findings revealed not only the women's remarkable tenacity and resilience as creative agents, but also the indispensability of Australia's publicly funded infrastructure or welfare state. The women were mostly privileged in terms of class, education and affirming relationships with males. Nevertheless, their self determination depended on contact with universal public policies, programs and with local community services. The welfare state seems to be modernity's means for re-establishing human connectedness that is the crux of the human condition. Connecting with fellow Australians in friendships and neighbourliness was also important in resettlement. Conclusions include a policy discussion in agreement with Australian and international scholars proposing that there is no alternative but for governments to invest in a welfare state for the civil societies and knowledge based economies of the 21st Century.
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Zhang, Yan. "A settler colonial and feminist study of the journeys in Oscar and Lucinda, Gilgamesh, journey to the stone country and the swan book." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2022. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2509.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis investigates how four contemporary Australian novels, Peter Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda, Joan London’s Gilgamesh, Alex Miller’s Journey to the Stone Country and Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book, through adopting innovatively the journey motif and structure, deal with the impact of Australia’s colonial past on the country’s race and gender relationships. These journey stories variously represent Australian colonial history, explore the subjects of white guilt and settler unbelonging, and envisage an apocalyptic future for Australia. For my examination of the novels, I draw on elements of settler colonial and feminist theories, while also referring to Joseph Campbell’s and Evans Lansing Smith’s scholarship on the hero journey for the close reading of race and gender embodied in the novels. I argue that the selected novels, by means of three journeys or three phases of a journey, expose and challenge oppressive dualistic ideologies, such as white and black, male and female, the imperial centre and the empire periphery, human and Nature, and even life and death. In charting the journeys represented in the novels, I argue that i) Oscar and Lucinda, by re-enacting the scenes of early settlers’ migration to Australia and settler explorers’ expeditions into the inland of the continent, reimagines the originating moment of the colony and reveals the racist and patriarchal nature of it; ii) while Gilgamesh feminises an ancient Sumerian hero journey by having a young female embark on an epic journey, it implies the unlikelihood of white settlers’ sense of belonging in Australia; iii) the circuitous journey of the settler heroine and Aboriginal hero in Journey to the Stone Country exposes the darkness of Australia’s frontier history and reflects the uncertainty involved in Australia’s Aboriginal reconciliation movement; and iv) by likening the Aboriginal heroine’s abduction and return journey to the Aboriginal cultural practice of walkabout, in which Aboriginal Australians trek along creator ancestors’ path of creation, The Swan Book asserts Aboriginal people’s ontological sovereignty while it challenges settlers’ derivative sovereignty. The thesis contends that journeys depicted by each of the four novels evoke descent of the hero or heroine into the underworld, reminding us that until the settler authorities in Australia relinquish their colonisation of Aboriginal Australia and accommodate Aboriginal sovereignty, the country will always be beset by fraught race and gender relationships.
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Hinson, Sandy, and n/a. "An ethnography of teacher perceptions of cultural and institutional practices relating to sexual harassment in ACT high schools." University of Canberra. Education, 1993. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20060724.141946.
Full textAbstract:
This two year, topic-oriented ethnography documents teacher perceptions of
cultural and institutional practices relating to sexual harassment in 12 co-educational,
government ACT high schools. Participants include over one hundred and forty
teachers, seventy eight of whom have contributed formal interviews.
Through analysis and triangulation of ethnographic interviews, participant
observation data and school and Departmental documents, the study identifies cultural
and institutional practices which, according to teacher perceptions, contribute to:
� encouraging sexual harassment;
� discouraging reports of sexual harassment; and
� discouraging implementation of sexual harassment policy.
Emerging cultural and institutional practices include blame attribution, silencing
and gender construction which contribute to the marginalisation of some female
teachers (in terms of their career); some female students (in terms of their education)
and some male students who are perceived to be "gay" (in terms of their friendship
groups).
The usefulness, limitations and capacity to explain sexual harassment of a range
of theoretical approaches are discussed. These approaches include Attribution, Role,
Reproduction and Feminist theories. It is argued that, although accounting for the
majority of sexual harassment, these theories are limited in their ability to fully account
for:
a) all kinds of sexual harassment practised in ACT high schools;
b) the relationship between sexual harassment and other kinds of harassment
in ACT high schools; and
c) the extent to which some women teachers appear to support the practice of
sexual harassment.
Emerging Poststructuralist Feminism is proposed as a potentially useful
theoretical framework for explaining and responding to sexual harassment in ACT high
schools.
It is hoped that this study will contribute to informing the decision making of
those responsible for developing and/or implementing sexual harassment policy in ACT
high schools, including teachers, school counsellors, principals, and administrators.
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Anderson, Emma Kate School of English UNSW. "Representations of female sexuality in chick-lit texts and reading Anais Nin on the train." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of English, 2006. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/27319.
Full textAbstract:
My critical essay uses Foucault???s theory of discursive formation to chart the emergence of the figure of the single modern woman as she is created by the various discourses surrounding her. It argues that representations of the single modern woman continue a tradition of perceiving the female body as a source of social anxiety. The project explores ???chick-lit??? as a site within the discursive formation from which the single modern woman emerges as a paradoxical figure; the paradoxes fundamentally linked to her sexuality. This essay, then, essentially seeks to investigate representations of female sexuality within chick-lit, exposing for scrutiny the paradoxes inherent in and around the figure of the single modern woman. My fictional piece is a work of erotica. It is divided into four sections: The Reader, The Writer, The Muse and The Critic. Essentially it explores the relationships between female sexuality and literature; between female sexuality and feminist, post-feminist and patriarchal values and between literature and issues of truth, perspective and representation. The two works complement each other to illuminate the paradox of female sexuality: one from a theoretical perspective and the other from a fictional perspective. The critical work focuses on female sexuality and its relationship to, and development within, the current social context. Chick-lit, as a new and immensely popular genre of fiction which holistically explores the lives of single modern women was useful for examining the relationship between the sexual persona of the single modern woman and society. The fiction is concerned with a narrower focus: specifically the sexual life of the single modern woman. Through the creative process, it became apparent that working within the genre of ???erotica??? would be not only more useful than working within chick-lit, but more powerful in exploring the themes I was interested in. The creative work draws on numerous points of interest raised in the critical work from, for example, the grander notions of the relationship between object and discourse ??? in this case female sexuality and literature ??? and the female body as a source of social fascination and anxiety to finer observations such as what it means to have sex ???like a man.??? In essence, the creative work seeks to examine the many faces of the single modern woman as a sexual being and to illuminate, on an intimate level, the many conflicts between and surrounding those faces and to suggest that while paradox remains in female sexual ideology, the single modern woman will remain suspended in a kind of sexual paralysis.
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Ramsay, Janet Kay. "The Making of Domestic Violence Policy by the Australian Commonwealth Government and the Government of the State of New South Wales between 1970 and 1985: An Analytical Narrative of Feminist Policy Activism." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/724.
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This thesis is a study of the processes by which domestic violence, as framed by Australian feminists from the early 1970s, was inserted into the policy agenda of governments, and developed into a comprehensive body of policy. The thesis covers the period between 1970 and 1985. Acknowledging the federal nature of the Australian polity, it examines these processes that unfolded within both the Australian Commonwealth government and the government of New South Wales. The thesis provides a political history of domestic violence policy making in the identified period. It shows that policy responses to women escaping violent partners included both immediate measures (such as protection and justice strategies) and more long-term measures to attempt to secure the conditions for women's financial, legal and personal autonomy. The elements found to have been most significant in shaping the development of such policies were the roles and identities of the participant players, including the driving role of the women suffering partner violence; the lack of contest in the early stages of policy achievement with established professionals in related fields; the uniquely 'hybrid' role and positioning of refuge feminists; and the degree of integration and continuity which characterised the domestic violence policy process. The thesis also investigates the relationship between domestic violence policy making and the broader women's policy enterprise. It demonstrates the care with which those involved avoided the dangers of sensationalism and tokenism while striving for an appropriate policy response. The thesis pays particular attention to the circumstances in which feminists in the early 1970s experienced their 'discovery' of domestic violence. It demonstrates the significance of social and economic circumstances in shaping the political options of feminists in the thesis period and those preceding it, and the extent to which policy possibilities are shaped by representations of the nature and functions of policy itself. Finally, the thesis investigates the relationship between the strategic processes undertaken and the policy outcomes produced, finding that policies achieved in the thesis period complemented and in some ways transcended accepted policy practice in the relevant period.
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Ramsay, Janet Kay. "The Making of Domestic Violence Policy by the Australian Commonwealth Government and the Government of the State of New South Wales between 1970 and 1985: An Analytical Narrative of Feminist Policy Activism." University of Sydney. Discipline of Government and International Relations, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/724.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis is a study of the processes by which domestic violence, as framed by Australian feminists from the early 1970s, was inserted into the policy agenda of governments, and developed into a comprehensive body of policy. The thesis covers the period between 1970 and 1985. Acknowledging the federal nature of the Australian polity, it examines these processes that unfolded within both the Australian Commonwealth government and the government of New South Wales. The thesis provides a political history of domestic violence policy making in the identified period. It shows that policy responses to women escaping violent partners included both immediate measures (such as protection and justice strategies) and more long-term measures to attempt to secure the conditions for women�s financial, legal and personal autonomy. The elements found to have been most significant in shaping the development of such policies were the roles and identities of the participant players, including the driving role of the women suffering partner violence; the lack of contest in the early stages of policy achievement with established professionals in related fields; the uniquely �hybrid� role and positioning of refuge feminists; and the degree of integration and continuity which characterised the domestic violence policy process. The thesis also investigates the relationship between domestic violence policy making and the broader women�s policy enterprise. It demonstrates the care with which those involved avoided the dangers of sensationalism and tokenism while striving for an appropriate policy response. The thesis pays particular attention to the circumstances in which feminists in the early 1970s experienced their �discovery� of domestic violence. It demonstrates the significance of social and economic circumstances in shaping the political options of feminists in the thesis period and those preceding it, and the extent to which policy possibilities are shaped by representations of the nature and functions of policy itself. Finally, the thesis investigates the relationship between the strategic processes undertaken and the policy outcomes produced, finding that policies achieved in the thesis period complemented and in some ways transcended accepted policy practice in the relevant period.
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Sousa, Marcella Oliveira de. "Vozes indígenas do Canadá e da Austrália: autobiografia, identidade e (hi)estórias em Halfbreed de Maria Campbell e My place de Sally Morgan." Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, 2007. http://www.bdtd.uerj.br/tde_busca/arquivo.php?codArquivo=235.
Full textAbstract:
Essa dissertação tem como objetivo analisar as autobiografias de Maria Campbell, Halfbreed, e Sally Morgan, My Place, levando em consideração aspectos de cunho histórico, político, étnico e social do Canadá e da Austrália. Além disso, a dissertação aborda a busca das escritoras por suas identidades indígena canadense e aborígine australiana, respectivamente. Para investigação do tema escolhido realizo um estudo sobre autobiografia destacando seu contexto histórico, sua relação com o sujeito autobiográfico com base em questões de gênero e etnia. Para análise das questões de gênero uso a teoria e crítica feminista, enquanto que as questões étnicas busco fundamentar na teoria e crítica pós-colonial. Para o estudo da obra de Maria Campbell entrelaço questões de cunho autobiográfico, fatores históricos canadenses e a questão da mulher indígena no Canadá. A análise de Halfbreed também busca tratar do sujeito feminino de origem métis em busca de sua identidade, igualdade e dignidade. Quanto à My Place, o processo de análise também envolveu um estudo de autobiografia a partir de uma perspectiva aborígine feminina australiana, o que trouxe à tona questões identitárias do sujeito feminino pós-colonial e questões históricas referentes à Austrália. A análise de My Place enfatiza a busca de Sally Morgan por sua identidade e pelo passado de sua família, marcado por lembranças, estórias, dor, perda e esperança.This dissertation aims at analyzing the autobiographies by Maria Campbell, Halfbreed, and Sally Morgan, My Place taking into consideration historical, political, ethnic and social aspects of Canada and Australia. Besides, this dissertation refers to the writers search for their Indigenous Canadian and Aboriginal Australian identities, respectively. To investigate the chosen theme, I approach the autobiographical genre emphasizing its historical context, its relationship to the autobiographical subject based on gender and ethnic issues. Concerning the analysis of gender issues it was necessary to refer to Feminist theories and criticism, whereas discussions regarding ethnic issues were based on Post-Colonial theory and criticism. In the analysis of Maria Campbells work I discuss issues related to autobiography, Canadian history and to Indigenous Canadian women. Halfbreeds analysis also considers the condition of the female Métis Canadian subject in search of identity, equality and dignity. As far as My Place is concerned, the analysis was a process which involved a study of the autobiographical genre from a female Aboriginal Australian perspective. The analysis raises questions related to the identity of the postcolonial subject and Australias historical context. My Places analysis also emphasizes Morgans search for identity and for her familys past, which is marked by memories, stories, pain, loss and hope.
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Carson, Susan J. "Making the modern : the writing of Eleanor Dark." Thesis, The University of Queensland, 1999. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/21029/1/CARSON_DARK_THESIS_PDF_%282%29.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation examines the published and unpublished work to date by Australian author Eleanor Dark (1901-1985). It discusses quite divergent aspects of Dark's work, ranging from her engagement with modernist writing styles to her interest in ecology and, in so doing, offers quite diverse perspetives on Australian women's writing in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.
In this discussion, I consider Dark as a transitional author who deployed differing narrative modes, from realism to modernism, but also as an itnellectual writer who undertakes an ideological enquiry into her vision of an Australian 'nation.' In this study, I trace the ways in which Dark's writing has been eclipsed by a confluence of political machinations, literary critical strategies and, so some extent, the perceptions permitted by Dark herself. The dissertation calls attention to the tensions and ambivalences associated with creative aspiration in a period of accelerating change. In this examination certain feminist and cultural studies stragegies take precedence. The study endeavours to extend existing Dark criticism by focussing on the connections between, on the one hand, her varied writing techniques and thematic interests and, on the other, the wider perspectives of a newly-constituted nation's engagement with modernity.
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Noble, Jenny Austin School of English UNSW. "Representations of the mother-figure in the novels of Katharine Susannah Prichard and Eleanor Dark." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of English, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/23897.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis argues that through bringing together two branches of inquiry???the literary work of Katharine Susannah Prichard and Eleanor Dark and socio-feminist theory on health, contagion and the female body???the discursive body of the mother-figure in their novels serves as a trope through which otherwise unspoken tensions???between the personal and the political, between family and nation and between identity and race in Australian cultural formation???are explored. The methodology I use is to analyse the literary mother-figure through a ???discourse on health??? from a soma-political, socio-cultural and historical perspective which sought to categorise, regulate and discipline women???s lives to ensure that white women conformed to their designated roles as mothers and that they did so within the confines of marriage. The literary mother-figure, as represented in Prichard???s and Dark???s novels, is frequently at odds with the culturally constructed mother-figure as represented in political and religious discourses, and in popular forms of culture such as advertising, film and women???s magazines. This culturally constructed ???ideal??? mother-figure is intimately linked to nationalist discourses of racial hygiene, of Christian morality, and of civic and social order controlled by such patriarchal institutions as the state, the church, the law and the medical professions during the period under review. This is reflected in Prichard???s and Dark???s inter-war novels which embody unresolved tensions in a way that challenges representations of the mother-figure by mainstream culture. However, their post-war novels show a greater compliance with nationalist ideologies of the good and healthy mother-figure who conforms more closely with an idealised notion of motherhood, leading up to the 1950s. Through a detailed analysis of the two writers??? changing representations of the mother-figure, I argue that the mother-figure is a key trope through which unspoken tensions and forces that have shaped (and continue to shape) Australian culture and society can be understood.
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Marsh, Lauren. "Sexuality, desire and the ageing female body: An essay." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2015. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1643.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis consists of a novella, ‘One Night in Hong Kong’, and an essay, ‘Sexuality, Desire and the Ageing Female Body.’ The novella tells the story of an erotic affair between the female narrator and a man in a hotel room in the neon city of Hong Kong. Told in four parts, the story shifts in time, reflecting on earlier events in the narrator’s life and a trip she made to the Sicilian city of Catania in 1954.
Older female protagonists and their sexuality are rarely depicted in contemporary Australian fiction. Where representations do exist, they act as ‘interventionist’ texts, rupturing dominant notions of ageing women’s sexuality as non-existent, diminished, or of little interest to mainstream readers. In the novella I experiment with writing an interventionist text, exploring a range of themes, including ‘invisibility’, ‘the ageing body’ and ‘sexual fantasy’. In the critical essay I analyse these themes from a theoretical perspective, and consider how scholarship provides insight into the ‘absence’ or gap in representations of ageing female sexuality in contemporary Australian fiction. The process and findings of my research informed and helped shape the development of the creative work.
The thesis is underpinned by Julia Kristeva’s theory of ‘abjection’ in relation to the ageing female body, and Michel Foucault’s theory of disciplining discourses that describe how bodies are culturally trained and shaped by everyday routines, rules and expectations to produce ‘docile’ bodies. I also consider feminist analysis by Zoe Brennan and Sally Chivers on representations of ageing women in popular culture and literary production, and scholarship from the emerging field of social gerontology which argues that social constructionist theory has tended to focus almost exclusively on the discursively produced body at the expense of the material body. Finally the thesis investigates representations of ageing female sexuality in novels by three Western Australian writers: Elizabeth Jolley, Dorothy Hewett and Liz Byrski
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Lindvert, Jessica. "Feminism som politik : Sverige och Australien 1960-1990 /." Umeå : Boréa, 2002. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZZE_AAAAMAAJ.
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Jones, Megan Dymphna. "Remembering academic feminism." Phd thesis, Department of Gender Studies, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/7020.
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Hall, Virginia Kaufman, of Western Sydney Hawkesbury University, of Health Humanities and Social Ecology Faculty, and School of Social Ecology. "Women transforming the workplace : collaborative inquiry into integrity in action." THESIS_FHHSE_SEL_Hall_V.xml, 1996. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/438.
Full textAbstract:
This collaborative research is an account of the recent lived experience of twelve women who bring about transformations in their own workplaces. The work integrates feminist theory with the social ecology focus of studying interactions between people and their environments. The study is multidisciplinary including psychological as well as social aspects and applies critical social research to workplace situations. The research group informed each other primarily by stories which narrated: social and family context; work situations; particular situations and specific strategies. Reflexive and archetypal meanings emerged from recounting ancient myths to help understand complex and difficult work structures which constrain the participants' creativity. This inquiry is a fresh approach to a range of workplace problems by engaging many women’s preferred working styles and applying this creative response: pro-active strategies which are demonstrated, are indeed, highly effective.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)(Social Ecology)
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Le, Masurier Megan. "Fair go : Cleo magazine as popular feminism in 1970s Australia." Phd thesis, Department of Media and Communications, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/7777.
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Kaufman, Hall Virginia. "Women transforming the workplace : collaborative inquiry into integrity in action." Thesis, View thesis View thesis, 1996. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/438.
Full textAbstract:
This collaborative research is an account of the recent lived experience of twelve women who bring about transformations in their own workplaces. The work integrates feminist theory with the social ecology focus of studying interactions between people and their environments. The study is multidisciplinary including psychological as well as social aspects and applies critical social research to workplace situations. The research group informed each other primarily by stories which narrated: social and family context; work situations; particular situations and specific strategies. Reflexive and archetypal meanings emerged from recounting ancient myths to help understand complex and difficult work structures which constrain the participants' creativity. This inquiry is a fresh approach to a range of workplace problems by engaging many women’s preferred working styles and applying this creative response: pro-active strategies which are demonstrated, are indeed, highly effective.
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O'Mahony, Lauren. "In search of feminist romance in Australian 'Chick Lit'." Thesis, O'Mahony, Lauren (2015) In search of feminist romance in Australian 'Chick Lit'. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2015. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/25543/.
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In November 2005, Australian author Melanie La’Brooy published a defence of ‘chick lit’ in the Review section of Australia’s national newspaper, The Weekend Australian. La’Brooy responded to criticisms of the genre, particularly those made by prize winning authors Beryl Bainbridge and Doris Lessing. Bainbridge had asserted that people were wasting their time reading ‘chick lit’ while Lessing dismissed the genre’s authors for writing “instantly forgettable books.” La’Brooy referred to other critics who decried the genre for being antifeminist because the search for and acquisition of romantic love was a central concern of the plot. In defending ‘chick lit’, La’Brooy asked, “Does romantic idealism immediately polarise a desire for political, professional and social equality?” Her question highlights two concerns raised by contemporary literary and feminist scholars including Pamela Regis, Stephanie Harzewski and Imelda Whelehan. The first concern focuses on the compatibility of romance novels in particular and the romance plot more widely with ‘feminism.’ Historically, feminists such as Germaine Greer have criticised romance novels for their form (including their plot, characters and endings) and their supposed affect on readers. Yet, as early as 1984, Margaret Ann Jensen’s Love’s Sweet Return: The Harlequin Story showed that mass market paperback romances had changed in response to feminist criticism. Likewise, Janice Radway’s Reading the Romance (1984) argued that romance novels have a complex affect on their readers. The second concern of feminist and literary scholars in relation to romance novels is how best to define and apply ‘feminism’ as a concept and set of theories when studying contemporary literature. This concern has been complicated by the ‘posting’ of feminism, where feminism’s meaning is now determined largely by whom is speaking and the context of the discussion. Many definitions of feminism abound including the different perspectives mapped in Rosemarie Tong’s Feminist Thought (1989) to the more recent theories of feminism as first wave, second wave, third wave and/or postfeminism. Thus, these recent theoretical developments have led to ‘feminism’ becoming an ‘overloaded’ concept and a highly contested theoretical terrain. This complexity is problematic for literary analysis.
The relatively new genre of ‘chick lit’, female authored novels with contemporary settings and eighteen to forty-five year old heroines, enables an exploration of these concerns about romance and feminism. Most chick novels employ a traditional romance plot to represent a heroine living in the 1990s or 2000s. The use of contemporary settings means that ‘chick lit’ automatically represents Western culture radically transformed by the modern women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The most interesting avenue for inquiry raised by ‘chick lit’ is the inherent tension between the genre’s representation of a post ‘second wave feminist’ setting and the romantic narrative structure.
This thesis explores the relationship between romance and feminism in a selection of Australian chick lit novels. I undertake a traditional literary analysis focusing on the plot, character and themes of the novels. Five permutations of Australian chick lit are examined: urban romances, cosmopolitan Koori lit (Indigenous chick lit), comical suburban novels, the rural romance and the red dirt romance. My reading of Australian chick lit draws upon Pamela Regis’s A Natural History of the Romance Novel (2003) to examine how the novels utilise romantic narrative elements, construct romantic characters and represent themes of love and romance. I do this to determine the degree to which chick novels adhere to the essential elements of romance and explore how companionate love is portrayed. My feminist reading of Australian chick lit also examines the plot, characterisation and themes of the selected novels. I assess whether chick lit deviates from the romance plot and whether such deviations can be deemed feminist. I apply feminist theory to explore the representation of the protagonists in chick lit, particularly the genre’s heroines. I focus on the gendered identities of each heroine and consider whether they exhibit postfeminist and/or third wave feminist characteristics. I then apply contemporary feminist theory to critically analyse the central themes raised by each subgenre of Australian chick lit including consumption, body image, gender and racial discrimination, social relationships, success and ‘having it all’ and gender inequality in the workplace. I argue that my selected novels use their narrative structure to critically engage with these themes while seeking out resolutions for the main characters.
My analysis of Australian chick lit reveals that some novels can be read as strong examples of feminist romance. However, this depends on the text, who is reading it and the characteristics of feminism and romance being applied. I argue that the subgenres of Australian chick lit examined here continue the tradition of prose romance while engaging with, and sometimes championing, the quest for women’s empowerment.
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Muir, Kathie. "'Tough enough?' : constructions of femininity in news reporting of Jennie George, ACTU president 1995-2000 /." Title page, table of contents and abstract only, 2004. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phm9531.pdf.
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Weinreis, Denise Ann. "Feminist intervention strategies : a comparison of reforms by women in the United States, Britain and Australia." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 1993. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/26490.
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Like any other category used to denote a social phenomenon, that of 'feminism' is historically constituted and culturally specific; in other words there have been, and will continue to 1x3, many different feminisms. So 'feminism' is not an analytical category, for while it is grounded in the ideal of equality between men and women, the actual content of this ideal varies. The concept of what feminism is and how it is perceived varies not only between cultures but between individuals. Women have a common cause in the gender issue, but they are differentiat ed by culture, ethnicity and class, and by sexual and political orientation. So it has become apparent in) members of the women's movement that, a woman's situation is different not only from a nmn's but from other women's.
Women within the women's movement continue to re-define feminism in relationship to contemporary issues within their own societies. But regardless of which society it infiltrates, the feminist movement worldwide has a common transformati onal agenda. It aims to change the activities, behaviours, beliefs and identities that constitute the basis of social life organised around gender hierarchy (KatZenstein and Mueller 1987). What is crucial in the analysis and development of the movement is whether particular loyalties work for or against each another in relation to any individual's notion of feminism.
What makes the women's movement as social movement especially interesting and unique, is that its members have sought similar goals internationally and at times simultaneously across class and cultural divisions. Yet while this has occurred for the past few decades, little has been written that focuses on the feminist movement cross-nationally and that links the feminist movement to policy outcomes.
The path to the liberation of women has been blazed in many ways. Initially, second-wave feminists began by trying to institute and develop a feminist theory of the state. More recently the focus of feminist activism has been upon enhancing the power of women, with respect to both their private and public lives. Reforms affecting women in their private lives - in their relations to self, men, children and other' women - have brought changes to laws governing rape, abortion, family law, as well as the establishment of women's refuges, child care facilities, consciousness- raising groups and so on. Reforms affecting women's public life have included laws respecting equal employment opportunities, equal pay and, in the USA and Australia, affirmative action; increasingly women are selected as candidates for parliament, and for office in political parties and trade unions; there are continuing campaigns against pornography and sexual harassment; feminist journals and publishing houses have been established, as have women's studies courses in universities.
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Brankovich, Jasmina. "Burning down the house? : feminism, politics and women's policy in Western Australia, 1972-1998." University of Western Australia. School of Humanities, 2008. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0122.
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This thesis examines the constraints and options inherent in placing feminist demands on the state, the limits of such interventions, and the subjective, intimate understandings of feminism among agents who have aimed to change the state from within. First, I describe the central element of a
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Huntley, Rebecca. ""Sex on the Hustings" : labor and the construction of 'the woman voter' in two federal elections (1983, 1993)." Connect to full text, 2003. http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/adt/public_html/adt-NU/public/adt-NU20040209.113517/index.html.
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Cheers, Rebecca. "Knowing Anne Brennan: Lyric poetry as feminist biography." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2020. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/206891/1/Rebecca_Cheers_Thesis.pdf.
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This practice-led thesis explores the use of lyric poetry as a form of feminist biography through the writing of a poetic biography, No Camelias, on the life of Anne Brennan, a figure of Australian literary history whose life has been sparsely recorded, and whose existing historical profile is marred by misogyny and indifference. The creative manuscript is accompanied by an exegetical essay which analyses poetry by Natalie Harkin and Jessica Wilkinson, two poets who explore marginalised histories through contrasting poetic approaches to archival research. Together, these connected components re-present Anne Brennan’s life through feminist grief, subjectivity and empathy.
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Broughton, Sharon. "Leadership is a feminist issue : do women in Australian parliament 'make a difference'? /." St. Lucia, Qld, 2000. http://www.library.uq.edu.au/pdfserve.php?image=thesisabs/absthe16532.pdf.
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Cully, Eavan. "Nationalism, feminism, and martial valor: rewriting biographies of women in «Nüzi shijie» (1904-1907)." Thesis, McGill University, 2009. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=32363.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines images of martial women as they were produced in the biography column of the late Qing journal Nüzi shijie (NZSJ; 1904-1907). By examining the historiographic implications of revised women's biographies, I will show the extent to which martial women were written as ideal citizens at the dawn of the twentieth-century. In the first chapter I place NZSJ in its historical context by examining the journal's goals as seen in two editorials from the inaugural issue. The second and third chapters focus on biographies of individual women warriors which will be read against their original stories in verse and prose. Through these comparisons, I aim to demonstrate how these "transgressive women" were written as normative ideals of martial citizens that would appeal to men and women alike.Cette thèse examine les images de femmes martiales reproduites dans la rubrique biographique du journal Nüzi shijie (NZSJ; 1904-1907) publiée à la fin de la dynastie Qing. En examinant les implications historiographiques des biographies révisées des femmes, j'essai de démontrer l'importance de la façon dont les femmes martiales étaient décrites come citoyennes idéales à l'aube du vingtième siècle. A travers une exploration des objectifs posés par le journal et mis en évidence dans deux éditoriaux extraits du premier numéro du journal, mon premier chapitre essaie de placer le NZSJ dans sa propre contexte historique. Le deuxième et le troisième chapitres se concentrent sur les biographies individuelles des femmes guerrières, lesquelles sont juxtaposés aux histories originales écrites sous forme de vers et prose. A travers ces juxtapositions, mon projet démontre la façon dont ces "femmes transgressives" illustraient l'idéal normatif du citoyen martiale, lequel attirait les hommes ainsi que les femmes.
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Phatikomet, Panida. "Gaki : a Thai tale twice told in Thai and Australian versions." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 1996. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/35881/1/35881_Phatikomet_1996.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Having looked back to my past experience in Thailand and having directed the production Gaki in Australia, I realise that Gaki is a big step in my life and it cannot
be separated from my past experience. From a non-feminist person to one interested in feminism, I have seen the development of my thinking and looking at women in my
own culture. My own background and my experience with women, Thailand, and Australia are significant sources that inspired me to present Gaki. Gaki is a long
journey but it shows the development of how a non-feminist background person has been influenced to do a feminist play.
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Crosland, Gerri, and n/a. "Social welfare professionals as managers : a feminist perspective." University of Canberra. Management, 1992. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20060703.122518.
Full textAbstract:
The dissertation presents the argument that the formal training of a professional social
worker is relevant but not equivalent to the training needs of a professional manager in the
social work field. Social work professionals as managers do not, without management
training, have the same credibility and/or skills as professional managers of social work.
Within the general topic of welfare, research is first directed to the Australian welfare
experience in its historic sense. Selecting relevant philosophical and ideological frameworks
the writer a) critically explores traditional and contemporary theories, with special
reference being made to bureaucracy, organization, and management; b) investigates
theories and practices of social workers and social work managers to ascertain their
relevance to contemporary Australian society, using the A.C.T. Family Services Branch as an
example of a social welfare agency. This assists in explaining the context, functions and
obligations of a welfare agency, as it responds to the needs of the community and of the staff
it employs.
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Heirich, Verena Eva Maria. "From War to War featuring Feminine Torture." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/16357.
Full textAbstract:
From War to War featuring Feminine Torture is an investigation of the trialectics of Transience, Liminal Space and Nomadic Movement. These ideas are researched through a durational performance that was transcribed into a novella titled From War to War, and a video work that responds to the novella's breakdown through ruptures and stutters in endurance.
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Giunta, Katherine. "Good Femmes: The Ethics of Becoming Queerly Feminine in Sydney, Australia." Thesis, University of Sydney, 2020. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/23699.
Full textAbstract:
This ethnographic study with queer femmes in Sydney, Australia, proposes that to ask questions about the day-to-day formation of femininities, queerness and queer forms of femininity is to consider fundamentally moral and ethical problems. Developing analytical approaches in queer anthropology, critical femininity studies and the anthropology of ethics and morality, the thesis investigates the everyday relational work that Sydney femmes invest in becoming ‘good’ femmes. Specifically, I approach the practices through which femmes remake femme femininities as ethical practices, to examine how they strive to enact femininities that are queerly valuable, or morally queer. Based on twelve months of participant observation fieldwork (2017-2018) with queer femme Sydney residents, I find that ‘queer’ is a notion laden with moral significance in their social worlds. Through enacting shared sets of progressive, oppositional and care-based values my femme participants articulate a particular form of moral queerness. The thesis explores four key arenas in which femmes reproduce ways of being feminine that align with their queer values; theory-making, styling work and friendship-making, as well as responding to the 2017 national same-sex marriage postal survey. I argue that the day-to-day practices invested in these arenas are, respectively, ethical practices of recognition, responsibility, critique and reinvention. Through these practices femmes endeavour to become feminine in ways that can be valued as good, or rather, (morally) queer, in their own community. As a queer femme Sydneysider myself, I also examine my own ethnographic research practice in light of the femme ethics at the centre of my analysis, to emphasise the ethical demands of all ethnographic projects. The thesis contributes to a growing body of literature that explores the ways that queer forms of identification are articulated and experienced by a variety of people as they labour to live meaningful lives.