Women and Gender Studies -- Graduate Theses
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Graduate theses completed in the Master of Arts in Women and Gender Studies (offered jointly by Mount Saint Vincent University and Saint Mary’s University).
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- ItemWomen-Centred Sensitive Practice Guidelines for Weight Issues: A Proactive Primary Prevention Approach(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2004-12-16) Thille, Patrica H.Weight preoccupation and body dissatisfaction affect the majority of Canadian women and can foster behaviours that adversely affect their well-being. Rather than understanding these attitudes and behaviours as the problem s o f individuals, socio cultural, models argue that the environments in which we live influence these experiences. The cultural institution of Western medicine has been named as one socio-cultural contributor to the idealization of thinness and weight discrimination. The purpose of this research is to highlight how the behaviours of health care professionals influence women’s sense of body satisfaction and weight preoccupation as well as their health care access and health outcomes. This study critically examines the discursive patterns in fifteen women’s stories of weight-related discussions with health care professionals and presents an alternative model for clinical care (“sensitive practice guidelines”) that responds to concerns articulated by the ‘health at every size’ approach and by broader critiques o f the culture of medicine.
- ItemNegotiating Souls For Lives: The Situations of Filipina Women in The Sex Tourism Industry(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2005-09) McLellan, Angela MarieThis research examines the lives and conditions of women involved in sex tourism and prostitution in the Philippines, based primarily on the voices and opinions of these women. In order to examine sex tourism and prostitution in the Philippines, this thesis examines the history of the Philippines in order to emphasize the macro and micro level factors that have sustained and supported the exploitation of women in sex tourism and prostitution. This thesis examines the actors in the trade of prostitution, including the prostituted women, sex tourists, business owners and the government. The roles the actors play in the sex trade as well as the benefits and consequences of each group will be explored as well as the women’s opinions regarding the sex actors and the industry as a whole. This thesis explores sex tourism through the roles of sex tourism actors in order to highlight women’s voices as well as the exploitation that women are exposed to for the benefit of sex tourists, business owners and operators, and various levels of government.
- ItemThe Canadian Policy Response to the Crisis in Care: Opportunities and Consequences for Women(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2006-07) Fletcher, StephanieUsing a socialist feminist perspective, this thesis critically assesses the conflict between capitalist production and social reproduction in Canada, and the crises in care generated by this conflict, both historically and up to contemporary times. Policy shifts and mobilization that occurred prior to and during the build up of the Keynesian welfare state, its dismantlement under neo-liberalism, and the subsequent inclusive liberal/social investment response are studied in-depth. Child and palliative/long-term care-related policies created, debated, and revised throughout these three periods are critically analyzed. This thesis concludes that care crises present not only ongoing struggles, but also a potential opportunity for women to challenge the legitimacy of the capitalist system to improve their own and their dependents’ quality of life, and to advance the social justice agenda.
- ItemBeing a Teller in a Time of Globalization: The Everyday Lives of Five Women Bank Workers in Halifax, Nova Scotia(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2006-09-05) Winstanley, ViolaNeo-liberal globalization, its ideology and its economic and political policies, are changing the modern world. Multinational corporations influence global and national economic and governmental policies. The discourse of profit invades every facet of our lives, including government and health care, so that both citizens and patients become “consumers”. This thesis investigates the impact of globalization on the everyday lives of five women who are bank tellers in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Beginning with an examination of globalization, I argue that policies, such as Structural Adjustment Programs, of international financial institutions like the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund, which were developed in an American context and imposed on countries in the developing world, are mimicked in Canada for the purpose of increasing profits. Deregulation both globally and in the Canadian context is supported by advances in technology, and tips the balance in favour of large corporations, while ordinary workers pay the price. Interviews with the tellers who participated in this study show that banking technologies such as automated teller machines, and bank restructuring in Canada, have brought globalization to the doorsteps of bank workers in Halifax as their work becomes not only more deskilled, routinized, intensified and controlled, but also increasingly non-standard and precarious.
- ItemExploring the Challenges of Incorporating Holistic Midwifery into the University Midwifery Education Structure in Ontario and British Columbia(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2007-01-22) Crewe, CarolinaThe development of University Midwifery Education Programs (UMEPs) has been a key component of the midwifery professionalization process in Ontario and British Columbia. The choice to develop UMEPs has set a standard for professional midwifery training which it is anticipated subsequently legislated provinces in Canada will follow. The goal of this study is to highlight the gendered struggles of midwifery, as a female- dominated and historically marginalized occupational group, in its attempt to integrate into preexisting hierarchies of the university structure. This analysis has suggested that other similarly located marginalized groups attempting integration into a university structure are likely to experience similar exclusionary strategies related to factors including gender, sexuality, ethnicity and race. Evident from this study are specific challenges of this process including tensions around inter-professional collaboration and faculty sharing with dominant disciplines such as Health Sciences and/or Medicine, enculturation of masculine/feminine professional characteristics, struggles to value practicum learning components, visibility/obscurity within the university, struggles for achieving diversity in the student/client population, gendered dimensions of earnings potential and labour mobility. Recommendations from the findings of this study encourage future education design committees to take into consideration the economic, cultural, material and ideological barriers and challenges facing women in the context of practice as the predominant applicants, professionals and clients for this profession.
- ItemThe Politics of Omission: Religion in Women’s Studies(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2008-11) McKeen, Leah A. D.In this thesis I attempt to uncover how religion is included as a topic of discourse in Introductory Women’s Studies courses across Canada. This examination is framed by theories on difference and the relatively new field of epistemologies of ignorance. More specifically, I discuss the relationship between ignorance and what is included in curriculum, as well as how religion, as a particular kind of difference among women, is treated within women’s studies. In order to examine the discourse around religion in Introductory Women’s Studies I looked at the textbooks and syllabi used in these courses. This data was collected through website searches and e-mailed surveys. This examination concludes with two case studies (one on Muslim Women in Canada, the other on the same-sex marriage debate) which work to draw out particular discourses occurring in the textbooks used in the courses. Additionally, the case studies point towards directions one could take in order to more knowledgeably include religion as a topic of discourse.
- ItemDomination in Ecofeminist Discourse(2009-04-15T19:30:58Z) Woodill, Sharon; Walsh, SusanIn this thesis, I explore the concept of domination in ecofeminist discourse. This exploration is facilitated through theoretical discussion and personal narrative. I specifically consider three ways in which domination is conceptualized: as a product of progress; as a way of thinking; and as a complex system of interconnected oppressions. For each of these categories, I outline the general tenets of ecofeminist theory pertinent to the categorization; I highlight some issues with the theory; and I explore some resulting insights. I argue that although ecofeminist theory contains some contradictions and intricacies, taken together, it offers a valuable perspective on the issue of domination, and this perspective seems to be neglected by academic scholarship. In conclusion, I draw on the work of Maria Lugones. I explore her concept of curdled logic and complex communication as a possible means of addressing some of the problematic issues within ecofeminism, and as a means of addressing academic marginalization.
- ItemGender-free education in Japan: Postmodern feminist approaches to knowledge construction in classrooms(2009-04-16T12:55:18Z) Migita, Momoko; Brigham, SusanThis research examines how an ongoing educational challenge in Japan for removing gender inequality from the hidden curriculum, called “gender-free education”, has brought confusion to Japanese societies and the learning environments. Although female teachers’ are struggling for creating gender equalities in the classrooms through gender-frecurriculum, their practices have supported producing male normalized context, since gender equality in the classrooms is still represented as the sameness and fairness of boys and girls. This study illustrates that gender-only and gender binary conceptions of equality achievement are easily recuperated into dualistic hierarchical discourse, and consistently conceal how the self and others are positioned multiply privileged and oppressed. Creating gender-sensitive perspectives based on experimental curriculum, which requires questioning our positionalities and internalized gender biases is considered.
- ItemExploring the Challenges of Incorporating Holistic Midwifery into the University Midwifery Education Structure in Ontario and British Columbia(2009-04-21T12:54:17Z) Crewe, Carolina; Gordon, JaneThe development of University Midwifery Education Programs (UMEPs) has been a key component of the midwifery professionalization process in Ontario and British Columbia. The choice to develop UMEPs has set a standard for professional midwifery training which it is anticipated subsequently legislated provinces in Canada will follow. The goal of this study is to highlight the gendered struggles of midwifery, as a femaledominated and historically marginalized occupational group, in its attempt to integrate into preexisting hierarchies of the university structure. This analysis has suggested that other similarly located marginalized groups attempting integration into a university structure are likely to experience similar exclusionary strategies related to factors including gender, sexuality, ethnicity and race. Evident from this study are specific challenges of this process including tensions around inter-professional collaboration and faculty sharing with dominant disciplines such as Health Sciences and/or Medicine, enculturation of masculine/feminine professional characteristics, struggles to value practicum learning components, visibility/obscurity within the university, struggles for achieving diversity in the student/client population, gendered dimensions of earnings potential and labour mobility. Recommendations from the findings of this study encourage future education design committees to take into consideration the economic, cultural, material and ideological barriers and challenges facing women in the context of practice as the predominant applicants, professionals and clients for this profession.
- Item"You can't be a Goan and not eat Goan food." The Intersection of Gender, Food and Identity: A Case Study of Goan Women in the Greater Toronto Area(2010-04-13T15:50:32Z) D'Sylva, Andrea; Beagan, BrendaFood, perhaps because of its association with women's work, has often been overlooked as a signifier of identity. This qualitative study examined the role of Goan women in Toronto in creating and maintaining Goan identity through food. Catholic Goan identity, borne from Portuguese colonization, fosters a strong set of cultural values and is often seen as devoid of unique symbols and markers other than its cuisine. Food plays a crucial role in Goan identity. The thirteen first-generation Goan women interviewed maintained that being Goan is inextricably linked to Goan food. They saw their role in foodwork as having "currency" within the family and community, a role that fosters and supports Goan identity. As a diasporic and racially marginalized group in Canada, often grouped with other South Asians, these Goan women lived within a "Goancentric" world that supported and celebrated their Goanness; Goan food was central to that identity.