Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Women professional employees – Canada'

Continuing professional development (CPD) is a requirement for accountants to maintain their professional designation, ideally it may be used to assist in progression within the field; yet there is very little research on CPD for accountants and research that has focused on the interaction of experiences and identity is particularly scarce. This thesis, underpinned by a feminist view, undertook an interpretive analysis of oral history interviews provided by sixteen women in British Columbia. This study found that CPD, rather than assisting in building the professional identity and improving a professional’s standing, may work to maintain the status quo in the accounting field and retain the gendered hierarchy within the accounting profession. The study provides further support to indicate that professional identity both influences, and is influenced by, other identities and further explores the differences between identity, habitus and roles. Capitals available to women that should aid in their progression in the accounting field are dependent both on their place within the accounting field itself and their position in other fields; the need for capitals goes beyond what is necessary within the field itself as the interaction with other identities and other fields plays an important role in the quest for, as well as successful utilization of capitals. The need for capitals is also affected by an accounting field that is not homogenous and heterogeneous subfields are influential in identification of successful capitals. The manner in which CPD is used relates to a professional’s place within the field, with those already near the top of the field focusing more on social capitals and those nearer the middle or bottom of the field focusing on the cultural capitals provided. The structured and structuring aspects of CPD work within the professional accounting field to maintain the gendered and hierarchal nature of the field.

Canadians’ religious involvement has declined significantly over the last thirty years (Bibby 2004a), but explanations haven’t successfully determined the reasons for the decline. Women’s employment rate increased significantly during the same time period, which could account for the decline, particularly as Canadians have become increasingly pragmatic about time following the rise of the dual earner family. This thesis postulates that Canadians’ pragmatism dominates religious involvement, particularly as Canadians have less time to engage in those activities and tasks they deem necessary and worthwhile. It examines the costs and benefits of religious involvement—utilizing a rational choice framework—and insists that religious groups need to respond more effectively to affiliates’ needs and desires. The data demonstrates that Canadians’ perception of worth of their religious involvement (as measured through enjoyment) better predicts involvement than association.
xiii, 131 leaves ; 29 cm.

Entre 1945 et 1967, le Canada accueille une des plus importantes vagues d’immigration de son histoire : presque trois millions d'immigrants. À la même époque,la vie des femmes est souvent représentée comme immuable, jusqu'à leur éveil soudain à la fin des années1960. Il est pourtant difficile de croire qu'elles n'accordent aucune attention à l’arrivée de milliers d'immigrants chaque année. Leur vécu entre 1945 et 1967 est beaucoup plus complexe et nuancé que les représentations de leur apolitisme et de leurs préoccupations maternelles ne le laissent supposer.Cette thèse étudie le rôle de femmes – immigrantes,politiques, salariées, femmes au foyer, membres d'associations et de groupes minoritaires – dans l'évolution des politiques d'immigration entre 1945 et1967. Ces politiques offrent la possibilité de vérifier si,lorsqu'il s'agit d'un domaine considéré comme moins directement lié aux intérêts proprement dits des femmes, celles-ci s'y intéressent, trouvent des espaces pour en débattre, essaient de transmettre leurs avis aux décisionnaires et sont écoutées. Un engagement lié aux politiques d'immigration suggère un effort de la part des femmes pour sortir de la sphère privée, sphère assignée comme leur place principale et appropriée.Analyser le niveau d'implication des femmes dans les politiques d'immigration interroge les représentations et les assignations des femmes de l'époque ainsi que les tendances culturelles, les relations sociales et les jeux de pouvoir qui les produisent. Il permet d'autre part d’exposer les barrières érigées contre l'implication des femmes dans l'espace public politique et les discours qui les dirigent vers le foyer
Between 1945 and 1967, Canada received one of the largest waves of immigrants in its history: nearly three million people. In contrast to this intense activity, the lives of women during that same period are often represented as being immutable – until their awakening in the late 1960s. It is difficult to imagine, however, that they paid little attention to the arrival of thousands of immigrants each year. In reality, the lived experience of women between 1945 and 1967 is much more complexand nuanced than the representations of their apoliticism and maternal essentialism suggest. This thesis studies the role of women - immigrants,politicians, professionals, housewives, members o fassociations and minority groups - in shaping immigration policy between 1945 and 1967. Examining a domain considered as being somewhat outside of' women's interests' offers the possibility of determining the true range of their interests, the spaces available to women for discussing and debating different issues and their means of conveying their views to decisionmakers.An engagement with immigration policy wouldsuggest an effort on their part to go beyond what isconsidered to be women's appropriate sphere.Analyzing the level of their involvement in immigration policy provides a method for interrogating the representations and socially assigned roles of women of the period as well as the social relations, power hierarchies and cultural tendencies that produce them.This analysis also promises to expose the barriers to women's involvement in the political public sphere and to deconstruct the discourses that circumscribe their actions

The well-known outcome of the 1988 federal election – a Conservative Party majority in Parliament and an effective “yes” to the question of whether or not the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the United States was desired – tends to obscure the importance of the process by which a large non-party based opposition movement sought to cultivate and organize the public’s understanding of the election’s central premise. While the opposition movement failed to have Prime Minister Brian Mulroney removed from power, the discursive process that the movement both created and was the driving force behind, is key to understanding the historical context of the debate over free trade itself. This thesis will illustrate that there existed a discursive process amongst the efforts of the anti-free trade movement from 1985-1988 to cultivate, organize, and mobilize public opposition to Mulroney’s neo-liberal economic policies, through re-framing those objections into a larger and more deeply-rooted Canadian historical narrative. A discourse analysis was conducted using the various public education materials produced by major anti-free trade civil society organizations in Canada. The examination of that discourse revealed three major stages in the overall process: First, organizations relied heavily on classic paradigms of an anti-continentalist narrative to reinforce what was different between the two countries creating an us and them paradigm and building a case for Canadian exceptionalism. Second, there was an intensification of the us and them language into a more defined us versus them, or them against us, dichotomy. Third, the anti-free trade movement sought to effectively translate the previously established civic opposition into pragmatic political action in preparation for a national election campaign. The results show that there was an evolution in the ways members of the civil society opposition framed and evolved their arguments in order to turn their “issues” into more of a “crisis.” By employing (and expanding on) discursive tools used within that public narrative to generate fear of the other to validate illusions of self, and to construct believable threats to the collective, the more “micro” discussion over the growing pervasiveness of neo-liberalism took on a hyper-nationalistic and symbolic routine, one that mirrored the iconic political and electoral debates in 1891 and 1911, both of which had also been based upon the potential for free trade with the United States. Most of all, the evidence points to a popular opposition movement against free trade, which not only significantly pre-dated the official political opposition, but in some respects created its message and focus.

No
Inspired by the work of the philosopher Judith Butler, influenced by Marx’s theory of alienation and intrigued by theories of death, this book develops an anti-methodological approach to studying working lives. Distinctions are drawn between labour (the tasks we do in our jobs) and work (self-making activities that are carried out at the workplace): between the less than human, zombie-like laborer and the working human self. Nancy Harding argues that the experience of being at work is one in which the insistence on practising one’s humanity always provides a counter-point to organisational demands.

Women activists in teacher unions such as Sadtu claimed that there was a disjuncture between what the South African Constitution says about gender equity and what is happening in reality. This study was undertaken to investigate this claim from the women teachers' perspective. This study explores how the social, cultural, political, historical, economic and educational factors influence the conditions of work and careers of the women teachers in KwaZulu-Natal. In this study, an historical outline of the contribution of various philosophies and attitudes to the relative position of KZN women from 1845 to 2000 is given in an attempt to seek solutions to the gender equity problem in education. The study also uses the racial perspectives to investigate the feminists' claim that Black women suffer triple oppression - that of gender, race and class. An extensive exploratory study using a multiple method approach, incorporating data from documentary research, surveys and interviews leads to the presentation of a well etched picture of the KZN women teachers. A large sample of 339 educators participated in the study. The major findings of the study include the following aspects: About 64 percent of the teachers in KZN province are women. Despite their majority in the teaching profession, their contribution to education is grossly undervalued. The most visible sign of this discrimination is the under-representativity of the women educators in managerial and decision-making positions in the education hierarchy. This stems from patriarchy which is still prevalent. Women are excluded from male dominated areas through socialisation and male resistance to change. Although about 98 percent of the women are certificated teachers, the majority of them have only a matriculation certificate as academic qualification. This stems from the historical under-investment in the girl child's education by parents and the State. About 67 percent of the women teachers are married and 68 percent have children. The majority of them believe in the tradition of marriage and are very comfortable with the multiple roles they perform. However, the majority of the Black women derive little satisfaction from teaching at the moment because of the tough working conditions and the lack of respect from learners, parents and KZNDEC officials. Presently the Govt's R & R policies cause uncertainty and frustration for the teachers. The work environment at historically Black schools can be unsafe with robbery and muggings which happen in the school grounds. Women teachers are presently on a par with the men in economic terms. The most significant aspect of the empowerment is the ability to leave their pension benefits to their husbands or dependents upon their death, this gives them a new identity, that of benefactors. Through its affirmative action policies, the State is giving preference to women when promoting personnel to managerial posts. Overall, the women teachers are still overworked and, therefore, relatively underpaid. Because of the role overload they are prone to ailments, frustration, stress etc. Therefore, it is recommended that their retirement age be reduced; the calculation of pension benefits for previously disadvantaged women teachers be corrected; women's health be given priority attention; childcare be provided at the workplace. In addition, more research on KZN women teachers' issues needs to be undertaken as this is only a baseline study. This study confirms the women teachers' claim that thus far the new Govt has addressed only the class issues and not the issues of race and gender.
Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Durban-Westville, 2002.

After immigrating to Canada, some foreign-trained professional women (FTPWs) enrol in adult high schoollevel upgrading to begin to reestablish their careers if their international credentials are unrecognized. To explore this phenomenon, the theoretical framework of possible selves was used as a mechanism to examine the effect of context (i.e., upgrading) on their personally relevant goals. Semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted with four FTPWs who attended two postsecondary institutes in central Alberta. The participants salient possible selves were related to familial duties and employment; they viewed upgrading as a mechanism to work toward these hoped-for selves. Upgrading was also found to increase the number of and clarify their hoped-for selves. Because of the significant impact of immigration on the participants possible selves, upgrading should also include referrals to immigration services and support for the credential assessment process, help to build confidence, and encourage the development of social networks for immigrants.

In the later decades of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth, large numbers of Canadian women were stepping out of the shadows of private life and into the public world of work and political action. Among them, both a cause and an effect of these sweeping social changes, was the first generation of Canadian women to work as professional authors. Although these women were not unified by ideology, genre, or date of birth, they are studied here as a generation defined by their time and place in history, by their material circumstances, and by their collective accomplishment. Chapters which focus on E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake), the Eaton sisters (Sui Sin Far and Onoto Watanna), Joanna E. Wood, and Sara Jeannette Duncan explore some of the many commonalities and interrelationships among the members of this generation as a whole. This project combines archival research with analytical bibliography in order to clarify and extend our knowledge of Johnson’s and Duncan’s professional lives and publishing histories, and to recover some of Wood’s “lost” stories. This research offers a preliminary sketch of the long tradition of the platform performance (both Native and non-Native) with which Johnson and others engaged. It explores the uniquely innovative ethnographic writings of Johnson, Duncan, and the Eaton sisters, among others, and it explores thematic concerns which relate directly to the experiences of working women. Whether or not I convince other scholars to treat these authors as a generation, with more in common than has previously been supposed, the strong parallels revealed in these pages will help to clarify and contextualize some of their most interesting work.
Thesis (Ph.D, English) -- Queen's University, 2011-10-14 20:59:21.45

碩士
國防大學政治作戰學院
政治研究所
103
Universal education, increased self-awareness and improved family economic needs, housewives slowly walk out of the kitchen, into the workplace, with the ratio of women joining the labor market increased gradually as a result of changing family patterns, double-income families having affected the patriarchal patterns in which males work outside while females function as housewives. When a woman becomes a mother, no matter what profession she is in, she still cannot get rid of her stereotyped role as a mother, which puts her in a dilemma where her professional work clashes with her household duties. This study used qualitative research methods and conducted, in-depth interviews with eight professional women who are also mothers in order to explore how these career women confronted their multiple, conflicting roles. Here are four key findings of this study: 1, resources provided by the social support system can effectively reduce the impact of the workplace-family conflict, and the most important support comes from a professional woman's workplace executives and her family; 2, pressures on professional women usually result from three sources: tradition, economy and psychology; and 3, under the dual pressures from the workplace and the family, professional women still feel some degree of happiness as a mother even though they feel they do not provide enough maternal care to their children; 4, for mothers who are also soldiers, the interference with their role as parents from their workplace is significantly higher than that for other mothers who are in civilian careers . Finally, based on its findings, this study provide three recommendations: 1, to establish a good social welfare systems; 2, establish a women-friendly working environment; 3, to establish a good family division of labor system. Here are three other recommendations for ameliorating the difficulties facing mothers in a military career: 1, to think from the perspective of mothers with a military career; 2, to establish and improve community-based daycare systems for military career women; 3, to make sure military career women could benefit from welfare stipulated by the armed forces for them.

The research focused on constructing a psychosocial profile for the career development practices of professional women. The relationship dynamics between the individuals’ psychosocial attributes (emotional intelligence, career adaptability, psychosocial career preoccupations, self-efficacy, perceived organisational and social support) were investigated and whether the constructs significantly related to individuals’ experiences of career satisfaction when controlling for age, race, marital status, number of children, job level, total monthly income and education level. A cross-sectional quantitative survey was conducted on a purposive sample of professional women (N = 606) from various South African organisations. Inferential statistics (multiple regressions, canonical correlation analysis, structural equation modelling, hierarchical moderated regression and tests for significant differences) revealed core elements of the empirically manifested psychosocial profile. Participants’ career preoccupations and perceptions of organisational support were significant predictors of career satisfaction, along with age, race and job level. Managing own emotions, career control and self-efficacy were highlighted as important psychological resources in strengthening career satisfaction. Perceived organisational support and social support functioned as significant mechanisms in buffering the negative effect of high career preoccupations on levels of career satisfaction, and strengthening the link between emotional intelligence, career adaptability, and self-efficacy and career satisfaction. Significant mean differences were observed for age, race and job level groups regarding career preoccupations, perceived organisational support and career satisfaction. In addition, significant mean differences were observed for marital status, total monthly income and education level groups regarding career preoccupations, perceived organisational support and career satisfaction. On a theoretical level, the study advanced career theory for the career development of professional women by identifying the relationships found between the hypothesised psychosocial profile elements and career satisfaction. On the empirical level the study contributed towards constructing a psychosocial profile that informs the career development and satisfaction of professional women. On apractical level, the study proposes guidelines for enhancing the career satisfaction and success of professional women.
Psychology
PhD. (Psychology)

South Africa has embarked on a journey of transformation since 1994. The ruling ANC has introduced many policies aimed at achieving equality, known as "black empowerment". The `empowerment' of black women professionals is especially critical in the transformation era. Empowerment is defined as a process, which "involves individuals gaining control of their lives and fulfilling their needs, …as a result of developing the competencies, skills, and abilities necessary to effectively participate in their social and political worlds" (Kreisberg, 1992:19). From this perspective, empowerment is the essential expression of individualism and self-determination since it embodies the belief that the individual has the ability to effect changes and improve their lives. This individually oriented definition presupposes the importance of constructing one's `self' as unitary and independent. The `unitary self' is a support of the logic of the `Same', which entails the exclusion of otherness and difference. In contrast to this approach, the postmodern theory of Julia Kristeva, with its inherent suspicion of doctrines of pure origins and essences, is corrosive of discourses such as `empowerment' that are developed according to the logic of the Same. Kristeva proposes a subject which is always already `in process'. Identity is a constructed process, rather than a fundamental essence. The Oedipal model, extracted from the Kristevan theory of subjectivity, shows how the nine professional women who partook in this study constructed their selves by placing equality and difference in an antithetical relationship. However, a deconstruction of the Oedipal model opens the construct up to its blind spots and, these subjects are shown to base their identities on the splitting off of their feminine capabilities. Instead of being `unitary self', the subjects are subjects-in-process, and they operate both across and within the competing discourses of traditional femininity and masculinity. As a possible alternative to the positivist paradigm of `empowerment', a Kristevan `herethics' is considered. In South Africa, this is exemplified by the `ubuntu' principle, which entails the recognition of our interdependence. Finally, in order to assist these professional women to embrace the alterity within, whilst competing in a constantly changing and intellectually challenging world, life skills coaching which focuses on the often repressed, emotional aspects, is recommended.
Psychology
D.Litt et Phil. (Psychology)

The study explored the body image of Professional Black South African women, cultural expectations, and their experiences in Westernised working milieus, utilising a phenomenological approach and qualitative exploratory design, located within Constructionism. Data were collected through purposive sampling (and snowballing) through individual face-to-face voice-recorded semi-structured interviews with 11 participants in/around Gauteng. Analysis was done through content analysis utilising thematic networks (Attride-Stirling). Major findings: Western values have influenced participants; Lower weight and thinness do not automatically correspond with assumptions about HIV/AIDS, instead correspond with healthier lifestyle choices; Body shape not weight or size was the prominent area of focus for most participants; Clothes size determines perception of overweight; Overweight has consequences. Forty-five per cent of participants were content with their bodies, 18% dissatisfied/unhappy, 18% satisfied, one happy, one apathetic. Tswanas were generally smaller-figured; Zulus, Northern Sotho/Pedi, Xhosa in general traditionally expected full-bodied women. Overt expectations in the workplace were not found.
Psychology
Master of Arts (Psychology)

The study explored the body image of Professional Black South African women, cultural expectations, and their experiences in Westernised working milieus, utilising a phenomenological approach and qualitative exploratory design, located within Constructionism. Data were collected through purposive sampling (and snowballing) through individual face-to-face voice-recorded semi-structured interviews with 11 participants in/around Gauteng. Analysis was done through content analysis utilising thematic networks (Attride-Stirling). Major findings: Western values have influenced participants; Lower weight and thinness do not automatically correspond with assumptions about HIV/AIDS, instead correspond with healthier lifestyle choices; Body shape not weight or size was the prominent area of focus for most participants; Clothes size determines perception of overweight; Overweight has consequences. Forty-five per cent of participants were content with their bodies, 18% dissatisfied/unhappy, 18% satisfied, one happy, one apathetic. Tswanas were generally smaller-figured; Zulus, Northern Sotho/Pedi, Xhosa in general traditionally expected full-bodied women. Overt expectations in the workplace were not found.
Psychology
M.A. (Psychology)