Women and Gender Studies -- Graduate Theses

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/10587/603
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).

Browse

Browsing Women and Gender Studies -- Graduate Theses by Title

Now showing 1 - 10 of 34
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Barriers for Women in Accessing Primary (Family) Health Care in Nova Scotia
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2020-07-15) Latter Stratton, Lillian Claire
    This thesis explores the barriers that women face in accessing primary (family) health care in Nova Scotia, Canada. Specifically, this study is concerned with the barriers that Indigenous women, women of colour and immigrant women face in accessing primary care. Twenty-eight Nova Scotian primary care physicians completed an online survey regarding their perspectives on barriers that women may face in accessing primary care (numerous other physicians answered part of the survey but did not complete it). One-hundred-ninety-three Nova Scotians who have experience accessing primary care services completed a separate online survey regarding their experiences with family medical care in Nova Scotia, and the barriers that they have faced in accessing care. Quantitative and qualitative data analyses revealed that Nova Scotian patients and physicians alike believe there are barriers to primary care access (especially for women). Indigenous women, women of colour and immigrant women populations identified particular barriers not expressed by participants who belonged to other groups.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Being 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, Viola
    Neo-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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Canadian Policy Response to the Crisis in Care: Opportunities and Consequences for Women
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2006-07) Fletcher, Stephanie
    Using 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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A community united? Understanding the role of gender and sexuality in the Queer Community
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2015-06-24) Leger, Sarah; Brown, Alan
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A Discipline in Transition: Trans Inclusion in Gender and Women's Studies in Canada
    (2010-04-13T19:47:54Z) Davis, Julien; Gonick, Marnina
    Gender and Women's Studies in Canada has always been a discipline in transition, with trans inclusion being the most recent development to the field. As both a Gender and Women's Studies student and a trans man, I explored the possibilities of trans inclusion from a positive framework within the discipline. Six faculty members in Gender and Women's Studies in Canada were interviewed on the topic of trans inclusion in their discipline. This research explored the reasons why trans topics and theories were included in Gender and Women's Studies, how they were included and reactions from fellow colleagues, students and administration. Findings of this research support my personal experiences of encountering resistance to trans inclusion within Gender and Women's Studies. However, all of the faculty interviewed reported much optimism for the future of trans inclusion within Gender and Women's Studies in Canada and for the possibilities of a transfeminism.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Domination in Ecofeminist Discourse
    (2009-04-15T19:30:58Z) Woodill, Sharon; Walsh, Susan
    In 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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Equity for Student Parents: Toward Academic Culture and Policy Change
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2022-05) Esau, Erin
    This thesis discusses the experiences of undergraduate student parents with university policies and expectations; the factors that affect their experiences; and recommendations to make universities more accessible and inclusive. Data was collected from the websites of seven Nova Scotia universities and through an online asynchronous text-based focus group. The methodological and theoretical framework is based on Intersectionality-based Policy Analysis, Institutional Ethnography, and Ethic of Care. I argue that the effects of systems of oppression are a large factor in student parent experiences and that attempting to address the hardships that many student parents share without attention to structural forces and differential impacts limits the effectiveness of solutions. Recommendations include policy changes to acknowledge the diversity of students and their circumstances, more accessible social activities and events, and an expansion of childcare supports, as well as cultural changes to begin addressing unwritten rules and assumptions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Exploring 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, Carolina
    The 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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Exploring 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, Jane
    The 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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Filipina Bordadoras and the Emergence of Fine European-style Embroidery Tradition in Colonial Philippines, 19th to early-20th Centuries
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2016-08-25) Ramos, Marlene Flores
    This thesis examines three anonymous embroidered textiles from the Philippines, created in the nineteenth century and collected by museums in Great Britain and Spain. These textiles, pañuelos (shawl) and handkerchief, are made of piña and intricately embroidered by young women in beaterios (convent schools) and asilos (orphanages) run by the Catholic Church. I argue that the study of these objects reveals three important new ways to discuss textile production in the Philippines through art historical and material culture lenses: first, an analysis of social class differences between the embroidered textile works of privileged young Filipina women which were authored and acknowledged by collecting institutions, and those like the pañuelos which were created by anonymous working class Filipina women. Second, the importance of acknowledging the works of hybrid or mixed race artists whose blending of cultures is still unrecognized and/or unclassified within major international museums. Third, the tension between displaying and categorizing textile works by non-European artists as ethnographic curiosities and those of European artists displayed as works of art.