Browsing by Subject "feminism"

I min studie granskar jag kvinnosaksaktivisten Lucina Hagmans böcker och föredrag på ämnet samuppfostran under perioden 1887–1901 och sätter dem i deras idéhistoriska kontext. Hagman kämpade för att flickor skulle få en likadan utbildning som pojkar, samt att barnen skulle uppfostras likadant oavsett kön såväl i skolan som i hemmet. Jag använder mig av diskursanalys för att granska de sociala och politiska sammanhangen kring texterna och placera dem i deras samhälleliga kontext. Kring sekelskiftet fick finländska kvinnor nya rättigheter och diskussionen om deras position i samhället gick varm. Hagman menar, likt många av sina samtida gelikar, att kvinnor och män är olika varandra, men ändå så pass lika att de skulle tjänas av att uppfostras och utbildas på lika villkor. Hon argumenterar för att det är i samhällets intresse att göra detta, främst för att kvinnor blir bättre mödrar om de själva blivit uppfostrade enligt hennes ideal. Hagman säger även att kvinnorna är ansvariga för samhällets moral, en vanlig uppfattning under denna tid. Den stränga, absoluta moralen som krävdes av kvinnorna borde även krävas av männen. kvinnorna bör även utöka hemmets sfär till att omfatta hela samhället. Hon lutar sig tillbaka på dåtida borgerliga ideal om hemmet och modern som sedlighetens hjärta, och argumenterar för att männens våldsamma värld bör förpassas till historien och ersättas av en pacifistisk uppfostran till kärlek som bör utföras av kvinnor. Tidsperioden under vilken Hagman författade de texter jag analyserar i denna avhandling var en tid av betydande kulturella, sociala och politiska omvälvningar, och Hagman stod själv med foten i ett flertal olika idéer och rörelser. Hon inspireras av nationalistiska, borgerliga ideal, men även av liberala och universalistiska värden. Även om hon sällan hänvisar till sina källor har jag med hjälp av diskursanalys kunnat ringa in de samtida idéströmningarna hon påverkats av.

The aims of this thesis are to present the significance of three of the most successful novels of the Brontë sisters, the impact these works made on the feminist movement and why the novels still are relevant. The question of the woman in nineteenth-century Britain is another topic studied. The analysis focuses on the elements in the novels by which the authors criticise the strict patriarchal norms of the Victorian society and demonstrate their progressive thinking as they present perceptions and ideas contradicting the common beliefs of their age. The primary material consists of the novels Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë. My study presents plot summaries, textual and comparative analysis as well as data by scholars who have studied the works of the Brontë sisters in terms of the social, political and economic situation in Victorian England. The characters of Jane Eyre, Catherine Earnshaw and Agnes Grey have become iconic role models not only for the female society in nineteenth century Britain but also for generations of women all over the world. Jane Eyre’s story inspires women to seek justice and never tolerate maltreatment, to demonstrate dignity and pride, no matter what their social stratum is. Catherine Earnshaw’s fate, on the other hand, showcases how being too stubborn and focusing on attaining high-social status, whilst ignoring the true desires of one’s heart, can consume one. Finally, Agnes Grey teaches women that by patience, consistency and hard work you can achieve your goals, in spite of the doubts of your family or society. Self-realization, finding and using one’s own voice, focusing on one’s life goals are some of the foundations on which their character development is shaped. I conclude that progressive authors like the Brontë’s sisters, who manage to portray realistic observations of their society in their novels, can guide the course of feminism and influence generations of readers.

Denna magisteravhandlings syfte är att undersöka perspektiv på sexförsäljning i artiklar från fyra olika dagstidningar. Två av dessa dagstidningar är finländska medan de två övriga är sverigesvenska. En av de finländska tidningarna är finskspråkig och den andra är finlandssvensk. Mitt syfte har varit att undersöka huruvida det förekommer likheter och skillnader i perspektiven på sexförsäljning mellan de finländska och de sverigesvenska artiklarna. Eftersom mitt finländska undersökningsmaterial utgjorts av både en finskspråkig och en finlandssvensk tidning har avsikten också varit att jämföra perspektiven på sexförsäljning som framgår av de finländska tidningarna. Detta för att se ifall det finns variationer mellan den finskspråkiga och den finlandssvenska tidningen. Jag har undersökt ämnet genom att utföra en kvalitativ och komparativ innehållsanalys av dessa tidningars artiklar som berör sexförsäljning. Mitt undersökningsmaterial har därmed bestått av artiklar om sexförsäljning som hämtats från de finländska tidningarna Helsingin Sanomat och Hufvudstadsbladet samt de sverigesvenska tidningarna Dagens Nyheter och Svenska Dagbladet. Artiklarna som jag analyserat har publicerats mellan år 2016 till år 2022. Jag har valt en sådan tidsperiod, då jag önskat undersöka perspektiven på sexförsäljning från en så aktuell tidsperiod som möjligt. Antalet artiklar som jag analyserat har varierat mellan två till totalt 68, vilket visar på en stor variation. Utfallen av min undersökning har analyserats mot bakgrund av feministisk teori, som fungerat som min teoretiska referensram. Utfallen som min undersökning resulterat i visar att det förekommer både likheter och skillnader i perspektiven på sexförsäljning mellan de finländska och de sverigesvenska tidningarna. De båda tidningarna pekar på att utsatthet är en aspekt som starkt sammankopplas med sexförsäljning. Samtidigt lyfter båda tidningarna också fram att det även förekommer självständigt och frivilligt sexsäljande. Både i Finland och i Sverige lyfts det fram kritik mot ländernas nuvarande lagstiftningar samt funderingar om vilket juridiskt förhållningssätt som är det mest lämpliga gällande sexförsäljning. Skillnaderna mellan perspektiven syns bl.a. i hur olika mycket uppmärksamhet ett sexköp av en person i en särskild yrkesposition väckt. Offentliga personer som köpt sex har t.ex. observerats betydligt mer i Sverige. En annan skillnad är också att artiklarna om stödåtgärder för sexsäljare och sexköpare behandlats mer i de sverigesvenska artiklarna. Den finlandssvenska tidningen har betonat utsatthet något starkare än den finskspråkiga. Den finskspråkiga tidningen lyfter även fram fler exempel på sexförsäljning i många olika länder medan den finlandssvenska ger fler exempel på fall av sexköp som ägt rum i Sverige. Den finskspråkiga tidningen talar om sexförsäljning som ett arbete mer ofta än den finlandssvenska tidningen. Sexförsäljning förekommer inte lika mycket i gatumiljöer i Finland som i Sverige. Ett mycket tydligt gemensamt utfall är även att det är tydligt att ämnet är komplext och att det finns många olika perspektiv som bör tas i beaktande i diskussioner om fenomenet.

The sex/gender model used in biological archaeologies to investigate human remains and past lives is one that relies on the epistemological and ontological separation of sex and gender. Despite this separation the model ends up treating these concepts synonymously due to the taken-for-granted binary nature of sex which in a deterministic manner eventuates into an equally binary gender. This thesis develops a theoretical framework for an archaeological concept of gender that operates without the division, binarism and determinism implicit in the sex/gender model. Pursuing answers to the questions whether it is possible to approach both sex and gender in archaeology in a nonbinary way, and if so, what is an archaeologically feasible alternative, it seeks to devise a method to approach sex and gender in mortuary archaeology beyond the deterministic binary. This thesis is firmly theory-oriented and the writings of various authors within the discipline of archaeology, feminism and queer studies comprise the necessary material. The theories pertaining to the field of feminism are intersectionality and queer theory, which eschew normativity and essentialism and call for gender diversity. Respective to archaeology, the theories influencing this thesis derive from new materialisms to whom the rejection of divisions and dichotomies is characteristic. In this regard, of particular note are the writings of new materialist and feminist theorist Karen Barad. Applying her theories concerning the relational, entangled and mutually constitutive nature of matter and meaning to the topic of sex and gender is central in devising a nonbinary new materialist perspective to be used for the purpose of a more open and inclusive mortuary archaeology. This thesis reveals that the dualistic division between nature and culture has resulted in a separate conceptual development and different strategies of engagement concerning sex and gender. The reason why sex is seen as a biological fact and gender as a cultural meaning proves false when both are affected equally by nature and culture, with the body serving as a nexus-point in which these two forces converge. Applying Barad’s insight reveals that binary sex is not an inherent quality of the body, but one that is produced through a scientific biomedical apparatus. Sex and gender exist in a state of inseparability when undetermined, but when subjected to a determination process, they become mutually exclusive phenomena, thereby disrupting sex-to-gender determinism. In their separate state, both are constitutive of matter and meaning, which is why gender made determined through intersectionality can be used to study gendered understandings through the materiality of the body, exempt from binary views. Analysing a topical bioarchaeological publication concerning a female Viking warrior through the approach that does not depend on the sex binary reveals that a scientific biomedical apparatus is subject to criticism on multiple fronts. Though the case study should be credited with rejecting gender role stereotypes, it demonstrates determinism and binarism as well as homogeneity and universalism in terms of categories. Failing to imagine possibilities beyond a fixed binary also results in the exclusion of alternate ways of knowing and being. The open-ended approach proposed in this thesis not only seeks to grant these possibilities opportunities to exist, but counsels cognisance towards the exclusions apparatuses enact. Embracing speculation, it also holds ambiguity and vagueness to be meaningful qualities pertaining to gendered archaeology. Regarding the mortuary setting, binary sex determinations need not be abandoned, but they should be used alongside this nonbinary approach.

I den här avhandlingen har jag studerat hur genusaspekter tar sig i uttryck i parker, lekparker och allmänna områden för barn. Avhandlingen är en kunskapsöversikt och genusaspekterna har analyserats i forskningsartiklar som rör ämnet från 2009 och framåt. Jag har analyserat artiklarna utgående ifrån feministisk teori för socialt arbete. Feministisk teori ser, som andra kritiska teorier, på strukturer i samhället, på detta sätt knyts strukturellt socialt arbete in som en bas för det praktiska sociala arbetet. I resultatet av analysen framkom fem teman: lekparksutrustningens betydelse, fysisk aktivitet och sport, närmiljöns betydelse, vuxnas påverkan, barns säkerhet och självständighet samt social interaktion. Många genustendenser i parker har fortfarande samma struktur som i början av årtusendet, flickor leker mer med lekparksutrustningen och pojkar mera på sportplaner. Samtidigt som det också börjar finnas aspekter som pekar på att nya saker börjar intressera barn, som interaktiva lekparksutrustningar eller att naturområden har blivit mindre viktiga som lekplatser. Båda dessa aspekter var dock något som var lite viktigare hos flickor än pojkar. Resultaten visar på hur viktig roll socialpolitiken har och det är genom den som tillgängligheten till allmänna platser kan ändras och göra det möjlig att alla barn oavsett kön eller andra olikheter att hittar något som intresserar dem i parker och allmänna utrymmen.

Ämnet för denna kandidatavhandling är finlandssvenska dagstidningars porträttering av kvinnor av etnisk minoritet. Syftet med studien är att ta reda på hur situationen ser ut för kvinnor av etnisk minoritet i den finlandssvenska dagspressen. Studien har genomförts genom kvalitativ innehållsanalys av åtta artiklar publicerade under tiden 10.9.2018 till 10.10.2018. Artiklarna var publicerade i Hufvudstadsbladet, Åbo Underrättelser, Nya Åland och Vasabladet. I studien har jag valt att analysera endast de artiklar där kvinnor av etnisk minoritet blir intervjuade. Artikeln behövde dock inte explicit handla om kvinnan och där med inte heller vara ett personporträtt. Artiklarna analyserades genom analys av kontext, ordval, känsloladdade ord och artikeln som helhet. Resultatet av studien visade, liksom tidigare studier också har visat, att kvinnor av etnisk minoritet är marginaliserade i den finlandssvenska dagspressen. Resultaten visade även att kvinnorna av etnisk minoritet, i de artiklar som ingick i undersökningen, oftast porträtteras som offer eller personer som gått igenom en svår tid men sedan lyckats ta sig ur det. Kvinnorna kunde antingen ha haft svårigheter i sitt hemland eller med integrationen då de kommit till Finland.

Women’s empowerment, originating from the worldwide feminist debates that took place in the 1980s, has over the years become a widely used, yet a highly contested political concept. For instance, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), currently the leading political party in India, represents a powerful nationalist force that has emerged as a vocal supporter of women’s empowerment in the 21st century. In 2018, the BJP published a booklet titled Mahila Morcha Training Guidebook, in which the BJP intentionally seeks to elaborate its present-day party lines on women’s empowerment and women’s ideal role in society. The aim of this thesis is to answer the following research questions: In the Mahila Morcha Training Guidebook, 1) what does the representation of ideal womanhood look like? and 2) what meanings are assigned to women’s empowerment? Qualitative content analysis is employed as the research method, while the theoretical framework of the thesis consists most centrally of Jane Clare Jones’s radical materialist feminist approach to gender and patriarchy, Maria Mies’s analysis of capitalism as a manifestation of patriarchy, Uma Chakravarti’s conceptualisation of brahmanical patriarchy, and Cecília Sardenberg’s conceptual differentiation between liberal and liberating empowerment. The thesis builds on previous feminist studies on Hindu nationalist gender ideology and demonstrates that while the BJP’s vision of ideal womanhood includes both the very traditional idealisation of women as wives and mothers prioritising their duties in the domestic sphere as well as the more recent idealisation of Hindu women as socially active, heroic protectors of the nation that took hold in the 1990’s, it also includes a new element, which is the celebration of successful businesswomen and female professionals’ achievements and contributions to the development of society. As for the second research question, the thesis argues that in addition to certain nationalist elements, the BJP’s conception of women’s empowerment aligns with liberal ideals, economics and development goals when it comes to women’s participation in the public sphere of society, while conservative attitudes implicitly prevail when it comes to gender roles in the private sphere. Based on the research findings of the thesis, the BJP’s conception of women’s empowerment is compared to the early grassroots feminists’ one, in addition to being discussed critically from the author’s feminist point of view. The thesis concludes that the interrelatedness of the BJP’s turn in favour of neoliberal economics in general and its espousal of the liberal approach to women’s empowerment in particular is a consequential phenomenon that demands further feminist analysis

The intersections of climate change and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) have increasingly received attention from international organisations but also from academia. For some, establishing these intersections is about reducing human pressure on the Earth systems, while for others it is about the human rights of vulnerable individuals and communities. Many have lauded these connections for providing a win-win solution for both. While these benefits are championed, there has been little reflection on the underlying motives and justifications for establishing these connections in the first place. Given the problematic past of population control policies, understanding these justifications is necessary to break away from the neo-colonial practices of the past. This thesis investigates the motives and justifications for establishing such intersections between SRHR and climate change. Specifically, the thesis addresses two questions, namely: 1) In what ways are the interconnections between SRHR and climate change justified in academic literature? 2) What are the implications of the ways in which these interconnections are justified? By drawing on a postcolonial feminist theoretical framework rooted in understanding this nexus critically, and carefully reflecting on the implications of these discourses, the thesis answers these questions by systematically drawing on a sustained body of research. The data consist of 88 academic publications that are systematised through discourse analysis. The findings identify six distinctive intersectional discourses which reflect the ways in which SRHR, and climate change are justified, namely: public health, population dynamics, reproductive rights, critical, sustainable development and environment discourses. Largely reflecting adherence to liberal feminist and populationist frameworks, these findings imply that the discourses, justifications, and motives do not sufficiently address the neo-colonial practices and structural inequalities that shape intersections between SRHR and climate change. Analytically, therefore, this thesis suggests that postcolonial feminism offers a more effective way for understanding intersectional discourses because it recognises how power inequalities manifest in the discourses, while contributing towards more justice-based approaches to sustainability.

This thesis is a contribution to the discussion on gendered representations of Global South subjects in development NGOs’ communication in the West, and the imaginaries of development they create and maintain. Empirically, it focuses on the context of Finland and particularly, on Finnish NGO fundraising campaigns that concentrate on girls’ and women’s rights in the Global South. The changes in the Finnish political field within which NGOs operate gives contextual relevance to studying NGOs’ private fundraising in Finland. In 2016, the Finnish government cut public funding for development NGOs by 43 %, which forced many organisations to rethink their funding channels. NGOs have since reported increase in competition for donors, which has contributed to the NGO fundraising ‘markets’ increasingly functioning with a capitalistic market logic. Public discussions on development and distant human rights issues thus get increasingly reduced to advertisement appeals, as NGOs must to ‘sell’ the rights-holders’ deservingness of donations. At the same time, the Finnish spectator-donors’ imaginary power in ‘making a change’ is reinforced. This trend is not compatible with NGOs’ other important societal mission, which is the global education of Finnish citizens. A study conducted in 2015 shows that Finnish people’s knowledge on development in the Global South is extremely pessimistic. From a postcolonial perspective on knowledge production and power, this thesis challenges the ‘ends justify means’ argument by questioning whether pessimistic and colonial imaginaries should be the price to pay for fight against inequality – and ultimately, are these means productive for global equality. The empirical example campaigns for this thesis were Uncut by the International Solidarity Foundation, Maternity Wear for a 12-year-old by Plan International Finland, and Women’s Bank Walk by the Finn Church Aid –administered Women’s Bank. The ethnographic research consisted of 10 NGO and expert interviews, 8 short interviews with participants and volunteers in a campaign event, document analysis, discussions, participant observation, and online data collection. The data was analysed using qualitative and visual discourse analysis tools, against the theoretical framework of relevant postcolonial, post-humanitarian, feminist, and de-colonial theories. The main findings of the research are that although NGOs consciously strive for the ‘respectful representation’ of women and girls in the Global South, the capitalist marketing framework used in fundraising communication is not productive for challenging the underpinning colonial discourse. Rather, by a rhetorical logic of empowerment, the power relations are denied – which only reinforces subordination, albeit disguises it better. However, there are significant differences between NGOs on how their power in representation and knowledge production is understood and reflected upon.

Tina Fey’s Bossypants, Amy Poehler’s Yes Please, Lena Dunham’s Not that Kind of Girl, and Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? are four rather understudied female comedic memoirs. This thesis first explores the problematic nature of defining the genre of these texts and how aspects of their ideology and fictionality affect not only the authors, but the readers as well. Secondly, the humor presented in these texts are analyzed from a cognitive perspective, mainly using Lisa Zunshine’s theory of mind. Classic humor theories such as incongruity, superiority, and relief are all critical in rendering fruitful analysis of these texts. Contrarily to some scholars, I argue that humor and amusement function actively in the mind. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, the two comedians with the most experience in this thesis, tend to use humor as a way to seek permission to speak about uncomfortable topics that encompass the female experience. Some of these topics include female body standards, sex, marriage, motherhood, and work. As younger comedians, Mindy Kaling and Lena Dunham expand on some of these topics in similar ways, but they speak more boldly and directly about certain topics compared to their older counterparts. Fey and Poehler’s clever use of incongruous humor allowed Kaling and Dunham to write more openly about the female experience and to use humor in interesting, versatile ways. Because I argue that humor functions in the mind in potentially activating ways, I finally analyze how all four authors use humor as a tool to express feminist rhetoric. The results of the analysis show the ambiguous nature of postfeminism, and the possible emergence of a fourth wave of feminism. As comedic veterans, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler pave the way for Lena Dunham and Mindy Kaling in using humor to express different aspects of feminism. I explore the many layers of feminism, and how humor can work with feminism as powerful tool in engaging everyone, men and women, in a dialogue about feminism.